Anno Draco I: KH & Mum

Red Altar, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

True to tradition (my family's recent tradition at least :P), on the first day of Chinese New Year we would dress up for church and before going out, red packets would be exchanged. Same like last year, mum gave a red packet and wished me smooth-sailing in my career. There was no mention of finding a girlfriend like what my brother got. Actually, this was the same as last year, just that I thought it slipped her mind. This kind of confirms that she has 'given up' on me in this respect. At about 9:00am, we headed to church for the bilingual mass. Although mass was at 10:30am, many people were already there to get a good seat inside. Red was found at every corner of the church. A red arch was erected at the entrance, flanked by many red lanterns. A giant couplet was hung beside the crucifix, and the manger was replaced by teak furniture, plum blossom trees and a big backdrop of the holy family. The altar was also decked in red with a marble urn for joss sticks. Like past years, there was an ancestral commemoration ceremony and red packets and mandarin oranges were given out to parishioners. At the end, many people rushed to the front to watch the lion dance. I stayed clear of the crowds and just stayed inside to camwhore and clean up. Out of the blue, someone shouted over the PA system:

"Can the owner of XXX1234 please remove your scrap metal car from being an obstruction to traffic!!!!"



Just after mass and whatever God's love he experienced during the eucharist was just thrown down the crapper. Why be such a bastard on the first day of the Chinese New Year? So cute. After that, we went off to Tropicana City Mall for lunch and movie. Not many outlets were open, so we chose to eat at Nando's. And would you believe my luck that KH was also there for a movie! I watched "I Love Hong Kong 2012", while KH watched "The Great Magician" with his mum. Before the movie started, we met briefly and while walking upstairs to the cinema, I bumped into his mum. She was quite startled to see me. My mum on the other hand was sitting at the massage chairs not far from GSC. Not long after rejoining the group, my eyes nearly popped out when I saw KH walking towards my mother!!! My mum spotted him and he actually came over to greet her. From the exchange I saw, it did not seem like she recognized him. Phew! I practically stared daggers into KH's back! Though he denies it (he claims that he did not do see us there), I still think he did it on purpose. Blek.





I give the movie three out of five stars. So-so la. Lots of gay themes inside, but I really hated the Kazaky bodyguards. Great to see Theresa Mo again after all these years, but I was freaked out to see her doing a Beyonce skit. Went home to rest for a while before venturing out to The Pavillion to meet my Singaporean cousins for dinner. Ichiban Boshi was open, so we ate there. All their migrant staff were out in full force to handle the holiday crowd. It wasn't pretty and the food was really mediocre. Met my five year old nephew Sean for the first time. At first he was a bit cranky (he rejected the restaurant's sub-standard soba!), but he warmed up after a while. Rumoured to have four hundred toy cars in his collection. Amazing. My underwear collection doesn't even come close! Continued to chat at Illy Espressamente over a muggaccino and at the same time, I had to entertain the kid. Was quite surprised to learn that my cousins came all the way to sleep in their hotel room and roam the streets looking for jagung bakar and Ramly burger. :S. It was nice meeting them after all these years.