Year of the Monkey

- March 10, 2016

A standard activity on the first day of CNY would be for my family members to wish each other and give out red packets. Once that's completed, we would head out to church in our new clothes for the special CNY mass. This year, we arrived a little late, so I was spared much of the manual labour of moving the mandarin oranges from the auxiliary building to the main church building. Phew. As usual, the church was decked out in red with a ceremonial ancestral tablet and other CNY-themed decorations. At the end, the priest would hand out red packets and mandarin oranges. We didn't stick around for the lion dance as cam-whoring was deemed more important. LOL.

Arranged a meet-up with Apollo and his mum at One Utama (since we weren't sure which shops would be open, it was better to choose a place with a lot of choices to improve our odds). Lunched at Dontaku since it looked decent enough. The menu is a mixture of Japanese and Korean cuisine at fair prices. The decorations at One Utama were very colourful and cheerful. I would say rainbow-esque even. Did some shopping around the mall and found that most shops were open. Even with exodus, the mall was doing some brisk business.

Once we were done shopping, we sat down at Infusions for some coffee and pastry. Surprised that Parkson card members get a 20% discount there. While sipping coffee, mum received a call from her friend to attend a CNY party. Food, red crackers and lion dance. To add to the merriment, we got Apollo and his mum to come along and I asked KH to join too. When we arrived, they were busy hanging red crackers at the porch. I must add that her porch is three stories high with a newly-added sun-roof. While waiting for the lion dance troupe to arrive we helped ourselves to the food-- spicy chicken, radish soup, porkballs with dried oysters, stir-fried pork, and fried bihun, A very satisfying meal.

The lion dance troupe arrived after 6:30 PM. We were told that it was gonna be a pair of drunken lions. Two strands of red crackers were set off at the front gate before they danced in. I was hoping that they would dance on the red crackers. Expecting too much I guess. Haha. The lions went right up to the altar on top floor and came down to dance some more. Another two striands of red crackers were set off at the side door. Then they started the drunken dance. Eight cans of beers, a pomelo, a deck of cards, and several mandarin oranges were arranged on the floor. I really wonder if the kids finished the eight cans of beer because they did throw out eight empty cans. By the end of the binge, they arranged the fruits and the cards to form a lucky number. For the finale, they lighted the last six strands or red crackers. The fumes were extremely choking. Just when I thought it had ended, they immediately fired up two boxes of night flowers. Amazing. An eventful night to start off the CNY season!