Towards a better Niu (Ox) Year

Quite frankly, we're not a superstitious or traditional family. As with a lot of traditions, it has been much watered down by our generation. We don't quite know things like the origins of eating dumplings (tang yuan) on Yuan Xiao Jie or staying up as late as we can on the eve of CNY. Most certainly, there's a lot of traditions that we either simply do not believe in or know about to observe.

Nonetheless, Louis and I were just browsing the emails that my elder SIL had forwarded to us recently about feng shui and/or predictions of our Chinese zodiac signs in the year of the Ox. One of the slides caught our attention.

It said that the actual first day of the lunar new year for this year falls on the calendar date of Wed, 4th Feb 09. On this day, it would be auspicious for individuals to be decked out in red, as well as to bank in some money into one's personal savings account to begin the year with a good start.

Supposedly, how the day turns out for your would set the tone for the rest of the year i.e. if the day turns out well for you, the entire would be good and vice versa.

We were jokingly telling my mom about it and I had expected her to laugh it off. To our surprise, she said very determinedly that she would come in red the next day.

For the fun of it, our little family decided that we might try to follow some of the advice given too. There's little harm in any of the things that we do, plus, one can never too much of any luck that we might get for this supposed tough year.

Hence, on Wed, I wore the reddest top that I have -- which actually is against a black background, but its the best that I can do. Louis has no clothes in red, so, he picked one of his t-shirt that had the loudest and brightest red prints on it. Faith certainly has no red clothes either, so she wore a bright pink dress with flowers for her class. I think my mom topped all of us by coming in with a bright red blouse :)

Becos I had to bring Faith for class and mornings are a mad rush for us, I'd asked my mom to bank in Faith's ang paos into her own account. On our part, Louis transferred some money from his working account to a joint savings account in our names -- we're not sure if that counts since we essentially transferring money around different accounts but its the best we can do. I told my mom to put some money into her account too but she told me she would tap her good luck from banking in money into Faith's account?!?! Oh well...

As for how the day went... hmmm.... it was nothing spectacular. Neither did anything bad happen. It was a normal, run-of-the-mill type of day. Which is not a bad thing, I gathered.

So, let's hope we'll be able to go through this year without any mishap like the last one that ended. If you're wondering what that mishap was, it was Louis' knee injury, of course :)

He is alright

Louis is safe and recuperating at home since yesterday after Fri's op.

What was supposed to be a 2-hour surgery took much longer. I thought he would be out around 6 pm, but he came out of the OT slightly after 9 pm. Managed to see his doc cum surgeon as he left the OT and he said that he was happy with the outcome of the surgery. It took longer becos the MCL, that was meant to heal on their own needed repair as well.

He needs to wear his knee brace, which is locked at a 30-degree angle at all times for the next 2 weeks. Mobility is a little of a challenge, as expected, given that his left leg is at an odd angle all the time. Thankfully, the shot that they gave to numb his leg is still effective, so he doesn't feel the pain of the surgery very much.

Appetite post surgery isn't great. He felt a little nauseous yesterday and had only liquids like Horlicks and very watery porridge. Today, he's worked up an appetite for fishball kway teow soup and fish mee sua soup for dinner.

We decided to stay home and not join the extended family for the reunion dinner since it is difficult for him to move around. Thankfully, my MIL called in the evening and came by to pick Faith up, so that she can have reunion dinner over at my in-laws' place.

Unfortunately, Faith seemed to have some slight cough in the middle of the night and early this morning. No phlegm, just coughs that seemed to clear whatever that is blocking the air passage. Just in case, I brought her to see the outpatient clinic at Raffles Medical to get standby medication since its the holiday weekend.

This would definitely go down as one of the more "memorable" CNY we ever had. Yet, we're grateful that at least, Louis is home with us.

Lo Hei 2009

Its the time of the year again to herald the start of the lunar new year. Without fail, that means eating yu sheng or having Lo Hei way before the actual day, which is supposed to be on the 7th day of the CNY.

I've been seeing the sale of yu sheng on display at the sushi counter of NTUC. However, bearing in mind that my mom is a vegetarian and she would frown upon any showings of meat/fish and non-vegetarian condiments accompanying them, I had refrained from purchasing any even though I salivate and drool each time.

While at NTUC yesterday, I saw that they were selling ready-shredded carrots and radishes, along with those home DIY yu sheng boxes, that comes prepacked with all the necessary condiments and seasoning.

Hence, I happily loaded a few boxes of shredded carrots and radishes, along with a box of ready-to-go yu sheng condiments. Had a tough time choosing which brand of those ready-to-go boxes becos there were so many different ones, at different prices with just some slight variations here and there. In the end, I went with one of the cheaper ones.

At home, I happily arranged everything on the biggest serving plate that I had, while my mom was standing next to me and laughing at the size of my plate -- she said it was huge! In the end, I had the last laugh becos after piling all the vegetables and condiments together, it was just nice. Thank goodness we laid newspapers on the table, in anticipation of all the "goodies" that would make their way out as we toss the yu sheng sky high.

This year, Faith again joined us, but this time, she's more aware and curious about the big plate of "salad". She aimed and went for the crispy crackers that topped the yu sheng. While we were all trying to use our chopsticks to toss the yu sheng as high as we could go, she was busy trying to dig for those crackers with her chopsticks. Frustrated in the end (cos she doesn't know how to use the chopsticks yet), she just dug in and use her fingers to pinch the crackers from the plate to her mouth :)

Our first Lo Hei was a bit dry. It didn't come with any instructions, non any ready-packed oil. We decided to add our own after seeing that the yu sheng was a tad dry after we tossed it well.

This evening, I again went back to NTUC, buying another different brand of yu sheng condiment pack. A mid-range one this time. We'd wise up to remember to add 2 tablespoons of oil on our own before we tossed. Well, why do you know?? We all felt that the cheaper box yesterday had more flavour.

No sweat. I'll buy some more next week. Even though we won't be going out to the restaurant much after Louis' op, I'm going to make up for it by eating as much as we can before his op. Besides, with the home DIY yu sheng kit, its really easy to put it together and definitely much cheaper than if we were to eat it at any restaurants.

Chinese New Year

This is Faith's first Chinese New Year. We've taught her to put both her hands together and wish "Gong Xi Gong Xi". Unfortunately, Faith felt that she didn't want to be a performing monkey, and hence, would only do it at her own whim and fancy. Usually, that excludes wishing anybody Gong Xi Fai Cai on first sight :)

Still, its exciting that this year, Faith would be able to collect some ang paos, although the meaning and symbolism of it might escape her. For Faith, all ang paos are chewables -- something she can put in her mouth :) The only damper during this festive period is that she seemed to have caught a virus or something. She's got a runny nose and might still be teething too. As a result, she seems to be like a leaking tap these days, leaking mucus and saliva from her nose and mouth :)

On CNY's Eve, we had steamboat dinner at my MIL's house. I've made 3 items to add to the food. The first was the braised abalone with conpoy, which I learnt from Sam Leong's class a while ago and blogged about. Decided to skip the spinach tofu as it requires deep-frying and I didn't feel like deep-frying anything. The other two were lemon tart and creme brulee for desserts as 2 of my MIL's sisters and a brother, along with their families were coming for the tail end of the dinner :)

The braised abalone turned out well. After 6 hours of braising, the abalones were soft enough yet with a slightly chewy texture. According to my SIL, she said that's how abalones should be. Phew.... was almost afraid that I would spoil the entire dish and waste the 2 cans of abalones.

The first day of CNY, we went to "bai nian" at my MIL's place, as well as to have our lunch there. Left Faith at my in-laws' place after lunch while Louis and I went home. He to sleep as he was working till 3 am the previous night, while I did some slight chores. As it was just my in-laws and us for dinner, we decided to head to Muthu's Curry at Suntec City.

Needless to say, we had to order the curry fishhead, tandoori chicken and 3 side dishes of vegetables. The fishhead was great and the portion was generous. The tandoori chicken was excellent. The meat was well-spiced and soft, with bits and pieces of the chicken well charred. We had a walk around Carrefour after dinner, as it was opened.

On the second day of CNY, we had dim sum lunch at Man Fu Yuan at Intercontinental Hotel. The restaurant was nice enough to give us a room. Like the previous years, my MIL's 2 sisters and brother joined us too. Interestingly, the older 3 children (with the exception of Faith, who was in pink) were all decked out in red. I simply had to have the children take a picture together with Faith. Anthea was delighted that Faith was sitting quietly on her lap for the photo-taking, without her usual wriggling.

Today, we had a vegetarian lunch at the Bright Hill Temple. My mom had a complimentary table for today and hence, my parent-in-law, elder FIL & family and us trooped to the temple for a vegetarian Lohei and steamboat.

Seems like we are having lots of food these few days. Thankfully, I ate normally, taking care not to over-indulge in the goood food, given the festive mood. Right now, we're not sure what's for dinner as my FIL is having some of his siblings over for a game of Mahjong. But I have this slight hankering for some sinful food, like MacDonalds :)

Hahaha... we'll see.

Throughout the CNY period, Faith's been having her usual porridge. I gather she must find it boring compared to what the adults were having. Come next year, she would be able to join in and eat what the adults are having. That would be fun. Especially when these days, it doesn't take much for her to go "Mum-mum"* at every sight of food.

*Note: Mum-mum is baby-speak for when Faith wants to eat anything or when she sees food. Occasionally, it also means for any objects and items that she wants to get her hands on :)