.: ShaolinTiger – Kung-Fu Geekery :.

Chinese new year is an interesting time, a time for gatherings, eating, catching up, relaxing, drinking, eating, gambling, eating, playing with (banned) fireworks, eating and gossiping (for the aunties).

Got a few messages from friends in the UK, ate too much, didn't drink so much this year, gambled WAY too much, got a record number of Ang Pows (Red Packets containing money) and lost a record amount gambling..

But at least my car was fixed in time and I had somewhere to go. Thanks!

New Years Eve - February 8th

Chinese new years eve is the day everyone generally gathers for a big reunion dinner involving tonnes of food, this year was no exception.

I took the day off work and spent the whole day cleaning my appartment 'til it was literally shining. I bought a brand new vacuum especially for the purpose. Perhaps will post a pictorial tour of my apparment another day, place is looking pretty good now, shame I lost half my fridge gambling, will have to wait till next month to get it..

Really shining..

After this went off for a reunion dinner at a friends place, ended up a bit late because of the intense clean-up operation (it's auspicious to welcome in the new year with a clean house).

It was a pot-luck dinner meaning everyone that came brought a dish they had prepared (or in some cases bought). There was the usual stuff, duck, steamed chicken with abalone, fried fish, chicken feet and mushroom (the de-facto dish), amazing braised pork trotters, crispy home made wonton and some great condiments.

The mouth-watering, addictive pork trotters..

The extra crispy, super crunchy wonton..

Chicken feet and mushroom..

After this we played with some fireworks, they are pretty tame nowdays due to them being restricted, you can only get the really powderful ones in kampungs (villages).

Yes I know it said DO NOT HOLD IN HAND on the thing, but what the hell..

Spent the night gambling 'til some obscene time in the morning and losing all my money...around 250RM

New Years Day - February 9th

This is visiting day, usually the ladies/wifes will follow their husbands and go to the husbands relatives houses, in order of age, so the oldest first and so on all the way down to the youngest sibling, so a fair amount of travelling on this day, and eating an obscene amount of various types of cookies like love letters, pineapple tarts, various concoctions made out of cornflakes and numerous other treats. Should have taken pictures really but after seeing like 888,000 cookies I was getting kind of tired of them. I of course donned my brand new, unworn red Chinese New Year t-shirt, bought especially for the purpose

Seems to be something wrong with my camera too, like the whitebalance is screwed or something, the pictures I took outside are kinda weird with odd lens flaring effects and the sky looks luminous rather than how it normally does. Will have to take some test shots.

Loads of super cute kids on this day too, they seemed to like me for some reason too..

Yes, yes I'm good with kids and animals too, bleh

Loads of Ang Pow collections, and gambled till about 6.30am, managed to win back all my money and some, gained back about 400RM.

2nd Day of Chinese New Year - February 10th

Loads more visiting this day, was tiring too as the houses were all over KL, as far fetched as Subang, Batu Caves and Old Klang Road.

The day started at Jalan Ipoh with some decent Dim Sum, nothing special and not as good as Taman Megah.

Had LOADS more cookies and beer and traditional food (mostly the same as the first day), so need to take pictures (duck, chicken feet and mushroom etc).

More gambling this evening, but took it pretty easy, lost a bit back I think.

3rd Day of Chinese New Year - February 11th

Was supposed to do some inter-state visiting today, but it was called off so took it pretty easy, was exhausted from the night before...stayed up late gambling again and so much visiting.

Woke up some time in the afternoon and makan some left-overs and vegetarian food.

Decided it's a long time since I cooked, so I scoped out the fridge and offered to cook dinner, of course it was gratefully accepted.

I cooked pork with shallots, fresh chilli, garlic, sesame oil, a splash or rice wine and plenty of ginger.

Some vege with mushrooms, loads of garlic, splash of soya sauce and a dribble of oyster sauce.

And an egg dish with lap cheong (Chinese sausage), a few chillis and shallots with a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

I was surprised how well it turned out actually seen as though I haven't cooked for so long, it was delicious, they were horrified how well a gwailo could cook Chinese food, like a pro, hehe.

Spent the night gambling again till 6.30am which was a bit stupid, as had to get up next day at 9am...

4rd Day of Chinese New Year - February 12th

Stumbled out of bed after less than 3 hours sleep and headed out of the state to do some far flung visiting, had some mad good Hakka food and sat around gambling, it was bloody hot and humid, Chinese new year weather tends to be like that.

Lost a bit but not too bad..

Forgot my camera so no pictures, was an interesting place, apparently had a brothel next door, it seemed like such a nice area too...

Was absolutely exhausted..but nevertheles stayed up past 6am gambling again, some friends came over this time and losing...must learn not to push my luck.....

Check out the 6am look..(Timestamp on picture 6:12am)

Had some REALLY scary game of Between (each person puts 1 buck into the pot, you get 2 cards, you can gamble any amount between 1 buck and all, which means everything in the pot, if the card you get is 'between' the 2 you have, you win, if it's not you lose, and have to pay the amount that you wagered..but this is not the worst scenario, if you gamble and you get a card equal to one of the 2 you have...you have to pay double, this is a killer, imagine if you have a 2 and a King, odds are like 90+% of winning, then you get a 2, you have to pay double..this happened so many times it was spooky, I paid out 150+ bucks on this stupid game).

5rd Day of Chinese New Year - February 13th

This was pretty much the end of it..had some lunch, packed up my stuff and headed back to PJ, went to visit a friends house for some lightweight gambling (lost my last emergency 50 bucks, won it back with 1 hand of blackjack, playing 2 hands I got double Ace and Blackjack..), walked out around even or 20-30 bucks down...not much in comparison to the 300+ bucks I lost in the last few days.

Will put a photo gallery up soon.

So a summary would be Ang Pow received, perhaps around 150 bucks, own money I had, around 300 bucks, money spent, probably less than 50 bucks, gave away around 100 bucks, total loss..

A definate half fridge of 300+ bucks, oh well, it's only once a year

And most of it was pwned by a damn lucky 13 year old, he has balls though I'll give him that. I think he ended up having won like 230 bucks, I had him down to 4 bucks at one stage, but he never stopped.

Headed out for dinner at our favourite Asam Prawn place, although it was damn busy, the food took forever it was good, as usual.

Then finally got back to my super clean appartment to savour the freshness, it was the good.

Went to sleep with that horrible feeling after a long break of going back to work the next day, *sigh* so much to catch up with. No idea if the Colombo trip is on or not...will have to find out, need to start making plans for the Faggot, God and my Birthdays.

I'm currently listening to the vocal house stream from Digitally Imported, and I have to say it's totally rocking, nice vocal uplifting house. I've been a long time fan of both Digitally Imported and Bassdrive, probably my 2 favourite online stations of course there's also REAL radio (BBC Radio 1).

Happy New Year to all, and screw valentines day.

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