.: ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery :.

I wish you all a prosperous, healthy and enjoyable 2008 for you, your family and loved ones.

Enjoy the food and celebrations!

Not really..

But guess where I was?

Can you?

I have to admit I know Selangor Valley pretty well, and I've never even heard of this place, let alone been there.

Europe indeed, was a hectic day, need to sleep now...and *sigh* back to work tomorrow, why can't I get the whole week off!

Had a pretty busy few days...need a holiday after that, Mom is having a good time.

Some of her New Zealand pics are awesome, trying to persuade her to blog her trip.

Oh yah, feel free to tell me how awesome my pic is!

Don't gamble so much...it's bad for you!

Especially when it gets up to 30 bucks a hand...then the dealer gets 21 and you have to cough up 60 bucks!

w00t to my triple 7, this wasn't staged, I actually got it!

Playing Blackjack at Chinese New Year, the only hand better than Double Ace, and highly unlikely! Triple 7's.

The orange on top of the money symbolises fortune as the word for this orange is 'Kum' which is the same word for Gold (if you didn't know).

Happy New Year, come gamble with me a bit

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous year of the pig!

Oink Oink.

Happy New Year!

Gong Hey Fat Choy!

Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Might be lacking in updates for a while as it's the holiday season and my Mom just arrived back here from New Zealand yesterday, so she's here for a couple of weeks.

Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner

Cheese Prawns, Pork Knuckles, Steamed Pomfret, Tofu with Oyster Sauce, Mixed Vegetables, Steamed Chicken and some Turnip with Lettuce.

You can see the Flickr Page for notes of what all the dishes are.

I'll update whenever I can!

It's Chinese New Year again, that time of the year when we all manicaly clean our houses, condos and appartments, me included.

I finished it off yesterday by taking down the Christmas Tree (I wanted to keep it up till my Mom was here!) and putting up my Pussy-Willow branches in a new vase I got from Genting.

I spent yesterday wandering around Sungei Wang and Low Yat (Low Yat was totally closed), Sungei Wang had about 30% of shops open, BB Plaza about 50%.

And spent the evening in KLCC Garden watching the fountain show, then off to PJ Uptown for some famous Kajang Sate.

I bought some more CNY ornaments and things for my 'tree'.

I think it looks really nice now, very festive indeed.

Anyone want to give me ang pow, feel free

Not sure what to do today, you might catch me at the butterfly park, the orchid garden or at home watching some DVD's

3 for 10RM at Sg Wang now (DVD5), 3 for 20RM (DVD9), with special features RM12 I think.

Gong Hei Fat Choy!

I have my road tax now, so I can legally drive, yay!

Well my appartment is clean again, yay!

Bought some new stuff at Ikea, yay!

Going visiting now.

Happy New Year.

Guess where I've been?

If you already know, you are disqualified.

No I didn't get a tan.

Will post more later, it's CNY now, so time to get my road tax sorted, pay the bills and clean the appartment.

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.

Happy year of the Rooster, let the year of cock be a good one

May it bring you health, wealth, happiness and prosperity.

Health makes things possible, wealth makes things work, joy makes thing beautiful. May you have all three as you begin this new year.

Am pretty busy eating, sleeping, savouring not working, drinking, receiving ang pow and so on.

Will post more after it's all over, it's the second day of Chinese new year now, first night was dinner gathering, yesterday was all day going to different houses and eating lots of cookies (I mean lots)..

Plenty of sumptuous feasts (will post pictures later, highlights would be pork trotters, yum!)..

It's the year of the Wood Rooster, you can check out Suan's highlights.

There is a good article HERE on how Chinese New Year is celebrated in Malaysia.

More information on how the calendar differs is available HERE.

Enjoy the festive season.

Random posting will resume shortly.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!