Chinese New Year has always been my favourite time of the year since the earliest of time I could remember (of course after I was born hahaha) and I have always loved it because it’s the only time of the year I can get to visit relatives from extended families, have reunion meals and I just love the feeling of together-ness, afterall family means love.


We eventually headed out at 11:30 and went to the very first same house we always go to on the first day of CNY: My grandma’s house. I actually only visited two houses today, and they are none other than my grandparents from both sides, heheh. I gave my uncle a box of calming teabags I bought from Marks&Spencer weeks ago before I left because I really wish that he would take good care of his health and not to over-stress himself like he always do, especially when he is sick. Honestly that’s the only uncle I bought a gift for because he’s so far my favourite uncle. Even though we only see each other once in every one or two weeks, I can’t help but feel the fatherly vibes from him, and he reminds me so much of my dad.


So after I took photos with some of my uncles and paternal grandparents, we went over to my maternal grandparent’s house. We had grandma’s homemade popiahs for lunch, and for those who don’t know what a popiah is, it’s basically veggies wrapped with pastry skin heheh. Most popiahs you get from outside are mostly made up of radish, but as for my Grandma’s version we usually stuff tons of veggies within the roll, crispy-fy it with some fine ground peanuts and sweetened with some black sweet sauce. I had FIVE or SIX popiah rolls, and man it was just so crunchy and yummy heheh. I also made my I-hate-veggies version by just slathering sweet sauce on the pastry skin and stuffing the fine peanut bits inside. It was the version I always made when I was much younger, when I hated veggies SO MUCH lol. Trust me it still tastes amazing as fuck, it’s like my favourite dessert now. It was so SWEET and goodness gracious it was just so amazing. I had like three of them for ‘dessert’ and then I came up with this brilliant idea to have LETTUCE WRAPS. So instead of stuffing grilled meat in between the lettuce wraps just like how the Koreans usually do, I spammed lots of sweet sauce and peanut bits in between the lettuce. OH MY GOD it was amazing hahah the lettuce tasted so bitter on its own but I swear it was amazing with the peanuts and sweet sauce. So after all that rolls of popiahs, dessert and my lettuce wrap creation I went into a food coma and lied on my cousin’s bed for the rest of the afternoon.

I actually went into my cousin’s room just to print some important documents I needed for my trip but not long later my brother, mum and cousin crashed the room so we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon just chilling and singing Chinese songs. It was just so CHILL, everyone was basically in their own lalalands and all of us sang together so our voice could be heard in the entire house hahah. Even though we never really did much in the room, I still felt so relaxed and comforted by the presence of my family members heeee. My cousin WS was practically at my grandparent’s house for the whole day and I’m so glad that he was over because we got to spend some time together. We aren’t particularly that close, but we are definitely close enough to bicker (but with love) over nothings and every thing heheh. And you know what, I just felt so darn proud seeing him like this and becoming who he is today. We drifted apart after puberty hit him because he was at that ‘rebellious period’ so we never really got to talk proper, until our family trip to Phuket last November. I used to think that he ‘became bad’ because he acted like he was, but now I can surely say that he has grown and matured a lot, and he’s a filial person at that. A filial child or grandchild would never be any bad or worse-off, and I’m so proud of him. He’s also going to enlist and join the army pretty soon (sometime this week) and I really hope NS would shape him into a better person, and that he would meet many genuine ‘bros’ while he’s at it.

At around 5 my mum’s cousins started arriving one by one, and not long later the house was filled with so many close relatives and bustling with so much noise. We left for home soon after we had dinner, and my relatives all said their take-cares and well-wishes before I left. Grandpa actually wanted to send me off today but because so many people came over and my poor Grandma’s legs were hurting so I just hugged them before I left and bode farewell. We took a cab home and started packing up and getting ready at 7, and eventually left for the airport at about 9:30. I felt so bad for arriving later than all my friends because we got delayed while we were on the way to the airport, since the car was running low on petrol so we had to refill. I actually wasn’t too sure myself who was coming to send me off and who wasn’t, and of course I’d prefer having no one to send me off because it gets so bothersome and awkward hahah. Most of them texted me to say that they wouldn’t be able to come down because they were still stuck doing visiting at that hour and of course they should continue doing what they were doing hahah. That said I’m really very thankful for those who came all the way down to the airport just to send me off, despite today being the first day of CNY and their busy schedules. I wouldn’t say that those who sent me off were ‘true friends’ and those who didn’t come weren’t, because fuck that shit, friendships do not work this way hahah. But of course I felt especially thankful for those who came because it really made me feel like I was that important to them, especially those I never really got very close to. If you are one of those who sent me off and you’re reading this now, thank you for taking your precious time just to see me, because for that I’m truly grateful.