Bdae Day itself,I went out in the afternoon with my brother after cooking and eating the pasta. We reached Orchard around 4pm. I needed to collect my pants that I had bought two weeks back with Tab. Didnt know that it was already ready as indicated on the receipt, only realized when I looked at it closely, had thought they would call me to collect. After collecting, I was asking my bro, whether he was hungry for food or had any drinks in mind. He was, so I brought him to the Cathay, to drink Yuan Yang at Man Jia Le and eat Chao Da Ji Pa at Shilin. He likes the chicken chop and the Yuan Yang drink alot. Then we went to a bookshop nearby for him to buy books for his tuition biz.
Lastly we headed to PS to play at the arcade. Before that we went to scrutinize the many hobby shop on the top floor, with the numerous figurines, models and swords. Then we headed to the arcade. He played this Aeroplane game that he was quite into the last time, and I played the JukeBox game, playing at Intermediate level up to 6 stars. After the game, we headed down to check out this book sale thingy by carrefour I think. After digging around, I bought 6 brand new books, my usual diet of sci fi for $6 per book instead of $16.95 per book. Too bad I already had some titles cos I saw the same ones selling cheaply.
Then we took a cab home. Overall its nice to get out of the house on a weekend and hang around a bit with the sun still in the skies. Its like a way to make the day last longer.
CNY eveI woke up a bit later cos of the night owling and helped to sweep the floor. It was part of the last minute spring cleaning before the year arrive and its bad luck to do so. Then we had a simple meal of fried rice. My sister, Yingel and I decided to head to Chinatown in the later part of the afternoon cos we had explored the Dead Chinatown before 2 years back and now wanted to see how its like on CNY eve. The rest of the family didnt understand why we wanted to do that, well partly cos I wanted to get the Jelly Guo Dong cheaply and also just for the sake of going out. Its sort of a CNY tradition thingy that started 3 years back when I started staying back in Sg for CNY. So wanderlust and boredom plus search for food led me to go out with sisters to explore. We've been to deadtown Chinatown , deserted Clark and Boat Quays, IMM and Orchard during the first one, two days of CNY.
So both of us headed down, expecting to be squashed and having to fight toes and nails to pass through the throngs of crowd that would congregate at Chinatown searching for last minute new year goodies. BUT that didnt come true leh. Firstly the new year goodies were mostly the same, prices are the same too, nothing very fantastic. Its just like a repeated pasar malam except the crowds were quite thin. We didnt have to push through to walk to each stall and look. We walked through the 3 streets and peered at everything. Second, most of the stuff we dun want to buy eg egg rolls, more cny decorations, so that kinda put the meagre offerings out of the picture.
Though after walking around, we did buy stuff plus eat at the food street part. Both of us spent a total of $50 all in. We shared to buy 3 small boxes of Hume cookies 3 @ $7, and 3 figurines with light at 3 for $10. I spent about $35. I bought a bird whistle $2, a Cai piggy weight $1, a Cai Shen light figurine $3.30 (will put up the pics later cos now using my sister's laptop) a kg of Jelly for $10, half kg of dried permesson $4, food and drinks $10 and a cough medical tea for $1.50. My sister ate and bought 250g of Gua Zi. We went back by bus kinda disappointed that there wasnt that much offerings as in most of the stuff are the same. Only few unique ones, though being unique doesnt mean, we had to buy it. Then reached home, helped Mom to cook in the kitchen for the new year reunion dinner feast, helped to cut and prepare some meat, veg and also cook dishes. Chose to help out cos many hands make light work. We had around 8-9 dishes. Then ate dinner together with bro.
After dinner, helped to decorate the outside with new year decorations with Yingel. Both of us were twisting some decorations over the cacatus and plants outside our doors. Later I checked the 4D only to find that I HAD MISSED THE 2nd PRIZE BY 1 NUMBER AGAIN! Argh, the number by the Unwelcomed guest in the house, it missed by the last number. Peng! Argh my fat ang bao and the hopes of it being welcome were dashed. Okay, no more leg shaking and eating beef. Abstinance until I strike.
After that, it was around 10pm, when I login to Maple. Was listening to the Channel 8 new year show while playing Maple. Later after the show ended, I stayed up until 4am playing maple, partly to Shou Shui for parents. The rest all retired by then.
CNY first dayAs expected, woke up lagi late around 12pm due to staying until 4am trick the night before. Went online to Maple again. Watched the Mr Hong Kong with sister Geoky, spent 2hours of my life bioing at guys. We were making comments about certain contestants. Then I went back to Mapling. After dinner, both my sisters and I headed to VivoCity. Just to see whether shops would be open and a change of exploration venues. We headed there by bus. While on the bus, I quickly sent out late cny smses cos it was kinda almost night by then.
Surprized to see that there were many many pple milling around too. Even more surprising was that Giant was open. We headed inside and I bought this very cheap drinking game. Its like Bingo and comes with 6 shot glasses. The person who rolls out a coloured ball has to drink the shot glass of that colour. Its only $4.90. So now I have 9 shot glasses. Then we bought some food and drink items. Me and my sister try to stick to our resolution and had been drinking mineral water and unsugared oolong drinks when we buy drinks outside. I had not been munching much of new year goodies at all. Just only earlier today, I ate 3 jelly. That's all.
After a long while inside looking at the many stuff including electrical appliances, we walked around the shopping centre. There are quite a few shops open esp the F&B ones. We headed inside the Baleno/LP boutique that was having a sale and bought a total of 5 t-shirts. I bought only one for $9.60 cos I didnt want to run out of storage space. I had cleared away most of my old T-shirts from Uni days and early contract teaching days. Now my t-shirts consist of those I had bought from the 2 thailand trips, plus JB jasco trips. After that we walked a bit more and headed home. We reached home around 10pm, having left near 7pm.
Think tomorrow will go and explore the newly finished expanded Jurong Point somewhere in the early afternoon.
