Hey all!

Is it me or is Chinese New Year not the same as it was say, 20 years ago?

Let me explain. When I was about 3 to the age of 12...the best part of my year was Christmas and Chinese New Year. Because the effort that went into making sure we had enough food and drinks for the hoards of people that would be visiting...meant that there was always cooking and general merriment going on in the house! Plus...as a kid...it was either presents for Christmas and money for Chinese New Year...but I digress!

Chinese New Year was a wonderful memory for my family. We had open house for 2 days and on the 3rd day we had to shoo away people so we could go visiting. We would try to convoy with other close families and every house was a eating extravaganza! We were the kind of family that spent at least an hour at every house and would try to visit around 10 in one day...at the end of it...you were telling yourself you didn't want to eat for the next week!

But...all in all, I got excited when Chinese New Year came around. Some of my best memories are from Chinese New Year. So, I thought things would be similar in KL...having spent most of my Chinese New Years flying back to Kuching to celebrate with my family. Now...KL is tons bigger and although my family is all over the place...I have a lot of Chinese friends I thought I would be visiting this year. PEEP (Buzzer Sound) Wrong-o! I only got to go to one of my friends house this year and that was because of my incessant begging. No one has open house anymore!? And it seems like whenever there is a long weekend, they travel! Ha ha ha...I was kinda sad about that.

Its definitely a very different experience celebrating New Year at Kuching, compared to KL. Then again...maybe people were avoiding me! Ha ha ha....anyway guys...hope your Chinese New Year was better than mine! Next year....think I'll contemplate a holiday! Ha ha ha

Cheers! Sara