Tuesday, February 12, 2002

Gong Xi Gong Xi

Today is the first day of the lunar new year. That means a great rush to visit family and hopefully get some loot out of it. For those who don't know, the tradition is as follows. You give tangerines or mandarin oranges (in pairs) to relatives (older than you are and married) and in return they give you an "ang pow" (a red packet with a token sum of money). I have heard of ang pows that have thousands of dollars inside although I haven't personally seen one yet. Anyway, ang pows only last till you get married so I suspect my loot collecting days are numbered. Well, maybe one or the most two more sessions of it before I start having to give it out to people when the "young uns" start shoving oranges in my face and starring at me intently.

That day will come but till then, I still have the ability to collect loot. We're planning to use this loot to finance a little holiday mayhaps to Bangkok or somewhere close by. I am so in need of a holiday. Daniel has started teaching as well and we see each other alot less now. It hard because I have a hard time being polite to stupid bosses at work and am always in need of being hugged and taken out for pearl tea. OH!!! I have learnt how to make the pearls in the pearl tea but I think I like it when other people make them for me. There you go, that princess streak is out again. :)

It's been a while since I've wrote. Primarily because I don't have a computer at home and the one in school takes 5 minutes to load hotmail. I can't imagine how long it would take to load this page builder thing. Anyway, I've gone on a school trip with my class where they were supposed to learn more about native Singapore heritage read Malay heritage. It's a big thing now especially in the wake of Sept 11th and the fact that it has been revealed that Singapore had an Al-Qaeda sect or something and they were planning to blow up key locations in Singapore. So, since Singapore is multi-racial and has a large minority of Malays read Muslims, there is this renewed push for racial tolerance and harmony just in case people go around accusing every malay of being a terrorist. It's been made worse by some Muslims trying very hard to exert their identity and having their children wear headscarves to school (It is a rule that in national schools, you comply with the school uniform and nothing else). The issue has made CNN and BBC because the kids have been suspended due to the failure to comply after ample warning.

Sigh, the world is getting out of hand.

On top of that, our ex president Ong Teng Cheong died this week. I have never personally met the man, but he was very much involved in the urbanising of Singapore. On top of that, he was a humble man, with no airs and always came off as sincere and intelligent at the same time. I have a great soft spot for him as well because he was the patron of the Singapore Dance Theatre and anyone who supports dance is okay in my book.

Well, more relatives have arrived and this lot, from what bits of conversation I can hear floating up the stairs, speak Chinese. God Help me... I'll try to get back on again later.. If I can't, well, that's all for now and I'll try and get hold of a computer some time soon.

Later

Ondine tossed this thought in at 18:08

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