24

I've lived through 24 Earth revolutions around the sun. Yes, I've turned 24 today :)
Thanks for all the presents and birthday greetings, I love you all too :)

Yay! Now I can open the birthday present that FuFu and Auntie Audrey sent all the way from Singapore. It's been sitting on my desk for a week, and I've been exercising my self-control not to open it till today. My patience finally pays off. Hee hee.

Il Divo will also be performing here in Adelaide in March, so I've bought myself a birthday present (and burnt a big hole in my wallet), and... I'll be going for their concert!! Whoopee !! Hey, you only turn 24 once a lifetime anyway...

A birthday card I received says this :

Happy birthday
Enjoy the day
Take an extra long shower
Buy something fun
Write down ten things you're thankful for
See some different scenery
Call a friend
Praise the lord
Have a wonderful birthday.

Not bad, I've actually done nearly everything it says...

Happy birthday - Yup :)
Enjoy the day - Yup
Take an extra long shower - Not yet
Buy something fun - The Il Divo tickets :)
Write down ten things you're thankful for - Yup (ask me if you want to know what I've written :)
See some different scenery - We'll be going crabbing at Grange with Maureen later. Yup.
Call a friend - 3 friends, actually. Yup.
Praise the Lord - Yup!
Have a wonderful birthday - Okie, yup :)

I've finished work for the day, so now it's time to go home and take that extra long shower. Yup :)

'This is the day the lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it' - Psalm 118 : 24

:)

CNY greetings

I'm amused. Two psychology graduates have confirmed my suspicions, and I'm reassured that I'm not totally paranoid or hypochondriac after all. Well, maybe just a little... :)

1 week after all the 3 Chinese New Year gatherings last weekend, I haven't needed to cook any meals, since there were enough leftovers to literally last for more than a week. It's inherent in the Chinese culture... the mindset that it's always better to prepare extra food, rather than to have insufficient food for the guests. Which has been pretty evident over the weekend, we've probably prepared twice to three times the amount of food required for the number of pple present at each gathering :)

Special mention goes to Maureen's 'Emperor's Chicken', Karen's 'Kong Bak' (stewed pork buns, which we stayed up till 2am the night before to prepare), May's 'Egg and Dried Fungus', Min Yu and Matthew's 'Baked Snapper', Hazel's 'Kim Chi Dumblings', Janet?s 'Massalla and Cream Cheesecake', Esther's 'Indian Curry', Rachel's 'Stewed Pork', Deni's 'Sweet Date Cake'... and the many other yummy dishes contributed by our friends and guests.

I think I've sufficiently recovered from all the celebrations, and had enough of parties to last me for... about a week or so. :) Any excuse to meet up over food will always be welcome :) Enjoyed Chilli crab with Maureen and friends yesterday to celebrate Day 7 of Chinese New Year (from Maureen's crabbing expedition, they caught 64 huge crabs!), had celebrations with Pam today, and will be going out for yum cha / dim sum with Karen and a few other neighbours next week to mark the end of the New Year celebrations. Which means that effectively, I won't need to cook for the whole week again. Except, perhaps, I may need to boil the leftover rice for porridge, to recover from the overdose of all those rich foods :)

Good food, great company... so blessed...

It's the second time I'm spending Chinese New Year overseas, away from family. The first time was in Canning (remember how we exchanged apples because we didn't have any oranges on New Year's eve? Hee hee, such fond memories :) But both times, I'm blessed to be able to celebrate with good friends.

However, I still miss the fun we have back home at family gatherings, chatting and teasing the cousins, joking with the adults, feasting on new year goodies before dinner, and collecting hong baos (which I'll miss out on this year... looks like my 'bonus income' just decreased :) At least we had our annual 'cousins movie-night-out' on Christmas eve instead of Chinese New Year, and watched 'King Kong' together at 1 am.

An entry on Chinese New Year wouldn't be complete without a New Year greeting. So, since this is the year of the Dog, and I can't think of any Chinese proverbs with dogs in them, here's my own little 'Doggy Greeting' to all :

Like a puppy, may you find joy in the simple things in life

:)

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!