Cavalock and The Lunar New Year Reminisce

Happy Lunar New Year everybody! Here's a little early new year dinner I had couple weeks ago. Was my first time having the traditional 'pen cai'. As you can see, it's a big pot of steaming goodness like baby abalones, prawns, duck, mushrooms, fish cakes and pretty much all the other stuff you would expect to find in a big Chinese dinner. That there takeaway pot costs S$298 from Imperial Treasure and I just saw on TV yesterday, a bigger pot like that cost less than half the price in Malaysia!

Gosh, looking back over the years or even decades, Lunar New Year celebrations have definitely changed quite a bit for yours truly. And then again, maybe not that much.

Whenever I hear of big family reunions during the Lunar New Year, I always think of how 'fortunate' I am that I don't have to go through all that drama or charade of being nice to strangers that you meet only once a year. I come from a very small and closely knit family, so when I do any new year visiting it's to folks that I see almost every other day. No awkwardness, no dumb questions, no need for new wardrobe, just another regular family visit.

But as one grows older, Lunar New Year celebrations loses some of its appeal, its magic, that sense of wonder. I miss my mom and all my aunt and uncles who aren't with me anymore. Even big new year office lunches, haven't had one of those since I became a caregiver. Hmmm... maybe I don't miss the office lunches as much as I miss the office new year bonu$ that usually come with it. Hah!