January 2006 Archives

It's the first day of the new year(初一). And I am getting ready to travel back up to Dublin. Had a great meal at home last night (new year's eve family reunion dinner). Dad was out shopping for some meat for the dinner, and he was wondering if we should get chicken. He though, no... then changed his mind and said, "What are we like, no chicken for the new year dinner!", and bought the chicken. Heh.

So what did we have?

* Whole sea bass
* Stewed pork with something that is related to water chestnuts (only grows in winter) cooked. This dish is usually cooked by Hakka people.
* Whole chicken
* Rice noodle with bean curd flakes, prawns, chinese leaves, Chinese mushrooms, dried scallops... was meant to be a vegetarian dish, but prawns and scallops snuck in.
* Chicken and Chinese mushrooms.
* Chicken and vegetable soup.

Obviously, dad cooked way too much as usual, and I am bringing up yummy leftovers.... can't wait! I love the rice noodles. I have some pics, I will put them up as soon as I can.

You know, MMORPGs have come along way. I,myself, am a big fan off World of Warcraft. My fiancé pointed something out the other day, WoW are holding a celebration called the Lunar Festival and it just so happens to coincide with Chinese New Year. And what went through my mind was, I thought it was inauspicious to mention the following: die, kill, use of any sharp objects, swearing, war etc... You get my drift? It's just so funny to see that it celebrates something yet go against culturally what the New Year means. I wonder if the Asian WoW players mind? But it's all harmless fun. Heh, the Lai Sees can help buy another few months for the lucky few.

Oh, on a related note (Chinese New Year, not MMORPGs ), BigWhiteGuy has a condense description of what it's all about. Browsing through the Jan archives (since I have not been reading them for awhile), I found an entry about the Wishing Tree and it seems that the tree will get further abuse leading upto the New Year. And probably a reason why I want to go to Hong Kong for Chinese New Year before I get married is because of the cool firework displays. (Hmm, probably next year.)

So 2 young guys armed with a knife trying to rob a Chinese Takeaway up North rang up the police to say that they were threatened with a knife when the takeaway owner picked up a knife and challeneged the robbers!

Give me a break! What chancers.

(Uploaded to Flickr by Mnemonix)

With Chinese New Year coming up, it's on the 29th Jan, if you did not know... it was funny to see the top hit seller in yesasia (as of tonight when I viewed it), was the Lai See packets. And what is even better for those married folks (I know, I know... it will be my turn sometime ) is that yesasia is actually holding a special sale of the Lai Sees. Rather cool offer!
It's so handy nowadays to buy things that normally you can only get at an Asian market (if you are lucky), or China Town (luckier)... or actually living in Far East (man, I am soooo jealous right now ). But with reputable places like yesasia, it's such joy to browse at home. Although the looking forward to going back to Hong Kong to browse for things is not as hyped up as it use to be (or maybe I am just getting older).
It's still nice to just go wandering around the small shops and finding those little things you won't be able to get at home or online (for those street prices, you are kidding!).

I suppose for those who don't go back (or ever been to Hong Kong for that matter), I would forget the gob-smacking aweness of "Where am I?" or "Wow, I cannot believe I am here!!!".

One thing I have not experienced, Chinese New Year in Hong Kong. I probably want to do it before I tie the knot, I suppose. But there you go, day-by-day, it just goes by. Plus working sort of sucks, you need to plan way ahead if 2 weeks (if I am lucky) are needed for my visit. Good thing I don't have to worry about accomadation.

So back to Chinese New Year... why are there so announcements of events here in Dublin, or Ireland even? There maybe signs in the windows, as some folks on the IBC board mentioned. But I cannot read Chinese. But the hullabaloo from last 2 years has somewhat waned this year.

But either way, I am heading down to Limerick with my fiancé to enjoy our family meal that weekend (most likely Saturday night).

So with that, I would like to wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year. And this year is the year of the dog.

People born in this year are loyal, honest, and trustworthy, but can also be stubborn and selfish. Dogs get along with Horses, Rabbits, and Tigers.

I don't know much about all the sayings (in Cantonese that is), so here are a few helper pages:
- From Wikipedia
- China West Exchange lessons

More year of the dog stuff:
- http://www.c-c-c.org/chineseculture/zodiac/dog.html
- http://www.chinapage.com/newyear.html

Here's something cool... horoscope (uploaded to Flickr by SE K750i Girl)

So a friend of mine will be rotated out to the Beijing office for 2 months (i.e. he will be doing the same job but working in a different office in another country). He mentions inflation here... well, I can imagine how he will feel after his 2 month stint in Beijing and coming back over here! At least he will save some money while he is there, I heard drink is dirt cheap (unless you go to the touristy places of course).

Just recently my brother has brought up an interesting conversation (albeit over text messaging), he mentioned about our family kungfu style called Lee Ga Kuen, otherwise know as 'Lee's Family Fist' and is part of Choy Lee Fut style.

Our current generation do not practise it, my dad said it is terribly tough and hours upon hours of training needs to be invested in it (given his own experience back then).

I just wonder out of curiousity, are there any Chinese familes out there that has their own family kungfu style, and if they are still practising it.

It's such a pity that my brothers and I don't know it, or more of it. Only bits and pieces from talking to dad. I can tell you, it's one brutal form of martial arts! And that is probably why dad rather us (if we wanted to take up martial arts) do Tai Chi or Wing Chun. They are good for our health, and are more defensive than the more offensive (and often fatal) styles of KungFu. Since nowadays people taking up martial arts are for recreational and health reasons than for self-defense (not getting beaten up in the alleys in the 60s and 70s by other folks who practice KungFu as well, it does not just happen in movies from what I heard).

I have not done this for awhile, but not much good news out there, I'm afraid.

Start off with Racists attacks on takeaway delivery people, there has been reported attacks around Dublin over the Christmas period. I am sure there are more around the country. This is not just aimed at Chinese, any non-national attacks have occured as well. But so few are being reported, which I think is a shame. Given that some are afraid to report incidents, I suppose even people who are not immigrants don't report incidents all the time.

A man got arrested for pirating DVDs, for shame is all I could say. Even in Hong Kong, there were less pirated stuff for sale.

And now for something utterly expensive : €12-a-cup of tea is being sold by Harrod's! It's Oolong that can be rebrewed upto 7 times. I am sure the tea shop owner in Tai Po Market would appreciate it. I don't know the name of the street, but it is near Fu Shin Street.

That is what this article said. I blogged about multi-lingual nannies, but the wealthy elite are hiring Chinese nannies and are taking it to the next level!

...many Americans believe China will overtake the US both economically and politically by 2040, at the latest. So they're looking out for the next generation. At the very least it can't hurt if your child can hold her own linguistically with the mightiest world leaders of the future.

And to show you how serious the parents where, the child's parents

...brought Chinese friends to the au pair interviews to serve as a kind of language police. The idea was to keep Miss Rogers from learning the wrong sort of Chinese, and finding herself speaking undesirable slang later on.

I really need to knuckle down and learn some Mandarin! At least if I visit China, I would understand what they are talking about.

You can discuss this further by posting comments on the IBC messageboard. (Sorry need to register, blame the sp@mmers.)

Wishing everyone the very best this 2006. (Since no comments are allowed here anymore... comments can be posted in the IBC forums)