Chinese New Year 2014

~*CNY Eve*~

We had the afternoon half day off from work on CNY eve which fell on Thursday. After that, we had an early reunion dinner with the in-laws at the seafood place a walk away from our house. Chinese restaurants in Singapore would usually be fully booked for CNY eve with special reunion dinner menu. Most restaurants would cater 1-hour slots from 5pm till 8pm.


I didn't carry my camera with me and so I only had shots of the lo hei process of the yu sheng 鱼生.




It was wise of my MIL to choose the 5pm slot coz everything was more fuss-free. (It was more stressful to eat during the 7pm slot.) However by 8pm, I was so famished that I crawled into bed and fell asleep under the warm sheets only to wake up at 2am to prepare red packets. While packing the fresh new notes into the red packets, I wasn't feeling too well. Little did I know that that was the onset of a gastric flu.



~*CNY Day 1*~


We were unanimously clad in blue for Day 1.



It is a tradition to 回娘家 (go back to my family home) for lunch with kh. I really love my parents' cooking A LOT! Well like I always say, simple Chinese home-cooked food may not always look good in photos but they taste the best! The dishes that afternoon included roast meat and duck in dark sauce, the CNY rabbitfsh (unfortunately, the 3 we had didn't have roe in them like how CNY rabbitfish should), mum's signature ngoh hiong, leek, grandma's chicken curry from the previous day and pig's stomach soup. The past few days, all I looked forward to was the ngor hiang and pig's stomach soup and I was really satisfied eating them. I salivated at the curry too but couldn't eat it due to my gastric.




It is also a tradition to have a family portrait shot on the sofa and ever since they discovered my camera's multiple shots mode, they could not go back to normal photo-taking. My 2nd sis wanted to replicate last year's shot so we had to sit the same positions.




And just in case the anigif is loading slow on your smartphones, here is one proper shot...




... and one casual shot.




And for those who have unlimited data plan or reading this from your computer screens, you could view the Flipagram version with music below. If you're already following me on Instagram, you would have seen these versions there.


~Flipagram series: CNY 2014 with the Loh Family~

The signature Day 1 family portrait shots done using Flipagram.

I love making anif on my laptop. My family and frenz love looking at them. But when they asked me to send these anigif through their phones, I couldn't do it. Thanx to Flipagram I could do it now and with music too! It's not really an anigif app with loop function but it works well with some tweaking.
Song used: Little Talk by Of Monsters and Men





~Flipagram series: CNY 2013 with the Loh family~

Excited with the anigif effect from Flipagram, I did the same for CNY 2013 too.

I used the same song I used for last year-- What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction. This song gained popularity (or at least for me) coz of Kinect Just Dance which we played last CNY. Straight face award goes to my dad! He wasn't used to the multiple shots mode.





This is totally random but I love the red packet from my division. I love red packets that aren't in the usual gaudy CNY red.




Back at home, it is also a tradition to take a family portrait with my in-laws either on the sofa...




or in the garden... or both. Before my 2nd BIL and his gf came back, we were all so amused that we were unanimously clad in blue too.

~Flipagram series: CNY 2013 with the Ng family~

There isn't enough photos this year to make a flipagram for CNY 2014 so here's the signature Day 1 family portrait shots with the Ng family. First time trying the multiple shots mode and hence only hubz and I had the most change in poses. 😝 ^^
Song used: High by Lighthouse Family





That's all for CNY 2014 as I didn't go visiting after that. I had porridge for dinner for 3 days feeling very happy coz the porridge was not too bad and I was always hungry after puking.

I would end of this post with some horse phrases as the year of the horse seems to have a lot more word play and puns whether in Mandarin, Singlish or dialect. Here's wishing all my Chinese/ Hokkien/ Singlish readers a HOR-seh (very good) year with abundance of HOR-jiak (delicious) food. May you be blessed with HOR-peng-you (good friends) and HOR-sim (kind-hearted) people with sufficient time to take a HOR-liday so that you will have HOR-mia (good life).