Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year one and all! This year, I managed to hear the firecrackers and see the fireworks from BOTH Chinatown and Marina simultaneously! How cool is that!

One of my pet peeves about living near Chinatown is the reaction you get when you tell people that very fact. You probably don’t get what I mean unless you’re guilty of the very thing I’m complaining about. So here’s a few examples to illustrate my point.


Me: I live at Chinatown.
Friend A: !!!!!
*stunned silence for 20 seconds*
Friend A: Oh I thought only old people live there.


Me: I live near Chinatown.
Friend B: Can help me buy bak gua?
Me: ………


Me: At Chinatown.
Friend C: *giggles*


And this is the ultimate.

Me: Yeah I live at Chinatown.
Friend D: Is that why you’re so chee-nah?

Even though he was kidding, I refused to talk to him for the rest of my life.


Ever since eons ago, my grandmother would have a stall selling pussy willows at Chinatown during Chinese New Year. When I was young, me and my cousins love to play there. If you happen to be walking by then, you might find us frolicking about the flowers. And if you’re lucky you might spot a cute little girl (that would be me) being scolded by an old lady for plucking the ‘skin’ off the flowers (if you don’t know what I’m blabbering on abt, serve you right for never buying from my grandmother.) When I grew older, I felt obliged to help out, sometimes staying till way past midnight. But my poor father had to bear the brunt of it all these years, accompanying my grandmother till 3am every night for three weeks, simply because my grandmother refused to close shop even though there were few customers.

But this year, much to the jubilation of everyone in the family except my grandmother, the lots became much more expensive thus forcing her into early retirement (well not that early, seeing as my grandma is already 80). I think my dad was the happiest of all; he was practically jumping for joy. I felt sad for my grandma though. I visited her the other day and she was staring wistfully at all the stalls and crowded streets and said that the sellers are lucky this year because it didn’t rain even once.

Well I guess what I’m really trying to say is that I can’t stand Chinese New Year. The crowds, the jostling, the songs, the shouting of ‘lelong lelong’ at the top of my voice……. So when Leonard asked me if I wanted to go for a walk at Chinatown to enjoy the ambience, I baulked at the thought. (sorry dude)

And taking advantage of the fact that he’s finally free, my dad took my mum and I out for a walk. When most Singaporeans are pushing their way through Chinatown, the three of us were walking around in Little India instead.