Chinese New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Sorry, guess I was too busy preparing for Chinese New Year and collecting the ang baos to even rem to blog... oops...

think I had the most memorable Chinese New Year's Eve this year.

Me, Chao Yang, his gf Jeannie, Ben, Pei Ling and Say Keat went to cheong at China Town. Super happening neh!

Before we went in, we had to mentally prepare ourselves. Cos every year, if you know, there are hoards of ppl hogging chinatown; some to get the 'FEEL' of the atmosphere, some to pick up cheap goods just hours before the countdown cos prices get slashed right after midnight, so everyone like crouching tiger all go there to wait and pounce on the new year goodies. Cheapos! (actually Chao Yang sugggested doing that...)

some I suspect were heading for Little India but got sucked into the whirlpool of people streaming in... "eh, deh, I tot we going to Serangoon, how come we end up with so many Chinese ppl around us?" (one Indian to another Indian)

It's like Bermuda Triangle, once you go in, you enter another dimension. But the good tthing is, this Bermuda Triangle got food eat while you're happily being sucked in...

"noo... I'm being sucked in... HELP!! .............

hey, got cheese sausages... munch munch... yum yum... hey chocolate coated strawberries!! mmm... nice... coconut drink! wa... slurp...

HELP............"

so, yeah, there we were, being sucked in... *burp... and tthen we got to the centre of the whirlpool which was the vortex of the whole mass congregation of bodies... if you'd think sardines in a can are packed... think again...

we were like meet stuffed in a SAUSAGE!! Imagine human meat SAUAGES! get the image??

ahem, ok let me first explain what this human whirl pool vortex is...

it's a place right smack in the middle of Chinatown where 2 roads meet as a cross junction. So imagine ppl from the north, the south, the east, the west, all come together to meet at this very important place... how important it is? I don't know, I just know that everyone will meet there and cluster. BECAUSE EVERYBODY ENTER NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST INTO THAT PLACE!!!!!

yup, I said my peace...

so we had something like...

Jeannie: "Chao Yang Ge (chinese for brudder)... where are you?"

CY: "Jeannie mei mei... I'm here!"

then the star crossed lovers meet right smack in the centre amidst all the pushing bodies as they stare lovingly into each other's eyes...




Ah Beng: "OI! *$&%($%$^@!! DON BLOCK DE WAY LA!!!"

and there I was happily under the armpit of some beefcake wearing some polo shirt with the TIGER beer logo... yeah baby... it truly is tigerrr... time... bleah...

Well, nuff said about the smelling pushing, flesh pressing against flesh scenario.

We fortunatel or unfortunately did not get from the SOUTH side to the NORTH side through the vortex, we settled instead to traverse the less crowded sidewalk... which minus the stalls and such makes it a bit more stale and atmospheric, but nonetheless we were quite happy to be away from the human sausage making machine... (fully automated, just add people)

We went up to the top of a building which overlooked the place where the firecrackers would go off at the stroke of midnight... this is where the most exciting part happened.

as we stood atop the building with the night breeze blowing in our faces, we counted down with friend and strangers around us as the clock ticked away.

then came the loud splattering sound of the firecrackers going off... it sounded like a string of fart going off, but only louder and better... :)

as we watched the firecrackers go off, out shot the fireworks into the sky.

It was just beautiful to behold, like a painter splashing colours across the black night sky as his palette. One by one they came with different patterns and rhythms of explosions.

Now, I've seen fireworks on TV, but to see them in real life, it's a whole different story... :) it's like you can only stand there and stare cos it's so beautiful.

the whole explosion thingy lasted for like close to ten minutes and us guys just sat at the top of the roof and chatted.

It was a nice way to end the night, just chilling with your closest buddies and enjoying the night breeze.

although I was wondering why we talked about the different ways of doing your laundry and how to wash your laundry in such a way that it doesn't spoil your clothes, which then led to how to iron your shirts... the weirdest topic, if I must say...

but whatever, the fireworks and the firecrackers really made this the most memorable CNY's eve ever