Prelude for Spring Festival 2010 (Chinese New Year)

For residents in Chinese-dominated countries, cities, towns, places, it is quite obvious that a big festival is coming!! The red red gold gold decorations, the big big statues of the God of Fortune with the unmistakable music floating in the air.

Chinese New Year (also known as Spring Festival) is approaching!!

Fast and furious!!!!!

As with any Chinese family, my family is currently busy with spring cleaning, a major time-consuming task that takes ages to complete!! The big overhaul of the cluttered store-room, the laundry for the heavy curtains and so much more!!!

Don't get me started on the preparation of food stuff!!

For the customary new year's eve dinner, one of the rare occasions that you will see everyone of us in the family seated around a table and actually dining together, there will be piles upon piles, plates upon plates of food!!!

And for visitors, there will be a massive accumulation of sweets, preserved fruits, festive biscuits, bak kwa and occasionally, steamboat!!!! It's better to have more than less! If there are remainder 15 days after CNY (which means Chinese New Year), they shall worm their way into our stomachs!

For all Chinese, it's basically a fattening season!

I wish everyone of you a Happy Chinese New Year, in advance. I am including a picture of a god of fortune (made of crystals) below and pray that it will bring all kinds of good luck (think 4D, TOTO, Big Sweep) to all of us in the Year of Ox!!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!