CNY 2010

Getting up at 5am to be at the airport by 6am is a chore. Even more frustrating, the flight to Penang was delayed by almost an hour! Thank goodness, by the time I touched down, all my angst had evaporated. My first destination was uncle Boo Eng's place; there I was re-acquainted with Teng Hin's 2 year old daughter who proved to be a tough cookie to handle. Karvin looks 16 when he is only 12; he must have easily weighed 60kg! By 12 noon, Teng Lye was ready to drop me off at my `other' family home. Everyone tells me that my biological mother, going to 88, is losing her memory but she still remembers my name. Thirty minutes later, I was whisked off to uncle Teik Ee's house; literally the `happening' place. Kids were running around, and aunty Ah Eng was busy cooking, as always. In fact, this year she has cut down the cooking having recently recovered from a slipped disc operation. Wen Loo, whom I haven't seen for a long time, greeted me and introduced his girl friend from China, who's probably gotten used to the extended family and its noisy way of doing things. You would be glad to hear that Wen Koay, your youngest cousin, is doing very well in school and is also involved in some programming consulting work for a Singapore company. I suppose all's well that ends well; I couldn't resist a mahjong game and ended up losing 100 bucks to Wen Wei and aunty Girly. On my way to the airport to catch the 7pm flight to KL, I received a call from Ah Bin and Ah Yeu who both chided me for choosing the mahjong game over them! Ha, you would have empathized with me; CNY is not CNY without a mahjong game, right?