CNY....

The only period that I enjoyed CNY after I start working was those day with MOH. The Chinese colleague was given priority for leave and with some manipulation I enjoyed a 4-5 days rest. My parent’s house was near my in law and I don’t get trapped on the highway. After I left Malaysia, life had become different. Although the holiday was much longer but we need to split it into half; the workload was triple during the working days. CNY eve is the splitting point and each of us enjoyed a 3 days off instead of 6 days.

For the locals, 3 days is enough, but I would need at least 8 days for a trip back home. In the past, it was simple but nowadays, I would need to adapt to the schedule of Yun and Xian; they have tuitions classes during the winter holiday. Secondary school is different from primary school…..

Yun and Xian had lost the feeling of CNY. They had never expecting any new cloth as we don’t buy new cloth for them prior to CNY. They have no chance of eating a reunion dinner as we are the only family around and I worked most of the CNY eve. No relative means no Ang Paw but they are definitely not looking forward to the extra reward. For them , CNY is just another trapped in the house holiday as I preferred house detention as everywhere is packed with people. The conclusion : CNY is nothing to cheer about for them.

But CNY was a grace for a poor kid like me. I don’t have the luxury to retain all my red packets, but yet I got to keep the one from my grand parent.

From time to time, Ving and I had tried to introduce the CNY feel to them, however we had failed. This year, despite the struggle of going back during CNY, we are not enjoying the trip with our family…..a trip to Sarawak and Penang would consume most of our time in Malaysia.