Gong Xi ah Gong Xi!

Fa ya fa da cai.....

Hopefully for me and everyone else too. May monkeys and sarus upgrade to chimps and eat more bananas. May unemployed slackers like me find alternative means of economic sustenance. May those in school not find their intelligence stifled by uncaring professors. May everyone's wishes come true, unless u wish someone dead, in which case you're excluded, cos I don't wanna be an accessory to murder.

Yup, it's been an ok CNY for me so far. Went to Chinatown on the eve of the eve, and it's as crowded as heck. Is there some deep, inborn instinct in Singaporean Chinese for them to all flock to Chinatown during the CNY period? You know, like birds going to the south during winter?

That part was ok, though, cos the really interesting parts came during reunion dinner.

My family and I went to the SAFRA club at Yishun for reunion dinner this year, and encountered a few "incidents". Firstly, they had us and a whole buncha families waiting outside for our dinners. Why this is so is because the place has 2 sessions of reunion dinners. One starts at 5 something, and the other, ( ours ) starts at 730. But at 8, we were still waiting outside, cos some of the diners inside were still eating. So my dad goes over to the bouncer at the door, and goes "I'mbloodyhungryandsoismyfamilyiwantutogoinnowmakesuremydamntableisready!"

ok, he din exactly say that, ( knowing my dad, it's most prob to be all in hokkien anyway ) but whatever he said worked, cos finally we got a table, while a whole buncha families were still outside waiting.

The real award, however, goes to my aunt. The place was taking forever with our food, and there was something like a 20-min break between each of the courses. What was irritating was that while we were waiting for our first course, we saw waiters walking to other tables with their 2nd or even 3rd courses! So she started with this guy in the suit, and the mike to his mouth, let's assume he's the head waiter. As the guy walks by, she goes, "Shuai ge, wo de fan zai na li?"

bleah. If you've never seen my aunt, she's a total tomboy and almost-there butch lor. and imagine her going "Shuai ge...." at some waiter. Bleah bleah bleah.

So we get our 1st course. Talk talk talk for about 20mins and the 2nd course is nowhere in sight. She calls the same guy over. The following conversation took place in Chinese, but for the sake of easier typing, becomes English.

Aunt: Do you guys have a doctor here?
Guy: *blur* Doctor?
Aunt: Ya, a doctor.
Guy: Er, I donno if we do. Why? *confused*
Aunt: I need a doctor soon. Cos I'm getting gastric waiting for your food.
Guy: Duh...... ( din say this out, but it was in his face )

The final clincher came when we were waiting for our 2nd/3rd last course. She says she thinks she knows this guy in a grey shirt serving food, and she asks Guy what that one's name is. Guy says Richard. Aunt says ok, thanks. Later, Aunt calls Richard over, asks if he remembers her, and it turns out his fren knows her or something like that. Guy comes over, and says, half-jokingly, "You don't say anything bad about me ah! he's my boss ah!"

Ok, Richard wasn't exactly the boss, but more like the Guy's superior. So anyway, after it turns out that my Aunt knows his superior, suddenly he becomes really attentive to our table. We get extra chilli sauce, and even extra green chillies when my mum asks for it, and he makes sure we're happy and we get food. Man, I wonder why she didn't say she knew Richard earlier. Would have saved us a lot of time waiting for our food. We got in there at 830 and dinner ended at almost 1100 cos of all the table spent waiting. Duh.

Well, that for me was the highlight of this CNY anyway. Today was spent going to the usual relatives' houses eating, collecting and listening to my relatives telling me I shld get a job and how the economy is improving. Thankfully, because of my bro's vocation, most of the attention was diverted to him. On the flip side though, the general comment was that he had made the right choice, cos of the job security. Duh, does that mean my choice of education was a mistake altogether? Then they were telling me to be a teacher, police officer, watever that has money and some security. Thanks ah. As if I wasn't worried enough already. Next year I shld try to get a boyfriend, then they'd be talking about something else at least instead.