Chinese New Year....

***5 years ago****

Early 6 A.M. ......


Snore...Snore...mumbling in dreams...


WAKE UP LO! NEED TO WORK! WORK!!!!!!!


Aiya, 6AM only mah, usually i thought work starts at 7AM.....


CHINESE NEW YEAR AH. We need to wake up earlier la.....

And thus, this is my childhood Chinese New Year memories. Waking up earlier, Working twice harder, and feeling more tired than usual. Perhaps, it was the reason why part of me resist Chinese New Year. And while people view this traditional day as a day they celebrated, letting off the stress in work and mixing around, I believed Chinese New Year is the day when I accumulated stress, mainly because of massive amount of customers, and also complaints from those customers that act like boss

Aiyo, where is my food! 15 minutes already la

Yes Yes, your food will be coming soon...


(deep in heart): niama! You had no idea how busy I am. I had more work to do, thanks to those customers like you.


We grumbled among each other more than usual, ranging from mother scolding me for taking a 1 minute reading news, to me scolding my sister because of messing up customer's list. ( and of course, there are times I shouted at my mother.) There are times I got emo-ed and refused to work, there are times of anger looming up the atmosphere. There are times I just wished chinese New Year vanished into thin air. But despite that....

I worked from day 1 to day 7 along with the rest of family. The anger during work, no matter how loud the cursing is, vanished after the work's done. The happiness looms in our face when we received the pay for our hard work, ( rm10 for 5 hours is enough to satisfy me), and despite the tiredness, I am still able to bounce around, asking angpau from family and friend's parent, ans glued in TV whole night...Until I suffered next day because of insufficient sleep.

And after few days, I would look at the money I obtained,, and I will start thinking of plans...such as saving money to buy PS2, PC, etc etc, even though RM100 is all I got, OOPS, and 75% goes to my account, my mother regulation...And as usual the RM 25 just gone poof-ed few days later, and my dream of a PS2 poof-ed as well.

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The younger me used to feel jealous on my peers that had a normal Chinese new year, they can glued to the TV whole day long, and hanging out with families to some luxurious shopping complex, or even going to vacations, while I was stuck in my mother's shop, serving those happy customers with a bad mood...

But I didn't realize. If I would had undergone the usual routine Chinese New Year. I would had enjoyed the first 1-2 day, and getting bored at the 3rd day as I glued in the TV channel and spamming my mouth with those junk food.Precisely because the holiday ( mother granted ) in Chinese New Year is a rare occasion, I never ceased to make interesting schedule during those days

----> mostly it's about cycling 5-6 km , asking for angpao from friends. While normal friends seems to be confused with my deed, there are true friends that are equally as enthusiastic as me to cycle 5-6 km in search for angpao.

Even though it's an RM8 (for 5-6 km cycling and 5-6 hours), it's always something I would do each year...

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Now I am in US, and ironically, my dreams of " relaxing " in Chinese New Year became true. But still, I enjoyed those working days and cycling days back in Malaysia. Even though it means less comfort, more hard work, it was nevertheless something I will miss.

My chinese New Year was a CNY lack of Yee-Sang and bakkua, loads of work, but I doubt without those years of hardwork, I might as well ended as a spoil brat without any respect to working attitude. And glad-fully, I am the one that curse the lazy bumps instead of being the lazy bumps itself.

To those customers that I greeted " Gong Xi F*** chai ", may you have a Gong Xi Fa Chai Year.

And happy CNY