Thu, 30 Jan: The rest of Agilent's administrative offices are close - but my whole dept chose to work today. Anyhow... we went out for a lunch to celebrate the Indian expat's birthday... think it's in advance since it's sometime when we Agilent's still shutdown for CNY. Btw, both our region HR VP and Indian-expat bosses each gave everyone an ang pau... and also for my colleagues' kids.

Left work an hour earlier or so to collect dad's and bro's bus tickets. Crossed the same road twice, once up and then down the road... on the way up - clear road and one accident just pass the traffic lights; on the way down - traffic jam caused by kaypo people slowing down to look at the before mentioned accident. Yes... this is so typically Malaysian.

Found Power Puff Girls "Bubble-Stickers" at One-Stop for Lyne... right after I went to get a new battery for my bro's handphone. Arrived home the same time my brother did. He drove back from KL with his pals in Myron's car. Wanted to make more cookies but was too tired. Slept early. Apparently, dad arrived home from KL in the Iswara at 12am-ish.

* 2 ang pows; 2-days to CNY

Fri, 31 Jan: Prayers at home today... eeks! SmokyYyyYyy! After lunch, went to get $ for mum and to buy 2 quarts of Baskin Robbin's with my bro. After that, I followed dad to do his last minute CNY shopping. We went home in time for dinner. Started working on my last batch of cookies from cookie dough that has been wisely prepared during the late morning, while watching "Para Para Sakura". The cookie bakery officially closed at 3am... with an intermission taken to carry out the praying thinghy less I incur the wrath of my gramps and my dad... The staunch believers in unquestioned tradition.

* Still 2 ang pows... 1-day to CNY

Sat, 1 Feb, Chinese New Year (Day 1): GONG XI FA CAI! The weather is pleasant It's bearable compared to the unbelievable-beyond-comprehension-heat that was experienced last year. The prayer-choir group came at about 10am. Some distant relative visited us about that same time too... Horror of horrors - mum & I didn't get a chance to bath and dress up yet (We eventually took turns to excuse ourselves and do what we had to do).

Visitor's literally came one after another... though my brother and I did manage to go next door to Audrey's place to join in the festivities. Her 9-yr old sis managed to get us to play a few rounds of Harry Potter UNO with her too. Anyone for some +3, or +4 cards? I think I had quite a number of those throughout the game.

Back on track... THE GOOD THING about the whole day? We actually have an excuse not to do our visiting rounds until much later at night.

* 1st day of CNY, countless angpows (I didn't count how many...) - with a booster pack each from mum & gramps. Major fuss of the day was the 'kiam chai boey' soup