"huat ah, huat ah!"

hoo! guess what? i managed to grab some photos of my trip back to Malaysia from my dad. there weren't a lot to begin with cos my dad was lazy to snap away too so here's a little of what my Chinese New Year (CNY) was like:

every CNY, we'd drive from Singapore to Nibong Tebal and it's always a looooonnnngggg drive (at least 10 hours!). so, toilet breaks and random stops are essential.
this was taken from the top of a small little hill. my dad had stopped the car to take some scenic photos (how enthusiastic he was at the beginning! hah. guess he later got sucked in by food too and forgot about taking photos). i can't remember where exactly this was but looking at the time the photo was taken, it's probably somewhere in between Malacca and Kuala Lumpur.

it's a tradition to get everyone together to "lo hei" (the act of tossing this particular dish called "yu shang" which is a Chinese fish salad) during CNY. apparently, the higher you raise your chopsticks, the better luck you'll get for the new year. haha.

we do it the 'kampong' style back in Malaysia. instead of sitting on chairs, we'd rather sit on random spots like this decorative piece (i think that's the purpose of it...) that runs along the back of the garden in my uncle's house.

mom once said, "you aren't a Chinese if you don't know how to use chopsticks." so she made my sister and i learn how to use them when we were kids but somehow, until today, i just can't seem to grasp the technique properly and still hold my chopsticks in the wrong way. shame on me. ):

mosquitoes are ALL OVER the place once night falls. my arms and legs were covered with mosquito bites and sores that i had to apply calamine lotion to all those spots to relieve the itch (thus making it seem like i love drawing white circles on my body).
this thingy (when i don't know what's the name for something, i just call it that) here is suppose to keep the mosquitoes away but it wasn't strong enough or something cos those damn insects just continued to buzz around and sting us every now and then.

Chinese New Year is almost over! ):
and so goes another Year.