Gong Xi Fa Cai!

That’s Happy Chinese New Year for those of you scratching your heads reading the post title. So yes, Happy Chinese New Year, my friends!

Yesterday was the first day of the new year. Normally we would have a ‘reunion’ dinner with family on the eve of the new year, but since my brother in law was out of town on Sunday, we celebrated yesterday instead.

My sister had made a booking weeks ago at a famous dumpling restaurant in the city for us to have CNY dinner at. But lo and behold when we got there, they did not have our reservation! Gah! Stupid restaurant! My sister was furious… The restaurant didn’t have any spare tables so we had to have dinner elsewhere.

Marc and I suggested a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown that we always go to and luckily they had a table available! It turned out to be a lot more fun – the restaurant was in the heart of Chinatown which meant we saw about 4 different lion dances and heard a string of firecrackers. It was all very lively and colourful!

Lara was hilarious – I was carrying her when we spotted the first lion dance across the street. As we watched from across the street, she was a little terrified and wanted me to take her into the restaurant… The loud and heavy drums and cymbals must have been a little scary.

I have to say, I don’t think I’ve celebrated CNY in Chinatown for a very long time. I’m glad we were there last night though because the atmosphere was almost electric. There are quite a number of my work colleagues who also celebrate CNY and we’ve been talking about all the various traditions and superstitions in celebrating the new year… I’m pretty sure we also baffled some of our other non-Chinese colleagues… And this may seem weird, but because of all the crazy tradition and superstition it actually made me feel a little proud to be Chinese.

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