Chinese New Year Sucks

1. Cannot eat the food I crave. I want to have fried rice on the second day of CNY but honourable mother says cannot : " Fried rice is prohibited on the second day ".


2. Many other silly rules pertaining to food due to word pun: Steamy kitchen said do not serve fried squid because " Chao You Yu" means you're fired in Cantonese. Then I better be a Hokkien because for them, shreds of fried dried squid wrapped in salad leaves is a traditional CNY dish. I guess my family is never prosperous because every year we cook " Dan Dung Gu" stewed mushrooms, some more in chicken claws.


3. Dong dong chiang chiang CNY songs and dong dong chiang chiang lion troupe dance can legally torture me ears. I have nothing personal against nice Chinese songs, but what they call Chinese songs in Malaysia ( mamma! ) is just - noise. The greedy Chinese associations simply send out little boys with things that look more like udangs than lions to solicit donations from the public, some more their performance is so wishy-washy. They do a good job to cheapen the beautiful lion dance culture.


4. Daylight robbery is legal during CNY. For me, a perfect holiday means I can wander aimlessly into any eateries, or have a pedicure out of impulse. However, during CNY, I have to be careful to check the prices before eating at a shop. Pampering hair and nails is out of question: it's either ridiculously expensive and mostly the shops are closed. Mom paid RM 3 for one bunch of skinny salad leaves this morning ( nah, that's for not making fried rice ).


5. It must the curse of the "Dan Dung Gu". My little kancil konked out also this morning. I called up the mechanic who had supposedly fixed my car and he said he won't be available until next week. Where to find mechanic during CNY in this darn Kota Kinabalu?


6. 99.9% of my students have no mood to study for the whole month of CNY season. But right after CNY come the exams. I am not able to cover the required syllabus due to their silly CNY moods and they will be screaming for extra classes when they wake up from the CNY reverie later. In between there's Chap Goh Meh.


7. The red lanterns swaying in dark nights make many houses look like rumah hantu.