Moving on from the *Woof *Woof to the *Oink *Oink

There goes the pig, announcing to everyone that this is the PIG year. It was also saying goodbye to the Dog year. Reflecting back to the events of the doggie year, I think what the chinese fortuneteller said was right, that this year, I have angered one of the gods, hence, I would be faced with bad luck. I was expecting that things would go smoothly since the Doggie year is my yr. But I couldn't agree more with that fortuneteller....it was indeed an unpleasant yr for me! Glad that it is over now....hope things would turn out better in the piggie yr.

Anyway, my journey back home to Penang was indeed very long...from Glasgow -> London -> Singapore -> KL -> Penang ...all within 3 days! *phew....thank goodness I'm still breathing and have not developed any signs of calf tenderness or swelling.

The moment I touched down at Singapore, I could actually feel myself "at home." Chinese new year songs were played in almost every shop, pretty red cny decos were also all over the place! I have not seen or heard anything cny-related for a few years now. So I felt rather happy!

The beautiful flowers and plants put up for CNY @ Changi Airport.

When I reached home, I was surprised to see my living room so nicely decorated, with mei hua's, ang pows, new paintings..etc... Everything looked bright and red... my parents certainly did take the effort to decorate the house this year! It was unlike them, as they are normally quite lazy people.

My arrival at my granny's house on Monday nite turned out to be a huge surprise to all my uncles, aunties, cousins and ah ma. They were shocked! They kind of recognised my voice, but they could not recognise my look? Ah Ma even said that if she bumped into me along the road, she probably would not have recognised me. hmm... really wonder if I really changed that much? Oh well, it was nice to meet up with everyone. The only unfortunate thing was Ah Ma had a fall on New Year's Eve, which resulted in a torn tendon at her shoulder joint, hence, she couldn't cook her usual special CNY delicacies. However, I still managed to munch on loads of cookies!!! yummmy!!

Did not really do much in Penang, except for eating, of course. Well, isn't that what Penang is famous for anyway? The weather was really hot Penang...so I had some fresh coconut juice by the roadside. Besides the usual kuay teow theng, pasembur, loh mee, curry mee, etc... bro took us to a place called "The Spice Garden." I have never heard of this place before, but apparently, it has been in Penang for many yrs now. It is a garden with loads of different spice plants (you know, like cinnamon, lemongrass). We all had a drink at the garden...and boy, it was really fantastic! Dad had a special mocktail, "Spice Mocktail" (basically it consisted of a rojak of many different spices), while I had tamarind soda (which was very refreshing). Bro had a "Gunner" (a cooling drink with ginger...tasted like ginger beer to me), and mum had a simple lemongrass juice. I really did enjoy my time there!

ah....Refreshing Coconut water!

Enjoying my tamarind soda @ Spice Garden, Penang.

Now I'm back home in KL...will be leaving for Singapore soon to meet up with Greenpea! =)