Simple Yet Wonderful Reunion Dinner...

It's my choice to celebrate Chinese New Year in a very quiet way. For the first time in my life, I'm right here in Penang, in my own house. I prepared the food and served my little nucleus family. I didn't cook a storm neither did I buy back the whole market. Just bought a little of this and that. Simply dumped this and that into the soup. And you know what, my stamina to eat has diminished into thin air. None of us could finish up the small bowl of soup. Half way eating I had to run to the loo to purge my system. There seems to be not enough space for food intake inside. Anyway, I bought shark's fin and made shark's fin soup. Aahh... disgusted face? Don't do that... it's not that I'm not saying NO to Shark's Fin but I'm also doing some justice to the shark as the fin was already frozen and packed and it would be doing injustice to the shark who has to involuntarily sacrificed its own life to end up in someone's boiling pot and swam around with the chicken pieces, egg drop, mushrooms and crab meat. I'm not gonna have any more prawns or meatball this year. No pork as well. We had a huge chunk of salmon tail grilled to perfection. We even have scallops with my special creamy cheese sauce. I can cook, remember? So it's not a big deal eating at home. After an hour sitting at the dining table, we were having trouble swallowing everything. We ended up with lots of untouched food so back into the refrigerator they went. Mi mama has a big surprise with a big ang pow. I'm not stingy... I'm thrifty. I'm still in great shock that I have to pack a lot of red packets to so many relatives that I'm not even close with that by the time I'm done, I will have to sacrifice my whole month's salary and give it away reluctantly. Since I'm so reluctant to give, might as well I don't go. Giving in reluctance will leave me a very bitter person at the end of the day. I don't expect anyone to understand how a person like me can break every tradition that has existed since before I was born but don't get me wrong, I do not like to be bound by any tradition. I walk free... and freedom is in my hand.