Ang pows and the CNY etiquette

There is something crass about the practice of giving angpows during Chinese New Year that I can’t seem to come to terms with. I suppose it’s got to do with the principle of harvesting. You reap nothing, you should not be sowing anything. What have I done that deserves receiving money? Ok, granted that I’ve been a good girl all year, and surely taking money from my parents is justified enough, considering they are after all giving me out of my monthly contribution to the household, and I am only taking a small fraction of what they used to give me. Something they said about earning power being inversely proportional to the size of the angpow. Heh heh.

I never really know how to react when I receive an angpow. Should I exude uncharacteristic ebullience? Should I display effusive ardour? Should I remain nonchalant? Should I crack a joke and pocket the money? I guess traditional CNY etiquette dictates that we should just be polite and take the money with a smile. But then I’d be obliged to stand around and make small talk while the giver enquires about my studies/work/love life/various personal questions about the colour and texture of my faeces. I hate CNY with a vengeance.

On the other hand, taking money is always nice. I’d be stupid to let some minor discomfort like making small talk deter me from taking money from people who are willing to give it. Trader-in-training, I am. Heh heh.

What is disconcerting, however, is the way in which people “celebrate” CNY by demanding angpows like it’s their right. In a joking manner, of course. Whether in a corporate environment or to people higher up on the social order, I think it never is wise to behave indelicately when it comes to matters pertaining to money. This is just my own set of beliefs, but one should never use “face” to force someone into behaving in a way that is not natural or that the person is unwilling to behave in, no matter how wealthy or traditional, poor or stingy. You need always to provide a way out. When I ask questions about sensitive topics, I would never ask directly, and when I do and the person changes the subject or directs the conversation elsewhere, I would never ask it again in that same conversation.

So much for being a straight-shootin’, trash talkin’, ball-beatin’, brash, boorish trader-to-be. Maybe I should be in sales after all. Heh heh.

Surprise!! (Part 2)

So anyway, subsequently, I went back to my room, pottered around and then went for Council meeting. The meeting was at 10:15pm instead of 9:30pm as originally agreed because “they came back late and wanted to bathe and get ready”. Yeah right. To be honest, I half expected them to have something for me, so when I walked into the Council office at 10:25pm and there were only 3 people in there – Ricky, Indora and Grace, I figured it was a normal meeting, and put that thought out of my head.

Me: How come so few?
Grace: Errh.. They’re coming later
Me: How come? (slowly, in a tone they later told me was quite menacing)
Grace: They have to study for their test tomorrow *shrug*
Me: [Sigh] So what’s on the agenda today?

At this point, Ricky jumped up and switched off the lights in the room, and 4 of the councillors popped up from under the table with a chocolate cake with *lit* candles!! And of course they yelled the “Happy Birthday” song in the dark. Heh heh.

The danger signs of a lit candle under a wooden table were apparent immediately but all I was thinking about was how I got duped, and how they managed to squeeze 4 students under that table without Ricky kicking any of them.

Those sweet kids. I should have known better. But I was surprised. They had me.

Surprise!!

Birthdays have always secretly been quite special to me. It used to kill me that this special day is only special to ME, and nobody thinks I'm extra special or anything. After my, like, 21st birthday, I got over the narcissism and decided that it would be a completely regular day, just like any other day.

So it was quite a pleasant surprise when we celebrated my birthday at the hostel today. I was secretly touched, but I didn't tell them, of course! I sent them an email instead. Heh heh.

-----Original Message-----
From: Me
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 12:09 AM
To: 'OH-AHMs'
Subject: You're welcome.

Hi guys…

Yeah, you can thank me one by one later when you see me for providing you all with an opportunity to get together and eat seafood and have fun. I guess that it’s inevitable that we all want to relax, and it was quite fortuitous of me to have that sort of foresight to see more that 20+ years ago (let’s not be too specific about that) that the staff of Old-ham Hall would be tired out, and in my wisdom, deigned to be born on 30^th January, hence giving everyone an opportunity to meet up and eat yummy food.

Wahaha.

Yeah.. Ahem. Thanks for everything… Thanks for remembering poor us who have no friends and no one to celebrate with when you were planning the seafood party. You only *say* that. We know you love us.

(silence)

I dunno what to say… Except thanks!! *bawl*

Me

Who loves you guys very much too… J

So anyways, this is supposed to be a largely-pictorial entry, so here goes.

First, of course, we trot out the food. This is the spread we had, among other things:



And what's food without people to eat them?



And obviously, the photographer has some baby issues to work out. I'm too lazy to post the sheer number of photos she took of those babies.

There's the obsession with Baby Zoe...



And of course, the obsession with Baby Asher.




(Methinks she was stalking the poor dude)



But who can blame her? Everyone loves babies.

(As you can tell, we didn't have many babies to go around - It's always the same few..)

There's also the cake cutting ceremony - There were 4 of us.

That's the cake



And that's us!




Someone cracked a stupid joke while we were attempting to take pictures.




Old-ham Hall's very own bimbo squad.

All in all I'd say we had fun.



There's nothing in the world quite like the feeling of being an Old-hamite!!

The Rainbow

I saw the most beautiful rainbow today outside my window. It arched across the sky from the river inlet right below Millenia Tower all the way across the Nicoll Highway and ended in the forest at the golf course nearby.

Apart from its breathtaking beauty and myth-like qualities, rainbows are special because they represent the goodness and the promise of God. In the Bible, after the Great Flood, God made a commitment with Man through Noah: “Never again, Noah. Never again”. And he sealed this covenant with a rainbow.

Genesis 9:12-16: And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."

You know, this reminds me of the goodness of God. Not goodness because He created something beautiful and fluffy and cute (although a rainbow would probably belong in that category). Goodness because of the unsurpassable standard of God that he had to smite his creation because he was unable to tolerate any hint of sin. And this sin can range from your impure thoughts, your homosexual tendencies, your dishonouring of your parents. This does not exclude your kleptomania, or your habit of lying, or your hurtful speech. Yes, this means you, you, you, and you. And me.

But he considers all this, and the God of Wonder reaches down to us. He stands up from his throne, removes his mantle of light, clothes himself in humanity and deigns to enter the womb of a mortal woman. All this for the love of you. Whenever we come to a point when we disregard God; when we think He’s an old man who is too weak, or too busy, or too impotent, or even too important to care, remember that God loves you, and this love is all but encapsulated in these few words: “Never again, my child. Never again.”

Supplementary post

So after some "whining" about me not being in any of the pictures, here you go. Supplementary shots swiped from my colleagues who shared it on the company server.

That's me right there on the boat... As you can see, there's a half-naked white dude sitting at the back. He's not related to us. Just hitching a ride.


THat's me again, posing for a picture.


Me with Minette the HR lady (of the pseudo-scandal I told you about), and Winnie, my room mate for the trip behind us.


I hope you had your fill of pictures with me in it. I kinda find posed-for pictures a bit meaningless.. Haha. But that's just me.


That's me with Winnie and the head of Risk at Jimbaran Bay.

So no more X-files lah.