A Different Chinese New Year - 2021 Version

How is everyone's CNY so far?

Well, I think probably for everyone, this year CNY celebration is different from years before because we are not back home celebrating with family. At the same time, I feel like we are all in the same boat because it seems that most of us are 'stuck' wherever we are. If you are one of the few that gets to be home celebrating with loved ones, you are so lucky! 

In fact, this is the first CNY that I am not around in Malaysia. Last year though I did not go back in time for reunion dinner but I did go back around the 5th day of the CNY, so in a way I am still around, surrounded myself with all the CNY cookies and angpau (Not that I can receive anymore, married liao😅 but parents always give regardless! Haha)

So, this year CNY is indeed a unique one, surrounded mainly by video calls and video calls. I think in a way, I still feel quite blessed that we have this technology to remain connected with family and friends. So a snapshot of how our CNY goes!

Hubby said he likes this picture better haha.

This is the one that we took in Crown Casino cny decoration before actual cny la haha. Well, we already know that we can't go home so this picture is actually the one I sent to family and friends to wish them happy CNY. I like to send our picture instead of images since I feel it can also send across our recent updates as well. (eg. Morph macam gain weight here hahaha)

And this is really on the CNY eve! It was on the 11st February where we went to Chinatown to have dinner. After that, it started drizzling. Seriously, the CNY decoration is quite minimal leh. My friend was asking whether there is pasar malam, but unfortunately there is none!😂

See! They try to have movie screening at Chinatown Square but as you can see, not many people leh. But the video below does show the streets seem to have a lot people walking! Also there is lion dance for that festive feel.

One of the eventful happening was our CNY eve dinner. It was on Thursday and unlike Malaysia and Singapore, we don't have public holiday for CNY so most of our friends are still working. We spontaneously called our friends to have dinner together and she agreed. So we went to this Chinese restaurant located in the small alleyway, and well the waitress did warn us that it will take a long time for the dishes to be served. But hey, we did not expect it was THIS long. Guess how long we waited for 3 dishes? Take your guess...

TWO HOURS! We were there at 650pm and only finish our dinner at around 850pm. We can say that it is due to CNY eve la, but for only three dishes, this is REALLY long. And the restaurant was not even full house too! The saddest thing is that the waitress served us two main dishes and we waited an hour for the steam rice to be served. ALL WE WANT FOR CNY IS RICE. It took us like four reminders to ask the waitress to serve our rice and I was almost on the urge to go to the kitchen and take the bowl and serve the rice myself! 

Lesson learned? Cook yourself ba hahaha

And we did! So on our CNY chor yi, the first day of CNY, we had a CNY potluck dinner. We had three friends coming, though two of them are couple who came with baby and a dog! (SO cuteee) Hubby used air-fryer to cook roast pork and I used slow cooker to cook the thick soup. I missed the fake sharkfin soup that we had during CNY reunion and was trying my best to recreate. It was a success!

We had Yee Sang, tofu, roast pork and soup. We also added green vege in the end, realizing our menu not green enough haha. The soup was quite a success, everyone is asking for a second serve! (Of course it has to be good, we brought abalone, fish maw and dried scallop for the soup, all the good stuffs wei).

Luckily managed to have Yee Sang right before the snap lockdown.

Speaking of CNY Chor yi on Friday, it was equally eventful because we had a snap lockdown on the next day. Hubby and I were still in the office working and suddenly our colleagues came by and said there will be a press conference by the Premier. We tuned in at 1pm and the premier announced that we are going into a 5-day lockdown from tomorrow onwards. WHAT? 

The soup was meant for two days - both on Chor yi and the next day family dinner. So no choice we have to finish the soup on the Friday night since the family dinner was cancelled due to the lockdown. All of us moved so swiftly to cancel and reschedule all our CNY and Valentine Day plan! 

The next day on Saturday, I spent my morning video calling for CNY. It has been like the longest time that I chatted with this bunch so it was so fun!

After that, I had few video calls with family too. Not to forget the special day on 14th February! Well, we can't dine out so any celebration had to be at home. My hubby still manage to surprise me after coming home with this!

I am still keeping the christmas tree. But did you realize it is a CNY Tree now? Hahaha. I bought some deco to make it more CNY-like lol. As for the surprise, yes he brought me the rose for the special day!

He always said flowers are a waste of money. 😒 It is logical la since the flower already wilted as I am writing this haha. But I still like flowers. (*Cough hint hint) It only lasted two days but still, I am happy when I received it so the thought is what makes it counts!  (*Cough hint hint)

Thoughts...

Anyway, when I looked back at this post, this CNY has been well, I thought not that eventful but it does seem eventful? Haha. I am thankful to family and friends who make it special too. A special shoutout to our friends, El, Si and Pe who came over to our place and celebrate with us, just right before the lockdown. It really makes us feel much loved, to know that even here in Melbourne, we are not alone. We hope that you will feel that this year CNY is a little bit special for you guys too.

The wishlist is long this CNY. 每逢佳节倍思亲. This idiom actually means that you will miss your family and loved ones ESPECIALLY in special festival. I guess this really applies to Chinese New Year this year since I do love the tradition and culture of Chinese New Year. Having reunion dinner with family, staying for the night the whole CNY eve while countdown, playing fireworks with all my cousins, and saying auspicious words to wish our grandparents happy CNY do seem like a far distant memory that we once had before this whole covid happens. For now, I pray that this season will soon come to pass too, with vaccination in the near future, and I can be home next year CNY. That will be my wish and I have to keep trusting that even though things happening right now are not exactly what I want, I pray that God's will be done even in the midst of this challenging season.

Meanwhile, take care and stay safe during this season! Let me end this post to promote the blog and also an interesting exhibition that we went. Keep faith and stay hopeful. We will meet again one day! See you next post 😉

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