Chinese New Year 2011

How was everyone's Chinese New Year? :)



Mine was surprisingly good, and lucky for me I didn't eat as much snacks and fattening goodies as much as I expected!!!

I spent mine visiting my dad, cooking food for my relatives, collecting ang paos, playing card games... awesome fun.




Chinese New Year is like the ching chong version of Christmas!!!

There may not be presents exchanging and dong dong qiang songs may be a lot more annoying than beautiful X'mas carols but hey, I don't need to give ang paos (only receive) plus I get to wear cheongsams once a year so I don't mind!!!




One of my favourite parts of CNY is picking out my outfits... but this year's outfit was bought last year (didn't get the chance to wear it then) and YAY IT STILL FITS!


My second favourite thing about CNY is waking up in the morning (by morning I mean 12 noon) and hearing all my relatives going "Happy New Year!!!! Gong Xi Fa Cai!!"

Smiles everywhere.. so joyful :]










Of course, my 3rd favourite thing no need to say right?




My aunt and cousin exchanging red packets!!!!! $$$$$______$$$$$$


LOL I struck gold this year, got about $500 worth of ang pao money and Uncle John is coming home later!! Means MORE ang pao!! Eureka!




But I hear people get over 1k or even 2k... those must be the kind who either have rich relatives or they visit their uncle's cousin's god-mother's niece's maid's boyfriend's house for 5 days straight just to collect as many ang paos as possible... :P














Momma and Sammy!!!

Like last year's outfit, my mum got Sam this chinese traditional outfit for this year too. He had matching kung fu pants and my bro said he looked like he just stepped out of China or somthing lol.


He's half chinese half vietnamese, so he used to celebrate CNY with his family, this whole custom isn't exactly new to him.















Got Sam to help me cut my bangs with a pair of scissors the night before Chu Yi because I figured bangs looked more "Chun Li" style!





Oooh and I changed my DSLR's lens filter, my previous one made my photos a little dark and I think because they're brighter now, the quality is also much clearer!!

Probably not obvious now but you'll see the difference soon.. I hate how my image host reduces the photo quality so much :( It becomes much more pixelated on my blog cuz in my pictures folder it's like WOAH sharp.

18 megapixels afterall!!!!


















My aunt and cousins!!! They are the first to arrive every year :)

Although I don't see these people often at all (usually twice or thrice a year) but they are all really nice peeps and soo easy to get along with! All my cousins are like that.

I think it's good to have a smaller family coz I'd really hate to have someone annoying or competitive as my distant cousin or something like that.. y'know always being compared to the other person and stuff? The family relative who's always tryna steal the limelight and impress everyone else?


Not that I have one of those, but I can imagine!!!















My cousin on the far right is an A Math teacher (and apparently a discipline mistress now?) of a secondary school!! Another one of my cousin topped her school and went to London to study..

Wtf why are they so smart??





My dad's a professor / lecturer / dental surgeon, how come I didn't get any of his genes?!? (besides his stubbornness)















My little cousinsssss! So cute :)))


Especially the younger one *pinches cheeks*




It's nice not to be THE youngest in the family coz I still got some cheeks to pinch and kids to boss around muahaha. Actually I'm very nice to them lor, whenever they come over I always let them use my computer and Wii to play!! I'd make an awesome jie jie! Always wanted a sister.

Speaking of which, the little girl was using my laptop beside me whilst I use my computer on the table and when I turned around to look at what she was doing,... THE HORRORS!!


She was playing Neopets!!!

..But that's not it.



The problem is, SO WAS I. LOL.

One 18 year old and one 11 year old sitting side-by-side playing Neopets. Obviously the 11 year old needs to grow up pshhh :P


Which reminds me, she is like 11 already OH MY TIAN she still looks like 7 years old I swear!!!! And the older one beside me is 14! I remember when she was like 2!!!


..Just kidding, when they were 2 I wasn't even born. But y'know the feeling of watching your family grow up.






When I was 11 I already looked like 15 or something, totally not cute like them. Now I am REALLY doubting my genes... :(













Ling ling and her cousin, Jennifer! Here's a shout out to Jen because she's my blog reader haha I was so surprised when my uncle came over and said, "I have a visitor for you!"

She's from the other other side of the family so I dunno her personally but nice to meet you that day! ^.^





Oh and if you are wondering why these photos have got such good, professional-like lighting, it's because I bought light stand (also known as the "ring light" popularized by Wendy) and it's awesome :D

Blinding, but awesome.


Recently my house has been having lighting power failures and this ring light has come in handy!!! You can just plug it in and use it as a normal light too it's DAMN BRIGHT!!!!


I wonder how I haven't gone blind (or the other chicks who use it all the time) from staring into it















Random close up pic coz I was trying to test the lighting. But check out the vivid details!!!!!

(ya I know my hair is kinda dried. that's what happens to perms after awhile. i still like it though)
















Me and mummy!!! This is probably like my FAVOURITEST picture with her ever taken :)))

Lighting, angle.. everything is perfect. (including the woman standing beside me)


Love you mama ♥


As I grow older, I enjoy occasions like Christmas and Chinese New Year more and more because I realize just how much family means to me.



How its value can never be replaced, and how much all of us really need it no matter how we refuse to admit it!












My elder female cousins ♥




I really miss this particular cousin Linda, but she's not around anymore.. :(

When I was younger she doted on me heaps and now every family gathering I always think of her.. though we try not to mention it..
















Anyway... back to happy matters...

.....Don't worry, I feel like punching my own face when I see this picture too.























♥ ♥ ♥


CNY will truly never be the same without THEM! We hang out around each other the most every year.



This year we spent most of our time playing games like Taboo and chilling watching TV by the couch.. :)
















Look at that greedy face!! Have you ever seen "G l u t t o n y" imprinted more clearly on somebody's face!!!!!

(besides mine LOLOL)



As usual, every Chu Yi we have Steam Boat! My mum buys the freshest awesome ingredients so I look forward to it even though I'm not a fan of steamboat.

Everything tastes...... the same D:
















Nom nom nom
















HAHAH this pic of gran is damn funneh!!!!



My cousin was playing with my DSLR and he turned to my gran going, "Ah ma pai zhao!!" (or something like that)


And my gran immediately went ":o AH MA LAO LIAO BU HAO KAN!!! BU YAO PAI ZHAO LA!!!"















Florence, my cousin Ruiwen's gf!! She is super sweet I like her lots :)

But I am terribly sorry coz I mixed up her name with Ruiwen's ex-gf's T____T






FHL and FML, but their names both start with F and I only see her once a year so....


*awkward moment*


I love how CNY is full of awkward moments!!!! It's hilarious to watch everyone squirm when being asked questions they don't know the answer to.






"Why haven't you gotten a job yet? ... When you gonna get married? ..... When wanna have baby? ..... What you eat, why now so fat?!?" - LOL the last part happened to me :(






ALSO, why do Chinese relatives always discuss how their daughters look?!?! It's damn awkward!! My aunties were talking about boobs and butts and openly discussing the curvatures of my body in front of male relatives present.

...Talk about awkward srsly T_T



Give me a break about my weight!! It's not like I don't see my own flabs when I look into the mirror - I'm not blind












Rui Wen and Florence!! Good looking couple.
















Forence & I! ^.^


..Yay for loud prints that you can get away with only during CNY without coming across as super AA!
















Chu Yi is really full of nomz.
















Totally random candid of Mum and Uncle Kevin eating, but at the left corner of this pic you can see the SUPA YUMMEH VIETNAMESE SPRING ROLLS that Sam hand made from scratch!!!


He half-assedly told me he'll be making food for my relatives during CNY and I didn't take him very seriously, but he woke up at like 9am in the morning or something just to go out and get groceries to cook!!! ♥




I'm not a fan of spring rolls or deep fried stuff like that but it was really addictive and deliiicious!


They were SUCH A HIT, the whole day my relatives kept going, "Got some more popiah or not?!" (popiah = spring rolls.. in er.. hokkien?)


Since they popped the first spring roll into their mouths, they've been singing praises of Sam ever since. All my relatives really like him, and that's fantastic coz they absolutely hated my ex haha!!!





Everyone ♥s a good cook.


I realized it doesn't matter if you're ugly stupid annoying or smelly, if you can cook a good meal, people will still like you.












Other evil things :[



















♥ Hehe


...Can't remember what I was eating here. Pineapple tart maybe?


















Shu Yuan looks extra pretty this year!!!!!

I think it's the cheongsam, seriously.. any girl who wears a form-fitting classy cheongsam immediately looks hot in an oriental chic way!




Am I whoring out my own outfit indirectly? ..........Indeed, I am.

















CNY is the one day I put on loads of make up and wear a dress I can't breathe in just to stay at home and look good.

Siao.

















Handsome men to share!!!!!!

I really like Rui Wen's plucked neat eyebrows, I'm gonna do the same thing to Sam's eyebrows weee!


Thick eyebrows on guys = ♥

















I cannot think of any other male person I know under 40 that wears traditional costumes like these LOL but he's cute in it, isn't he?!




Over lunch, my uncle was saying "I like your outfit, where did you get it?"

And I added the comment




"Nice right? It's reversible and 2 way, so next year he can just slip on the other side and nobody will know it's the same shirt!!!"


And my cousin said, "Now everybody knows, coz you just told us."






........................Feel damn loser LOL.














The only group picture I have!!!



There were MUCH more people that day, but everyone left and arrived at random timings so it was hard to gather everyone together :(


These were the peeps that stayed throughout most of the day...


Wish I'd gotten some with the others but oh well! There's always next year, and the next, and the next!!!





.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.




The following pictures are me testing out my ring light, wooohoo!

Bought it for awhile now but never really put it to good use until CNY.









Me tryna figure out how to work this shutter remote control thingamabob!!!

Angle = fail.







We didn't have anywhere high enough to set my DSLR on (the light is very tall, so are we) and we had to bend our knees just to get the right angle.... We looked very stupid and since my room is cluttered and messy like hell, we were just all over the place!!!





Many accidental shots turned out like this:






LOL I can't stand my own face sometimes.

















Can see the remote control + can't see the top of our heads.... still fail



















The bright is EXTRA effing bright in a super dark room at night!!!

Damn hard to keep your eyes wide open and maintain a straight face, in the first few shots I was squinting and the above is a pic of me trying to smile while going, "AHH!! MY EEEEYYEEESSS" hence the expression :P















I anyhow pulled out a pair of sunnies from my stash of accessories to protect my eyes but didn't look to see which pair I got - ended up being this random Gangsta pair of $2 shutter shades I got from Bangkok 2 years ago ~.~

Did nothing to help at all

















I love the glow that the light has on the skin!! I can see why Wendy raves about it so much now!

















I ♥ blood red lippies

















Yo. What's up?

I may be wearing a cheongsam and the dude beside me may be wearing a tai jian outfit, but we're still gangsta'.


















ILU, fool :)

...xoxoXOOXOoxxoxxxxOXOX

















I actually think this is my best angle, but it's such a ridiculous head tilt - I can't possibly do this outside when taking photos with other people, right??

So hard to look non-weird when taking photos dead on.


































End!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Hope y'all had an awesome Dong Dong Qiang new year!!!




------------



P.S - If you're interested to know, I spent Chu Er / San visiting my dad and gambling etc but don't have many pictures taken on those day so probably not gonna blog about it!

Or I will if my dad sends me the pics, coz the pics are with him :)


*pokes him for pics*



xoxo,
Jess