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3rd Day of Chinese New Year

A friend and a colleague invited us for a dinner to her place. I was really excited since it would be my first. I didn't know how they celebrate their New Year. I just read somewhere that the celebration of the Chinese new year has begun a long long time ago. So in their calendar it is not 2006 but something like 4 thousand whatever.


Food of course was the reason we were there. At the table there were traditional Chinese cuisine. It was neatly arranged. Then our friend put some grinded peanuts and cinnamon into the one at the center and told us to mix them up. As we mixed she also told us to roll it as high as we could. I had fun doing it. It was a tradition and whatever the meaning of it, I might not understand or know. It was delicious. Then I several servings of the various dishes in front of me. But what I enjoyed most was the circular revolving tray at the center. While it revolved it played a soft music. Amazing! I just thought I want one of that. However, it was an antique piece. While they were talking and discussing about office and work things, I marveled at the thing before me. It was one of those piecesyour mother would hide and just put out to use during special occassions. The beauty of it! Iwas thrilled!


Itis often the case that when colleagues got together, they would talk about things that they commonly share. Naturally, the talk was about the job. Whew! As much as I would like to forget things related to my work I could not help it. They started it and so that even thedarkest side of it all would be revealed. There would be comments about other people (of course,that is where the thrill is) which I did not like much (not the people but the talking and commenting).Some would get nasty and naughty; some better not to be told. Well, I guess, anywhere in the world, when office friends get together, they would still love to talk about the office.


There are some things better left unsaid.


I enjoyed our trip back home. We were lost. And so I had the chance of seeingsome parts of Penang at night.Kudos to my fellow specialists, Dr. Ida (who drove us) and Dr. Chona.


Truly it was a wonderful night. Foo Lay Kuan, that was something. Looking forward to another Chinese New Year dinner!
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