Chinese New YEar 2007 continued

okay so even though this post is above the last post.. that sounded a bit stupid. anyway my point is that these photos were taken after the photos in the previous post =]

this is a table of offerings to the spirits of the land.. so i guess we're making offerings to some Aboriginal souls who used to live on our land a million years ago. hope they enjoy the hennessy lol. all these offerings can be found on the ancestral offering table as well. but they are separate. like its not the same chicken as was offered to the ancestors. thats a no-no. no double offering.. maybe its kinda like double-dipping..? chicken, fruits, sweets, coke, tea, henessy, a bun, some paper money and gold. set up in the backyard




remember the lovely arrangement of paper notes next to the watermelon? here we are. this is the burning of the paper money and gold/silver paper. every year its my job cause im such a pyromaniac. grandpa says the smoke carries the money and gold and silver to heaven or whereever the ancestors are. this year the notes in one packet were each worth 'ten tholswnd dolwrs' so i guess the ancestors will have to bank them at the bank of fob typos. or the bank of china's heaven branch.

it was so windy that day i was afraid i would burn down the backyard. and when i started burning the chek sek jua - seven coloured paper - the fire got bigger cause that stuff is so thin and flammable and i was like SHITSHITSHIT DONTBURNTHEBACKYARDDOWN. chek sek jua represents clothes for ancestors. it comes in a lovely range of seven different colours for the fashion-conscious ancestors to choose from. i smelt like burnt paper afterwards. mmm attractive.

these are offerings to the land spirit again i think. this time at the front of the house. but this is on the first day of the new year.. so last sunday 18/2. all other offerings (like the ones in the pictures above and below) must be made on new years eve or the closest day you can get without going into the new year. and no meat offerings are allowed on the first day (chiu ek)

Chinese New Year 2007

So this is Chai-nee Niu Yia at my house a 1 or 2 weeks ago.. annual tradition where we make offerings to ancestors and pray for blessings in the year ahead; after which we pray to the god of leftovers for the next week or so.

image1. the table groans with food. im serious. that watermelon was like 5kg or something and when i put it on the table it creaked cause like the table was extended. and i was like crap dontbreakdontbreakdontbreak. what a bad omen that would have been :P notice the pretty paper money next to the watermelon. we'll get to that later.

image2. the sweets section for 2007. china taro biscuit things on top of malaysian deluxe crackers and OREOS. yes i offered my ancestors american snackfood. the following week i ate a few blessed oreos everyday to ensure GOOD LUCK. lol

image3. the offering table after the candles had been lit and the incense offered and the tea cups filled with tea and the shotglasses filled with good ol henessy and the rice bowls filled with rice.
List of this year's food:
- rice cakes filled with pork and beans x2
- rice cakes filled with banana x10
- steamed fish x2
- roast duck x1
- soy sauce chicken x1
- boiled eggs x2
- 3 layer boiled pork piece x1
- fried noodles
- stir fried ginger and garlic prawns
- seafood soup
- buns (bao) x5
- green pandan sponge cake x1
- taro biscuits, deluxe crackers, oreos
- chinese new year sweet things - lotus seeds, sour sop sweets, tamarind sweets, candied taro, candied coconut..
- oranges
- lychees
- longans
- bananas
- watermelon
- can of jackfruit x2
- can of rambutan x2
- tea x5 cups
- rice x5 bowls
- cans of coke x5
- henessy x5 shotglassses [ mother : "not too much or the ancestors will get drunk and lose their way back " LOL ]

image4. ..IT'S HIM. me offering incense and RESPECT. nigguh.

SING NI KUAI LAK

thats HAPPY NEW YEAR for all of you non-teochiu people. of which i am sure there are a lot. dammit. so today is chinese year day number one. happy new year :]

went to crown casino last night and then box hill. it was okay. going with friends would have been more fun i admit but new years time should be about family ay. we did all the praying to ancestors stuff a week ago already so on the actual new years eve when youre traditionally supposed to do it we didnt do anything lol. and this morning i got up at 8 which is like aiyah-so-early-for-me-i-havent-done-that-in-ages to set up a small altar to the Di Ju Ia 地主爺 which is like the god of the land or something like that. i think its for di ju ia anyway. haha

anyway will post pictures later of my new year rituals. man the photos make me hungry. all right enough. uni orientation starts tomorrow. meet some pharmacy people. didnt see any pretty girls on enrolment day :[ maybe i will tomorrow.

and now for my new year greetings to you with my own dodgy engrish transrations:

新年快樂

NEW YEAR HAPPY

心想事成

HEARTS LONGING ITEMS BECOMING

身體健康

BODY HEALTHY

學業猛進

SCHOOL'S WORK ADVANCE VIGOROUSLY

笑口常開

LAUGHING MOUTH REGULARLY OPEN

peace and happiness for all in the coming year =]

my eyes hurt

thats what im thinking at the moment. hello and welcome to nicks blog for thursday night. today i was at work from 4-7 teaching children maths. mmm. one girl.. seemed so good at combos to 10 last week [combos to ten is like "__ + 7 = 10" and "does 8+3, 6+4 or 9+2 make 10?" and crap like that] and this week she like sucked. bad.

very ohmygod-i-kid-you-not example:

question on computer screen: " ______ + 10 = 10"

now all of us intelligentsia know that the answer which goes where the line is, is ZERO.

nick: so, if i had nothing and i wanted to make ten, how much would i have to add to the nothing?
girl: *blank* ummmm *sits thinking*

nick: *brings over empty box* okay. heres a box. whats in it?
girl: *blank*
nick: there's nothing in here. right?
girl: ..mm hmm *nodding*

nick: okay. so if i wanted to put TEN things into this EMPTY box, how MANY things would i need to put in it?
girl: *blank* ..four?
nick: *puts four card things in the box* ..if i put FOUR things in the empty box, how many things would i have?
girl: *blank*
nick: i'd have..

girl: ...

nick: i'd have FOUR things wouldn't i?
girl: ...yep. *nods*

nick: okay so if i had ZERO things in the box and i wanted to have TEN things in the box, how many things would i need to put in the box?

[... a bit more of the same blankness and straightforward questions with wrong answers later... ]


girl: ...ten?
nick: yes! well done -_-"""

even when she got it right.. i think she was still guessing. but for the sake of my sanity, let's say she understood what we were talking about.

until next we meet.

22 years from now

if tracy ho and i are single and 40 then we will get married and have three children. children at 40? thats kinda late-ish. and its a lot harder to get pregnant at that age, biologically speaking. i speak biological now. it makes me feel important. see you soon. photosynthesis apical dominance monochotyledon islets of langerhans.