Today's post is all about the celebration, the culture and the family amidst the Chinese New Year festivity.

Uh-huh. Though I'm fully aware that we've already come to the middle of the year, I'm adamant on posting this despite being half a year late!

Because it's MY YEAR. 

Ever since the inception of this blog, it has since became imperative for me to write something about Chinese New Year (CNY), every year without fail. Ergo, I can't and won't let this year go by without a word – especially since it's my own zodiac year!

This is also especially for some of my family members and close family friends who have been waiting for this post and non-local readers who wanted to see how I celebrated my CNY. Sorry I'm late! 

So bear with me while I (try) to VERY briefly write and characterize my CNY 2013 as succinctly as I can.

Mandarin Oranges. 

Angpows.

Chinese New Year cookies – pity they only come once a year, right? 

MORE CHINESE NEW YEAR SNACKS.

GONG XI FA CHAI! First day of Chinese New Year.

The Lion Dance troupe performing in the middle of the night just outside my house.

The Lion Dance troupe up close

Standing by the CNY decorations at the foyer of my home.

Ladies helping out and making preparations for our family steamboat dinner!

(while daddy does the prayer stuff and takes a nap LOL)

Steamboat dinner with my immediate family.

The smallest of what a family can comprise is what we have always been. Granted, we are a close-knit one!

Shall we cue the happy family pictures already? 

Mom, dad and I makes the family I'm speaking of 

Hugs galore!

The man of the house, Mr. Daddy and his bitches girls.

After our family steamboat dinner, we had relatives come over.

I went visiting my buddies next day!

With Mr. BFF Vincent!

Annual CNY gathering with the buddies

Boo!

Cue the Jagerbombs and CNY gambling!

After the alcohol kicked in LOL

Random selfie while I took a break from gambling with the boys.

Mom and I grabbing a quick breakfast the next day

Brought out babyChivas

Jumped into the car.

Roadtrip time! Guess where we are going?

Two hours down south, we arrived Ipoh. Look who greeted us happily! 

My dearest popoh giving me my angpows!

Why does she look more excited than I am?

Lion Dance troupe invasion!!!

Our (very brown) lunch.

Trust me, it tasted ten times better than it looks! 

A compulsory photo with the God of Prosperity plushie 

and a bowl of ancient money from China.

Hello 

Three generations: Popoh, mom and I.

The fourth one will have to wait, okay? Uh-huh. No pressure alright. *rolls eyes*

En route to the big reunion dinner with the extended family!

Headed to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants in town, Restoran Kok Thai!

All decorated for a night of family Chinese banquet dinners!

Camlovin' with Uncle Mikey.

With the (fairy) godmother and popoh

This one is a prized photo with the cousin, as it is one of the

rare photos we snap together whilst not drunk/in a club/at a party/at a rave.

Mommy dearest and Uncle Mikey

I think I must've spread the love for camwhoring to her. Whoooops! 

With Auntie Karen and Uncle Philip

With the two sisters – granny and grand aunt.

I think this should be a foresight of how I would look 50 years later?

And it begins! The Chinese tradition of to lou our yee-sang.

(For my non-Chinese readers, it means to toss this dish about haphazardly as a symbol of prosperity)

I know right, us Chinese are all about being prosperous LOL

Just some traditional Chinese dishes in our 8-course dinner:

Braised cerbal chicken with mushrooms

Steamed brocolli, scallops and mushrooms

Mom, couzie Shaun and I helping ourselves to the dish

Pork Trotters with dumplings

GIGANTIC steamed prawns!

Cue the red wine.

Kochabi – a traditional local Chinese dessert (a very frozen ice-cream texture)

which means 'the taste of old times' in literal translation.

We entertained ourselves to fireworks and firecrackers at night

I had my fair share of fun too!

Mom and I flanking kakak 

Cue more alcohol. Yummy.

Thanks Uncle Mike, for this lovely photo!

I wish I didn't look so drunk though. 

Traditional Chinese mah-jong with the family

Third day of Chinese New Year. We went avisiting more friends and family!

More yee-sang and more homecooked meals. All thanks to granny and kakak, the masterchefs!

Time to toss it like a savage and ravage it like the last yee-sang on the phase of earth!

Hi again. Off to another reunion dinner

Came home bursting at my sides to this handsome furkid of mine on the bed

Couldn't help it. You'd be tempted to camwhore with this fluffy ball of love too.

After all the festivities with the family and friends back home is all over, it was time to head back to the city. 

Despite having15 days of Chinese New Year, work beckons! I returned to the office on the 5th day of CNY.

The lion dance troup invading our office!

With the colleagues 

At night, we headed off for our company's Chinese New Year dinner!

Baked cereal prawns

Steamed grouper fish

Baked chili crabs!

'nuff said.

And yes, you guessed it. Yee-sang again.

A quick shot before making a giant mess of the yee-sang!

I think I'm pretty good at this already LOL.

With my pretty girls, Carmen and Sheena.

I think that wraps up my Chinese New Year 2013. 

Was that brief enough? Hahaha. Better a simple post than completely forgetting to have this up.

So what do you really like about CNY?

Just like every year, Chinese New Year consists of five most important F WORDs for me.

Don't jump to conclusions just yet. Why F WORDs, you ask? They are:

FAMILY.

FRIENDS.

FOOD.

FLAMING FORMULAS.

FORTUNE. 

There you have it. You can stop bugging me for Chinese New Year photos now hahaha.

Sorry for the tardiness, though! 

But this FORTUNE a.k.a angbao only applies if you are still single. YIPPEE! 

The married ones ain't gettin' nothing! 

So after exactly a month, I've finally got round to finishing the batch editing of all the photos from my 2012 Chinese New Year!

Don't know why I didn't exactly take as much "proper photos" this CNY – all of the photos you are about to see today are all shot with sub-par phone/tablet camera quality. 

If I could sum up Chinese New Year for me every year (in no particular order), it  would be :

1. Family

2. Food

3. Hometown

4. Angpows! $$$

5. Red

So here's what I was up to this Chinese New Year – in photos!

So here we go… FAMILY!

Yup, that's my immediate family. Small, but complete nonetheless 😀

At 5'7", I believe I inherited my height from my dad.  Don't know if that's supposed to be a good thing, since I'm always b!tching about my height on Twitter. Heh. 

Anyway, roadtrip up North to Penang with my fellow Penangites! 

Penang Bridge during sunset!

The moment I crossed the bridge, I felt a tinge of nostalgia sweeping up to me like a morning breeze.

Good ol' Penang; encompassing so much memories of growing up, life, love, friendships and more 

KOMTAR: Penang's tallest landmark heritage

Brought the boyfie home for CNY. 

Hahahaahah  what does High Expectations Asian Father have to say?

lololol just kidding! They got along pretty damn well 

Seafood dinner by the seaside with the parents & him for our early CNY reunion dinner. Being islanders, seafood is one of our staples amongst many others!

(Don't say rice. I will smack you) 

Look for cooking classes at www.OnlineCollegeClasses.org and you'll see that there is so much more to the cuisine than simply rice!

I daresay this was one of the best dinners I've ever had

We had so much delicious, freshly caught seafood on our table!

Teluk Kumbar Seafood is the name. 

And that's where you're gonna having your sunset seafood dinner when in Penang

Here are only 5 outta 8 dishes we ordered.

Where else did we go for our Chinese New Year reunion dinner?

To Kok Thai Chinese Restaurant for an 8-course Chinese Banquet dinner! 🙂

This photo doesn't do the food justice at all!

3 generations at a round table for dinner 

The boyfie stood out tonight; being the only white in an Asian restaurant on Chinese New Year

And that's not all..

In my family, food comes in abundance as the cooking never stops! 🙂

Delicous home-made reunion dinner meals & yee sang throughout the 1st week of Chinese New Year

Spent time with my maid who, if you didn't already know, 

was my nanny & helped to look after me when I was a 3 year old toddler – till now! 

Spent time with some friends over Barbeque Steamboat at

Town Steamboat along Macalister Road in the city

I was so full & didn't feel like talking. So I got bored. 

At Healy Mac's Irish Bar & Restaurant along Straits Quay!

Don't remember what I ordered, most likely along the lines of Kahlua, Baileys, 

Wild Turkey or some other form of coffe-cream liqueurs.

As always.

What's next?

It was Australia Day!

Fancy some shisha and a bit of Down Under spirit mate? 

Went to the famous Kek Lok Si Temple.

Translated from Penang Hokkien as 'Temple of Supreme Bliss'

Welcome to the largest Buddhist temple in South East Asia! 

Just for the record, I'm not Buddhist.

So… why exactly did we pay a visit to Kek Lok Si temple this Chinese New Year again?

To watch other people pray

For pretty lights!  

The elaborate decorations during the festive season were gorgeous!

To take photos with Buddha…

And take photos with a bigger Buddha…

and take photos with Buddha again…..

… not just ONE Buddha, but many many Buddhas all lined up in a row…

We also wanted to climb up and take photos with the massive Guan Yin (Goddess of Mercy) statue, but alas we were too late.

We had to go as soon as the gates began to shut.

Good lord, I felt as though I've just warped back from China for a second! 

And last but not least….. gambling session with the buddies!

Listen up, lucky cat! Bring mommy some good luck aight? 😀 😀

Just so you know, he most certainly kicked some ass 🙂

Good job, son!  Black cats aren't harbingers of bad luck after all, in your case, BabyChivas!

We caused the banker to be bankrupt and yes, I won double the capital I put in!

Hope you had a smashing Chinese New Year celebration of the Black Water Dragon just like I did 

A late post is better than none! There you go, my Chinese New Year this year!