I get lazier and lazier as each year pass. All I want is to be at home and either laze around or go about doing things.
When putting up decorations in the house is also minimal for 意识意识，makes removal easy too! 😉
The decorations ordered from 淘宝 arrived in Jan. Started sticking the decos around the house then.
The dragons that don’t look like dragons at all - hubby said 😂
Cutety dragons
Pasted on the outside wall between the girls’ rooms. Had a transparent 3M hook which the myanmese painters painted over 😂. Wanted to change out but now I can’t coz the backing is not painted at all.
Used to hang a hanging deco on the PES gate but I didn’t get any this year. One less thing to remove after the 15th day.
Leek hung up on the eve. This time I hung it inside the house, I did it wrongly before.
Spring cleaning 大扫除
I don’t do spring cleaning at all as my house is regularly purged, tidied and cleaned.
The only thing I couldn’t clean that cleanly is the PES. The leaves keep dropping in PES.
I really feel like getting a leaf 🍃 blower, at least it’ll not make sweeping 🧹 a chore I dread, especially the floor below the pot stands. Just blow into one place and then sweep. I hate picking up the broom every half hour to still see leaves in the PES again and again. Yup! It’s that bad. MA refuses to chop off those darn trees which also made the compound messy.
黄金满堂。Huat ah!
Didn’t get any flowers for CNY this year. Initially wanted to get some nice roses from here but didn’t have the time to find out more information about caring for roses and the suitable pot size as I need pots to fit into this white flower stand.
In the meantime I’m happy that the red little flowers are constantly blooming. My adenium has 7-8 flowers blooming. 还是老蒋比较好。I wonder why my 4 other smaller pots don’t bloom at least once, those are red colours which will be more auspicious if they did bloom.
No open house
Told the family that this year I won’t be doing the second day of CNY in my home.
Two main reasons :
1) I need to do ironing like I do on all Sundays. That was before I realised that Monday (12th) is also a PH. I get many response from people “you mean you didn’t know it’s PH?” Ehh…how would I know? PH doesn’t mean I get OFF from doing housework. I don’t cook daily so I still get OFF from cooking. For the life of me, most times I lose track of days! Ppl expect house to be tidy for new year but I still hv laundry hanging on rack . Haha! No maid at home means I gotta be the one pacing and doing all the household chores.
2) I have no space to store anything in the freezer and fridge anymore. I have a few packs of ketojunkie’s puffs and ketojiak’s ice-cream which is taking up the space in the freezer. I haven’t gone back to keto (which really is a very very long time) and I feel it’s wasted if I’m eating usual sugar laden food and then expensive keto snacks.
Honestly I get so tired from prepping food, from tidying while the rest of the family won’t move their butt unless I tell them to. Infact for most years the girls would always stay overnight at mom after the visitation and I’m always left alone to do all the work. By the time they arrive in the late afternoon, my legs were already so tired from standing the whole day, my back sore. This is the 3rd year I didn’t host my family. I don’t think I’ll be able to do it next year too as we would have only arrived in SIN just 2 weeks from a winter country. Hmm…. maybe we should go holiday during CNY.
Goodies and mandarin oranges
Reminded hubby not to buy any mandarin oranges coz nobody eats them, I end up finding them turn bad n throw them away.
I was given 2 oranges when Lilith came by to take photos of the house. I know he will always bring back another 2 from office. So 4 is just nice. We can probably eat them without getting sore throat.
As for goodies, we didn’t get a lot. Che-che wanted almond cookies, makmur, sambal prawn rolls. I bought cashew nuts cookies. All cookies are from Kim Choo, small bottles so just nice. Hubby came home with a bottle of yummy pineapple tarts (from SDS Bakery & Cafe) from office. Got my Julie’s chocolate wafer rolls, lil’ one’s favourite Ferraro Rocher.
We started eating them before CNY so I believe we will not have any wastage this year.
Reunion lunch with hubby's side (5th Feb - Sat)
For many many years Vincence has graciously treated us all for reunion meal. Red packets are given now instead of CNY, we don't bai nian with them. Not that I don't want to, my hubby didn't want.
CNY Eve (9th Feb - Fri)
Lil’ one’s HBL was switched from Monday to Friday so we were all at home the whole day until our reunion dinner at 店小二 . Restaurants are fully booked, long queue in ToastBox coz some people (I assume tourists) didn’t know / expect restaurants don’t take in walk-in this day. They probably packed food/snacks to eat on the go. There are 4 time-slots of 1hr 15mins each, the dishes do come out quite fast and when they come with the bill, you know it’s time to chomp down on that last few spoonful of food and get out. 😬
Didn’t wander around after that. Sent both parents home at 8+ and did the last batch of laundry, vacumned and mopped the floor again.
Only painted nails my nails after 12am
Over many years our CNY is as follows.
Hubby goes over to friend’s house to play cards late in the night till next morning, I stay home to vacumn n mop last time (but next day sure end up vacumning again), paint nails, I even coloured my hair a few times on the late eve night. I stopped watching the TV ushering shows, I don’t even countdown, just in my room relaxing or panicking painting nails/colouring hair.
He comes back at 4-6am sleep until … close to afternoon. He buys lunch otw home, so while he sleeps I can warm up food for the girls n self. Then get up late to go over to mom’s. Since parents-in-law passed, we have one less place to go in the morning and just proceed to mom's place.
Even the kueh lapis, auspicious food thing I prepare is much later. I don’t prepare early in the morning for breakfast coz nobody will wake up that early anyway.
CNY 初一 (10th Feb - Sat)
I have no idea what time hubby returned home in the morning,
Prepped this around 10+ when I heard the tv is on.
Vacuumed the floor, hubby slept awhile then AR WOKE him up for lunch. They went out at 11+ and I kept telling her I’ll just cook instant noodles for her and not to disturb daddy’s sleep.
They came back at 1+. He went back to sleep at 2+ going to 3pm. At 3.45 she woke him but he fell back to sleep
At 4.31pm she bai nian to us lor! So late. My friends' kids already bai-nian, photos uploaded in FB long time ago then we start doing. Haha!
Reached Tampines at 5pm
They ordered catering coz mom is too tired to/can't cook
CNY 初二 (11th Feb - Sun)
Clearing the little things we have in the fridge and freezer. Did a sukiyaki
CNY 初十五 (24th Feb - Sat)
Cooked just these few tangyuan to munch munch before our dinner. I really should make the cutesy tangyuan next year, I hope I can find the time.
Dinner treat at Jumbo Seafood Restaurant in Riverside Point
Back home decorations within the four walls are removed. Been feeling so lethargic lately that I’ll remove the wooden door’s deco another day. That will need a lot of time and energy cleaning up sticky residue 😢
This round up the things I did in Dragon 2024 year.
