The Household COO

Is it simply a coincidence that shortly after the hubby tells me I ought to throw out my old beat-up clothes and get new ones that my favourite camouflage jeans which I bought from Hatyai during one of my rock climbing expeditions was inexplicably damaged in the wash?

In case you’re having trouble seeing the hole, here it is again:

If I didn’t know better, I’d swear there was some conspiracy happening here because there’s no way I would have thrown out this pair of jeans during my Chinese New Year old clothes culling exercise.

Back in my rock climbing days, I would probably still have worn this pair of jeans, holes and all.  The last time I wore a pair of pants out that had a hole in the knee area, hubby told me to please stop dressing as if I was homeless and had no money to buy new clothes.

Prior to Chinese New Year, it has become a regular routine to clean up around the house.  Part of the cleaning up process involves a clothes culling exercise - getting rid of the really old, unwearable, too small clothes to make space for the new year clothes.  I’m not sure exactly what the reason for it is, but there is a significance to having new things at Chinese New Year - new clothes, a new hair cut… you get the drift.

So I’ve been trying to “spring clean” my wardrobe for Chinese New Year and I confess I am finding it a lot harder to part with my old clothes than I thought.  All the clothes I had pictured in my mind to get rid off, I can’t seem to let go of after looking at them again in the flesh.  Perhaps I need to ask the maid to help me accidentally wreck them on purpose so I will be compelled to throw them out.

Confession time…

In our family, my Dad and my brother have always been known to be notorious horders.  They can’t bear to part with any of their “rubbish” which used to drive my Mum mad because she and her sisters are all professional “throwers”.  They all love to throw out things they deem to be unnecessary clutter in the house.  I honestly don’t know how my brother and Mum ever survived in the same house together.  My brother had this habit of rummaging through the garbage as part of his daily routine just to make sure Mum didn’t dump anything he might potentially need in a year or two.  Now that he’s moved out, Mum only has to contend with Dad’s “rubbish”.

My uncle and late aunt (Mum’s sister) used to have this relationship going that would run something along the lines of:

Uncle: Have you seen my …?
Aunt: No.

After years of experience, my uncle started asking: “Did you throw away my …?”

My Dad, unfortunately, hasn’t cottoned on to my Mum’s expert throwing ways.  Well, he’s so forgetful anyway that he could just have easily have misplaced it.

I still maintain that I’m not half as bad as my Dad or brother (my brother once admitted he holds the gold medal for rubbish collector), but hubby still finds it hard to live with my “excesses”.  Although I feel I have improved a lot since being in a relationship with my hubby, the fact that I still can’t throw things out without feeling like I’ve cut away a part of my soul agrees with that adage that old habits die hard.

Tomorrow is Deepavali, a major Hindhu festival also known as the “festival of lights”.  I received the following story in my mailbox from a friend which brought a smile to my face.  I hope you enjoy it, too…

An elderly man in Mumbai calls his son in New York and says, ‘I hate to ruin your day son, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are getting a divorce; 35 years of marriage… and that much misery is enough!’

‘Dad, what are you talking about?’ the son screams.

‘We can’t stand the sight of each other any longer,’ the old man says.

‘We’re sick of each other, and I’m sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Hong Kong and tell her!’

Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone.

‘Like heck they’re getting divorced,’ she shouts, ‘I’ll take care of this.’

She calls Mumbai immediately, and screams at the old man, ‘You are not getting divorced. Don’t do a single thing until I get there. I’m calling my brother back, and we’ll both be there tomorrow. Until then , don’t do a thing, DO YOU HEAR??’ and she hangs up.

The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife. ‘Okay’, he says, ‘It’s all set. They’re both coming for Deepavali and paying their own airfare!!’

Yesterday was the first day of “Spring” according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar. I’m not sure what this festival is called, but I was given the impression it is something akin to the “Spring Harvest Festival”. For a typical Hokkien family, it is another one of those days of worship where food is prepared for the gods and the doors are opened for their entry into the house.

The celebration seems to be more relevant for the family and less related to the business because we didn’t need to do anything at the factory. Aside from the usual food offering, there is a special dish that needs to be prepared called, “Tong Yuin”. It is basically little coloured balls made of glutinous rice flour served with sugar syrup.

The night before the first day of Spring, both hubby and wife need to prepare twelve glutinous rice flour balls each in white and pink and these will be made larger than the others. So basically hubby will prepare twelve pink balls, while the wife will prepare twelve white ones. Since this year is a Chinese leap year (meaning there are thirteen months instead of the usual twelve), we had to make thirteen balls - each ball representing one month.

The rest of the dough is used to make smaller balls which is then cooked and eaten on the first day of Spring. Both hubby and wife have to eat from the same bowl to ensure that they have long lasting happiness and love in their marriage. I think my MIL mentioned something about the roundness of the balls representing continuity or something along those lines.

This year, we had to eat at least three balls each because each ball represents a single member of our family. Since Gavin is on the way, we’re now a family of three. Below is a picture of what the stuff looks like after it has been cooked.

Here’s what we had to eat:

The taste is not unpleasant and the syrup just tastes like sugar water. I found it a bit sweet for my liking and I certainly wouldn’t want to eat the whole pot.

I think my MIL was extremely surprised to hear that I didn’t know about this festival especially since I come from a Hokkien family. The only “Tong Yuin” I’ve ever known about are the ones with sesame paste inside that we eat for dessert. I had no idea there was a festive significance to this dish.

My MIL also told me as we were preparing the glutinous rice balls that this dish was sometimes prepared to predict the sex of the unborn baby.

At the commencement of a new year, according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar, a ceremony officiating the start of the year at the place of business ensures a fruitful year ahead.

This is one of the more interesting ceremonies to be a part of because of the lion dance. The usual tribute is paid to the gods by the offering of incense sticks and pouring of tea at the altars. It is then followed by a traditional lion dance where the lions will also pay tribute to the gods by offering “gold” in the form of mandarin oranges.

The reason behind the use of mandarin oranges is because the name of mandarin in Chinese sounds very similar to the word “gold”. By offering these oranges, it represents the offering of gold.

The lions then dance around the factory, blessing it by laying out mandarin oranges on each significant part of the factory, namely, the machines and the office. Then they bless the main entrance before commencing a final dance that displays the agility and skills of the lion dancers. They leap precariously from pole to pole to reach their just rewards, providing a spectacular dance performance for all to see.

The festivities end in the usual manner - the consumption of food. During Chinese New Year, a special dish called “Yee Sang” is very popular. A variety of ingredients including, fish, crackers, ginger and radish are mixed together with a plum sauce. The action of mixing the ingredients is called “loh” and the higher you “loh” the ingredients, the better will be your chances of prosperity or receiving your desires during the year.

Yup, this is about a year late, but here are the photos from the factory closing ceremony for Chinese New Year. Traditionally, it’s important to hold a “closing” ceremony to mark the close of business at the end of a year. It is followed a few days later with an opening ceremony to signify the beginning of a new year and a good start to the business.

You’ll probaly notice by now that there is a similar theme surrounding all these festivities - there is a massive preparation of food that will be offered before two altars, the burning of shiny pieces of paper, the lighting of jost sticks and then the feasting of the food. The type of food served is also usually the same - the pink coloured stuff is supposed to be good because red means prosperity and sometimes pink coloured food is the closest you can get to red. As far as I understand, there is also supposed to be a set number of different type of dishes offered, but I don’t know exactly how many.

During my childhood, the Mid-autumn festival always meant mooncakes and colourful lanterns to play with. Actually, it was more about the lanterns for me since I had very little appreciation for mooncakes back then. I would even deem it my favourite of the festivals because I love looking at bright, colourful lights at night. Beyond the lanterns and the coloured lights, I don’t think Mid-autumn festival has ever meant anything else to me.

According to wikipedia, the Mid Autumn festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month - can you believe I didn’t even know that??? It’s supposed to represent abundance from the Summer harvest.

I also learned that it is also a time that some families will release a “wishing lantern”. I don’t really know if it’s called a “wishing lantern” but effectively it a paper or silk lantern where anyone can write their wishes. The lantern is then attached to a flame source and released into the air like a hot-air balloon. The higher the lantern rises, the more likely you are to have your wishes granted. These lanterns are usually released during Chinese New Year or during the Mid Autumn festival.

The practice is illegal here, but I still see lanterns in the sky…