Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Getting ready for Chinese New Year

I'm not the kiasu type so you know I'm very excited about Chinese New Year when I started getting ready 2 weeks ago. In fact, right after we took down the Christmas tree, I was already planning what to get for the upcoming festivities. We went down to Far East Flora to buy kumquat plants & pussy willows only to be told it was too early LOL.

But we managed to get a bunch of deco stuff - lanterns, Chinese lucky characters, red streamers....The Girl surprised me by saying that "Nien" is afraid of red so that's why we have to get all things red - I most certainly didn't teach her that.

Where else but Chinatown to stock up. It was nice to see that they were all ready. I still didn't manage to get my kumquats & pussy willows but they seem to have everything else. Only around CNY, do we get to see the appearance of waxed duck & waxed liver - yeah !

My mother is addicted to these stuff. We both prefer the black rather than the smaller sunflower seeds. She is very particular & would only buy them from her favorite store.

Chinatown is buzzing, of course. We had gone to buy The Girl her chinese outfit & found ourselves browsing & walking around at the shops. There were 2 shops that specialised in chopsticks.
Not sure I want to have chopsticks with our family name.

More as a display item cos I doubt anybody nowadays would use it for it's designated purpose.

These stone carved owls are just too cute




Chinatown is interesting if you are an architecture buff.
From beautifully restored old shophouses to



the legendary People's Park Complex

10 comments:

SIG said...

Wow, I on the other hand, do not feel the CNY spirit. Have to go down to Chinatown one day soon. Haha.

Beau Lotus 涟 said...

I miss miss miss CNY and wish I hadn't taken it for granted when I was living in Singapore...

Anonymous said...

well, at least I get my boost of cny's mood from you. Almost forget that its nearing cny. how are you?

g bisous
h

petite fleur said...

SIG - I'm being reminded of CNY everywhere I go...even my office is all decked up.

Lotus - I know exactly how you feel. I felt that way when I was in France. NY has a big Chinatown so you could still feel the spirit when you were there. So I'm making up for lost time by being super kiasu.

H - Hey you need anything for CNY. I can send over. BTW are you coming back this year ? or you have to wait till C's vacation ?

Anonymous said...

Hv to wait till C's vacation and by then don't even know if we can or not. Depend on S's work. You coming back for hols? misses you and the boys are talking about the girl and Ardech hahahha

g bisous
h

petite fleur said...

Not sure if I'll go back for the summer. Work's getting busy but if I don't do it this year, it'll be difficult once she starts primary school.

Anonymous said...

let us know if you are coming back. and yeah, once real school starts, can't just pack and go off for hols anymore.

g bisous
h

Ailei said...

thanks for your postings, such lovely photos, and its so lovely to see the diverse cultures in singapore, its truly quite a colouful mix.... its a good reminder to get out and see stuff, easy to take things for granted and get jaded!

Tsu Lin + + said...

I just saw 1 of Nat's chinese NY dress. It is SO PRETTY! Did you buy that from Chinatown? The workmanship is beautiful. I tried ot get some for my daughter when we were back in Msia few montsh ago but didn't find any nice ones - they were all very inferior quality : thin & wrinkly cloth.

petite fleur said...

ailei - I took things for granted before but this time round, I made sure to fully enjoy my time back home.

tsulin - The chinatown ones are the same everywhere - not very good quality. I bought hers from a kiddie clothes place that did some chinese style clothes just for the NY. It's a shop called bloomB