How to Celebrate Chinese New Year.

Welcome to the Year of the Dragon!
Before i begin this blog i want to wish you all the best of Health and Wealth this year. For those Whether you are still in school fighting through your examinations or working under the stress of your career, let this strong Dragon fight by your side!

So, Chinese New Year. The celebration that lasts 15 days! We lucky to be part of it! So what actually happens during Chinese New Year? Let me give you an idea from my side of the story. haha!

Clean your Home!
Before the New Year is when Chinese Parents (mostly mothers)rush around the house cleaning up! This tradition is founded in the belief that cleaning the house at this time of year will "sweep away" the bad luck and makes the house ready for the good luck to start entering again.
The crazy traditional mothers would throw away the brooms, clothes they used to clean up the house afterwards so no "bad luck" remains.

Keeping fresh and hygienic is also an important part of celebrating! Many people go for a hair cut even.

Remember, all this happens before the New Year! You are not allowed to clean your home DURING the New Year! Including sweeping or wiping the windows! Because you may sweep or wipe away any the newly received Good Luck!

Decorate your Home!
The color that is most recommended is red and gold. Red is the color or symbol of good luck while Gold represents wealth. The number "8" also symbolizes good luck and wealth - the chinese word for eight rhymes with fortune or wealth.
Place flowers through the house, such as lotuses. Lotus flowers symbolize rebirth and new growth.
Set out a tray of candies with eight (yes the no.8 again lol) different types of candies arranged along it. The traditional candies are those made from lotus seeds, longan, peanuts, coconut, red melon seed, candied melon, etc.

Have a Traditional Dinner!
This is one of the most important parts of the holiday and the food eaten at this time of year has traditional meanings related to the Chinese New Year. Trust me, i once invited an non-chinese speaker to this meal and it was a bum trying to translate and explain the different meaning and names to each dish. So i rather not go through that here too lol.

Dress up for the Occasion!
If you have traditional Chinese clothing, this is the perfect time to wear it. If you don't, don't worry! Just wear something Red! In Hong Kong if you wear all black on this day, be prepared to be EYED up and receive a load of complaints by your family so please avoid wearing too much black during the celebration period. Black symbolizes bad luck and even death. - Most of my wardrobe is Black so i often just wear all black and paint my nails red or carry a red purse with me hehe.

Interact with others in a positive manner!
Chinese New Year is a time of happiness and good fortune and it's important to spread the goodwill. Avoid having any quarrels, fights, or negative attitudes during the New Year. These will bring you bad luck. Don't even swear or mention anything "bad". Not being able to curse was the worst part for me.

Visit your relatives and friends.
Chinese New Year is a time of connecting and sharing the celebrations together. It maybe boring to repeativaly say "Kung hei fat choy" to everyone which means: "We hope that you will be wealthy". But if you are not married, It's seriously worth it! Why? Because you will receive a RED POCKET filled with cash every time you greet and wish someone to be healthy and wealthy! These RED POCKET are usually given to the unmarried from the married.

Visit the Temple or Parade!
TIme to watch some Lion and Dragon Dancing and listen to loud festive music of drumming and fire crackers etc etc. The lions and dragons scare off the bad spirits along with the loud drumming. You can also head to temples to pray for good luck. If you are not of Chinese descent but would like to participate, attend a Chinese temple and take a tube of fortune sticks - Ask a question, shake the tube and the number that falls out first can be interpreted by one of the fortune tellers at the temple. Fun stuff!

Oh any last but not least. You must always have one light left on in your home throughout the New Years. It's bad luck to have an un lit up home.

So i hope you all enjoyed this blog! I know it was very long indeed!
Hope you all have a great Week!

Back in the Kitchen.

Apparently i'm one of those people who when you look at don't expect to be able to cook - let alone ENJOY it. But really, i'm not bad at cooking at all, and i love it. Unfortunately with my busy lifestyle the only meal i can actually cook is my breakfast - because i must have it. I can go working a whole day without eating so long as i've had a good breakfast.

I remember back in my college days my friends used to just head over to mine for soup or dinner since i lived less than a 5 minute walk from the college. Those were the fun days. hehe.

Anyway, now in Hong Kong i would head over to my old friend's place once in a while and cook dinner for us - Like this day and catch up with each other.



Tonight's Menu:
Tomato & Potato Soup
Tamago Yaki
Teriyaki Chicken
Pickled Carrots and Daikon Radish.
Spicy Salted Vegetable
Common Salad & Rice

I have realized i haven't made any recipe blogs compared to my old blog. I will try do more when i can the chance. Let me know if theres any dishes you'd like me to do the recipe on. hehe.

*You can also add me on Instagram to see what i've been cooking/eating.
My Instagram User is: Xoy

DISNEY KIGURUMI - Late, tired and Hungry!

Who knew having fun can actually be tiring? At the end of our Magical adventure we all slowly started to lose our "hyper" attitudes. It was getting dark and we can't go home without watching the fireworks! So the only thing that was left for us was to repeatedly ride on Space Mountain since the queues were down and do what dear Action Bastard would tell us to do - Put our mouth on a sausage!



Disneyland does these jumbo sized hot dogs with either chili or creamy mushroom sauce. it was a nommer! Yes, Action Bastard HO! You were right again! After eating that amazing sausage our energy levels were restored and we finished the night with the wonderful Disneyland Firework displays. To be honest, it was rather romantic. It felt warm even though we were actually getting sandwiched by the crowd. Well, me and Marie were pretty safe. We had Sully and Jack Protect us! hoho!

DISNEY KIGURUMI - The Magical Journey!

Finally arrived at Disneyland Hong Kong. Already got stopped many times for photos - maybe people thought we worked here. People even asked if we got our costumes from the Disneyland shops! Of course we had to disappoint them on that.



Okay so some of us were pretty much hung over - Mainly Sully. Funny! there were actually warning signs when you queue up saying "You must be sober to ride." LMAO! Anyway we did manage to have a lot of fun even though today was a public holiday and Disneyland was packed! You know what5 that means.... long long long queues...




Jack looks like an old man and Sully is just.... Sully?
So anyway, another reason for todays trip was also because Hong Kong Disneyland opened a "TOY STORY LAND" that has a RC Racer - a high-speed U-shaped coaster ride, Slinky Dog Spin and a Toy Soldier Parachute Drop (which we were unable to try since the queue time was 90minutes) FUCK!

DISNEY KIGURUMI - The Preparation & Journey!

Let me give you a bit of a background story to begin with. Last night many of us were out partying together till at least 4AM. Originally there were meant to be 8 of us going on this 'Magical' journey - Ends up, just the three of us made it. LOL WHO NEEDS SLEEP WHEN THERES PLAY?!





Okay, i lied, there were 4 of us in the end. I couldn't get hold of our Jack this morning when i gave everyone a morning call - i think i ended up leaving him 13 miss calls lol. I then forwarded the message "ONE MAN DOWN! ONE MAN DOWN!" to the rest that i knew where going to turn up. Yes, and here i am still trying to spam his phone with miss calls.



To be honest i rsther like the Sully Kigurumi. It's so....fully and.....3D!



FInally Jack has arrived and we all had to help get him into his bones. Jack Kigurumi looks the most "COOL"... the rest of us look like colourful children puppets.



So now we are ready to set off on our journey to Hong Kong Disneyland! We did have many people on the Disney Station wanting to take photos with us already. Hmm... knowing today is a public holiday - i wonder what it will be like once we actually arrive at Disneyland.

Another New Beginning?

Have you been thinking about your New Year’s Resolution already? Let me guess. Oh wait, there's no point! No one keeps them anyway! Asking for someones New Years resolution is actually just a conversation starter during the ending weeks of December.

Apparently the world will end this year.
Suddenly everyone wants to live life to it's fullest. It makes me laugh. Why? Because first of all shouldn't you be living life to the fullest on a daily basis? I mean, people die unexpectedly everyday! If people only die when the world ends then even more you should of been treasuring every moment!

Okay, so i did think about it. If the world suddenly just exploded and everyone would just die - Let's just say on December 31st 2012. I would go traveling and visit places i have never been before and meet new people! taste different foods! and everyday i would smile and there will be no tears of sorrow but with joy. On the final moment i would love the people of the whole world to just all join hands - now, that would be a scene. Of course, that would just be too much to ask for so i guess the best way for me to leave this earth would be in the arms of my beloved while listening to my best playlist.

Right! Enough of this shit! Point is! Just don't waste anymore time! Try do things differently this year! Just for fun! You never know when your time is. I mean, i may even just choke on a fish bone to death during dinner or walk out of my home to buy some milk and slip on a leaf and just...die lol. Seriously! these things happen!! You know how many people in Hong Kong die from trying to close their window and randomly the window just falls off and takes you with them? That's scary shit! But still! that doesn't mean you life your life taking no risks! I don't want to survive! I want to live!