Celebrating Chinese New Year with my sister!

Huge crowd in Chinatown!

This must be the best Chinese New Year I've had in the last three years since coming to Singapore. The last three years, I spent Chinese New Year mostly at home alone with some of my room mates. Some of them have become friends, although many are just acquaintances and some even total strangers. Chinese New Year is rowdy at home due to the gambling that my landlord is so fond of... not to mention the drinking and eating. Also the last two Chinese New Year, I was really down on cash (not that I have a lot now) as I had taken a big loan to come out to Singapore and was working really hard, saving every penny to pay-off the debt.

My vain pot sister!

This year, the pressure is much less. No debt to pay, so I am just saving to start a small business and to buy a small house when I do go back to China. It is such a blessing that my sister found a good job here... and I have her by my side this Chinese New Year!

So instead of just going out to eat with my room-mates, I went out with my sister on the eve of Chinese New Year. I don't know many places to go, so we decided to have a good meal in Chinatown. This is a place at least I am more familiar with in my days working in Tanjung Pagar as well as coming here to remit money home.

We took a train to Chinatown and when we alighted, we were shocked by the number of people out celebrating the Chinese New Year. We had expected a quieter night as most people will be home with their families, eating their reunion dinner. Chinatown was so full of people, there were long queues in just about every eating place.

All tired out!

After about an hour of roaming around, we were really really tired... and hungry. We had expected a big meal, maybe steamboat or something but ended up eating nothing till about 9pm. Finally, we decided to give up and just go home to cook something light to eat.

Nevertheless, it was a wonderful night! This is the first night I had been really out with my sister since she came to Singapore. I work from 6am to 6pm while she works from 10.30am to 10.30pm. My off days are Saturday and Sunday while her's is on Monday. As such, there are hardly any time where we could go out.

We both got home really, really tired and hungry!