Gong Xi Fa Cai

The first day of Chinese New Year, the year of the rabbit.  There were fireworks at midnight and then again at 1a.m., but from behind The Verve so I couldn't see them, just the flashes and the smoke and hear the bangs of course.

Another quiet and gloomy morning, and it rained, a lot.

I spent the morning doing not very much, well I faffed about on Scotland's People, searching for a disappearing great great grandmother from Glenurquhart.  There was also another 'hunt Kitty' interlude.  She must have been in my room but initially not in her usual hiding place and could I find her - no!  But eventually she was back under the bedside table. 

My original info for the timings for today where to leave at 2.30 but then it got pushed back to 3.15 so I 'dashed' down to Jaya to get some CNY gifts.  Not a big selection, well a selection of one.  The rain had returned so I got damp on the way back up the road.

Then the Grab saga started/  #2 said he was having difficulty getting one (rain, people visiting family, holiday) so I tried and eventually was successful.  I went down to the guard house to wait (cooler than in the apartment) and I saw him drive past the entrance to Hijauan Kiara. I messaged, I phoned, I stood outside and waved (I could see him sitting opposite The Verve shops) but he turned and drove down towards the end of our dead end street. I walked sown a bit in the rain, then Grab cancelled the booking, you only get 5 minutes. Luckily it was slightly easier to get a second booking but the finally annoyance was Grab 1 drove back up the road a s I returned to my seat at the Guard House. So it was 4.30 before we finally set off to Subang Jaya for Chinese New Year dinner.

A lovely house, the usual terrace with a large front court for cars but unusually a back garden, even although it backed on to the back of the shoplots but better than a back door that leads to a back lane.  The house had been renovated 3 years ago and felt very modern and very cool as the air con worked.

We were 10.  C and her mother, brother and his fiancee and then the brother's best friend and wife and his brother.  There were a lot of snacks before the relatively modest meal.  Started with the traditional yee sang (prosperity fish salad) which we all tossed as high as possible to increase our fortunes and then ate it.  Then there was mushroom soup, minced pork and mushrooms and longevity noodles and fried rice, all accompanied by beer of course.  We also talked about Scotland and whisky and visiting Edinburgh.  The friend's wife had visited and #2 was entranced by the photos. 

The 3 visitors left, they are off to Johor tomorrow to their family and the 6 of us left played cards, for stakes.  Not a game of skill, a pure game of chance that required some arithmetic ability.  I sat out till I understood it fully and then was very cautious with my stakes RM2 (38p) a time.  I came out RM6 behind.

Chinese Malaysians are very well travelled. WH's parents have been all round the world.  All her sisters were educated overseas, Australia, Spain, Scotland.  C was educated in Paris and her sister studied law in Newcastle and the fridge magnets mapped the journeys her family had taken, every continent.

No Grab melodramas to get home a C drove and I think #2 took home as many goodies (including a jar of pineapple tarts) as we brought. I had a nightcap and then bed. It had been a lovely evening being welcomed into another lovely Chinese Malaysian family.