Happy Chinese New Year!!

Happy Chinese New Year! Gong Hay Fat Choi!

Growing up in Hong Kong, the Chinese New Year celebrations would begin on the New Year's eve. For most Chinese, families would get together for a big dinner kinda like Thanksgiving and there would be lots and lots of different dishes, especially ones signifying luck, longevity, fortune etc. My grandmother would do everything from shopping to killing the chicken (yes, a live chicken) to cooking in her tiny kitchen. Fortunately, we were able to afford a maid to do all the dishes.

For every first day of Chinese New Year, I would spent it at my grandparent's home. Hundreds of relatives and friends would show up at different times to wish us Happy New Year and the kids would receive stacks of red envelopes from the visitors. In return, we would serve our guests endless amount of traditional new year's food made by my grandmother. They were congee - rice porridge that was simmered for hours the day before, 2 kinds of lin gao (year cake) - sweet gelatin cake thinly sliced and fried with egg battered, and daikon cake with bits of Chinese sausage, dried shrimp, onions, crispy fried in oil, and the Chinese candy box with sweets like chocholate coins, melon seeds, dried candied lotus seeds and many more yummy goodies. They were simple food but so good and comforting because they were all handmade by grandmother (except the candies).

The third day of Chinese New Year was also my grandmother's birthday and we would go out to see the most spectacular fireworks over the Hong Kong harbor. As a child, I would always be a little sad on this day because my favorite holiday was almost over and I needed to go back to school the next day.

Now that I am living on my own, I am so far removed from celebrating Chinese New Year and I am okay with that but I do miss it, especially being with my grandparents. They are my role models - the kindest and most generous people I know growing up. I plan to write about their them and their legend some other time but for today, this blog is dedicated to them, especially my late grandmother who held together the family with her love, her dedication, and her wonderful cooking. I miss you, grandma!!!

Thought I would also share this article with you about Chinese New Year and this year's Chinese horocope - the Ox. http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/World/2009/01/26/8148086-sun.html

The Hairbrush Incident

There were many stories during my years at an all-girl boarding school in England but the hairbrush incident is the one that seems to always come to mind first if I have to think of stories. This is probably because the story stood for rebellion and victory. It happened when I was 14 years old...

It was 11pm and I was already slowly drifting into deep sleep. Suddenly, I was awaken by a familiar sound, a long bell ring that I've heard of a few times from fire drills. My roommate switched on the light and quickly, we put our robes and slippers on, headed out the door of our room, and into the hallway full of wary looking girls.

We were evacuated to the back lawn of the boarding house for a roll call which lasted a few minutes. It was a cold winter evening and the rain drizzle started shortly the roll call was over. I still remember how I shivered and shriveled in my pjs and robe, huddling to my roommates to stay warm and thinking what was taking them so long to get us back inside because clearly, we didn't see any fire! After what it seemed like eternity, we were allowed back into our rooms and if I remembered correctly, we were out there for almost 1.5 hours.

Over the next couple of days, we realized some of our friends at the other boarding house were sent home. 3 of them were conspired to get a glimpse of the guys that were attending the ball with the older girls. How they did it? They broke the glass with a hairbrush to set off the fire alarm. It was a simple and ingenious plan, and their success - legendary for generations to come.

The Jellobomb

What is the Jellobomb?

I started playing with the Internet in the middle of my senior year in high school. It was 1995 and AOL was the gateway to the new world I discovered. It began with a double click on the AOL icon, logging in, then the sound of the modem (beepreeeeeyeeeoooyeeeooooyeooobruuuuuuuuueeeeeeeeee, u get it), and at last, the sound of "welcome" - greeting from the generic computer voice. Immediately, my heart would jump because I was free and the world was unlimited.

I needed a virtual identity so I made sure my screen name was original. I vaguely remember how I came up with the name Jellobomb but I think it has got to do with jello shots and da bomb...probably things that often crossed my mind as a 17 year-old high school kid. Over the years, I continued to use this as my screen name or word for log ins so I started to wonder what it meant to me. "Jello" is unshapely but moldable. "Bomb" is something explosive. Metaphorically, this virtual identity is an explosive mess of information spread all over place in an unshapely glob - small and big.

Yes, this is an abstract thought and I am abstract person. I like concepts that are up for intepretations. I enjoy indirect messages for the sake of mystery and that it pushes us to think harder. I also like the attention this name has given me. It's unqiue and it doesn't make sense unless you make it. It is me - a little bit of a rebel and a nonconformist.