Nian Nian You Yu

Chinese New Year came early, too.  It's my favourite holiday of the entire year, and I love the joy of meeting up with friends and family and stuffing my face with prawn rolls and bak kwa.  (In fact I once ate so much bak kwa in a day that I was violently sick the whole night afterwards.  That part wasn't so joyous.)

On the weekend, Amanda and Ben invited us to their new (half-finished) place for a housewarming/ celebratory dinner of sorts.  It is beautifully done up, cosy but bright and with little touches that feel very personal.

You know how everyone has one dress that is super easy to wear, super comfortable and feels super flattering?  This is mine.  It's a purple dress from Cotton On that must've cost me less than $20 and I've had it for several years but I still love it.  My father says it's a shapeless sack, but I like that it's flowy, simple and that the neck is high.  And pockets!  Who doesn't love pockets!

As usual, Amanda and I got to work hamming it up.  "You can be the interior photographer!"  She declared, waving her hands at the living room.  "The photos must look nice, okay?  After all, aren't you from Home and Decor magazine?"  

I pretended to be flustered.  "Um... no?"

She looked horrified.  "Then why in the world have we invited you?"

I took tonnes of photos of the house anyway.  Don't tell the kit lens, but my prime is my favourite to shoot with, even if it does lend limited scope.  

My favourite things were the owl collection - Ben and Amanda had picked them up over the years - and the huge, well-placed chandelier in the living room. 

The lady of the house and I sat and ate pretzels and cheese while the rest of the gang arrived, and when they'd all come round, we made short work of the Indian food Ben ordered.

We took turns pretending owls in the shelf cubicles and Mel made me pose like, for lack of a better expression, I was serving my rack up on a plate.  Thanks a lot, Niño.  Thanks a lot.  

There was Yu Sheng!  I'm a big fan of Yu Sheng, more for the fun of the process than for anything, but my family doesn't usually get the chance to have it at Chinese New Year since we're not that traditional. 

... and you know how it goes.  We laughed a lot trying to figure out which food went with which sayings and trying to make the non-Chinese people recite various things.  Unfortunately, since the toppings had been squeezed into containers for ages, they fell out in unattractive clumps rather than being spread liberally over the salad, which only made us laugh more.

For those of you who don't know what happens afterwards (I get weird blog hits from places like Romania and I suspect they're all bots, but anyway...) you toss the salad by lifting it as high up as you can and shouting out your wishes.  Traditionally they're supposed to be things like health and prosperity, but people have started to get more specific with things like lots of money, new cars and hot guys (just me).

Even though the evening ended a little early because some of us had to work the next day, it was loads of fun.  Thank you for inviting us, Amanda.  My grandmother died last year so I won't really get the chance to celebrate Chinese New Year this week.  But it was awesome to experience the warmth of my surrogate family for one night. 

Here's wishing everyone a happy, healthy and wealthy Lunar New Year with your loved ones!

And I leave you with this picture of Jen's adorable Coach tote because... well, nothing says festive like a cute new handbag!