Gong Xi, welcoming the Year of the Flab

Red packets everywhere, hands exchanging bright oranges... Well-wishes, cheek kisses.

Ah, the sweet familiar scene of the Lunar New Year. I was back for this festive period in 2006, has it REALLY been 2 years already? And what a different kind of NY it was. I spent in with a new Somebody in my life (who btw, has NOT written ONE single post yet *HINT-HINT*) and got more acquainted with the in-laws (haha). I must say, it's been an exceptionally enjoyable new year. And for the first time in my life, I felt that the -break- was a well-deserved one.

Singapore's work culture is a very driven one, with competitive folk passionate about what they do, all with their own sets of ideals and aspirations for what they who they want to be. Well, almost everyone. There's a pretty damn big population of disgruntled Singaporeans who do nothing more than sit on their asses and complain. Yes, they whine and gripe about the same thing - cost of living, job scope, no work/life balance... the list goes on. Ok, so i'm guilty of doing my share of whinging but honestly, if it's within my control, then really, why be such a kao pei kao bu? I mean, think about it... if we didn't work so hard every second of every day of our life (yah, in the shower we work pretty hard at cleaning up and grooming too!) then how would we know how to enjoy a "break" when it fell upon us? It's like that theory, you know? How would we be able to know what happiness tastes like when we've never sampled sadness?

I believe after every thunderstorm, there shines a rainbow. It'll spring out of nowhere and appear in the most magical of ways. To be quite frank, after years of pretty bland CNY celebrations, I finally had a beautiful and memorable one. Too bad I forgot to take pics to mark the various occasions, but there was a myriad of tears and laughters, friends and family that will forever be ingrained in my memory.

I had a blast.

I lost some, I won some.

Ah heck, it's the New Year, what's a bit of friendly exchange between friends? My new principle in life I can try applying to everything else I suppose.

Be a little more giving, be a little less demanding. Appreciate the simple moments, when you get them, and make full use OF them. Worries of work piling up in the back of your head? Tell yourself that you'll get down to it after the get togethers are over. And make sure you do it.