First day of the cny ended off quite early for me. This year is especially boring to me somehow; it wasn’t as joyous as the past years. Routinized as it may sound, the first place we used to visit is always our great grand mother’s place. Needless to say, with her status in the family, most of our relatives will make a trip there and eventually, that became the “gathering” point. My brother and I always have great difficulty remembering how they are related to us and of cos, the way to address them. So most of the time, we just smiled and if our parents are somewhere near us, we will seek them for help. Hongbaos were then distributed among the children. Sometimes, they can’t even remember who our parents are and have to ask us. But that doesn’t matter since we are never at the losing ends when hong bos are available. =) But everything has changed ever since my great granny passed away 2 years back. Nobody visit the place anymore. And that made our visiting even shorter. A good 6 hours is enough for us since we only have 3 places to go.

And the places that we visit are no longer as crowded.

First place: grandfather’s (my dad’s) place. That was the place where I used to live after we sold our 3-room flat. I enjoyed visiting there cos I was especially close to my aunt.

Second place: my grandma’s (my dad’s) place—the place for lunch. Then after we make our way to the

last stop: my aunt ( my mum’s sis). I would say I don’t really enjoy my stay there at times. There is nothing much for me to do over there. Yes, there are my cousins and their frens gambling there. But I JUST DON’T LIKE TO GAMBLE WITH THEM. I don’t like the vulgarities that they use. My small cousin (4 years old) even scolds cb when someone irritates him. Haiz. Besides, people converse by shouting. I’m loud in some sense, but they can be much much much louder than me. Worst thing? Smokings.. So in the end, my dad and I left early, leaving my mum and younger bro there. And with that, that ended the whole relatives-visiting of the year.