There is nothing really much that I want to write about, but since it's Chinese New Year this week, I'll just join the crowd and talk about some gongxi facai stuff (which is lame according to Loobz *bleah*).

The office is eerily quiet. There are only 4 of us left in the department holding the fort, as the rest were already off for their long CNY break. As much as I wish, that doesn't mean I can idle my time away. There are tonnes of work to be done, phone calls to be answered, and a scheduled tele-conference with UK at 5pm. Ah, how I loooonnnnngggg for 5-day break starting tomorrow.

I think I must be the only one amongst the people I know who is the least frantic about getting ready for Chinese New Year. I didn't do my spring-cleaning (just some packing here and there), rush to buy new year goodies (steal time between lunchbreak to do that), decorate the house (except for the few New Year cards that were placed on top of the TV). The essential new clothings for the children were already bought at post-Christmas sales, gifts for close relatives and neighbours bought during our weekly grocery shopping. KA had changed for the new notes for red packets. New sheets were unpacked and ready to be changed tomorrow. I don't need to prepare for the reunion dinner - I don't think mom-in-law want me to mess about with it. I can pre-empt what's happening on the first day of New Year - visits from sister- and brother-in-laws, then off to my mom's place and back by afternoon. I'm not sure if it is a blessing or not to have very few relatives in Singapore. KA's relatives are scattered across Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and China, and my closest relative, my paternal grandpa, is in a nursing home. We already stopped visiting the many uncles and aunts (mom's siblings) since my maternal grandma passed away 10 years ago (and frankly, I won't be able to recognise my cousins on the road if I were to bump into them). I am not particularly excited about the imminent visits from KA's distant relatives, as I hardly remember their names, and dread doing small talk with people I vaguely know.

So, what's in store? I think I said before that holidays to me are for the family, so I look forward to spending most part of my 5 days with the kids and KA. Nothing in particular really, perhaps to the park or beach or pool. Or just laze in front of the TV and binge on the new year cookies. Hopefully no one suggest the human-crushing Marina Bay *shudder at the thought*.

Before I end, let me wish you all a very happy Lunar New Year, and may the golden monkey brings you lots of luck and prosperity!