Countdown to Year of Rat 2008

1 more month to go before we say goodbye to Year of Pig and usher the Year of Rat. I would not talk about my luck, wealth, health or fortune telling with you, as I believe you going or already have received bunches of forwarded emails on the Chinese New Year’s fortune. Or maybe you have bought a fortune book end of last year? My hubby and his sister are so into those things and you will see them reading all those details under their birth year. LOL! I thought your luck and fortune are in your hand?? If just read but do nothing about it, I don’t believe money will fall down right in front of you from the sky, right?

Alright, like I was saying earlier, I am not going to talk about those fortunes with you. I was just mumbling to myself today how fast time goes, and Chinese New Year is a month away. This will be first year celebrating with darling hubby and little gal away from home (we've been celebrating CNY for past 3 years in Kapit with his family), it will be my wifely duty to prepare goodies, cakes, food supplies, and cleaning and decorating the house this year!! We not going back this year, but my brother and sister-in-law will be going back to celebrate with my parents-in-law.

I have never done all those chores all by myself. Not that I never order cakes and cookies when I were staying with my parents last time. Not that I don’t know how to clean the tv cabinet, mop the floor or do shopping in the wet market. This year would be different, as I have to get ready all by myself! *wink* What are husbands for? If not to share work and help us out, right? So, I am going to nag him to tug along in getting ready for our 1st CNY together away from our families!

Here are my lists in preparation for CNY:

1. New clothes for myself, hubby and little gal. A good excuse to spend some money on new clothing and update my wardrobe without hubby nagging on my overspending habit. Little gal need to get new clothes too as she is growing very tall now! LOL

2. Stock up food supplies enough for a week – rice, chicken, pork, vegetables (those can be stored longer i.e. cabbages, carrots, celery); eggs, fish; cooking oil and other cooking ingredients. I am planning to cook this year, not going out dining as prices can be unreasonably high during the holidays.

3. Buying mandarin oranges, cookies (we have pre-ordered 6 packs of 100 pieces each), cakes (maybe I will try to make Jen’s place no-bake cheesecake this year), soft drinks (that would include beers!! *Laugh*)

4. Buying some fireworks. Little gal would be excited I am sure as she never play with fireworks before! So, this is her first time.

5. Cleaning - getting a cleaning lady to come over to our house on weekend prior to CNY to have a thorough cleaning of our house. RM35 for whole house! Not bad huh? At least when I do cleaning on CNY Eve, it would not be that tedious.

6. Decorating the house – I am thinking of buying those spiral bamboos as I have a tall vase empty at home. As for the other decoration, I shall leave it to hubby as he is good with choosing them.


Do I miss anything out? Hmm….

On second thought, not to trouble ourselves too much, maybe we are not going to have any open house! Maybe comfortably hide away in my parents’ house and pretend we do not invite anyone to our house! Or maybe a semi-open house? Hahahah!

Remark: There are some shortages of cooking oil in the country! This situation is rather ironic as Malaysia is an oil manufacturer and exporter. So far Kuching has not been affected by the shortages, I haven’t see people rushing on buying those cooking oils off the shelves. Why all those sudden limitation and increase in pricing always happen when there is a festival coming??? I wonder why????