Winter Solstice & H1N1

It is time to have your tang yuen (glutinous rice balls) today. When I was small, my mother will get all of us to roll the rice balls into small round balls and throw them into hot boiling water prepared with syrup and pandan leaves. After that, we were to eat the rice balls with the syrup. I remember that I have to eat the rice balls according to my age; so if you are 15 years old, then you have to eat 15 tang yuen.

I remember last year I bought some tang yuen from supermarket. You know those with some black beans in them? Hubby enjoyed those tang yuen, but I do not quite like it. Too sweet I think. This year I did not cook any. I only knew that today is Winter Solstice when my colleague told me about it this morning! Yeah, I do not keep track of those Chinese special occasions.

When it is Winter Solstice, then you will start to think that Chinese New Year is just a couple of months away. Winter Solstice marking the end of Winter and beginning of Spring. Usually we would gather around the dining table and have dinner together, but as we grow older and who ever is married, move out from the house, we seldom uphold this tradition. However on this occasion, I did not missed going back to my parents' house for lunch this afternoon. As I expected, without fail my mum prepared the tang yuen for the family. And I did drink and ate few tang yuen, but of course I did not eat the numbers of tang yuen according to my years (age)! Otherwise I would not be able to eat my mum's delicious lunch if I drink a big bowl of the rice balls. Lol!



To a more serious matter, I heard from my mum today that H1N1 second wave started to hit the USA. So, parents, please be vigilant. There is vaccine for H1N1 but I understand that this vaccine is still new and not widely tested. One of my parents' neighbour just told her that her grandson (7 years old) was given the H1N1 vaccine in school in Taiwan recently. Less than a week, he was down with fever and just passed away. He was a healthy child but the school is required by relevant authority to give vaccine to all students!!

Another neighbour recently brought his children for vaccine in Australia after went there for holiday. The neighbour commenting that the vaccine there is much cheaper than ours. There were few cases of casualty in USA where children died after given H1N1 vaccine. So unless your child is sick, bring him or her to clinic. Do not bring your child for H1N1 vaccine yet. This is my personal opinion, and I am not trying to be judgmental to this matter as I am not expert or doctor to make comments. I am a mother to 2 children and as a parent, I am only concern for their health and safety. Unless this vaccine is proved successful and safe in containing the viruses, I would not bring my children for its vaccination.