The Journey of Sleeping Beauty in Pink Pajamas: February 2011

Putrajaya

I just realized that I never blogging about Putrajaya, the well-managed, vibrant and prosperous Federal Administrative Capital of Malaysia. It’s been more than 10 years since my 1st time visited Putrajaya and what I can see is; the city that develop the most.

otw

I’m sure that nobody will see the Putrajaya as Dr Mahathir (former PM who has the initiative to form Putrajaya) sees today. His vision to move the government administration department to Putrajaya has reduced the traffic flow in KL. I still remember on how most of us respond when he proposes this project. We were complaining for no reason. But now, Putrajaya becomes the most well-managed government administrative department in Malaysia and throughout the Asia.

I can’t believe to see how much it develops now. Those days, the only attraction place to see in Putrajaya was the Pink Mosque. But today, from the building to the garden to the bridge, all are stunning to my eyes. I’m sure the international delegations will love Putrajaya as I do.

Sister and her son

one of the monumen. Hubby so excited.

The mosque with no fan. Mainly depend on the original wind. But it was really windy especially in the evening.

Photographer style

Recently, many people willing to queue for the job offer from government. For sure, the queue will be long and tough. The challenges and basic pay might be a lesser amount of compared to the private sectors, but the benefits and work environment give a lot of satisfactions. Their office and quarters in Putrajaya are damn good. Seems like having a small world with the beautiful sceneries.

For this reason, I still love Malaysia. I miss my own country especially when I’m abroad. But if Malaysia does have snow, I love Malaysia 1000 times. hehehehe.

My 1st CNY celebration ever! The Year of The Rabbit!!

If you asked me, undeniable I was damn excited. Starting this year, I will be officially celebrating 2 festivals and apart of giving angpau, which I enjoying doing so since I started working; I learned a lot of customary ways of celebrating both festivals. For sure, CNY gives me more than I expected.

I remembered posted in my Facebook that I learned so much the ‘do’ and ‘don’t’ before, during and after CNY. My Chinese friends help me a lot by sms-ing and calling me just to ensure that I follow all the conventional ways of celebrating. Thanks to my mother in law too as had giving us more tips which I considered it as an enforcement than telling us on how the correct ways to celebrate the CNY =) *clever mommy*.

My hubby was the busiest one to remind me on the rules which I’m pretty sure that all of them were given by his mom hehehe. But thank God that he did not beautify our house in the conservative decoration. I’m sure that our cats are more than happy to put it all down and scratch it to the small pieces.

These are some of the rules to follows for CNY, incase if needed one:

Before CNY
1. Send the Mandarin Oranges to all the close family & relatives.
2. Decorate the house with some ‘good wealth’ posters.
3. Throw the rubbish only on the 28th day of the last month.
4. Put it some angpau (of course with $$ inside) in your house & moon cake.
5. Do not left your rice bowl empty, leave some to start the year.
6. Go shopping for some red or light color outfits which inclusive of your undies.

During CNY
1. Wear red or any light color. Black? No No No.
2. Wear the NEW outfits and NEW undies.
3. Do not sweep up the floor.
4. Do not hang the clothes up to the 3rd days
5. Do not wash your hair
6. Bring 4 or 6 oranges to those houses that you visited and return back 4 oranges to those who visit you with oranges.

After CNY
1. Return to work only on the good day as per prediction
2. Open the angpau only after the 15 day of CNY

Sorry, these are only rules that I can think of the moment. For sure, there are still a lot of rules in celebrating CNY. Some people may take this for granted and some will try hard to follows as it is. No matter how, the more you know, the better you can please the elders. Festivals have always been the source of joy and happiness. The vibrancy of colors, the mixture of different sounds, all create a feeling of excitement and enjoyment.

All the in-laws! I'm the darkest one! uwaaaa

Apart of conventional ways of celebrating; prayers, visiting friends and relatives, yee sang session, giving angpau; my mother in law wanted us to have a Tea Ceremony on the first day of CNY.

Tea Ceremony normally will be the main agenda at Chinese wedding, symbolic of the marriage consent from elders to the newlyweds. Since we did not do it during our wedding, I was certainly eager for the 2nd time. After serving the tea to the elders (his mom and siblings), they will need to give something to us in return. So, we had angpau, necklace, pendant and ear rings. *ehem*

Who said that we are not allowed for the angpau after wedding?

After all, I feel blessed to have an opportunity to celebrate two festivals in a year. Being in 2 families makes me wonder how God created the festival for a reason. We had so much fun in following the rules and having good time during the re-union dinner.

No matter how, festival are ideal to enhance family bonding and unity and being the strongest anchor in our lives holds all the flavors and aroma needed for the celebrations and silently echo the strong bond of love, the bond of blood that holds them all together. Many religious festivals also portray the family as the fundamental entity.

In spite of everything, home is where the heart is, and heart is where the festivities begin.

Gong Xi Fa Cai to all of you. May the Year of The Rabbit will brings you good health, wealthy, happiness and with many good returns.

Leap high & reach far!!

A night in Saigon Vietnam

We made a transit to Saigon city from Korea and manage to overnight in Saigon.

Saigon also well known as Ho Chi Minh city..

In a hurry, i still manage to shop a lot of leggings and blouses. Damn cheap and the material also quite good. The quality is far better than Thailand and china product.

So bad as we didnt have a chance to round the city but we manage to celebrate New Year 2011 at vietnam!