Happy New Year!! :D

I think it is not very good to meet up only once in a while with one’s relatives.

You know something? I am very envious of people who are very close to their cousins. That says something about me. Correct; I am not close to my cousins. In fact, you can even call us strangers. So pathetic right…

Let’s analyse the degree of my relationships with my cousins. (Sorry for being so boliao; you can stop reading if you want to, or just skip this part)

Mother’s Side –

First Uncle: 4 children, one of whom is studying in the US. He is the only one who is older than me. I haven’t seen him for years. When we last met, we didn’t even talk at all. As for his 3 other children, I do talk a little to Sophia. Timothy was just born in November last year. I don’t really talk to Alwin.

2nd Uncle: 3 children. I am least close to them. Perhaps it’s the religion problem (eh…we have the same religion) and the fact that my 2nd aunt is rather fussy. I am quite scared of her. :P Maybe there is the education problem too. Sigh.

Aunt: 2 children. I am closest to them, especially Jia Jun. Guess I become more tomboyish when I am with him and my brother. :P

Youngest Uncle: 2 children. Jacquelin does talk to me at times. She’s so cute!! Hmm but yesterday when I went to visit, she was busy playing with Sophia and her new brother so we didn’t really “play” much. Anyway, I was watching The Chronicles of Narnia for the second time with my family in the living room. Haha.

Father’s Side –

Aunt: 2 children. Not very close to them but still okay I guess. Lynn is working in Melbourne now so we get to see each other much less. She won’t even get to join us for grandpa’s annual birthday dinner this year. This is already the second year that she cannot join us. So sad. :(

I guess I am partly to blame. I am the 2nd oldest child on my mother’s side, but so anti-social! What did I do when my cousins came over to my house on the first day? Hole up in my grandpa’s room to label Meno and read the book that I had borrowed: Interpreting Plato’s Euthyphro and Meno . I didn’t get anything much into my head though. :P What did I do on CNY’s eve when my aunt’s family (Father’s side) came over for the reunion dinner? Stay in my mum’s room to do stats tutorial. Wahaha.

Hmmm I think that’s not just anti-social; it’s rude too. Something happened on the first day to make me feel really bad and determined to change for the better next year.

After a long break with no guests in the afternoon (i.e. after my 2 uncles and their families left), my granduncle’s family (he has 2 sons and an adopted daughter) arrived. They come over every year. I remember that when we were younger, we did play with each other a bit. Or at least talk. About childish stuff yah. Haha. But then we stopped doing that long ago. I don’t even remember when we had stopped either.

However, that silence which had hung between us was broken that day!! By Ka-Mun. I think she is the most friendly and sociable out of all my…I shall call them cousins. Can’t think of any single word to call them. I don’t know why I had stayed in the living room with the rest of my family instead of hiding in my room as usual. And that is why Dao stayed with me by the way. He wouldn’t have stayed if not for me! :P Ka-Mun had brought with her a pack of poker cards and wanted to teach us how to play Bridge initially (she said it is very similar to Hearts; I never knew that. But it turns out to be rather similar). After spending quite a long time explaining to my brother and I the rules of the game, we still couldn’t really get it. But it was enough to let me know it is rather similar to Hearts. To tell the truth, I don’t really know how to play Hearts either. :P Just anyhow click when I play it on the computer. Haha. But hey. I haven’t played that game for ages.

In the end, the adults suggested that we play some other game. We got round to playing Dai-Dee. Xueling is the ultimate pro in that game!! She won so many times. I hadn’t played that for a long time either, so I had to watch them play it twice and be a bit blur in my first game before recalling fully the rules of the game. Haha.

My point is that after that short interaction (I mean the game), I felt closer to them even though we didn’t talk much about ourselves at all. We even agreed to learn Bridge well so as to play with them next year. I thus gleaned an idea from this experience – to bring games to the houses of people whom we visit, and also to play games with the children of the people who visit! But alas, no one else came after them, and Dao and I didn’t even really dare to play with my father’s friend’s children yesterday. Haha.

Think I visited less people this CNY, and got less angbaos too. :P Haha. But today, I went to visit a friend during the CNY period for the first time. Alright don’t laugh at me! Mei Gui had suggested making a cake at Anna’s house and so we went over to make one. It’s called cookies and cream cheesecake. Dee was disappointed that I didn’t bring any home for him so I said I would make it for him when I have the time to. Haha. The three of us played a boliao game which includes drawing weird stuff on the self-portraits of the losers’ while waiting for the cake to harden in the refrigerator. Gay came over at 1400 plus – 2 hours after we were done making the cake!!

We had fun playing a game with poker cards and continuing with the drawing on self-portraits forfeit. It’s weird how I won quite a lot of times even though it was my first time playing that game. Hmmm. Think I will teach Dao how to play it and it can be one of my CNY games!! Haha! :P Then after that, when we all got bored, we went to watch a movie while eating the cheesecake. It was SO FILLING. This is my second time making the cake, but my first time eating it because…of something that happened after that. Anyway, I took a long time to finish my share because I felt so full. It was nice though. Haha. And I still owe Anna’s mother money for the ingredients of the cake. Haha. Remind me to pay you when I next see you! :P

After the movie, we played the number game and the forfeit was Truth or Dare. I used to like that game actually. Think I started becoming scared of it after I found out for myself how scary the dares and questions can be. :P Hmmm today’s dares and questions were rather interesting though. Hahaha.

I had wanted to write some more, but Dee is chasing me to sleep. Till the next time.