Gong Xi Fa Cai !!!

We've been seeing red, the past few weeks ! ! Everywhere you go, there are beautiful red lanterns dancing in the wind and red banners put up. It's the Chinese New Year and our apartment complex and most of Singapore, has been bathed in red, the lucky color for the chinese.

symbolic firecrackers hung outside our apartment lobby....to scare away Nian, a beast who comes out of hiding, once every year on Chinese new year to attack people, especially children. The Nian is sensitive to loud noises and afraid of the color red. I could send my children to every house for the decibel factor but then the locals already have the LION dance. Two people dressed as the lion perform the dance in each house, ushering in prosperity for that year and scaring away the evil. The dance is a treat to watch for the energy the dancers display. People hang a fruit with a red envelope containing money, and the lion is supposed to display its acrobatic skill in reaching the money and spitting out the fruit/lettuce.

These mandarin oranges, a symbol of prosperity, have been placed outside each apartment block lobby.

So as they say here, wishing you guys, Gong Xi Fa Cai, or Happy New Year and as its literal translation says, "wish you enlarge your wealth" !

people waiting in China town to usher in their new year...and its the year of the ox, this time.

And just so that you don't miss out, i give you a red back ground and pictures....how nice can i be, right?

republic day!

We are supposedly celebrating democratic India! may we realise the meaning in its true sense.

Look what we found here...

For those who don't take care of your butts, read on



Found by one delighted 11 yrold on a bus stop in Sydney

Wassup, mate!

I'm speechless! I have to be because them vocal cords have finally rebelled and decided to enlighten me as to the weird sounds i am capable of making. I can now do hoarse, guttural, squawk and possibly a mean rani mukherjee voice. Elder son never had it so good, considering its exam time. Of course i can do THE glare but the person has to be seeing you to get scorched by it....

sigh....

and my family will never win at dumb charades!

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So we welcomed the new year at the Sydney harbor bridge watching the fireworks, never mind being squished by a hundred, no make that million, other like-minded people. That reminded me why we rarely get out of our cozy home on new year's eve. But the euphoria of screaming out happy new year and the firework display was worth being squished for!!

It was a holiday well spent at Melbourne and Sydney,where each one got to do his thing. We did a LOT of walking, petting (the animals), jaw dropping (at the beautiful scenery and clear waters) and kicked balls (er..lets make that football) on the soft sand. We even visited the MCG...

At a petting zoo in Melbourne, where we fed and touched koalas, turtles, emus, wallabies.

An emu says "hi, wanna get spooked?"

One excited male, doing what he does best, preening for the ladies


Father and son completed an exhilarating climb upto the top of the Sydney harbor bridge ...f you look closely, the spots in blue on the arch near the flag are the climbers....

while mother and son (the bridge climb was for 10yrs and above - I qualified but the 6 yrold didn't ) walked across the bridge, looking down into the waters below, taking in the views from the lookout tower and going camera crazy.


Having got back home after 12 days, it seems like its been a long time and everyone's all geared up to get back to the comforting chaos of our daily life.

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Since being speechless is the mood of the moment, this seems like a right time to react to this....WIAN from Random thoughts and Preethi from Incessant musings believe i am friendship-material...all i can say is that they are intelligent women with good taste...:).

And here's a virtual hug to you both....for the award...and the sentiments attached to it.

[This award is given to a blog that invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.]

Thanks to them, i now know a new word - self-aggrandizement.

And i pass it on to all those kind people who read here regularly...I meant the award, not the word...