family affairs

Last weekend, we celebrated Mooncake Festival/Lantern Festival.

It's also known as the mid-autumn festival; which falls on the 15th day of the 8th month on the Chinese Lunar Calendar. Sometimes, we take these festivals for granted till we lose sight of its significance. It's not all about...

... eating plenty of mooncakes to be merry...

... or playing with lanterns to be happy.

The adults quizzed us to delve on how much we know about it. It's actually a historical festival rather than a religious one. According to Uncle Khing, it marks the successful rebellion against the Mongol ruler dating back to the 14th Century (not sure in which Chinese Dynasty). The Chinese would secretly plot against the Mongolians by furtively hiding messages inside the mooncakes which were distributed widely. Lanterns were used as signals at night. Li Xia and I agreed that there is another story... something to do with romance... but we lupa (forgot).

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The past week, Aunt Fook See and Swee Jin have been busily furnishing their new apartment as it was to be rented out by the weekend to a Japanese family. I took some pics. They did an awesome job in 5 days alone! However, I should have taken some pics of the outside, because they had an awesome view. Unfortunately it was already dark that time. Anyway...

The dining table. I loved the lamp above!

The kitchen. Swee Jin and my Aunt were bickering about the size of the microwave. Haha!

This is the drying area. Very windy! I love the thingemajig at the top of the pic.

We are supposed to unwind this thing to get the two hanging lines with hangers down. How cool can??

Mom and Aunt. The couch damn nice!

Japanese need good high definition TV!

And according to Swee Jin, the added curtains and mosquito netting also. He said the mosquito netting is really cool; as in it's magnetic and can neatly be folded to the side; even at the sliding door to the balcony.

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Yesterday, we went to visit Uncle Sain and Trina, his fiance. Uncle Sain invited us to his house.

Mom: Is the house clean?? We don't want to faint there!

Uncle: It's very much different. Haha! Don't worry.

Little did we know, Uncle Sain played with his words! Apparently, he moved into a new house since the beginning of the year! He surprised us all! Even our dear Ah Ma was oblivious. Lol! Can't imagine that during CNY, he and Trina had to suppress their urge to reveal this secret even after being bombarded with loads of comments.

But anyway, the rest of the adults then shot lots of question at him. Like when he got it, why weren't we told earlier, how much is the house, what happened to the old apartment, etc.

The place looks fine. It will look a whole lot homier when the boxes are cleared out. Sorry no pics! But will be back there again in two months ;) Wedding beckons!