Posted on February 13, 2008 - by Abner

Back to Work

Finally am back in my cubicle. Been a long holiday for me… a very long one indeed since the 1st of Feb till the 12th. My days off involves a lot of sleep. So much so that my backbone seems to crumble away.
The Lunar New Year celebration is getting milder as years go by. I no longer anticipates it with glee as I used to as a kid. I remembers that it was during this times that I could eat a lot of prawn crackers, dried floss meat, yummy grilled meat, cakes… damn… I can’t really know what you call them in English. Am having blanks here when I am trying to translate them. Here’s some visual.
Ate a few slice of the bak kua and some prawn crackers. 1 karipap donut thing – “kok zai”. Did not take a sip of any packet drinks. And the other goodies were missing. You might have noticed that I did not include mandarin oranges in it… it’s because I don’t eat them. Period. Don’t ask why. I just don’t.

My angpow collection has reached an all time low… dipping at 5 I think. Including the one I got from my boss this morning might make it 6 or 7. Anyway I have not opened and have a peek at any of it yet.
Psst… come closer… my angpow collection from last two years are still stashed inside a box till today. Still in their red packet. No special meaning or whatsoever, I just felt like leaving it untouched for the moment.

Did not meet up with any of my friends this year, as usual actually. Most of it was spent shuttling here and there so would rather spend it at home. Another rerun of reality is that I keep losing in gambling. This year my youngest girl cousin introduced Texas Hold ‘Em Up at the table. It bore my pocket wide open but fun nonetheless.

And 2008 shall be the year which I had the most mushroom. No… I don’t mean in quantity. Normally the dishes will be filled to the brim with shiitake mushrooms but this year I had so many kind of spore-bearing fruiting body of fungus, that made a lasting impression on me. My uncle got them from his recent trip to Hong Kong where it’s unattainable here. The shiitake and abalone mushroom made their entrance as usual but the others just made me go smurfy. Their texture and taste was just great. Loved them. No tedious cooking method just simple into-the-wok-and-out stuff. There was also a soup made from mushrooms. Loosely translated into Monkey Brain Mushroom soup. From top, it looks like mini monkey brains but it also resembled a coral to me. The soup was superb and I had seconds. Supposedly good for the lungs. Wished I had more chances to taste them though.

Aaa… brings me back to this morning when I reversed my car only to find that I had a flat tyre. How appropriate for that to happen to me on my first day back to work. Did not realize it when I got back the other day. Bummer. Am waiting to get back and get down and dirty later tonight with it. Coincidentally today is the 2nd anniversary of me being attached to this company. Cheers to me!

Oh yeah tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day. Would not be celebrating as I hate crowds, lousy food and services.
Happy Valentine’s to you!