恭喜发财！

*ROAR!!!*

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

It’s been awhile ya? I was VERY VERY busy since February, doing as much as I could before taking a long Chinese New Year holiday to be home with my family and friends. I was working on weekends too and I’m actually working from home throughout the 1.5 week off that I’m taking! But I’m taking my own sweet time because it’s a HOLIDAY anyway!

I’m happy to have my sister back and this is what I call Chinese New Year. It has been 3 years celebrating CNY without my sister in Sandakan so despite having to work from home and all, I’m still having a great time.

Most of the things that I want to do and places that I want to visit is almost done.

• Visited Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary. You can only find Proboscis Monkey in Borneo and since it is at my doorstep (45-60 minutes from home), I have to visit this place and see a proboscis monkey for real and not on postcards. I love those monkeys. I’ll tell more about it in a separate post.
• Visited Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre too because we had a guest and everyone who visits Sandakan must come to Sepilok. We also went to Sandakan Crocodile Farm.
• Visited a few of the oldest temples in Sandakan. Even though I’ve lived here most of my life, I’ve never really set foot into these temples. （谭公圣祖庙 and  三圣宫）.
• EAT! I don’t think I can complete my wishlist this trip because there is so much more that I want to eat.
• DRINK! It’s either 柠檬水 or teh 奶 because I can’t find such teh 奶 in KL. I think I repeat myself every year. (haha!)
• WATCH! It’s a little quieter this year at my housing area because it’s very old and more people are moving to new housing areas so our housing area is not the “hot” area to have good earnings for the lion dance troupe so they don’t frequent here by going house by house anymore. From more than 10 the previous years to only 2 this year..and this year some of them missed the row of houses we are at because of its location. So, the only way we get to watch lion dance performance is to be at other friends’ open houses or temples or shops or just stop by anywhere you spot a lion. It used to be one of my favourite things to do every Chinese New Year…and still is. I get very excited each time I see a lion and I just don’t know why. I just love it to bits!
• MEET! Not many friends came back this year but the usual close friends of mine are back. Some of my friends are working in KL but we rarely see each other and it’s time like this during Chinese New Year that we will gather and catch up in Sandakan. I’ll get to see friends getting married, becoming parents, becoming attached and many are still single. Attended a wedding on the 4th day of CNY too and it was good to see some of the familiar faces again. Saw a few of my primary school teachers of names I don’t remember but I can remember their faces. My English tuition teacher. My primary school headmaster. My secondary school headmaster.
• As you grow older and you see familiar faces and being in a place you used to grow up, it just feels so nice and I treasure every moment of it. I don’t know how many Chinese New Year I’ll have to always have things I hold so dearly in my heart to always be there and remain the same forever. Like how I’ll get married someday and maybe I won’t be able to come back to my hometown the way I want to and so on.
• I like staying home and being at home, just relaxing. At this hour, I don’t like sitting where I’m sitting now though because it gets quiet and the lizards will come out and there’s a beetle flying around the house now. Just a few nights ago, a huge cockroach came flying towards my face and I’m not even kidding. In defense, I had Shieldtox in my hands. I make it sound like I live in a jungle but I just don’t. My house is just old but no matter how old it is, it is still my home.

Tomorrow is the last day for me to enjoy and breathe Sandakan before I head back to KL to work again. Hoping to catch sunset at a rooftop bar, eat Mummy’s home-cook food, pack my stuff .

Till then!