Checklist for Chinese New Year 2019

1. Visit Chinatown
To get into the spirit of Chinese New Year, a visit to Chinatown is a must. Many of the little roads are no longer open to traffic so you can walk, I mean squeeze your way from stall to stall. I visited Chinatown on 19th Jan and it was already packed. It's probably much worse now.

2. Look at lanterns
Of course the lanterns in the malls pale in comparison to the street lanterns hung over the roads at Chinatown.

3. Look at pigs
We read about the dirty pigs on display at Chinatown that people were criticizing so of course we had to pay them a visit. I thought the pigs weren't dirty enough. Have you seen real life pigs? They're filthy. I didn't get to see the pigs lighted up but here's a video that some one made including a walk around Chinatown. Click and see if you're up for some noisy Chinese tong tong chiang! music and not allergic to the colour red.

For cleaner looking pigs, we went to Mandarin Orchard. Not quite the same.

4. Look at Chinese New Year decorations for sale at shops or on display that you would not see the rest of the year. (there's a big obsession with pineapples, forgot why)

5. Prepare new notes and red packets.
Check out the McDonald's packets. So "classy".

6. Shop for new clothes.

Bought this one.

Did not buy this one.

Passed on this one as well.

This one was a maybe except the only colour available was yellow. I avoid wearing yellow.

7. Buy mandarin oranges.
I bought 5 but used them for a photo shoot and left them in the sun. I should buy 4 new ones for Chinese New Year for the mandarin orange exchange thingy. I mean, that's the least I could do considering how the relatives I visit will feed me.

8. Get new shoes
Pass. There was a time when my family would get new clothes as well as new shoes for Chinese New Year. But I own a fair number of footwear and so does my girl. Hubs has enough shoes to open a shoe shop... My son has 1 pair of sneakers, 1 pair of formal shoes and 1 pair of sandals. In his eyes, that's sufficient so we let him be. Everyone gets new clothes because hubs is pretty particular about that.

9. Get new hair
I just spent 3 hours at my hairstylist's salon getting a cut trim and some light hair colour. I wish my hair would grow slower. My hairstylist loves my hair a bit too much. Each time I ask for a cut, it's a negotiation. If I ask for 2 inches, she'll bargain it down to 1 inch. It's like she owns my hair.

10. Clean my home
I already did a big clean up in December so I'm letting myself off the hook.