Tuesday was officially the last day of Chinese New Year but I noticed the shopping malls continue to display Chinese New Year decorations. Shouldn't there be a rule that stipulates when ALL Chinese New Year decorations must be removed. I'm just kidding. I don't really care.
This year's Chinese New Year was super hot. And super sleepy. I really wanted to enjoy Chinese New Year despite my natural resistance to meeting people. Unfortunately for three days before Chinese New Year, I started to itch horribly - my face, my body, my hair, everywhere. I had to take anti-histamine which reduced the itch but gave me insomnia. So I barely slept and felt like a zombie. At one of the homes I visited, I even took a little nap. Actually, the nap took me.
We managed to get a family shot. I wore a Denizen raglan tee with Mango shorts.
It was so hot I brought out the big guns - my Safari hat.
We did the
lohei (pronounced low-hey) 3 times. It's a tradition that involves preparing a raw fish salad and everyone tosses the salad for good luck and fortune. Here's some
history if you're interested.
I have one rule when it comes to eating - no raw food. Fortunately the first lohei done at my mother-in-law's home has nothing raw. It's quite delicious and every year, she does some variation.
The second lohei was at my brother's home. I have a huge extended family. The person with white hair is my mom. I think this lohei has raw fish so I didn't eat it.
The third lohei was done at my aunt-in-law's home. This one had a weird smell. I didn't eat it as well. I have another rule when it comes to eating - no weird smell.
Every year my mother-in-law gives us a pomelo to place on our dining table. Why pomelo? Because the Chinese character for pomelo 柚 sounds like 有 which means "to have". So the presence of the pomelo hopefully brings wealth. Listen to pomelo
here. Listen to "to have"
here. Anyway, since Chinese New Year is officially over, we don't have to keep the pomelo on the dining table anymore. I hate to reveal this but for many years, we'd left the pomelo sitting on the dining table until it rotted. This year hubs said we should TRY to eat it since it hasn't rotted yet. Yup, we've never eaten pomelo before. While we figure out a way to eat it, I've put it in the refrigerator. Hopefully we don't get diarrhea from it.
Earlier I mentioned I had a bad case of the itch? After Chinese New Year, I discovered the cause. I had bought a new pair of knitting needles and for 3 days before Chinese New Year, I had been knitting up a storm. I kept smelling something metallic while knitting but dismissed the idea that the yarn was the cause because I have used the yarn before and no itch. It never occurred to me it was the knitting needle mainly because I have a few knitting needles by Addi and I never had any issues. So what happened was I started to itch when I knitted again. It slowly dawned on me it could be the knitting needle because this particular needle was different from the stainless steel ones I've used before. These needles are bronze and the metallic smell is quite strong. I decided to wash the knitting needle in soap and water. I gave it a really good scrub. After that when I used the knitting needle again, I didn't itch anymore. Isn't this strange? I wonder what was on the knitting needle that caused my skin to itch. So glad I could use the needles after all that because they're quite expensive.
So far this year I haven't done much sewing. But I managed to rescue my swim suit which is something I'm very happy about. I bought a new one-piece swim suit which I thought fitted me but when I wore it to swim, I realised that it constantly gave me a wedgie. I couldn't bare to wear it again because how to, right? I tried to give it to my daughter but it's too big for her. Then I had a brilliant idea. I cut off the lower half of the swim suit and serged the raw edges. I'm pretty pleased with my Janome overlocker. It can serge anything without having to adjust any tension! For the bottom, I bought a cheap pair of swimming shorts so I'm able to wear my swim suit as a 2-piece and not waste it after all.
For my next sewing project, hubs has given me his beloved blanket to mend. He has also requested that I do not use any creative methods. Grr...
