Since I haven't said it since it's started, Happy Lunar New Year to one and all. I'm late, it's already the 3rd day but it's fine and dandy since the celebrations traditionally last FIFTEEN freaking days (in Singapore, we only get 2, but this year's good since the 2 days happen to be Thursday AND Friday, so we get a good long weekend).

I don't really want to go back to school come Monday. It's dreadful, when I get back, it'll be week 5 and I have a test on week 6. I still don't quite get Bioinformatics (but then again, it doesn't look like anyone does).

I haven't done much the past few days; I've gone for the yearly reunion dinner (it was BORING, my uncles are all in their fifties so I don't have anything to talk to them about, not to mention the fact that I don't really like them because they're not very nice people, and my only other cousin on my paternal side must be less than 10, not to mention he's autistic, so there's literally nothing to talk about). The food wasn't good:( And then I went visiting, I didn't visit my relatives on the first day, visited my boyfriend's relatives, which was pretty stressful because I spent almost every moment feeling like a stunned deer, not knowing what I was supposed to do, if I unwittingly stepped on anyone's toes, what I was supposed to say etc etc. Yesterday was spent going to the temple (my mum would nag me to death if I didn't go), on the way back, since none of our relatives were home, we made a short trip to my maternal 3rd uncle's place to visit his mother-in-law who's in the final stages of stomach cancer which metastasised to her liver. The only consolation is that despite being in the terminal stage, she's not in pain and she doesn't know what illness she's suffering from. There aren't many instances where ignorance is bliss but I reckon this would be one of them. She's lived a pretty long life, had filial children who took care of her and lived to see 3 of her grandsons (other grandkids I'm not so sure).

Yesterday evening, we went for a proper meal at a Peranankan restaurant in Keppel Country Club to celebrate my mum's birthday. It was great, the food I mean. I mean, it was mouth-watering good. Not everything was that fantastic, I thought the Buah Keluak was too bitter and sour and the Babi Pongteh way too fatty. However, the Beef Rendang was lip-smacking good (tender, the flavour permeated through the meat, served piping hot, how can anyone resist that?) and the Nyonya Chap Chye was tasty (I normally dislike Chap Chye and I made an exception for this dish). I felt the Ngoh Hiang was not bad, it was nice in a sense as it was served hot, a little crispy too but it could have been better. The Assam Prawns didn't leave much of an impression on me, as did the Assam Fish (maybe they're just no good with their Assam-based dishes). For dessert, I had Sago Gula Melaka, it was glorious (though I really thought that they were a little too generous with the Gula Melaka aka it was a tad too sweet).

And today was spent doing work. Biostatistics tutorial (which took me 2.5hours!), writing notes for Experimental Cell and Molecular Biology, rerunning through the Bioinformatics practicals.

Tomorrow's the last day of the 4-day CNY break. I don't really want it to end. And then I checked online and realised that next year's Lunar New Year is on the 14th and 15th of February, which is on a Saturday and Sunday. And the mid-semester break happens to start on the 13th. Which means I just got cheated of my break, AGAIN! The same thing happened last year. I swear the university loves eating our well-deserved public holidays up. Needless to say, I AM NOT HAPPY.

Right, now I need to go shower, do MORE work and catch some sleep. Tata.