On Saturday morning we were in no rush to get out of bed, since Yolande had arrived back very late the previous night from her Korea/Japan business trip. Fortunately she had been able to take a taxi back from the airport (all of an hour away on the other side of the country), which she could later claim back as a business expense. After a leisurely breakfast, we met up with George, who drove us to Orchard Road, along with a few other family members (somehow all seven of us were able to squeeze into the car together!). George, who serves in the navy, had recently acquired his driving license, and told the story of how he took the test in uniform and, after driving a short distance, found himself in the unfortunate situation of having to ask the instructor "Permission to pull over and put on my seatbelt, Sir!".
Having arrived at our destination, we all went for lunch together then headed to a nearby department store in a final effort to find Yolande some new clothes for Chinese New Year (I had decided to wear the shirt Yolande bought me for Christmas, which I had yet to try on). Somewhere along the line, the 3 kids and I managed to become separated from the group, which gave fellow shoppers the rare and amusing spectacle of a young white guy trying to herd a small group of kids of varying shades around a Singaporean department store. Eventually we were reunited, and Yolande managed to find something pretty for Chinese New Year, albeit not something traditional, since she wouldn't have many occasions to wear it.
Mission accomplished, Yolande and I set off alone to the cinema to watch a new Singaporean film, "Love Matters". It was my first time watching a Singaporean film, and I enjoyed the uniquely Singaporean sense of humour, which made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion. It was at about this time that Yolande and I came up with the concept of a shared wallet where we could pool our money together for dates, etc. This was to combat the problem of having to calculate what we each owe. A sort of rudimentary joint account, if you will. We set out at once with a mission to purchase the perfect wallet to meet our needs. But then we got distracted by pasta and the mission was at once abandoned. Our stomachs had won out.
We later rejoined the others at the Marriott Hotel, where Yolande's cousin, Florence, was staying with Mike, her American husband, and their two children. They had been living and working in Japan and had made a special trip to Singapore to take part in the Chinese New Year family reunion.
A while later, we were all sufficiently tired from our long day out at Orchard Road, and so we bid them farewell and made the journey back home to Jurong West to rest. Before sleeping, Yolande realised that she already possessed, stashed away in her room, the very thing we had failed to look for earlier that day. And thus, the "wallet of equality" was born.
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On Sunday morning, Yolande and I took a short walk up the road to visit the local swimming pool. This is, in fact, an outdoor complex consisting of two 25 x 10m swimming pools, a lazy river, a kids' play area, a Jacuzzi, a water slide and, best of all, Singapore's hot and sunny weather in which to enjoy it all. All this for just 2 dollars (£1) a head (incidentally, the wallet of equality's maiden purchase). As you might have guessed, Yolande and I forewent any 'proper' swimming, and spent our morning circulating the lazy river (more energetic than the name would have you believe) and relaxing in the Jacuzzi, surfacing every once in a while to fling ourselves down the water slide. Once we felt we had soaked up enough water we headed for home, stopping on the way for lunch and a 7-11 slurpy (the mixed slurpy is fast becoming a sort of post-swimming tradition).
Chinese New Year's Eve is when reunion dinner takes place, where immediate family get together to celebrate the coming New Year. So, just minutes after we returned from swimming, there was a knock at the door, and Yolande's older sister, brother in law and 2 nieces, came in to join the festivities. Reunion dinner was no small affair, and included more food than you could shake a stick at. It began with a tradition known as lou hei where everybody uses their chopsticks to raise yu shang (shredded mixed vegetables with salmon and sweet sauce) high into the air and drop it back onto the plate - the higher it is raised, the more prosperous your year will turn out to be. This process is repeated until the yu shang is nicely mixed. It is then eaten as a starter before tucking into the main course, which consists of roast duck and, in this case, many other varieties of meat, seafood and vegetables, cooked teppanyaki-style (Japanese-style fry-it-yourself) or steamboat-style (Chinese-style boil-it-yourself). Needless to say, I was absolutely stuffed by the end. Later, we popped over to Ma's place to celebrate New Year's eve with the rest. At midnight, after we and Yolande's sisters families had returned to our respective homes, I stayed up until midnight to bid farewell to the rat and usher in the ox (the years, mind, not the actual physical creatures - I'm not trying to suggest Yolande's family runs some sort of vermin/cattle farm on their property). When the clock struck 12, I had a trifle more success at wishing Yolande (who was already resting in bed) a happy New Year than I did during Gregorian New Year a month or so earlier, when she muttered to me angrily in her sleep, "You shouldn't do that - it scares people!" (she remembers nothing of it).
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On New Year's Day we gathered up our mandarins (giving mandarins is a Chinese New Year tradition, stemming from the phonic similarities between the Chinese words for "luck" (ji) and "satsuma" (ju), both pronounced with a rising intonation), and drove to Yolande's grandmother's place for a family reunion of epic proportions. This involved meeting more of Yolande's relatives. A lot more in fact. I'd already met a lot of relatives in my short time here, but in one day that figure was set to double. This very much worked in mine and Yolande's favour, on account of another Chinese New Year tradition, hong bao ("red packet"), the married give to the unmarried (which most often means adults giving to children) a small envelope (mostly red, with some yellow'uns thrown in for good measure) containing a small sum of money, although some people can be very generous indeed. The custom is not, unlike western tradition, to open these small presents in front of the givers, but to gather them up and open them up altogether later in the privacy of your own home. The Chinese are evidently shy when it comes to such things.
Later in the afternoon, Yolande and I joined forces to play 21 (a card game). I was a bit reluctant to gamble even a small amount on a game I had not played before, but I'm glad I did, as we won quite unanimously, and transformed our $2 stake into a $30 prize.
In an unexpected turn of events, I took on the role of children's entertainer for the evening. The five or so children evidently decided I was quite a novelty and began clamouring for my attention, getting me to play games with them, and seeing how much tickling and pinching I could physically take. Yolande, of course, did nothing to discourage them as she sat, unbothered, nearby. It livened up an otherwise docile evening, but left me exhausted. Upon reaching home, Yolande and I counted up our hong bao money and discovered we had each received over $100 that day. Combined with our winnings at cards, it had turned out to be a rather profitable day, all told.
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On Tuesday, after eating an enormous buffet style lunch at Shan's place, Yolande and I took a taxi to her colleague's condominium, where we met some more of her colleagues and played tennis. Despite feeling energetic throughout the match, I had clearly underestimated my fitness and tolerance for the Singaporean heat and humidity. After showering I was left with no energy or appetite for the steamboat dinner which followed. I spent the entire day staring blankly into space whilst trying my best to hydrate myself. This probably didn't make the best first impression on Yolande's colleagues, but hopefully they understood. Yolande, meanwhile, had managed to injure her ankle playing tennis (I think she was going for a majestic Sampras style overhead, but ended up splayed out higgledy-piggledy on the floor - credit to her though, the ball landed in), although it did not affect her enjoyment of the meal. Unfortunately, we weren't quite prepared for the mosquitoes that plagued us throughout the evening, the bites of whom left their itchy mark well into the New Year.
