Chinese New Year Rush

Last Sunday, 18 Jan 2009, many traders in Miri were taking the opportunity to attract as many customers as possible. So many of them had "one day sales". Although the economic outlooks wasn't good at all, shopping for Chinese New Year (CNY) celebration was as aggressive as ever! CNY is not about economic outlook. It is a once a year only celebration and it is very important. Even if one is very poor, buying something "special" is a must.

In Imperial Hotel, they removed the deco for Christmas and immediately, the deco for CNY is up. Anyway, I also take this opportunity to wish all my readers a Happy Chinese New Year.

Like last year, Boulevard in Boulevard wasted no space at all. Temporary tents were set up to rake in extra income!

The car park was packed to capacity!

The interior is decorated and the CNY mood is really hot! Everywhere is red which means "good luck". There were so many people last Sunday.

Oh... we joined the fun! Shopping at a pre-inflation price is a good idea! After this, we went to Boulevard at Imperal Mall to continue shopping. Just in case you don't know, prices at Imperial Boulevard can be cheaper!

I have some interesting observations:
1. People will try to park as close as possible to the main entrance. So they will jam up the front part of the car park. So be sensible, go to the back and do some walking.
2. In the supermarket, people could have the will power to pick cashew nut one by one to ensure that everyone is "perfect";
3. "No tasting" sign for the "tip bits" had finally been removed. The management must have realised that "no tasting" sign really means nothing to the shopper, me included! After all this is part of the fun.
Reflection on Chinese New Year
1. When I was young, I remembered that we ate button mushroom only once a year. Another treat was the canned sweetcorn and canned halved peaches. All these were luxuries and we wasted no money on them other then on CNY. This was the only time we eat "Yu Mien" - the yellow oily fresh noodle.
2. This was the day when we may be buying roasted pork or bought a lot of pork which had "lean" meat on! Otherwise, we consume "fat" pork only.
3. I must be about 5 years old when I went out with my sisters to the town. They wanted to visit a friend who stayed upstairs of a shop lot. They said that they did ask whether I wanted to go upstairs. The next minute, I saw them "disappear". I panicked and quickly cross the ferry and walked home! Haha...brave eh!
4. Probably we went to the movie. This was probably once a year treat. My late mother always said "There is no need to watch movie. When you grow up, you can watch much better movie and as many as you like." What she didn't realise was that she had trained her children to be freed from movies! Until today, I still don't go to movie or watch too many on TV.
5. I will receive RM1 or maybe 20 cents for my ang pow.