Each time many of us think of an upcoming Chinese New Year, the anxiety levels rise. There's spring cleaning to do, tons of things to buy, and, come the day, we'll be rushing about preparing food, serving food, serving drinks and washing up. Even with the help of a maid, that's no joke.
Thankfully, my case is less hectic. The change started a couple of years ago, when I thought aloud about going away for the season to avoid the stress. Mum being fairly high in the family heirarchy, lots of relatives visit, and some of them had an unerring knack of arriving at mealtimes, with children who didn't like staples like rice, but who preferred to tank up on savoury snacks, wiping out the entire season's supply in the space of an hour. One year, I went down on the second day to a dry goods shop to catch them when they did their symbolic opening, to get more supplies.
So leaving seemed a good idea, though not exactly feasible - other better-prepared people started booking the moment they get their calendars, leaving only far-flung destinations, and I wasn't about to fly all the way to South Africa for three days to avoid the New Year.
However, the thought of Mum missing the season so horrified my brothers that one of them offered to host the festival on our behalf - we'll eat the reunion dinner at his place, they'll bring their families to our place in the morning of the first day to pay their respects, then we all adjourn to his place to receive visitors.
Sounded good. We have been refining the division of labour, with various ones of us bringing our own special dishes for lunch on the first day. This year, lunch will be at a different brother's place, so the work gets shared out a bit.
I've also decided this year that another way to preserve my sanity and my pocket is to stop buying New Year goodies. I don't think I go overboard with the cakes and stuff, but there's just too many pastries going about during this time - and going at inflated prices, too! Last year, I struggled to finish the boxes of stuff that gathered in the house - force-feeding mum, Lena and myself on mandarin oranges before they got dry or mouldy or bad in any other way.
Mandarins were the easy bit. Everyone else having surrendered long before, I finally finished my last bottle of kueh bangkit in July or August. I decided, "Never again."
This year, I got a tin of love letters from a bakery in JB, for our own consumption - they have been consumed even before the New Year, and a radio station gave us a box of pineapple tarts. More tarts and stuff have come our way from a sis-in-law and another brother, which should do fine when the immediate family visits on the first day. If I find the time, I'll pop out to get a couple of bottles of aerated water.
Other friends, who have said that they wanted to give some tarts etc have been advised to wait a few months, and see how they feel then - better to eat fresh kueh bangkit in August, rather than stuff that was made in February, right? And if they forget, well, I won't remember either, so no harm done there.
There are a couple of good things that come with the New Year, which I plan to keep up, but in moderation. First is the house-cleaning - no one can argue with a clean house.
There is also the food aspect. Though I plan to restrain the buying, I've gotten some favourites, and will prepare them for the season, and everyone can eat some. But I won't prepare excessive quantities, so no one will have to pig out.
Hopefully, it will be a happy, stress-free New Year, and not too unhealthy or fattening, either.
