time of year and time of life

Festivity is a time of nostalgia as it brings back the hope and excitement of childhood memories.In the big,extended family,third uncle and aunt would buy gauzy materials from textile shops like Mun Long in Petaling Street and sew nearly identical frocks for all the nieces and nephews.It's a time when the stone mill is brought out to grin d glutinuous flour to make nien gao.Huge woks and tins filled with banana leaves to steam the sticky nien gao.The family altar table was cleaned and decorated with fresh fruit and flowers.we young kids made red paper cuttings to paste on mandarin oranges and pomelos.It was a bustling kitchen as ma ma or grandma presided over rolling of dough,making peanut puffs to fry in woks of boiling oil.It was a time to eat waxed duck ,meat, and yu sang or raw fish.The wan yu was bought live and kept in a plastic basin,before it swam in our stomachs.The loud firecrackers caused the road outside to be lined with red paper.
     The feasting is still fabulous but my younger sister in Singapore has globalised the food.The only traditional dish was the LOHan vegetarian and the almond dessert.The rest of the meals was global from Japanese croqueetes filled with mochi and cheese,Greek and Italian red wine,egg yolk butter fillet,prawns in herbal chinese wine with dong quai,smoked duck,duck rillette,parslane greek salad,french cheese and lots of love letters and pineapple tarts.My sis has  acquired a gourmet tast in fine dining and her kitchen is amazing with precise utensils to male japanese black garlic which was surprisingly delicious to homemade Japanese plum wine also fantastic.Everything is home made and it was better than dining in a five star restaurant.
   I worked out morning with yoga and tai chi and swam everyday.Had time to read Ken Robinson's book Creative schools and bought Murakami's short stories Desire.
The connectivity of public transport in Singapore is smooth and seamless except when my idiot son who tried to push me in a rush for the MRT when my knees are so creaky that I nearly slipped and fell.I basically hate concrete jungles and so I cocooned myself in my sis's rooftop garden and swimming pool to rest and relax.Man made entertainment and structures are a big yawn.
   The service industry is excellent and efficient which makes moving around easy.Visited the Sri Lanka temple in Bendemmer road and saw how the had beautiful floral arrangements in a plate for homage to lord buddha instead of that plop into a vase floral non arrangement.The Thais,Sri Lankans and Balinese are more artistic than the Chinese.