Hey hey hey!
Check out the this crazy Pineapple above. It had a mini tree growing out each of its nodes. I bought it to bring luck into our household, and as a decoration for the Chinese New year party, that we recently hosted. Also featured in the pic, is a balloon apple, and some sweet South African vino.
I organized a Chinese new year party on Tuesday evening. In true dense population style, I invited as many people as possible, and eventually crammed 14 people into our little room (incl. us). This could have been the reason why the party didn't last long... but I like to think it was because people needed to work Wednesday.
We had plenty of traditional Chinese new year snacks. All the types of food represent different blessings that will be shared, i.e. Oranges/tangerines are for good health and long life, Apples are for safety... Other appropriate snacks are Pistachios (or peanuts), flavored watermelon seeds, dumplings, and other indescribable stuff.
Tom, Tim. Tim, Tom.
These boys collectively brought gypsy punk and soulful song lyrics to the party. I asked everyone to bring the lyrics of a song to the party, which many people envisioned as a "Karaoke - sing the song event", but I had "Poetry reading class event". This caused a variety of songs: Some meaningful ones, some that were good to sing along with, and some that were crap.
These were the songs of the night (with video links):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UAjcuSVZMs Manic Street Preachers "Ocean Spray"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBPKYMWVa78 Depeche Mode "Can't get Enough"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI6r6APUwK0 "Eye of the tiger" by Survivor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfq_A8nXMsQ "The Sunscreen song" Baz Luhrman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFjP-OJ7Bh4 "Nobody but you" Wonder Girls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEmJ-VWPDM4 "Turning Japanese" by The Vapors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJI_UHnhCNM Chinese New Year song with cute little girls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CPz5tpZpQ4 Green day "Good Riddance"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp-gndm2Xfs DeVotchKa "Queen of the Surface Streets"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kawpm2y4IQs "Choy Sheng Dao" (財神到) : The God of wealth is coming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87XQKCXfFjQ&feature=related Carpentars "Close to you".
It just wouldn't be a party without Steph and Kelly
Grrrr! Robyn and Anneen were getting in touch with their wild side. The coming lunar year, is the year of the Tiger, so my bathroom towel came in handy as a nice decoration for the party.
Robyno, Anneeno, Ryno, and Catherino were "o" so fabulous.
Catherine, Kelly, Lynn and Vicky, brought the authenticity to the Chinese New Year party. These are the four Taiwanese-English Teachers that I have the pleasure of working with everyday. Their English is very good, and they always surprise me, by throwing a crazy word like "Glutenous" into sentences. Vicky was wearing a traditional silky Qi Pao dress.
Cliff, Hannah, and Johan. Cliff was wearing a Teepee-shaped Taiwan farmer hat and some lucky boxers (to bring fortune and money). Hannah was wearing a elegant red scarf, and Johan was wearing a bullet-proof vest.
Enjoy this short clip from the party.
Officially the year of the Tiger starts on the 14th February 2010, but the firecrackers have already started to blast off. Apparently during next week, there are firecrackers, going off all hours of the day and night, banging away any bad luck.
Gung Hey Fat Choy ... and Happy New Year!
