Secret of giving…

I love the lyrics of this song by Reba McEntire – part of it goes like this:
If there’s just one secret to living, whoever you are
It’s learning the meaning of giving with an open heart…
If you offer the best part of yourself
even when you don’t have anything else
Honest and true, it’ll come back to you –
Love comes back to you…

Much has been said about giving – how in giving, we will receive and what goes around comes around but I do believe that when one gives with one’s heart, the joy and good feelings that one derives from it, the good vibes and the blessings, the strengthening of love and friendship bonds that ensues would be reward enough.

My girl would not be coming home for Chap Goh Meh which fell on a Thursday so I prepared some of the ingredients for her to have a steamboat dinner with her friends/housemates/colleagues at their quarters in the school. That, of course, meant that there would only be the two of us at home – my missus and I so I decided to invite my good friend, Lim, his missus and three children over to my place…and I also told my missus to ask my in-laws over. Everybody would not be home so at their house, there would just be my mother-in-law, the son and the wife – only the 3 of them.

My sister-in-law went and bought these Foochow-style sio bee (meat dumplings)…

…from this age-old restaurant in town that has been around for as long as I can remember. She shouldn’t have really as there would more than enough to go round, I was sure, but anyway, it was so sweet and thoughtful of her to go through all that trouble – she said there were long queues that day as everyone was buying some home for their Chap Goh Meh dinner as well.

In the meantime, I told Lim not to bring anything but as always, such things would only fall on deaf ears and they brought us these…

– biscuits and coffee…and TWO bottles of pek chiew (white wine) from Kuching for cooking kacang ma. Hmmm…I knew they would not come empty-handed and I also knew it was the son’s birthday a few days ago so I prepared an ang pao specially for him and of course, when we get down to cooking some kacang ma chicken, I must remember to send some over to their house to reciprocate.  In Hokkien, we refer to this as oo lai oo khee (got come, got go).

That very evening, I received a call from someone that I knew very well – we used to hang around the same karaoke pub in the 90’s. He is based in Miri now and was home for Chap Goh Meh and the weekend and he dropped over at my house to pass me these…

…from my cousin and his very sweet wife in Miri. I love these tau sar peah from there, much nicer than those anywhere else and the khong therng is really very good…

…too but I think the nice one that we can get over here…

…has an edge over it. Both have that very nice freshly-ground peanut fragrance unlike the ones sold at the supermarkets but I feel that between the two, the one from Miri is a little sweeter.  Anyway, at least, they can get it very easily there unlike here – that lady will make whenever she is in the mood…and nobody knows when that would be, not even the lady who runs the stall at Medan Mall here selling these and other Foochow delights. I once wanted to place an order for 100 packs and was turned down. Tsk! Tsk!

It rained a bit that evening, very briefly, and the weather that night was very pleasant and cool. I did not look out for the full moon but the fireworks…

…and the firecrackers raged on through the night to mark the end of the Chinese New Year festivities for the year.

Thank you so very very much, all, for everything…and as for our Chap Goh Meh dinner, you’ll read more about it in the next post. Stay tuned!

P.S.:
Gee!!! It was my blog’s 7th anniversary yesterday and I had been so caught up with things around here, all the Chinese New Year festivities, that I did not even realise it until I got this message: “Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com!” in my notifications. My! My! Time sure flies…and it’s been seven years already. Let’s drink to more happy years together and lots more anniversaries to come. Cheers!!!