I had a very lazy Chinese New Year. Just went to visit 2 households for the day. There isn't much to do at people's house apart from watching the black box and dropping crumbs all over the floor. Unless you have your PSP or some other entertainment gadget lah.

Visited my ex-babysitter's house first. My 'third brother', Alex and his wife, Hui Fang came awhile later. They got married last year so this is the first year i'm getting an angbao from them! ;D

Let's see.. So that me, my parents, my second parents and my three brothers. The eight of us were sitting around watching the movie, Beast Stalker. At one part, it was a operating theatre and there was a scene showing the bloody bullets removed from the patient. My mom was like,"So bloody". And i said,"Really meh?"

Dang. I must be reading too much shounen and seinen manga. I still cringe at convulsion, though. You know those damn horror movies whereby the person is injected with some lethal chemical and he starts convulsing? It freaks me out big time!

Enough of that. Anyway, i went to my third uncle's house next since my granny's staying with them for the CNY. Everyone sat around munching on goodies and playing with their gadgets or watching old re-runs on TV.

It's amazing how i can fall sick on Chinese New Year. Stupid cough. There i was, hacking up my lungs during dinner. My aunt's nice, she gave me a cup of warm water to sooth the throat and my uncle gave me a pack of Eclipse mints. :)

After dinner, my mom suggested we all play Blackjack. And she made me play too. My cousins, Gerald, Valerie and i were the Blackjack greenhorns. Rofl. It's easy to pick up the basics. The hard part is how you intend to play with your cards and putting on a poker face. I only learnt the importance of putting on a poker face after watching how my uncle played the role of a banker. Can see that my dad and my uncles are experienced gamblers by looking at how they view their cards and how my uncle plays the role of the banker. -_-

The term "beginner's luck" is so true that it's eerie. By the end of the night, i was known as the "Blackjack girl" and Gerald, "the Double Ace guy". I got "A&J" or "A&K" like 5 or more times in two hours. The same thing applied for Gerald. He kept getting "A&A". My dad became the "Wu Long", meaning five dragons, because he always get 5 cards without exceeding 21 points.

My dad, who has experience with gambling, calls this the 'evil of gambling'. Simply put, this evil misleads you into thinking it's easy to get rich by gambling and drags you into the vicious cycle of gambling.

Pfffft. I don't even like money. There's no way i'll get addicted.

But hey, wanna know the best part of the night? ;D

At 10pm, for the last night, my mom raised the bet to $10 for everyone. AND I GOT BLACKJACK AGAIN! $20!! I threw down my cards and screamed! :D

My mom told me later that she had a feeling i would get blackjack for the last round. Hoho.

To be frank, i didn't make a windfall. If i hadn't won the last round, my mom would have made a loss. So i only break even. Ah well. It was fun while it lasted.

CHARMAINE CHEONG.

I’m a somebody and a nobody. I’m rational and emotional. I’m critical but I’m non-judgemental.

I like my things categorized by types and chronologically. I like taking photos to preserve the moments of my life. I like dystopian literature. I like reading Wikipedia articles at random. I like travelling to foreign lands and seeing the world. I like long conversations over good food. I like pop and classical music. I like guitars. I like cats. I like writing random, mushy letters and notes to the people important to me. I have a whole long list of things that I like, but you’ve got to get to know me better to know them all.