Posted 11:59 PM

The Tang Yuan strikes back.

In this special collector's edition, you will find out the meaning of the tang yuan, and about the author's trip to Princess P's palace. Also, there's a bonus section at the end!

Ok it's called Dong1 Zhi4 冬至.
From the web: During the Lantern Festival, people eat tang yuan. Tang yuan are round balls of sticky rice with different fillings inside. Some are sweet and some are not. The fillings include: black sesame paste, tangerine peel, walnuts, meats, fish, and vegetables. It is important to eat tang yuan during the Lantern Festival because they represent family reunion and unity, and their shape is the same as the full moon of that night.

From my tone you can deduce I had a great evening. Because Princess P said her mum invited me over for dinner and tang yuan. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go, because Princess P and I were still stuck in a situation in which we both didn't know what to do. But then her brother smsed me saying their mum already cooked my share and I said yah I'll be there.

I didn't know how to drive to her workplace, so I met her a little at the middle and fetched her back. Reason being I didn't wanna meet her at her void deck and have only 5minutes before we go up. Such is our situation I thought spending a little time with her first might help. But the car journey wasn't very pleasant. And after I parked the car we had the most silent of walks, up the lift, and to her unit.

We soon warmed up and things got better. Dinner was excellent! I ate with the whole family! It was very nice vegetables ( Both types I don't know the names, but they just happen to be the ones I like. ) + corn, wu xiang (I've no idea what's that in english. Some meat pieces.), and chicken! Soup was corn and potato. The children, including Princess P, has fussy tastebuds and they think the chicken isn't nice enough, the soup isn't tasty enough, the meat isn't blah blah, the that isn't bleeh bleeh, the doo isn't dong dong, the ding isn't dang dang. You get the idea. Without sounding like a ma pi jing (horse fart spirit? Ok meaning someone who licks boots.), I really found the food tasty. And it's been a long time since I had a proper meal. Why? Another story for another time. It's nice sitting (albeit a little cramped) around a table with 6 other people eating dinner. It just feels like my own family. An embarassing incident was I dropped a vegetable on the table, after which I picked up of course. I blame it on the slippery spoon. I also don't know why auntie gave me fork and spoon when everyone used chopsticks. I think it's because Princess P doesn't use chopsticks. I forgot to tell her about this. Heh. I think using chopsticks will be easier when sharing food. Easier to 'kiap' mah.

After dinner, she, her younger brother, sister, the 4 year old baby and me packed ourselves in her room to watch television. I was quite surprised when the little girl just treated me like a pillow, and then later played with me and even hugged me. But I feel very happy inside because it shows that she likes me (or at least doesn't dislike me). We also looked through many photos, although there were one or two awkward moments when we saw particular pictures of the past. All this happened while the tv was on channel 8 and the brother was playing maple story. Wah the graphics so cute! I also wanna play.

Soon it was time to eat tang yuan. I insisted on taking the bowl with 2 instead of 3 rice balls, because frankly I was very full (You should see how much rice she gave me for dinner and yet she said it's little, and I had to finish all.), but her mum insisted insisted (yah man, 2 x insisted is more than 1 x insisted) on giving me 3. And the soup itself was very nice. We could smell it from our room. Princess P and I had a laugh because we ourselves tried to make tang yuan a few days before and apparently there wasn't much aroma hahaha. We then played scissors paper stone with the little girl, and had a nice chat. It was then around 1045pm and I decided to leave, 'cos it was late and I feel as if I was disturbing them. The sister wanted to shower but hasn't done so yet! But in a way it's because she's having fun with a lot of us, and I'm really glad they all seem to like me and enjoy my company. I truly have a lot of fun when I visit her house too. Her father also told her to get me a glass of water. I'm not sure if I got this right, but her sister said it's the first time her father said this to anyone. Wow I'm so touched anyway. Did I mention the last time I was there he told me to drive carefully on the way home? Princess P said he snatched her lines. hahaha. The amusing thing was, Princess P passed me the drink and I took a couple of sips, and offered her to drink. She finished the whole glass in an instant. Her sister said she's wu yao ke jiu (beyond medicinal cure) HAHA. But seriously she's always like that. More recently she finished the ribena before I could touch the cup. Anyway main point is that her family members are great.

So it's time to go and I asked Princess P to walk with me to the staircase, because I had a surprise gift for her. It was a special day. The gift was a little blue soft handphone pouch with smileys on it. The pouch was too small in my opinion to put any handphone. But I didn't buy that for her to put her handphone. I used that as a container to put what I wrote on a piece of coloured paper. The pouch was a tight fit one so it was perfect. She later smsed that she liked it. Anyway, she was nice enough to walk me downstairs. We chatted along the way, clearing the miscommunications and talked about how we can make this relationship better. An hour zoomed by just like that. We both wished we could talk longer but it was really late, so we parted. A wonderful evening came to an end.

Bonus section:
Ok. In case any of you strangers hopped on to my blog, here's a sneak preview of how I look like, or at least how a 4 year old girl thinks I look like on a piece of paper. The girl stays in Princess P's place during weekdays before returning for the weekend to her parents.

Everyone asked why is there an onion on my head. She said it was my hair. Eh I don't even put gel on my hair to make it stand. It's just a lump of mess, but it's not pointed! I still drew stars and wrote hao and good to make her happy, and she clearly was overjoyed. Actually this picture isn't that bad. The one where she drew Princess P... =x hahaha... was really hideous. Too bad I don't have the evidence to show you guys.

Hope you enjoy this special collector's edition. These moments will remain in my heart. =)


triggering Mr Ng HS |