In Continuum.

I think relatives are like medicines, the right prescription usually amounts the right amount, taken at specific times of the day and over a specific period of time. Any more than the recommended amount, at more times a day than told, you are probably going to end up with a bad stomach, a worse flu, or just worse in general. I think relatives are like that for the most part, tolerable in small dosages but never a good idea to visit them collectively. They seem to be the most powerful when they all come together in one room, and the worst part is that there really isn't a place for you to run for the most part. This room is being taken up for temporary child care services, and that room is being taken up for private touring sessions. You are left with the corner of the sofa in the living room, and that spot exposes you to the ruthless questioning from the relatives, with questions you may not necessarily want to answer. You know, like how old you are, do you have a girlfriend, are you in university now, questions that you've answered them a dozen times over, in which they've never really bothered to remember. I am expressed my distaste for collective dosage of relatives last time, and festive seasons never fails to bring up such memories. 

But that is the basis of Chinese New Year, it is an excuse for the adults of the family to come together, while the younger members of the family play cards and get dumber. There hasn't been a research being done, but I am sure a day of continuous gaming and relatives can make a person a couple of IQ points dumber, I'm sure. I am glad, at times, that I am not there in Taiwan for Chinese New Year, because that'd mean that I'd have to meet with the relatives. The word "intolerable" does not suffice anymore, because they are more than a bunch of people I "cannot tolerate". I love the word "insufferable" in contrast, because it means that "you are so distasteful that I do not even want to suffer the consequences of being in the same room as you", type thing. Like I said, I can stand them when they come in small bursts, sometimes even take a liking to them. But you know how it is with relatives, or with people in general. Sometimes you just want to run away from everything. The downside is that I am stuck at home for the most part, but then again I am not exactly complaining about things. I get to spend some time with the parents and the sister, and I suppose anything more would cause a major meltdown in my head. 

So, the majority of the time has been spent at home with the parents, over tea and formulaic television specials on television. Those aren't exactly the most exciting things to do, but it was really the time spent with the folks that mattered. Thankfully, we have the Australian Open to entertain us this year, and damn I love to watch tennis matches! Anyway, Chinese New Years are meant to be boring, and I have long ago settled down with that fact. At the age of twelve, I spent Chinese New Year playing approximately fifty rounds of Solitaire, followed by stacking the cards into pyramids in my parents' bedroom afterwards. I remember that Chinese New Year distinctly, because I was down with a high fever and I had absolutely nothing to do. It helps that my red packets get air mailed to me, but back then I couldn't really appreciate the times spent on my own, all alone. You know, when you get to do the things you want for a long period of time, that's kind of how it is like for me right now. It has been all about movies and TV shows, videos of people being "tazered" on the internet and face plants. Yes, those are some of my guilty pleasures, but I suppose during Chinese New Year, it would be inauspicious to judge others on what they are doing or not doing. Oh, don't forget the rule about not saying "death", and also the one about sweeping inwards, if you know what I mean. 

Maybe the reason why I stay at home most of the time is because everything outside during this period of time can really rub me the wrong way. You know, all the shopping malls playing the exact same horrid Chinese New Year songs every single year, as if they are supposed to play them to boost the festive season from the rock bottom that it is in right now. And the lot of us thought that Christmas songs are repetitive enough, Chinese New Year songs are not only repetitive, they are plain bad. At least we have the variation of Christmas music once in a while, a saxophone version of Jingle Bells or a jazz slash blues version of it. You never get that kind of variation with Chinese New Year songs, they almost always sound horrible. Nobody ever bothers to write better songs for the occasion now, and I do wonder who wrote the originals in the first place. They are probably dead by now, and their children are probably living off the songs played in every mall across the country, or the world, every year. To tell others that you are living off songs like that, it isn't exactly the proudest thing I'd be telling my children. "Did you know that your great great grandfather wrote that?" I'd be so ashamed. 

This is the same for many festive seasons around the world though: the broadcasting stations assume that when it is a festive season, people don't want to watch their normal television programs anymore. We do! You know that period of time when all the good TV shows from the States were halted because of Christmas? It's something like that even during Chinese New Year, and it's annoying. Though that is not to say that Singapore produces anything that is worth watching for the most part. So the normal television shows are not aired, and they are usually taken over by New Year Specials, which are just repeated movies disguised with the name "Holiday Specials". They aren't really that special, and the advertisements in between those not-so-special shows are, well, special in a very bad way. It's funny how in Singapore's tradition, local celebrities have to appear in horrid commercials on television, promoting the same brand of food every single year with that plastic smiles. You know, the same Ba Kwa every single year, over and over again, with the same celebrities saying the exact same thing. I wonder if they get bored of doing it, or do they actually feel that it is some sort of obligation to do so. Because really, it is now at a point whereby I don't want to contribute money to the company, just so that they'd stop making those ads in subsequent years. 

I still have quite a lot of days left in this holiday before this ends for good. I welcome the red packets, but everything else just seems a little hyped up for me. I suppose other than the bit of casual reading that I should be doing for school as well as some researching, it is going to be yet another uneventful year. No surprises though, it's not like it hasn't happened before. Perhaps next year, I should go somewhere for Chinese New Year, for kicks. You know, not Taiwan or Singapore, but just a place where they hardly even know about Chinese New Year. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.