This new year isn't festive, but familial.
Handshakes and hugs were longer and there were more laughs.
I managed to sit down with my cousins at every stop on the first day for meals and it was sweet.

The day before, my uncle had a little Hennessy which made him extremely talkative over steamboat. Red face and loose lips are excellent tell-tale signs of inebriation.
He gave me some sips which I suspect spread the headache over.

I now decidedly like steamboats, because they bring people together. I've had a few since last week and oh, they fill me up. The small space and the hot boiling pot with goodies in it, and humour flying across the table. The jokes strike you and make you purge rice out your mouth.

Meals are really powerful in bringing people together, especially if the meal is excessive and we are compelled to dine. Such pressure evokes humour which make stuffing yourself more pleasant. This classifies as the best part of all Lunar New Year.

Of the three cars setting off from my grandmother's place when we went to Hougang and the car I was in, with my witty uncle was first even though the odds were stacked against us. I like to thing that the vehicle I was on is blessed.

It was startling to run into Jamie from the back of my father's lorry on Lunar New Year Day One on Upper Changi Rd East while she was in her family's vehicle. Shouting across to her on the road was strange but pretty cool too. Meeting a friend from school on New Year is a rare first for me.

This reminds me that I met a lot of people on Sunday in Tampines after my workout. I was pretty outraged that every food place was closed and I couldn't have my salmon or beef post-workout meal. The good Lord has made me see people whom I haven't seen for a long time for reasons that I humanly cannot fathom, but am grateful for.

White wine helps me sleep I think. My grand-uncle was very generous while emptying the wine bottle. I'm resolving to get some into a private store which I will toast to the health of my big heart. I think beer is coarse and unbecoming of my refined character.
And it makes me nauseous.

I've been stuffed so much, I think I've probably taken in 3 times the amount of carbohydrates recommended by the RDA of Singapore for 20 year-old males. Steamboat and/or rice at every stop. Right now, I feel that my midsection has been compressed top and bottom and thus it has no other option but to balloon outwards.
This is a purely horrid sensation.

I'm wary of the effects of downing a last dose of milk tonight for fear it will upset everything within.

Realisations Recently :
We must magnify the child in us, but have an adult nearby.
I'm pretty sure I like muffins more and more.
I've bulked up, but I've added fat to my frame. Which is dismal.
You never recover from the death of a close one. It's a gap that doesn't get filled in.

With God who is all powerful, nothing is impossible. Also for us humans as limited beings, our definition of impossible is far off from his. Is anything too difficult for God?

I must love because I am a reflection of my God, who is Love.

1st Corinthians 1:27-31
27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. 30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."