we normally have the reunion dinners on the eve of lunar new year. when we were younger it started out as really elaborate dinners with abalone porridge, shark fin soup, hotpot dishes amongst others. now it is a calmer affair with just a couple of hotpots on the table with roast duck and side dishes. nothing too fancy and yet it is still a warm reminder of what family is.
we catch up further over snacks. pineapple tarts and dried sotong skins and walnuts that my grandmother purchased from ntuc. the walnuts are surprisingly good, it was flavoured well and it was still whole in the shell. it reminded me of the uncles who sell chestnuts in the carts near the bus interchanges, i wonder if they make enough to cover their daily meals. the chestnuts always smelled great but i never bought them because i didn't know how to eat them.
this year's reunion dinner was easier to bear than last year's dinner. my ex boyfriend decided to break up with me just the day before reunion day, but we only had the closure conversation on the third day of chinese new year (at my reuqest). i don't know how i made it through last year's dinner but i just took a look at the calendar - i see two weeks of orange being marked as "sad and terrified" and i can't imagine what possessed me to spend so much of my emotional energy on someone who was emotionally unavailable.
not only that, i remember spending the reunion week the year prior on an absence certification in a different time zone which totally wrecked my concentration and ability to enjoy life. funny how far we have come, from pleasing our organisations to lying in bed writing about how reunion dinners have progressed in the last two years. i am not sure if this one counts as better - it is just a simple dinner with family and loved ones, and i do like it very much. no one spoke about my weight gain, and i could feel the sunshine. there were years prior when i really couldn't feel the sunshine.
an article on: roasted chestnuts
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