It is 'T'neah Kong Seah' again

When the clock strikes twelve zero one at midnight, the sound of firecrackers will be heard.

Yes, it is T'neah Kong Sneah (The Birthday of the Jade Emperor) again.

Legend has it that the Hokkien people were saved from being slaughtered by their enemies when they hid among the leaves of the sugarcane when they passed by a sugarcane plantation. Hence, on T'neah Kong Sneah, the main item is a pair of sugarcane plants with all its leaves and roots intact tied to the legs of the altar used to pray to the Jade Emperor of the Heavenly Realm. It is a way the Hokkien people say thank you to this plant for saving their lives.

Other items for prayer include 'ong lai' (pineapple) to bring in good luck, 'nian gao' to symbolises getting promotion year after year.

Happy praying to the Jade Emperor to all Chinese, especially the Hokkiens.

The three-day rental scam

If you have a house for rent, watch out for people who offer to pay you very attractive rental.

There is evil intention behind their act. Read the following true account of the rental scam.

A man, Mr X wanted to rent a house on a daily basis after having seen the telephone number of the house owner somewhere.

He offered to pay RM200 per day for three days that he would stay in the house. This transpired only through the phone. Being a busy man, the house owner had no time to see this tenant and he would come to collect the RM600 on the third day. Meanwhile he asked the tenant to collect the keys from the guardhouse as he left them with the guard.

On the third day, the house owner telephoned the tenant because he wanted to collect the rental from the man. However, the telephone was not opened. He tried several times and lt went dead all the time. Feeling suspicious he went to his flat unit and sure enough the man had esconded. Hence he locked his house with a new lock.

On the next day, a group of Banglashis came to the flat, telling the guard they were renting a house there. The guard took them to the unit mentioned earlier. They could not open the door of the flat unit. The guard then telephoned the house owner. He told them that he was not renting out the unit at that moment.

Only then did the foreign workers realise that the earlier temporary tenant had cheated them. He collected RM1900 from them, that is RM800 for deposit, RM800 for one month's rent and RM300 as utility bill deposit. He had produced an agreement with fake name and IC number on his part.

In conclusion, the unscrupulous tenant had cashed in on his deal with the house owner, milking money out of the Bangladeshis who worked in a nasi kandar eatery.

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The Chinese usher in Year of the Dragon today

Today is the first day of Xin Nian or Chinese New Year. For this year, it is the year of the dragon.

Dragon symbolizes power and hence commoners were not allowed to wear clothing bearing any resemblance of the dragon. Only the King in China has the picture of dragon embossed on his attire which was known as 'long pao' or dragon robe.

The Chinese also likes to be associated with the dragon that they call themselves 'long de chuan ren' or 'descendents of the dragon'

It is believed that this year's dragon will bring in wealth or money as it is a 'water dragon'. In 'wu xing' or the five elements, the dragon belongs to water, one of the five elements. The other four are gold, wood, earth and fire.

When working at your desk, it is suggested you face west and avoid south-easterly direction.

Reunion Dinner

Today is the day of get-together for family members far and near as it is Reunion Day - the Chinese New Year Eve.

Most Chinese people are working outside their hometowns and they seldom meet. However, once a year they will make it a point to get together over dinner when everyone will be present. It is during Reunion Dinner that they are together again as one family.

Usually steamboat dinner is the best choice with so many members of the family around.

I just finished Reunion Dinner with my family members. For this year, we can vegetarian steamboat. It is not a bad idea to go vegetarian as it is good for our health.

Taboos when making nian gao

Nian gao or what is know as kuih bakul in Malay is the glutinous rice dumpling cooked over slow fire for 12 to 24 hours. It is a must for Chinese New Year as the Chinese will place it on the altar of the Kitchen Dewa in the hope that He will make a good report of the household for the year in front of Jade Emperor in the Heavenly Realm when He goes there on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. It serves as a 'bribe' to aske Him to report only the good things and leave all the bad ones.

When preparing this 'dodol' type of cake, there are certain taboos to be observed. No one should utter things that 'it won't turn out well', 'it will not turn to the colour of gold' or some negative thing said before it is cooked. If such things are uttered, nian gao will not turn out as it should be.

Moreover, ladies having period are also not allowed to prepare this food or it will turn out to the right colour and texture.

So much for taboos about making nian gao.

How to use 'lend itself to' in a sentence

The expression 'lend itself to' means 'is suitable for'. You can sentences such as the ones below.

1 This hall lends itself to holding a grand birthday party as it is very spacious.

2 This stadium lends itself to hosting a grand concert as it can accommodate 5000 music enthusiasts.

However, you cannot make a sentence as follows.

This shirt lends itself to being worn by kids only.

You can say 'This shirt is only suitable for children only.'

A quick brown fox

While waiting for my SC (School Certificate) exam results, I enrolled at a typing school to learn typing. This proved useful to me even now because I can type with the correct fingering.

One sentence that I had typed many times and could still remember is the following sentence:

A quick brown fox jumps right over the lazy dog.

It contains all the letters in the English alphabet.

If you are learning to type, type the above sentence many times and you will have ample practice of all the letters on the keyboard.

The Brilliant Mind

I just finished watching 'The Brilliant Mind' hosted by 8TV. It is a very good programme as it increases one's general knowledge. In the Reality Show, there are three competitors and one of them will be eliminated based on the lowest prize money gained. Then the remaining goes to the next stage of competition and finally one will go to the final when a RM30,000 is waiting for him or her if she managed to answer all the last five questions correctly.

In the first round, each participant is asked a general knowledge question. If he answers correctly he will be given RM300 and he will be allowed to answer question 2 which is based on a roulette with graphics and numbers superimposed and he will be asked to give two numbers where the graphics are identical. This question fetches RM200. Again, the same participant will be given another chance to give another pair of numbers whose grapics are the same in shape. This last question is worth RM400 if answered correctly.

All in all, I enjoyed watching the reality show.

Watching online TV

When I was touring China, I like to watch CCTV, the local television station. It came as a surprise to me that I could actually watch the same contents worldwide because CCTV has a online version with the same content broadcasted in real time. I discovered only today when I stumbled upon the site where you can choose to watch CCTV 1 until CCTV13.

I was attracted to the CNY special programme where talented people would be chosen to do the annual variety show. CCTV3 is now having auction and it is televised online. I suppose I will be able to watch the real variety show come this Chinese New Year.

It is a wonderful idea for countries to allow the world to view their television programmes as is done by China.

I will have a great time watching some of the wonderful documentaries thru this CCTV.

When air is water

In Malaysia, notices are displayed in Malay and English. Confusion arises when the spelling of both languages is the same.

For example, when your fill up your petrol at a petrol and needs to inflat you tyre you will go the side when water and the air pump are provided. Here you will see 'Air' and 'Angin' being displayed side by side. To the local people, it is very clear that 'air' means 'water' and 'angin' means 'air'. It will cause confusion to the foreigners as they may think that the Malay 'air' is the same as the air they are familiar with.