ИконописIt is 2012. The Lunar or the Chinese New Year 2012 is finally here. It is indeed an auspicious day for the Chinese where they get to celebrate the new year in the Chinese calendar. To me, it is like celebrating two new years where else those that only celebrate the western new year on the Julian calendar only get to celebrate it once.

Chinese New Year 2012 is a little bit different this year. Why???? Come let me tell you why is it different for me!

We have a simple “yee sang” (raw fish) mix but WITHOUT the fish. Why is it different? Well, previous years even when there are no fishes, we have jellyfishes. Well, that is why my 2012 yee sang is really different. So funny that this year no one seemed to rush to eat more yee sang as it is all vegetable. Knowing myself, I am not a fan of vegetable (I know… I know… vege is supposed to be good for us), so I had very little vegetarian yee sang this year.

Though strange enough, it seems as years go by, I am not that picky on certain food at last. Last time, to get me to drink salted vegetable soup with duck is like making me drink something yucky. Suddenly it is totally the opposite this year. I can definitely drink a lot this year though.

What is a salty vegetable soup? Every year I will return back to my hometown in Melaka (Malacca for you English speaking dudes) to visit my relatives and to get some taste of nyonya food.

Itik Tim (Duck Salted Vegetable Soup) is one of a kind. Talked about it last year too. The above has Hennessy VSOP mixed into the soup. The soup is delicious. For those halal people out there, you can get this soup in Nyonya Restaurants out there but for a hefty sum. For us baba nyonyas, it is a normal dish we can have every year. Hehe…

What is so special then? Ducks that were used are ducks that were rear in villages. That is suffice to say, that there would not be a lot of fats like you get on commercial ducks being widely bred. The taste would be superb, the meat might be little but there is definitely very less fat in your soup.

Did I mentioned that you can also use Remy Martin for your Itik Tim? Let me say it again, YES!!! You can!

One good thing being back to Melaka is also the abundance of fruits there. One of my favorites though is the Rambutan.

I have just found out that there are two species being grown here in the place I visited. They are Kawan Sekolah and something else…. errr…. which I cannot really remember right now.

The only problem with the rambutans is that there are Red Ants making their nest on the trees. So getting bitten once or twice is kind of normal to us folks here. Does not really bother me much. Just love the ‘kampung‘ life!!! Give me a farm or a shopping complex, I would rather visit the farm than the shopping complex. (Though give me a house to sleep and a farm, I would rather be at the house!! Hee hee…)

After all, Chinese New Year is usually celebrated and associated with card playing, mahjong. Surprisingly this year, I did not bothered to take part in any of those activities. Maybe I felt that it is more important to embrace the part of life where mixing with people without gambling is good enough. Though one change did happen!!!! Wait for it… wait for it….

The BOOZE!!!!! We have Sheridan!! We have Kahlua!! We have Bacardi!! We have some other kind of alcoholic drink my weird younger brother bought from somewhere which have a weird plum in it. Anyway, let us all have a great Chinese new Year 2012 this year and have a prosperous new year!

Anyway here is to the new year 2012 and looks like this is how I greet the new year with a new look!

KAM PAI!!!! YAM SENG!!! GONG XI FA CAI!!!

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Where was I these past few months? Sad to say, I am cracking my head trying to support systems (not that I haven’t done it before). Though what systems? They were written with Visual Basic 6 and Clippers. Yes!!! I am cracking my head just figuring it out how to support these kind of old 1998 and 1994 systems which is basically taking most of my time.

Look at the first one. Copyright© 1987 – 1998 Microsoft Corp. for Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0. The year as of writing now is 2012 and it has already been 14 years since. I think the last time I ever touched Visual Basic 6.0 was when I was in college during year 2000.

How about Clipper 5? Based on Wikipedia.

Clipper was originally created in 1985 as a compiler for dBASE III, a very popular database language at the time. The current stable version is CA Clipper 5.3b (May 20, 1997)

Seriously??? I think in due time, I will miss programming in Java, PHP and other scripting using JQuery and Ajax in the coming few months.

What actually made me crack my head is trying to understand those old codes and then finding a way to somehow revamp these old systems. The responsibilities get higher as one goes higher.

Also these past few days, my parents said I look like a zombie with the pale face. I guessed it could have been the work or rather I just did not have enough sleep. How do I look?

Surprisingly I have gained about 6kgs these past few days. I wonder why? Constant feeding? It is a mystery.

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To commemorate this year, I would like to start out with a new video which I have created using our 3 years together. Miss Yen and me, Daniel Chew welcomes 2012 with a great big heart.

Below here is our short video pieced together from our time together. Love you Yen.

In case you are wondering what song is playing at the background, you may refer HERE for the lyrics and the original video for this song.

The year 2012 is still fresh. Once again Happy New Year 2012 to everyone!

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Unbelievable it is now the year 2012. Surprising how time flies. It was about 6 years ago when Daniel Chew the blogger started blogging on the blogspot platform and it has also been 4 years since moving to WordPress. Year 2012, the year that people say the Mayan calendar stopped short. Well, whatever it is, I am going to enjoy this new year. I believe that one of the most important thing is to update this blog regularly.

A surprising thought and facts for the people out there. On the eve of the new year, it was my very first public count down for the new year that I have ever joined. Where did I go? Desa Park City!!!!!!! Yes… I really meant that. That proves that I usually do not go out for these kind of events previously and now thought why not? Since we live only once.

The new year could be celebrated with a toast of Carlsberg mixed with Gusiness Stout with friends and family (did that post new year with my brothers and uncle and the taste was superb).

Well, new year usually means new goals, new directive, new job??, new everything. So what does it bring to this blog, which was recently changed to Daniel Chew the Weird in this new year? More weird adventures? Less adventures but more things to write? That, I can assure you is I do not know what lies in the future. What I do know is that, I will be way way active.

Surprisingly, this is the only theme which has lasted more than 2 terms. I think it is time to get a newer theme and bring forward some changes. Anyway let us get back to how it was, my experience doing the countdown on the eve of new year.

Location: Waterfront, Desa Park City
Crowd: Lots
Time Arrived: 8pm
Patience to wait for a parking spot: Priceless
Patience when you noticed a guy coming out to get his car from the car park: Mega Priceless

The agonizing wait for the new year has begun. While the musicians and performers dance through out the night, a few of us spent our quiet dinner time at the Coffee Bean outlet. Clock struck 1115pm, time to move out to where the crowd was gathering. Doing the countdown with lots of people though felt weird. Maybe I am weird to begin with, there are lots of different types of people and rather some familiar faces which I got to glanced upon but due to me forgetting their names, it was wise not to approach them.

The fireworks arrived as the clock struck 12am. Happy New Year 2012. Forgive the photos quality, I know they are not DSLR quality photos.

Anyway once again, my new year resolutions are to be

1. More involved in my marathons
2. Gain weight and muscle mass
3. Lose my tummy fats
4. Take photos better
5. Be a better man
6. Write more stuff on the blog.

There are more, but writing all of them down would not count as a resolution, more like a dream. Why have I been having fewer posts? For those that do not know, I have few other blogs and they are all listed below.

TechieDan - gadgets and technical know how blog based on experience
Daniel Chew Photography – the name itself mentions its purpose. It was a long wait to get this domain name
and many more… not listed here.

Until then, Happy New Year to all my friends and family. Do give me a ring or contact me for a drink or catching up session.

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Have you tried eating durian with your dinner? Your lunch? Or even your supper. When I say that you eat it together, that means by mixing them both up and the both of them are on the same plate.

Well, I do and this is all thanks to my dad who taught me this unique way of eating durian. Basically it is superb. Coming from a Malacca born dad, most of us can use our hand at home while eating. So hand + durian = durian rice.

Most people who does not eat durians does not know what they are missing. There are many tastes from different type of durians. There are the bitter ones, the creamy ones, the fleshy ones, the one that taste like alcohol ones and many more others. I seriously like those bitter ones (taste like alcohol) though, rather than the sweet ones. Nowadays there are too many grades of durian, where we used to have only D42, Musang King (superb taste, a must try), D50. I could not keep track at all.

So now you know that I can actually eat durian with rice. I am hungry for a durian party. Anyone organizing anything. Remember durians, remember Daniel Chew, remember danielctw remember that it is not so weird after all.

Durian Anyone? Sekali Cuba, Hari Hari Mahu!!

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