Chinese New Year

Dragons Playing Pearl Fireworks Mines and Shots review

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cny06 firecrackers box

This is a box of assorted firecrackers and fireworks that somehow appeared in my room in Sibu in a mysterious and somewhat nefarious manner. 😉 I gave most of it away since I prefer loud and large fireworks and firecrackers. There were a lot of assorted fireworks (and more will mysteriously appear again tonight) in the box with a couple of larger scale firecrackers.

cny06 colorpeony twins

This is 48 Colorpeony placed next to a 16 Colorpeony for scale. The number represents the amount of shots inside the fireworks. Mysterious mysteries. Colorpeony is a popular Chinese New Year firework and again, it somehow appeared incriminatingly in my room. I love loud firecrackers and huge fireworks boxes that produce the pyrotechnics I crave. 🙂

I got up at 7 am this morning (“got up” not “woke up”, haven’t slept in two days) feeling extremely irritable for no reason at all so I decided to wake up the neighbours with the 48 Colorpeony firecrackers. It’s supposed to be lit at night so the flaming balls and sparks that shoots up into the sky isn’t overpowered by the sun, but I wanted to cheer myself up.

cny06 colorpeony light

Thus, I set the 48 Colorpeony fireworks on the ground near the auto gate and prepared to light it up. The size of Colorpeony fireworks is huge if you haven’t seen one – it has a footprint as large as a notebook (larger than the mini laptops) and it’s about one foot in height and girth. I asked my mom (who was conveniently there) to take a video of the pyrotechnics.

cny06 colorpeony spent

She did…at least all that aiming and panning stuff, but she forgot to press the shutter button! Arrrggghhh…I would have killed her if it wasn’t Chinese New Year coz it was a really good scene coz I was being stupid. I just lit the fuse, stood there looking down INTO the fireworks, gave a running commentary on my favourite firework and got hit by one of the shots coz I stood right beside it. Jesus Christ, I wish that was recorded…

dragons playing pearl fireworks

Thus, I went up and grabbed this new firecracker that I bought – it’s called Dragons Playing Pearl Fireworks Mines and Shots which is a damn long name. It’s smaller than the Colorpeony fireworks but I didn’t want to waste another Colorpeony so I decided to check out this new firework. It sounds intriguing enough. Dragons Playing Pearl Fireworks Mines and Shots. Mines. Shots. Mmm…

dragons fireworks

Download: Dragons Playing Pearl Fireworks Mines and Shots [sixthseal.com]

I gave my mom a 30 minute tutorial on how to use the video function of my digicam and taught her the basics of panning correctly (she doesn’t know which scenes should be focused on at what time, so I had to give her audio cues…loud ones, in the video, and she had to use zoom coz she thinks fireworks are dangerous in close proximity) and lit the Dragons Playing Pearl Fireworks Mines and Shots.

cny06 morning sibu

The Dragons Playing Pearl Fireworks Mines and Shots are surprisingly captivating. It alternates coloured balls of fire and shots of explosions in a standard 30 tube box firecracker format. It doesn’t have the sheer intense exit velocity of Colorpeony (which is loud and shoots up a good 200 meters into the stratosphere) but the Dragons Playing Pearl Fireworks Mines and Shots holds its own for a firecracker in its class.

cny06 morning fireworks

It’s very therapeutic to light fireworks in the morning. I went to bed straight after that and just woke up for the reunion dinner. I’ve only had half a sandwich in two days so I’m a little hungry. I’ll light more of the Dragon Playing Pearl Fireworks tonight when it’s dark so it would look better…

…or should I do it now? Hmm…

Related post: Firecrackers in Malaysia – photos, videos and descriptions [sixthseal.com]

P/S – I love Sibu, practically everyone is letting off firecrackers (which was what woke me up just now) in the neighbourhoods. There’s always a constant sound of various fireworks and firecrackers, distant and near, and that, my friends, is the true spirit of Chinese New Year. There’s more to come tonight – that’s when the Chinese New Year Eve celebrations really goes off large scale. I have more boxes of interesting fireworks and firecrackers for tonight, so stay tuned!

Happy New Year to all of sixthseal.com readers!

Gong Xi Fa Chai!

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Chinese New Year visitation photos (2005)

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cny05 karen

These are the Chinese New Year visitation photos from this year. I
was supposed to go on another one today, but I can’t make it coz I
slept late last night. The photo above was the point house – Karen’s
place, where we met up at about 11 pm or so. The people grew and shrank
with every house due to personal obligations – Karen is the one in the
white dress.

cny05 justina

This is us at Justina’s place – she’s the one in blue, middle. I’m
wearing a red shirt, and I’m on far left in this one. I noticed that a
lot of my ex-classmates who did medicine is now doing a final year
abroad, I’ve seen interesting photos from India, Scotland, etc.

cny05 siew leng

We dropped by Siew Leng’s place after that, and she was doing
homework on the second day of Chinese New Year, which was quite
impressive. She’s the one in the middle, red stripes.

cny05 thien na

The next house was Thien Na’s house…and a lot of people congregated and left there – Lisa, Wendy, Collina, Jenny etc.

cny05 me thien na

Here’s me and Thien Na coz we realized that that particular corner
of the house has been featured in the past few CNY photos so here’s one
from another angle.

cny05 catherine

We went to several houses before ending up at Catherine’s. She’s
wearing a muted red and standing in the approximate middle. It was good
to catch up with all of them, all my ex-classmates, and see where they
are now. That’s the best thing about these group visiting exercises,
though I usually go out with a smaller group of people. It was fun,
catching up.

Skybound Hackers Havoc firecrackers

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cnye05 firecrackers usual

The festivities of every Chinese New Year’s Eve demands firecrackers
and fireworks and this year did not disappoint…in addition to the
regularly scheduled display (otherwise known as The Usual Suspects),
there was also a new firecracker that debuted this year.

cnye05 hackers havoc

It’s a Skybound product and it comes in the standard 16 shot format
– it’s called Hackers Havoc firecrackers and it comes complete with a
pasted on display of some fried out dude bathing in the green cathode
ray of a monochrome monitor, with frequent appearances of “Legion of
Doom” and classics like that.

cnye05 hackers havoc fuse

The fuse is on the top of the firecracker, and it does bear some surprises when we lit this one sometime after midnight…

cnye05 hackers havoc lit

The first few shots comprises of a smattering of “Colored Rain” –
bursts that disintegrate with a crackle into more pyrotechnics in the
air.

cnye05 hackers havoc red

It then switches to the “single red glowing bulb” interim…

cnye05 hackers havoc two

…before launching into two-tone standard issue reports with flare
mode and finishing with a tri-side-burst of white light that caught me
by surprise. It’s a good one, this Hackers Havoc – a product befitting
the name, a medley of fireworks, what one imagine would be the
byproduct if pyrotechnica was controlled by a hacker for a minute or
so…

cnye05 sibu fireworks

This year’s firecracker and fireworks display, sponsored by The
Citizens of Sibu, was no less outstanding in turnout, if less so, in
duration.

cnye05 firecrackers

It’s still a cause for celebration that the festive season is ushered in the traditional way, back here…

cnye05 pop pop

Oh, and Colored Flower/Chai Lei is being renamed Pop Pop again this year…

CNY red underwear!

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cny red underwear shop

I was out with a couple of friends and we chanced upon these bright
red underwear for sale – it’s meant for Chinese New Year. It was quite
popular too, as quite a few people were looking at it. We were doing
that too, when a sales person came up and asked us what size I was. I
told her I didn’t know, and we discussed about the merits of having a
loose versus tight fit. 😉

cny red underwear

We all bought one box of the red underwears each. I didn’t have time
to have a detailed look at them last night. Besides, I can’t read
Chinese. Thus, I brought them to the office this morning and got them
translated.

cny red underwear 3

The Emilio Valentino 100% combed cotton briefs comes in a set of
three. I bought the L sized ones, while one of my friends went for the
M and the other had to go for XL.

cny red underwear chai

One of them has the Chinese character Chai meaning
Prosperity emblazoned in gold across the bright red underwear. This
interplay of color is supposed to be very auspicious – the red, a
traditional color of the Lunar New Year celebrations for the Chinese,
combined with gold, which symbolizes wealth, comes together to make on
hell of a prosperous brief.
You’ll want to be wearing these when you’re gambling.
Sure win one!

cny red underwear dragon

The other has an image of a dragon, presumably to symbolize the “dragon” that lies under the bulge when one is wearing it.

cny red underwear prosperity

The third and last one has the gold Chinese character for Fu,
which roughly translates to happiness, in the family context. It’s
probably wise to be donning these on during the Chinese New Year eve
reunion dinner to avoid unwanted questions and stop bickering relatives
(if any).

cny red underwear angpow

It also comes with ang pow (red packets)!

So there you go – the complete package for Chinese New Year.
Prosperity for gambling sessions, dragon for you-know-what sessions,
and happiness/unity for the reunion dinner. All bases covered.

cny red underwear wearing chai

Don’t forget to tell me in advance if you want to set up the
traditional Chinese New Year gambling session…I’ll be donning this Chai brief on the outside. I’ll be letting it all hang out. 😉

More Chinese New Year visitation photos

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We went for another round of Chinese New Year visiting today. It’s
the 4th day of CNY (“chu shi”) today so this would probably be the
final Chinese New Year visitation photos since no one really goes
visiting on the 5th day (“chu wu”) unlike in the old days. I hear
people visit up till Chap Goh Meh (15th day) in the past. Anyway,
here’s the three houses we visited today:

hie yieng house
Hie Yieng’s house
L-R: Ting Chuan, Ah Ping, Huai Bin (me), Hie Yieng, Siew Fua.
I’m the one in black attire.

Hie Yieng is a friend from my college days in Sibu. I used to study
at MPI which was where I met Siew Fua too. I think we kept Hie Yieng
waiting from 10 am till 1:15 pm…she was planning to head out when we
wanted to visit. Oops. 🙂

winnie ha house
Winnie Ha’s house
Winnie is the one in blue.

I haven’t seen Winnie since she went to LA six years ago. We were
from the same primary school and went to the same high school as well.
It was great to catch up with her after all these years – found out
that she was in KL and also in Melbourne at the same time I was, albeit
the interlap was just a couple of days. She’s in Melbourne now. It’s
always good to catch up with old friends after a long time. 🙂

ming tze house
Ming Tze’s house
Ming Tze is the one in the middle.

Ming Tze is also another old friend from primary school and we were
in the same class in high school. I think the last time we met up and
talked was two years ago. She’s also based in Kuching and I’ll be
working there starting February so there’s a good opportunity to catch
up. 🙂

It’s been a great Chinese New Year! I’m glad I came back. 🙂

Visiting during Chinese New Year

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We went for another round of Chinese New Year visiting today. I
didn’t sleep till 4 pm as planned…woke up at 9 am (alarm) and zoned
out till about 11 am. I was quite scattered from the previous night but
it’s all good, we headed out to visit a couple of people. The first
house we went to is Siew Fua’s.

siew fua house
Siew Fua’s house
L-R: Huai Bin (me), Siew Fua, Ting Chuan
I’m the one in the Monash University T-shirt.

We sat around and talked for a while before heading (unannounced) to
Datina’s place. It’s a good thing she was home and we spent more than
an hour catching up. Here’s a shot of us:

datina house
Datina’s house
Datina is the one in white.

It was about noon at that time so we were invited to have lunch with
their family. Great timing, we haven’t had lunch yet. 😉 I loved the
tea – it’s a fruit and herbal fusion that tastes great!

datina lunch

Next up is Vivien’s house, have been meaning to visit her since it’s
been a while since I’ve talked to her. We also met her sister (Hello Jennifer!) at her house.

vivien house
Vivien’s house

I somehow inherited some chai lei firecrackers here.

happy boom

It’s made by the same company as the original Chai Lai but this one
is called Happy Boom instead of the misleading Coloured Flowers. These
firecrackers seem to sound slightly louder than Coloured Flowers and
actually have a nice plume of sparks as the primer.

vivien hii
This is Vivien, who occasionally comments here as “vivi”. We’re all from the same high school.

Anyway, Vivien came along with us to visit Thien Na. Thien Na is one
of my classmates who was in Melbourne with me. I’ve since graduated,
but she’s planning to settle there. Here’s a shot of us:

thien na house
Thien Na’s house
Thien Na is the second one from left.

The final destination was Chiew Yieng’s house…er, mansion. We
spent the rest of the day there talking until about 7 pm. Here’s a
photo of us at her place.

chiew yieng house
Chiew Yieng’s house
She’s the one beside me, second from left.

Feng tau Chinese New Year (a police raid and the great escape)

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This New Year is going to be very auspicious for me because we
narrowly avoided being raided by the police. =D It started when we went
to My Place for some good old feng tau action to celebrate the Chinese
New Year.

my place raid 1
1 1/2 Marquis dengan Mandelin biru, lima dan bir.

my place raid 2
Here’s another shot of us, didn’t get everyone in, unfortunately, our convoy of 13 people were scattered at the venue.

sixthseal.com’s My Place video clip [sixthseal.com]
(1.17 MB zip file, right click, save download as)
Extract from the zip file – it’s a .mov file (Requires QuickTime Player)

Click the movie above for a small video clip of the place.

Anyway, much fun was had until exactly 3 am when everyone started leaving in a hurried pace in droves.

Rule #1 – When people start leaving en masse, get off your ass and fucking cabut with them.

I managed to mobilize most of our group and we all headed out of the
place. Not a second too soon, there was a fucking group of police
walking determinedly towards the venue. Hell, the first wave was nearly
at the doorstep and we nonchalantly (as close to nonchalant as we could
manage anyway) took a sharp right. None of us could afford to
get hauled in if you catch my drift. I got into my car with my friend
and drove off, just in time. Close call…

Phone calls were made to ensure that everyone managed to get out
safely and we set a rendezvous point outside a nearby hotel. Bad news,
one person in our group didn’t get out. Last we saw, he was behind the
speakers. By that time, the place was swarming with police – there were
patrol cars, sapu vehicles (those trucks used to load people in for
drug tests) and personnel. I wanted to take a photo but that would be
an extremely stupid thing to do, so unfortunately there’s no raid
photos. We waited a while and turned back to search for our missing
friend.

Stroke of luck, he managed to get out as well. 🙂

Alls well that ends well, let me get some nitrazepam and alcohol into me and no one wake me till 4 pm. Party safe everyone.

Chinese New Year visiting photos

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The first round of Chinese New Year visitations kick started as I
was awakened at about 1:15 pm by a phone call, and we arranged to meet
at Johnny’s house to start things off:

johnny house
Johnny’s house
L-R: Lee Ling, Daniel, Johnny, Huai Bin (me), Ting Chuan.

Next up is Frank, stopped by his house and played with his kitten. 🙂

frank house
Frank’s house
L-R: Daniel, Ting Chuan, The kitten and I, Frank, Johnny.

Picked Frank up and we headed down to Diana’s place. She’s actually
living in Kuching now, but comes back during Chinese New Year. This is
the first shot (facing inwards):

diana house in
Diana’s house #1
Front row
L-R: Huai Bin (red Quiksilver T-shirt), Doreen (holding the baby, Diana’s eldest sister), Diana, Daphne (Diana’s elder sister).
Back row
L-R: Frank, Ting Chuan, Johnny, Daniel, Lee Ling.

We took another shot facing outwards:

diana house out
Diana’s house #2
Front row
L-R: Daphne, Doreen, Diana, me.
Back row
L-R: Lee Ling, Daniel, Johnny, Ting Chuan, Frank.

Next up is Lisa’s house. Here’s a shot of us:

lisa house
Lisa’s house
The one in the red shirt (not me, the female in the red shirt) is Lisa.
The others can be recognizable from the previous photo captions.

We finally adjourned to Daniel’s place here:

daniel house
Daniel’s house

I’ll have to go out again in a while. I’ll try to reply all the
comments until I have to leave. Chinese New Year, quite busy, my
apologies. 🙂

Chinese New Year in Sibu

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A photo story

stringing firecrackers

There’s the stringing of firecrackers over the balcony to avoid using the unwieldy pole method.

shun lee hung cloth

The lesser form of firecrackers (Shun Lee Hung) doesn’t sound as
loud nor does it have a lucky banner (it has a cloth instead) but is a
common replacement considering the dearth of the traditional “fuck you”
loud ass Chinese firecrackers.

firecrackers second floor

We wait for the clock to strike 12 am.

burning firecrackers

Everyone lets off their firecrackers at the stroke of midnight.

red carpet

A red carpet lies in our wake.

dual chai lei

Other shenanigans like lighting two (or three, or four) firecrackers at once can be attempted at this point.

sibu 1

It’s not Sibu if there isn’t a man made fog after midnight! 🙂

sibu 2

We won’t have it any other way. Here in Sibu, Sarawak, we aim to scare away the nien ghost the only way we know how to – light the fuses comrades! 😉

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