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Saturday, February 9th, 2008
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4:19p
The sun came out for (Chinese) New Year’s Eve and I joined the adult family for a mid-morning yum cha. This was a particular novelty as I normally end up sitting on the kids table at extended family dinners – not that there’s anything unfunny about watching the boys have lychee peeling and eating races (and perhaps being the one who started the whole thing…) but it’s nice to have some conversation and not constantly be watching for potential spillages. That said my grandmother is a little hard of hearing and my recollection of my dinner at Carla’s was met with a rather idiosyncratic exclamation – ‘Oh! So you had a blood test!!’ She proceeded to talk at length about green beans – we were all very confused until we realised she meant her green recycling bin.
My family’s not really into superstition but there are some Chinese New Year ones that we do try and observe. Like wearing something fairly new on the day. New Years is always synonymous with bows for me. I distinctly remember being about 8 eight years old and picked up by both of my parents from school of New Years day. With Carla, Derrick and myself squished in the backseat, our parents took us to a department store and said we could have one thing each to wear. Something new for that day. I took forever and ended up selecting this oversized dusty blue bow hair clip. I loved it and wore it only on special occasions before it snapped because my hair got too thick.
And so bows it was this year too. It was a bit of a struggle trying to take a photo of my own outfit. I clearly need to get a boyfriend or learn how to use self-timer. Or take a photo of a reflection. Or try not to be so vain.
I’m meant to be working on a story on Sydney’s Chinatown for a travel magazine and had to find ways to make it look appealing. Mooching around Chinatown trying to take a nice photo was hard and I ended up with many photos of red lanterns, figuring the designer could photoshop it into something passable. Terrible I know. So I did what I knew best, took photos of good looking food. I think I even got a bit of depth of field going - yay for the slightly blurry chilli sauce!
I’ve spent the last few days working – writing, selling cakes, putting clothes on hangers and actively listening to the radio, waiting for this one particular song. Hoping to tape it. So far failing. All the while there has been ample time for thinking, over-thinking and I am truly scared, petrified even, anxious about graduating and maybe not finding a job. Well not just any job but that fabled perfect job. This was incredibly acute last night over dinner, as friends spoke about shopping for houses and settling down and I had absolutely nothing to contribute. It was one of those I’m-about-as-exciting-as-a-chickpea moments and I realised I barely know what I’m doing in the coming week let alone where I want to wake up every day for the rest of my life. And maybe that’s ok. I woke up with a pretty nasty cold and got to leave work early. I'm kinda enjoying all the soup and tea and honey sandwiches while I'm on the mend.
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