Gong Xi Fa Cai! Kong Hei Fatt Choy!

To all who are celebrating the Spring Festival, my somewhat belated (actually, not really ; there are still 9 days of festivities -- and thus by default, a lot more munching, feasting and, ahem, gorging -- to go yet) wishes for a Happy Lunar New Year! May the new year of the Rooster bring you and yours much joy, happiness, health and fulfillment.

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Wan Shi Ru Yi Shen Ti Jian Kang Xin Xiang Shi Chen Yi Fan Feng Soon Bu Bu Gao Sheng Ma Dao Gong Chen Nian Nian You Yu Da Ji Da Li Hong Yun Dang Tou Rong Hua Fu Gui Xin Nian Kuai Le, everyone!

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Thank you to all who wrote or left comments enquiring after me and sending me New Year wishes. Thanks for thinking of me and for being concerned. Please bear with me for a little longer as I slowly get to each of your emails.

My sincere apologies for the protracted blogging silence. It has been one thing after another.

First, I was away. Then I came home only to have my computer act up on me. The monitor died. Which wasn’t all that bad really. After all, it gave me the perfect excuse to run out and get myself a sleek, chic and elegant 19” LCD panel (woohoo! ). But what do you know? The motherboard became jealous of the lavish love and attention I was giving my new monitor, and so decided to up and leave as well. Yep! She decided to simply expire on me, without notice, without even so much as a hint of what she was plotting and scheming so secretively and quietly as she hummed unobtrusively in the background. Never mind that she had only been in service for just over 2 years. Never mind that she left me in a lurch with a ton of unread and unreplied emails. Never mind that it was almost Chinese New Year when things were always at their craziest.

And I learnt my lesson -- yet again (for the umpteenth time) -- that I should, no, must backup my data constantly. Backkup data. Backup data. Why does that never occur to me until something happens to the PC?

Given that I’m not technically inclined in the remotest, it has meant that things are getting sorted out according to someone else’s schedule -- not mine. And so it is taking me a while to get back up to speed on my new PC. I’ve now had this new PC for 5 days, and some of my software are still not working! Which means we have to be photo-less for a while more… I can’t get the photo bit working yet! Sigh!

I swear, each time I change computers or have to format / re-format hard-disks, I end up screaming wild, raging murder at Bill Gates. I’m cussing and muttering unspeakables under my breath. And many a times, I’m almost tempted to hurl my brand new PC against the wall. Yes, I know, it’s Chinese New Year, and one is supposed to think only nice thoughts and say nice things to and about people. But Windows makes that a nigh impossible task, I tell you.

I mean, am I asking for a lot? No, I don’t think so. All I want is for Windows to work cooperatively and harmoniously with all the other pieces of software that I need to make my life easy, fun and happy. Is it so much to ask that it stops giving me ridiculous error messages and making those awful beeping sounds, and just plain making life difficult for me? I mean, I’m not asking it to perform miracles. Heaven forbid! No, all I want is for Windows to be friendly, easy to work with and helpful! That’s what it’s meant to be there for -- to make life a breeze. Yeah, right! Not when it treats every piece of new hardware and software as a potential enemy to be battled and rejected. Urggh! It’s enough to make a gal want to switch to the Mac!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, it’s taking me many (many, many) days to get everything reloaded and working properly (key word here), to retrieve and restore my data etc. But I am at least, finally, back online. And it feels good!

Oh, but before we leave this awfully boring subject, would the technically-savvy out there please, please, please (I’m begging you) help me with something... two things, actually. Does it matter which order you load the software? For some reason, it seems to create conflict for certain softwares depending on the sequence everything gets loaded up? Something is definitely conflicting with something else, but I don’t know what with what, if you know what I’m saying. (I’m so tired and fed-up of re-formating and reloading everything! It’s soooo frustrating!)

And why am I suddenly being swamped (it feels like an invasion!) with pop-up ads and messages -- even when my browsers are not open! In fact, even when I’m not using the PC, pop-up ads pop-up (pun absolutely intended) constantly! Urgh! Let me say that again… URGH! I’ve never had this problem before. This is the first time. I know, it may sound strange, but I’ve never had to deal with pop-up messages before. What’s up with this new copy of Windows?!?! Even scrubbing my system with two different anti-spyware programs hasn't solved anything. URGH!

Also, how on earth do I get IE (Internet Explorer) to open up additional windows in their fully expanded size, rather than in small midget boxes which I have to manually expand. It’s driving me crazy, I tell you! I can’t find a way to tell Bill Gates’ “masterpiece” to stop bugging me, and to let me right click and open additional full-sized windows. I’ve never had this problem with all my previous PCs. (Are you seeing a trend here?)

Please help someone… before I yank all my hair out, or before I commit murder!

Sorry, is that three things I just asked? Yes, I think it is. Okay, I’ll stop here, because there are many, many more irritations in my digital life right now, and this can very easily turn into a 100-page anti-MS rant.

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I think that’s enough of all that depressing stuff. On to happier -- and yummier -- things…

Boy! Life was crazy in the 2-3 weeks before Chinese New Year. I did so much baking this year it was unbelievable! I was almost living and breathing nothing but flour, eggs and butter! I even started to dream of nothing but flour, eggs and butter in my sleep!

And after a few weeks of frenzied, chaotic, frantic (and panicked -- right at the end, when I ran out of time) daily marathon baking sessions, many of which stretched way past midnight, the final tally… about 20-22 (I lost count towards the end) different types of cookies, and hundreds and hundreds of cookies for each type (I really don’t know how many hundreds, or thousands, of cookies I made -- people were just making off with batches of the cookies almost as fast as I was churning them out; many were wanting to place orders, but I simply didn't have the time this year and had to disappoint everyone). On top of all the cookies, there were also several other different types of Chinese New Year goodies that I had to ensure were flowing from the kitchen in time for the first day of festivities.

Then there was all that cooking on New Year’s Eve for the reunion dinner. Add spring cleaning, work and… Life, and I had an overflowing, groaning-with-excess plate to deal with.

It was exhausting work! And I think I probably have had my fill of baking and cooking for at least the next few weeks (or months even!)

Yet, over and above the tiredness, there is a deep, deep sense of fulfillment and joy. I have created quite a few winners this year -- recipes I truly love and intend to keep and re-use again and again for many years to come. The gratification of seeing those I love and care for genuinely enjoying the fruits of all that hard labor is priceless and immeasurable.

It has been a good New Year. I hope yours (for those who are celebrating) has and continues to be as good.

Regular blogging will resume soon… with pictures (hopefully! -- fingers crossed) and more food talk.

Until then, Happy Valentines, everyone!

Copyright © 2005 Renee Kho. All Rights Reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, publish, distribute or display any of the images or text contained in this article.