A week ago, my group leader, L, informed me about the Lunar New Year celebration organized by RSPVH. He said that I could bring my family along. When I asked my mother if she was interested, she immediately said “No”. She said she already went last year and did not do anything and felt that she wanted to do her spring cleaning.
On our way to Toa Payoh Park, we passed by Ang Mo Kio. A said he saw JK. I jokingly said that we should stop the bus and go pick him. Obviously, it was not a very good idea because we didn’t want the people in the West side bus worrying.
Aren’t we supposed to be dressed in red? Apparently, quite a few seniors wore red while the others wore black? You aren’t really supposed to wear black on Lunar New Year though. XX said that since I was wearing red, I should follow him while the rest followed A. Naughty XX took my hand to hit XQ because he wasn’t told that the colour to wear had changed to black. Poor XQ. Haha… I was told that my group was “Gong Gong” and I was brought there. YY said he was going to take charge of younger children this time round. I told him to have fun.
Besides “Gong Gong”, there were “Xi Xi”, “Fa Fa” and “Cai Cai”. 2 of the groups went off to play games while “Gong Gong” and another group stayed behind.
Q & A
We were given a list of questions related to Lunar New Year. Some were True/False sort, some were open-ended. Some of the questions included “Red packet money has to be even” or “Which day during the 15-day period can you not go visiting?” The questions were all so easy and I could answer all of them. I didn’t want to spoil the fun so I didn’t shout the answers but my answers were heard by the person asking the questions.
We were given a choice of 3 types of balls, from as small as a ping-pong to as big as a basketball. For the 2 balls I chose, I got the smallest ones which would give my group more points. We were supposed to choose 2 numbers. Behind each number was an action we were supposed to do with the ball.
I was supposed to balance one of the balls between my lower wrists and another to be placed between my elbow and hip. The first action reminded me of Ryu from Street Fighter. A asked me to pose while XX took a photo of me. “Hadouken”. With the balls balanced, we had to walk a distance forward.
Locate The Sound
We were blindfolded. Someone held a speaker which was playing some popular Lunar New Year songs. We were supposed to walk towards the source of the sound. Whoever finds it, that will be the next person to hold the speakers.
Hot/Cold
We were supposed to find someone. If we walked too far away from the target, the volunteer will say “Cold” and if we were getting closer to him/her, “Hot”.
The Taste Test
We had lots of fun during this game. My group had a few little boys. When the volunteers asked them to taste something and made the rest guess, I don’t know if we should laugh or cry. Ask GS if the thing he ate was sweet, he would say “Yes”, if it’s salty, he would say “Yes”, sour, “Yes”, crispy, “Yes” Twisties, “Yes” even though it was not. Same thing happened when R, S and T had their turns. I managed to guess that LY tried a love letter. When it was my turn, I sampled strawberry juice. I played HangMan with the kids and they guessed correctly.
Getting A Pair
A box was being passed round. You were supposed to take an item each time. At the end of each go, look around to see if another person has the same item as you. If not, pick out the same item from the box the next time you get a box. When I got the wand used by Harry Potter, I said straws when I was asked if I knew what I was holding. The items in the box contained apples, oranges, spectacle box, some empty tube of cream, paper balls of different sizes. The item that did not have another of its kind is the ice pack.
Surprise Or Forfeit
This is played using the “Passing The Parcel” format. You pass a parcel around. When the music stopped, you tear a piece of paper off the parcel. On the piece of paper, either “Surprise” or “Forfeit” will be written. "Old MacDonald Had A Farm" was the music we used as we passed the parcel round. Some “Surprises” included
- Would you like a branded bag or a plain bag?
XX kept saying branded. I said that if branded was chosen, you would get a bag with NTUC printed on it and for plain, it would be a normal one. True enough, MX chose branded and she got a NTUC shopping bag. See, I told you so.
- Do you want to share this present with the rest or not?
If you chose to share, you will get a packet of sweets and a sweet otherwise
- Would you like air-conditioned or not
You either get a paper fan or a cold packet of drink.
As for “Forfeit”
LY drew a heart and wrote the letters S and M on ZK’s face
R and GS had to sing a song
SS had to dance with his volunteers
FOOD!
We mixed in the ingredients for our salad to “Lao”. As we tossed, we said a lot of blessing.
Besides salad, we had pizzas from Pizza Hut.
Do you know the volume of a pizza with radius “z” and a thickness of “a” spells pi*z*z*a! Beat that!
The younger boys love to play with the loud-hailer. They kept pressing the button which would make it play music. They also like to yell into loud-hailer. Everyone else at the park stared at them. Haha...
Prizes were given, photos were taken and we all went home. J walked me to the interchange where she helped me onto bus service 26.
Wishing everyone a prosperous Year of the Rabbit.