depthq - ccm|mac

Happy Valentine's Day!

I wish I could spend some time with my girl but its alright because I managed to talk to her a bit over Skype. I finally went for my first proper cycling session, though short, since arriving back in KL for about a month. Today wasn't that hot so it wasn't that bad in terms of the heat. My body overheat and sweat too easily.

I took the Sprint highway from where I stayed and headed for Sri Hartamas and then Bukit Kiara to stop by at a friend's place. I did about 10km in 30 minutes when I was heading there. Not too bad for my first time. It was just a bit hilly and I am not so good yet for those hill climbs. But I realised that I had a bit more power in my legs during those nice straight paths. It could be due to the jogging sessions I have been doing for the past weeks. Coming back was much better, only 26 minutes. It could be due to the route having more downhill.

Cycling in Beijing is much more relaxed because its flat like a pan. KL goes up and down and up and down, though its mostly gradual. Another downside of cycling in KL is that it rains fairly often and although its only a drizzle, the road will spit water at you as you cycle past those patches of water. Not fun but nothing a good shower will not fix. Oh yes, I should add on mud guards, but my bike will look fugly.

Beijing has nice bike lanes and its more bike friendly. It can be dangerous cycling in KL, especially next to the highway, which is why you need a bit more planning and try to cycle on those roads with less cars and no blind corners.

Due to the lack of bicycle lanes, I have to cycle at the side of the road which is not so flat, at times and you can easily bump on to small rocks. Because of that my wrist aches a bit. So I still have a bit of getting used to, but its fun nevertheless.

I need to get proper cycling shorts and cycling shoes & pedals, when I get some extra cash on hand .

In Malaysia, for me, Chinese New Year (CNY) means meeting up with family and relatives, having lots of good food, getting some "ang pow" (红包, hong2 pao1) and finally getting fried in the super hot weather.

In China, its more of playing with firecrackers and spectating the fireworks, trying to rest amidst all the hustle and bustle, playing mahjong and braving the cold weather.

I initially wanted to write about what is different between Malaysia and China in terms of Chinese customs, but I realised that its quite hard. Its basically the same but tiny differences in the way it is practiced. First difference, most people call it CNY in Malaysia but in Beijing, its Spring Festival, although, its changing to favour Spring Festival a bit more in Malaysia these days.

I feel that the Chinese in Malaysia are a bit more superstitious than the Chinese in the northern part of China, e.g. Beijing. I can't say for the Chinese in the southern China since I didn't live there much.

During CNY, its considered bad luck to do things like: sweeping the floor or breaking a bowl. The reasoning for both is somewhat along the lines of removing or destroying the prosperity. It is also bad to sleep during CNY in the afternoon, because its considered lazy. I think there are less of this superstition stuff when I was living in China.

For Malaysia, one only gives "ang pow" when they are married. And if you're not, then you receive "ang pow". Of course, there is supposedly some limit to this, for those who don't get married.

It seems quite a number of the Chinese in China I know don't receive "ang pow" when they are already working. In some families, I hear, if you're working, you're supposed to be giving out "ang pow".

I know that in Beijing, its customary to give things in pairs, e.g. 2 bottles of wine. I thought this was a Cantonese ritual, because of that we get two "ang pows" from each married couple.

One thing I don't get is why do we need so many different ways to say angpow:

• Angpow (hokkien), Hongpao (mandarin), Red envelope (english)
• Lai see (cantonese)
• Yasui qian (mandarin)

We eat "tang yuan" (汤圆 tang1 yuan2) during CNY and its normally quite sweet. The ones I ate in Beijing, I remember, aren't so sweet. The northern Chinese would eat "jiaozi" (饺子 jiao3zi) on the 5th day of CNY.

One special thing that the Malaysians do is to "low sang" during CNY. There isn't a wikipedia article on this, but this blog article covers it well with pictures.