9 hr mutton curry / 3 day work week

Two public holidays this week -- Deepavali on Tuesday and Hari Raya Aidilfitri on Thursday, which means that this week is a three day work week for us. Deepavali is the Hindu festival of lights and Hari Raya Aidilfitri marks the end of a month of fasting for the Muslims. What a lark! Especially since I am not Hindu, Indian, Muslim or Malay, which means I have no obligations this festive period, unlike Chinese New Year or Christmas.

My large extended family met yesterday to celebrate my first uncle's birthday though, all thirty-odd of us in a small two-room HDB flat. It was great. First Aunt cooked mutton and potato curry for eight hours, birthday noodles, mushrooms and cauliflower, fish, buttered prawns, fried fish, pigs' organ soup, green bean paste and almond jelly, and we all took turns at the table that only sits six at one go. Dinner by rotation, I call it.

A smattering of languages could be heard all evening -- Hokkien, Cantonese, Chinese, and English -- testament of how much has changed within a few generations. It is amusing to watch my aunts and uncles learn English for the sake of the little ones at home. I used to get it rough from my aunts and uncles because I couldn't speak Hokkien very well; now, they've all softened up because of their grandchildren, learning to speak Chinese and English for them. The little ones, all nine of them, are ALL boys. What's up?

Every family left with a bag of birthday buns, those pink topped buns with almond paste inside. Yummy.