Can I join your CNY celebrations? I sit around watching my phone trying to avoid the cold leftovers on the table. I’ll get forced to play mahjong because nobody likes poker and then we go to bed. The next day I’ll get introduced to the same people I do every year. They’ll ask where I’m from for the 14th year running and then I’ll avoid the leftovers again.
Chinese New Year is the time to sleep 12 hours a day not one.
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“Welcome to Taiwan”
Interesting how different our experiences are. I’m always invited to someone’s house that lives just far enough away that’s easier to spend the night in their spare room. They are always up until 3 or 4 am (I shut off at midnight and unapologetically go to bed, though I don’t get very good sleep considering the noise levels) and then they want to get on the road for an island-wide drive starting at 5:30 a.m.; Five days of piling into the car with seven people and hopping out every few hours for some photos or food. Somehow I’ve avoided that the past two years. It’s been nice to sit at home with a cat on my lap and have people over or not or go out or not.
I guess it doesn’t really matter what kind of sleep people get; no one wears masks at these things, everyone is drunk and most people are chain smoking.
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I did that for a decade. Now the relatives are too old for that stuff and none of the ones our age have kids.
Oh god I’d forgotten about those trips. I’m not sure how I’ve avoided those for a long while now … maybe I’ve been such a shit on previous ones that no one invites us anymore.
Note as well that, yes, you hop out of the car every few hours, but in those few hours you’ve only traveled a few kilometers because every road is one big traffic jam.
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I feel your pain.
Add to that kids who also cringe at the cold leftovers, complaining to you later of hunger, and you get the opposite of paradise.
I stash away a bag of snacks that I keep hidden from the inlaws. Feel like an eight year old and not an adult.
I just remind myself it’s only a week…only a week…only a week.
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There is a magical machine called a microwave that can be used to reheat cold leftovers. I’d assume most Taiwanese households have discovered one.
nope…not in my inlaws
no microwave
no oven
not even a toaster oven or toaster
and it isn’t just the cold aspect that is being avoided
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ha!
got a chuckle from that one
Another thing covid has ruined. We started eating out at CNY because nobody can be bothered to cook. Now, we are back eating at home although we are ordering in so it should be better.
But still … cold.
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I always cook during CNY because everyone is closed, and those that remain open jack up their prices.
Which I totally understand as they work on a holiday.
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I was wondering how long it would take for this to get moved to a new thread 
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Hey, it was [a reply to] your post that started the annual tradition! You should be happy about that!
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I never get why people put themselves through this horrorshow every year. Like drugs, JUST SAY NO!
I really hope “like” is a verb in this sentence.
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Restaurants aren’t closed are they?
Or does the family refuse to eat out now?
I thinks its time for me to go in search of that CNY post that someone made a few years back, its probably still appropriate.