i am invited to a CNY house party ....

[beppi]

Do we need a [sarcasm] tag?

[chris_pilgrim]

With the LOCALS?
Really?!?
How are they?
What do they do? What do they say? What do they eat?
Are they as strange as many posts here suggest?
Are they human?

beppi dear, it was not a close encounter of the 4th kind!!

[earthfriendly]

A friend's friend export French cognac, and export the most to Singapore. I started drinking cognac and Yomeishu at 9 yo. My mom would offer me one ounce, to be washed down with plenty of water. I was encouraged to take different types of alcoholic drinks for different health benefits (beer = cooling, some helps to ease menstrual pain) and to calm my nerves. I suffer from anxiety and especially right before an exam.

During confinement, my Hong Kongese confinement maid went thru two cognacs (????? don't quite remember) per week. She would make this magical concoction where she steam fresh chicken with cognac and serve the cognac juice to me and toss out the chicken. It was delicious despite the fact that I don't enjoy alcohol. I find the taste of alcohol too strong for my stomach and throat but I cook with it a lot, mostly rice wine.

[earthfriendly]

My mom likes to bring me a bottle of cognac whenever she flew into USA to visit me. And I am stuck with the bottle because I don't drink that stuff, now that there is no more mom-figure around to force it down my throat .

[earthfriendly]

--------------------------------------------------------
'Lucky Money (8686) ($1 Bill - Crisp Uncirculated) Chinese New Year!
Winning bid: US $2.99
Shipping: $16.06 International Priority Shipping
--------------------------------------------------------

Pay $19 for $1 bill, lucky issit? [for whom?]


----------------------------------------------
'You are bidding on the TOP note in this auction! You only get one note, that's the one with the serial number E90008686E.

This bill is a great gift for Chinese New Year as 8686 means I've hit it rich, I've hit it rich!, or I've prospered, I've prospered.
----------------------------------------------

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lucky-Money-868 ... 3a8a62cb4e


Yes indeed you have if you're selling banknotes at 20:1 the value.

The beauty of capitalism at work, my friend. A willing buyer meets a willing seller. Each ends up with what they want. Kaching, kaching........kaching. A win-win-win situation, including Ebay that charges a commission for providing the portal that enabled this transaction.

Anyway, international mail out of USA is expensive. Just saw that a small international priority flat rate to SG is $23.50. Don't know how he could charge less than that.

http://ircalc.usps.com/?country=10378

[sundaymorningstaple]

It went up 2x in the past 18 months. It was 16.95 for the Int'l Priority Small Flat Rate Box. And the service is even worse (if that was possible).

[Primrose Hill]

And how was the fourth encounter, Chris?
If I am ever homesick, I merely console myself reading my friends newsfeed, district line up the creek again, tube strike on Tuesday or stuck on a train at Waterloo.

It will be ok, first year is the hardest.

[earthfriendly]

The domestic priority flat rate boxes are convenient. Never used the international ones, not sure why it is so pricey.

[nakatago]

Do we need a [sarcasm] tag?

People have been working on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_punctuation

[beppi]

People have been working on it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_punctuation

I like [!]

[BradClark]

I went to a few CNY parties. I've worked out that there is two types of Chinese people. The first One type (that is the most common) that can only drink 1 beer, go red in the face then pass out later on the sofar. And the other type that can drink you under the table two times over.

[sundaymorningstaple]

I know a bunch of the latter.

[JR8]

Curious indeed, I can't say I've ever met a Chinese person who 'can drink'. And no, I'm not suggesting I can or would wish to figure in the annals of Bacchanalian indulgence. It's simply that I haven't.

Slightly tangential: But what I have noticed, amongst SGN-CN friends abroad is their deep appreciation of fine wine and fine cars. It is almost like being out of SG opens these avenues for them, and they take on the task with great and earnest enthusiasm.


--- Something that I've never seen discussed before: The plight of the SGn posted to 'the West', who adjusts, and then later is facing getting sent back home.

[the lynx]

Ah cognac and Chinese wine, they make excellent Fuzhou red wine chicken and fish head soup...