Chinese New Year - The Prep Starts

Chinese New Year is less than two weeks away, so my prep started today.  Yes still got some time but remember my new years resolution, to be more organised out of work.  The prep today was preparing the red envelopes for CNY.

Red Envelope is known as lai see in cantonese or hongboa in mandarin.  This is a monterary gift.  The red colour of the envelope symbolises good luck and is supposed to ward off evil spirits.  The designs of the red envelope has changed over time, gold and red envelopes are the most popular.  The ones I'm giving out this year are gold...aren't they cute!

The amount of money contained in the envelope usually ends with an even digit as in chinese beliefs off number money gifts are traditionally associated with funerals.

So being married during Chinese New Year is quite costly as the red envelopes are typically given to the unmarried.   So me and Sin won't be receiving any :-(, oh well.

xoxo

容祖兒, Joey Yung, Concert Live at Royal Albert Hall

For many of you, you probably won't have a clue who she is.  Joey is a cantopop singer from Hong Kong, and she came over to the UK to do a show, her first ever in Europe, and me and Chi were lucky to go along last night, thanks to Sin.

I use to be a massive fan of Joey, all her CDs, on my ipod, singing away, but over the last few years I've just lost track, lost track of her music, lost track of chinese music in general.  So when I heard she was coming to the UK, I was excited but at the same time apprehensive as I didn't know any of her new music and had forgotten the words to her old!  Not a good start!

Oh well, not to worry. So off to the Royal Albert Hall we went, yes she held it at the Royal Albert Hall; and weren't we in for a treat, 3 hours worth! yippee!  Interesting fact is that she is the first female chinese singer to perform at the Royal Albert Hall and only the third chinese singer to do so!  Thought I would throw that in!

We sat at the top, but the first row, the view was still good and I took my SLR so was able to get some good shots.  Joey not only looked good, she sounded good!  Thanks to last night I am busy searching my old music to find her songs, I hope to see her again, she was great!

Photos can be found here http://gallery.me.com/yychan/100099/IMG_3587

xoxo