Of course I would like to have Ang Baos. Plenty of it please. If you have no idea what Ang Bao means, it is actually “Red Packets“. That red packet has money in it. Usually even digitals of currency like 10, 20 or 40 dollars. This is a Chinese tradition whereby the parents give their children Ang Baos for the Chinese New Year. You know, red means luck for the Chinese. This also applies to the children of relatives and friends who visit your house during the Chinese New Year period. I can just imagine how much money these people have to fork out if they have a lot of friends and family coming to their house. Some of these families can be very big and can have a lot of children coming as well! Wuhahaha, what a nightmare!

Anyway, it’s not just for children, but for anyone not married, like me. So if I goto someone’s house, the elders there will have to give me red packets too. So I will usually join the kids at the little children’s table playing with Lego or those blocks and then get some dough. A bit humiliating, but hey, I got to live somehow right? Eat the humble pie, they say. If only they say, eat the humble Bak Kwa. Okay, now I am eating it. Whoever is the smart ass who added the “humble” as the main ingredient in pie is pretty stupid. It doesn’t taste nice at all, but the benefits can be oh so good.

I used to visit to everyone I know to get those Ang Baos, but nowadays with the transport fares so high, I don’t do that anymore. Not really worth it. What I do now is to visit those who live nearby. I have several friends who live very near, those are my first targets. After getting the Ang Baos from their parents, I will then proceed to those living near my workplace. So after work, I go visit them and again get some Ang Baos. This way, I don’t have to spend extra on transport. Yes, you can call me a cheapskate or a miser, but what can I do after all these price/fare/tax increases you see everyday occuring in Singapore? And I still want my Ang Baos!!