Forget About New Year Resolutions

It’s Chinese New Year once again and the temple was a hive of activity before the big day came. Head Nun and her assistants had a busy time preparing offerings for the altar. It was a most tedious task as far as I could see. They spent hours decorating oranges, bottle gourds, “ti kueh” (the sweet gooey stuff which stuck to my teeth when I once tried it), pineapples and a host of other items.

I was told that this is the Year of the Rabbit. I saw pictures in the newspapers of little girls and also not so little girls dressing up in rabbit head gear. I thought they looked quite silly. Now if it was a Cat year ….! We would have plenty to celebrate! Alas, thanks to the wiles of a dirty, old rat, the cat didn’t make it in time for the line-up for the Chinese Zodiac (as the story goes). Oh well, I guess we were born for greater things than just having a year named after us ….

I avoided Ning as far as I could during the festivities as I didn’t want to be involved again with one of his crazy plans to celebrate. I can’t afford to be in Head Nun’s bad books too many times! He knew what I was thinking and left me alone. Later, I heard from the other cats that he had gone to the Long Tails Club several nights, had plenty of booze and slept for three days in a stretch, completely knocked out!

As for me, I remained quietly in the temple and watched as well wishers and devotees visited Head Nun and brought her festive goodies. There was a busy exchange of what humans call “ang pows” (red packets containing money), a tradition during Chinese New Year. Wonder why nobody gave me one, I could do with the extra cash to buy my favourite soya bean milk!

On new year’s eve, we had a “special” dinner. Head Nun cooked for us “chop suey” to go with rice. It was delicious and we finished with blackcurrant juice, a rare luxury. Bless Head Nun! She always cares for us like we were her own kids.

There was a lot of noise outside the temple, of course. People were busy playing with firecrackers but I steered clear of them – I didn’t want my tail burnt to cinders! The noise continued late into the night and often shook us from our sleep – some of those crackers went off with big bangs that could give anyone a heart attack! If you ask me, all these crackers, sparklers and what have you should be forever banned. They had in the past caused serious injury to innocent passersby and left my cat friends shivering in fear under tables and chairs.

Ning asked whether I had any new year resolutions.

I couldn’t think of any. “You could resolve to sleep less,” said Head Nun. Hey, where did she come from? I wish Head Nun didn’t have such sharp ears, and eyes, for that matter.

My advice to all is to forget about new year resolutions. I'm off for my afternoon siesta (yawn). See you at dinner time ...