Happy Chinese New Year indeed! 

"We're here, we're here!! I can't believe we're back!!"

I remember shouting that when my mom drove my sister, brother, cousin and myself back to Taiping to our grandparent's home during our schoolbreaks. She would leave us there and head back home to KL while we spent our holidays with our grandparents. It was the best days of my life.

I love Taiping with all of my heart. I love it for all it holds for me. The memories of a great childhood, when the four of us would run about doing the craziest things. When I see my cousins who are at the age we were, I pity them because they hardly do anything without their parents or at least some form of adult supervision.

My grandma used to just let us do anything, from sitting outside the house burning candles till we were tired enough to call it a night ourselves, to running about and exploring the house and the compound alone with adult supervision only appearing during meal times. I remember we watched TV until late at night and when we were hungry, our grandma would cook maggi mee (instant noodles) for us and I could swear that she cooks it like no other. It always seemed more delicious eating food in my grandma's house.

So much sweet memories... but I think I'll keep most of them private and hidden in the recesses of my own memory. There are just some things too good to be shared with just about anyone, or even understood. This year's Chinese New Year was one of the best I've had in a long time, minus my maternal grandma's absence. Maybe it's because of it that I appreciated being in my paternal grandparents presence more.

Taiping was good. Really good.
so writes ee @ 10:20 AM