Welcoming the Year of the Dog

It's been a tough year of the chicken. So many things happened so quickly and today is the first day of the dog already. Started welcoming the year of the dog on Thursday with a traditional 10 course lunch at Lao Beijing. It was meant as a farewell lunch for my colleague but it turned out to be a Chinese New Year Dinner with the yu sheng as the first course. The food was fantastic especially the Wuxi Spare ribs and the hot and spicy soup. We were so stuffed after the lunch that we only limped back to office at about 3pm. It also turned out to be the most expensive lunch for most of us. Costing a grand total of $44 per person, it was really expensive but rather worth it!

Luckily on Friday, we had a free lunch from the office. Consisting of the yu sheng again, the buffet was a great welcome after our Lao Beijing's escapade. Got to talk to some of the office colleagues as well without the hustle and bustle of work. Great bonding session!

Chinese New Year have always been a rather muted affair for me since I came back from overseas. It's good to catch up on a good break and just relax and read. I have gotten 2 excellent books: Freakonomics and The World is Flat. In fact, Freakonomics was so good that I finished it in a week. To all avid readers, it is really worth the read. Understanding things like why did the crime rates suddenly dropped in the 1990s, what do teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common, what are the traits of a ku klux klan member, etc, etc. Just started on The World is Flat and it's quite an intriguing read so far. Will update more soon!