Year of the Water Rabbit just around the corner

 The Chinese community from all over the world would welcome the Year of the Water Rabbit in 2023. The Vietnamese, Japanese, and Korean communities would celebrate the New Year as well in their unique ways through food, dance, and honouring the elderly, particularly our parents. Here in Malaysia, the Lion Dance culture has evolved to include acrobatic performances. The Lion Dance societies and clubs have included girls and boys from different racial backgrounds (Malay, Chinese, and Indian). Watch HERE. I drove to KLIA airport happily to welcome my sister (who works in Singapore) home. Watched the Missing Menu together with my mum and sister. A Hakka Cook Book author wrote about the Missing Menu after watching it on Netflix HERE. A quick trip to Pudu Ria Florist on the last two weekends before the Chinese New Year celebration begins on 22 January 2023 in Malaysia, was needed to pick up my two pots of Kalanchoe flowers. Managed to take a quick picture of their center-stage display of cartoonish rabbits and bigger pots of flowers before hurrying back to my car. I bought a potted Phalaenopsis orchid before at this Florist and one of their friendly employees gave me a good tip on how to maintain this orchid plant. Pudu Ria Florist's website can be found HERE. Wish this florist had a wheel-chair-friendly cafe and toilets else I would have brought my mum here for breakfast. We started our journey back to Segamat, Johor on Friday morning. This year I exited the North-South Plus highway through Tangkak. We stopped for lunch at a Bak Kut Teh restaurant in Tangkak named FA LAI which has been blogged about by Johor Kaki. We were lucky enough to be served the final claypot soup dish of the day and side dishes of steamed chicken feet which we wolved down with bowls of rice (as pictured below):- 

Collected freshly plucked Pomelo (Giant Grapefruits I call them) from my mother's friends Mr and Mrs Tan who operate a fruit orchard in Jementah. They grew durian trees, the Musang King variety and generously gave us some to sample. I fell in love again with cold, creamy durian. Really tasted like ice-cream! The view of the Ledang mountains from Jementah (as pictured above) always amazes me. The red pineapple which was grown for decorative purpose and will be offered to the deities during prayers, added to the festive vibe of Chinese New Year although it will be a very quiet welcoming of the Water Rabbit for me and my family in 2023.