I am sure all of you guys have watched the Petronas ad above already. It features a school boy who did not draw a picture of a reunion dinner during his art class period (Reason? Watch the ad). I first came across this ad yesterday night at the tomyam restaurant I frequent. LY and I were having a quick bite before I sent LY to catch the bus back to KL. I got a bit emo after watching the whole ad (which festive season Petronas ad won’t have that effect on you?), suddenly yearning for the next bus back home. Unfortunately, I had to wait until this afternoon because I chose to work on the morning half of Chinese New Year eve.I had to do this in order to earn the whole of next week off. I was the last of non-local staff to leave this so-called ‘city’ for their respective hometowns/cities.

The feeling of working on 30th night (CNY eve) is not a good feeling AT ALL. Already there is an exceptionally low numbers of Chinese staff in my hospital, insufficient to get you into festive mood. It got worse when my other colleagues kept asking me,”You haven’t gone back yet ar? Strange, all the rest of the Chinese staff are already on leave”. Then I’ll explain to them why. With a kanasai feeling in my gut. And it was true, at work today I felt like the only non-local Chinese left in KT, let alone the hospital.

The same goes for my flight back to KL this afternoon. While there are usually quite a number of Chinese to be seen checking in at the airport, today I was the only one in the KT airport and in the KT-KL flight. Even upon arriving in KLIA and in the KLIA Transit, I could count in one hand the number of Chinese people I saw.

Don’t misunderstand my sentiments as racism. It’s not about wanting Chinese people near me.
It’s just that their absence made me wonder that by working on 30th night, did I appreciate CNY less than them? Hence am I less Chinese?

It felt like I was losing out while the other Chinese are already back home either ‘lepak’-ing or helping prepare for the big dinner. I began to question whether I should have sacrificed my long break instead of sacrificing half of my 30th night.

And so I have decided to make the most out of my long break here in KL. Made sure that my 10 days back here would more than make up for a largely missed 30th night. After the CNY din is over, it’s gonna be all about movies, shops, food and hopefully some artsy fartsy event. Earlier, I was flipping through magazines and drifted through blogs to look for a nice place for a get-together lunch this weekend. I ended up discovering a myriad of KL food, fashion and art scene through these trusty magazines and blogs. How much I have been missing out on. I always fail to realise how much I miss KL until I return here.
I need to get my transfer back, no matter what.
I must, I must, I must, I must, I must.

But for now, I am just glad I have a home to return to celebrate 30th night. Hope you are too. GXFC, people!

Footnote: Check out how this moving ad came about