Year of the (Pack) Rat

I have read somewhere that women find their partners most attractive when they are engaged in homely activities - playing with the kids, doing the dishes, cleaning up the house. Today, I must be the sexiest man alive.

It is the Chinese New Year tomorrow, and I was asked by my housemate if I wouldn't mind cleaning the house. It is a Chinese New Year tradition that on the days leading up to the first day of the New Year, people often frantically clean their houses in preparation for the Lunar New Year.

There is a more superstitious reason as well - one is not allowed to sweep the house during the New Year celebrations (which lasts 15 days) as we believe that you are sweeping your good luck away.

Thankfully, our household only has a vacuum cleaner. So all our good luck will be kept in the little disposable bag inside the vacuum cleaner until we decide to empty it into the bin.

Seeing that I'm now doing my night shift, I wake up at erratic hours, depending on how many hours of sleep I got at work the night before. I had four hours of sleep at work two days ago, and so the day after I woke up at one pm at home, inspired to do some cleaning, and cleaned the bathroom.

One bathroom among three boys and on occasions, a girl, means unfortunately that when my mum visited, she wouldn't step in the shower area unless I cleaned it! Haha!

It's amazing how quickly our skin flakes reaccumulates around the shower area - it's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it. (Somehow, that someone suspiciously always seems to be me!)

And yesterday night, I had all of forty five minutes of sleep, and so I woke up... at one pm again! So much for paying off the sleep debt!

I was inspired to clean the living room, this time, and it was an arduous afternoon - cleaning the pantry, moving plants around, bringing decorations stored away in the cupboards - just to give the house a more homely feel.

What is my secret to doing it so quickly? I basically took everything around the living room and distributed it to the three rooms upstairs! (To my brother and my housemate and my secret subscriber - the living room looks great now, but I'm really sorry about your rooms! Haha!)

The finished product.

The best thing I loved about cleaning up is that it allowed for a little creative freedom, and I'm pretty chuffed about our new dining table centrepiece now!

Yeah. That's as creative as it gets, unfortunately.

Look, don't mistake me for the ultimate husband, because this only happens like once in a blue moon. And the moon must have been holding its breath all of last night!

I'm comfortable in reasonably messy surroundings, and am not bothered if there are a few dirty dishes in the sink threatening to crawl out having evolved over the time period they've been left there.

HK's Guide to Channeling Your Anger

Growing up, I had this peculiar eccentricity- I only cleaned up the house whenever I was really angry. Our home was often messy, to the extent that I always hesitated to start cleaning because, well, I just didn't know where to start.

Strangely enough, some of my best packing is done when I've had an argument with my mum -we'd get into a heated argument, and then I would say things that I would regret, and when she has walked off to cool down, I would start grabbing at things around me to place in order.

Perhaps it was a distractive habit, but sometimes, I did it as a way of saying sorry to Mum. I would often have said many hurtful things in the heat of the moment, and sometimes my verbal apologies were insufficient. Me cleaning the house allowed the both of us time apart and she was always grateful when I had cleaned up the house.

I remember one huge bust up we had though - it was outside the house and I was actually kept outside for several hours. It gave me time to clean up my Taman's local playground that time! (I wish I was making this up!)

We never stayed angry at each other long, however, and that's one thing I've learnt from Mum...

... although sometimes I wonder if Mum has ever looked around the house and thought to herself

- 'Hmm, place looks a little messy... maybe it's time to start an argument.'-

- 'HK! Don't only know how to play ah! Have you finished your homework yet, sui chai!?' -

Haha! Wouldn't that be funny!

I love you, Mum, and thank you for teaching me never to stay angry for long. Happy Chinese New Year to all my friends and family reading this.

All angpaus welcome, thank you very much. Please save mine in Malaysia!