Dog Year..

I couldn't have asked for a better start to the lunar new year. Victories for both my idols, Martina Hingis and Roger Federer, on the first day of the Dog year. It was really a great day for Switzerland indeed.

This year's final was a bit different from the previous Grand Slam Finals which Rog featured in. For his past 6 grand slam victories, I've been watching alone, sitting on my 'lucky' seat of the sofa. I couldn't do so this year because this year's final fell on the first evening of the lunar new year, which meant that all my relatives would be here. Fortunately, one of my cousins, an uncle and an aunt are ardent supporters of Rog. The rest are pretty neutral. However, I was afraid that their presence would affect the 'fengshui' which would in turn cause bad luck for Rog. It certainly did for the first 1 and 3/4 sets. Rog's luck only took an acute change when we all changed seats.

Everyone felt that Rog's victory was all but expected. Therefore, it was a bit shocking to see the great man being so emotional when he broke down and was at a loss of words. Poor Rog. The weight of expectation put on him by the public and himself was too great even for Mr Cool. Having to hide his emotions during the match was really a great strain on him.

Anyway, this year's CNY is quite significant compared to the previous years. It has been a while since all my cousins are present during the CNY. One of them had been away to UK for a couple of years while the other was doing his undergraduate studies in UK for 3 years before heading to the US for his masters in the 4th year. My brother himself was away 2 years back when he went for exchange in Canada. Although we've drifted apart all these years and that I hardly exchange a word or two to the elder cousins, it just feels good to see everyone back in Singapore. Another significant matter is that all of us have started working, with the exception of the 2 youngest ones and the male cousin who's of the same age as me. You can't help but marvel that time has really flown. It seems not too long ago that we were all kids playing monopoly or badminton together. Now, we've all grown up to be adults. The only thing missing is that none of us are married yet. I think it would be quite a while before wedding bells are heard in this family. None of the elder cousins seems to be interested in getting married.

After seeing my male cousins, I can't help but wonder why the Singaporean males that I've come into contact with are nowhere near any resemblance of my male cousins. I'm not only speaking in terms of looks and physique, but also family background, character, intelligence, sense of humour, social etiquette, values, hobbies and exposure to the outside world. Perhaps all these traits that I'm looking for are only present in my family. I know I'm being thick-skinned here but I guess genes play a very important role :)