Spring Cleaning

Have I told you that I love Chinese New Year?

Today marks the first day of Spring Cleaning, which to my parents basically means me throwing out everything in my room. My dad's a packrat so he salvages a lot of stuff that I discard - which I later throw away when he's not home.

This year will be no different - my room will be a lot emptier when I'm done. I've decided to throw away all the memories from the last relationship to complete the moving on cycle. I know that I will regret it one day, but it's my decision and I guess I'll have to suck it up.

I don't think my next girlfriend would take very kindly to my keeping things from the last one too. But I gotta say I won't be missing any of it. I'll probably keep the photos of the cats coz they've been really good to me.

My closet's the one that gets the major overhaul every year. There's a lot of junk that needs to go (time to go on a diet, Arthur Wong) and I'm not afraid to buy new ones! A nice shopping trip follows every spring cleaning so I always welcome that.

And when the cleaning's done, me and mum will be busy fighting in the kitchen when the relatives come over to visit on the second day. We'd usually cook up a huge amount of food - that means we'll be in the kitchen for an extended period of time - that usually ends up with us killing each other over the other's kitchen habits.

I love my mum, but she's gotta be a little neater. I'm one of those cooks who cleans as I cook - washing every bowl and plate as I use them so that they don't pile up in a mess at the corner. My mum does the great plate pileup and it's really disgusting to see a leaning tower of dirty plates and bowls in a kitchen where food is prepared.

Once the war's over we usually sit down with the relatives and do nothing. The kids will be running around and making a lot of noise and I'll most probably relent and go lock myself up in my room.

You should meet my relatives - characters those are.

And when the relatives have gone, we clean up and then go to bed, happy that in a year all this is going to happen again.

But for now, I'm off to throw things out. I'm going start early so that dad won't have a chance to dig through my trash.