When I was a little younger, I used to like dashing from one bank to another "scouting" for ang pow packets. It helped a great deal that the place I used to stay in was just a stone's throw away from a good number of banks. There were six to be exact!
So since moving away, a visit to the bank (any bank for that matter) is a rare treat since I do most of my banking online. And whenever I had to make any withdrawals from the ATM, I almost always waited for my bodyguard husband to return from work.
Off To An Ang Pow Hunting Expedition
In recent months, I have been receiving a couple of love letters from a bank reminding me to activate my dormant accounts. As luck would have it, my little boy T was in the mood for an outing in the few days leading up to this Chinese New Year. I jumped at the opportunity to take him out for a drive and join me on an ang pow hunting adventure for twenty eighteen (2018).
Meh! Imagine my surprise when I asked the teller at a few banks for some of the red envelopes, most apologetically shook their heads to indicate that they had already run out of stock. After making inquiries at four locations and only scoring at one, I decided to call it quits. I did not want to continue lugging my mini boulder of a toddler around for too long. The very idea of crossing the busy traffic just to get to a few more across the road was far too intimidating for me. Yeah, yeah, you can call me c-h-i-c-k-e-n. Technically, it was still the year of the ... at the time. LOL
Doggone it!
I had my heart set on getting at least one or two red packets with a cute puppy design to show T. He is very into puppies and kittens, of late. Alas, envelopes with these designs are such a rare breed.. For some strange reason, they seem to elude only me.
So Show Me THE Ang Pow ALREADY!
I have to admit that I am doubly motivated with this ang pow hunting business especially after @howstartablog offered a Chinese New Year ang pow challenge at about the same time. I am also secretly hoping that this first post for the year will compel me to post more regularly on this platform.
In order to gain access to a greater variety of ang pow designs, little T's collection of ang pows from the past few days are now in the running to be selected as THE ONE for this post. Dog or no dog? Traditional red, ong lai gold, mango yellow or gasp, fluorescent pink? Oh, the one with the free ice cream coupon IS rather enticing. *smacks lips
T pottered over and decided that HE wanted to get involved as well. And so in his words, "Firecrackers so loud. bang-bang-bang, pupeeeeee! picture, PICTURE! Ta-daaaaaa"
And so after much badgering contemplation, I have decided to go with his choice. The chosen design is that of a little cartoon dog dressed in red attempting to light up a length of firecrackers. The backdrop is a shiny golden chinese character "chun" (which means spring). The vertical print in gold reads "Live life happily", I think.. I am afraid my reading ability (of the Chinese character) is rather limited, so someone would really have to correct me on this. ;-p