Did you post any New Year cards?

A month ago, I enthusiastically went to the bookshop and bought Chinese New Year cards. I was planning to write my greetings and mail the cards out.

But once I got home, I forgot about them.

For more than two weeks after that, I was tussling with devil P (P for procrastination). The cards simply lay untouched and unnoticed on my table.

When three weeks passed, it dawned on me that if I do not start doing something, the cards would have to be recycled for next year. I then carefully took the cards out, found my pens, thought through what wishes to write for my friends and finally started writing. Progress was slow, it took me another few days to search for the addresses.

A few days later, I eventually made a trip to the post office and sent the cards out.

While I was "proud" that I fought and won the battle with devil P, the number of cards that I sent out fell far short of the number of recipients I had planned to send greetings to. All because I fell victim to monster L (L for laziness).

In this electronic age where E-cards and email greetings are so common and handy at the click of a button, it makes me really wonder how many people still painstaking write and post New Year cards.

Not many, I reckon.

Do you?

I have been "dutifully" checking my mailbox (the real one, not the email mailbox) these days and so far I have only received one Chinese New Year card. It came from my insurance agent, so that does not really count.

It is hard not to hide my disappointment.

When I was still in school, many friends readily send cards during special occasions like Christmas and Chinese New Year. During this season, the mailbox will always be full of white envelopes or pink envelopes.

But that is all history.

Now, I hardly receive such cards.

Not that I should complain since I rarely send out cards too.

Well, E-cards are so convenient that is it truly hard to resist. Furthermore, it can be sent just a minute before the clock ticks 12 midnight on New Year’s Day, unlike normal cards which have to reach Mr Postman at least two days earlier.

But to me, sending out Chinese New Year cards especially, is a tradition that I would like to preserve.

The happiness and thrill in finding a card in the mailbox and tearing it open to see who it is from, is something no number of E-cards can replace.

Dear friend, if you did not receive my New Year card, it does not mean I have forgotten about you. Blame it on Monster L.

Much as I hate to say it, but please wait for my E-card.

Happy Chinese New Year. Gong Xi Fa Cai!