70 days left. Yes. Number of days left to Chinese New Year which falls on Thursday 7 February 2008. The coming Chinese New Year marks the end of the current 12-year cycle and the beginning of a new 12-year cycle of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.

The hype in cities and towns currently is the Christmas celebrations with shopping malls, restaurants and hotels all decorated for the Christmas. And once the Christmas festivities are over, Chinese New Year decorations will take over in January until the end of the 15-day Chinese New Year celebrations on 21 February.

The BAD NEWS first…

Toll will be increased between 6 to 50% for the following expressways:

• Seremban - Port Dickson Expressway
• North - South Expressway Central Link (ELITE)
• Butterworth - Kulim Expressway
• Malaysia - Singapore Second Link
• North Klang Straits Bypass
• North - South Expressway (Open toll stretches at Bukit Kayu Hitam and Johor Causeway)

Now, the GOOD NEWS…

Toll will remain unchanged for the following expressways which are due for increase on 1 Jan 2008:

• North - South Expressway (Closed toll stretches) & New Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE)
• Ampang - Kuala Lumpur Elevated Highway
• Sprint Highway
• Penang Bridge

Yes. That is the Chinese New Year album that just released today and I managed to grab a VCD from Rock Corner in 1 Utama. Still waiting for the CD version though. Like last year, this album features 12 tracks comprising various Chinese New Year songs that will definitely make the coming Chinese New Year a more colorful celebration.

The first Chinese New Year album for 2008 is released yesterday. Titled Fu Wa Wa (福娃娃) by children artistes Qiao Qian Jin (巧千金)，it was released by Wayang Tinggi Corporation. At least 3 more albums are expected from the same company soon featuring 8 Super Stars (八大巨星), M. Girls and 4 Golden Princesses (四千金). I am eagerly waiting for these 3 albums.

Perhaps these albums are among the earliest to be released while many other recording companies will release CNY albums only after mid-December. I just wish the shops will put up these albums on sale as soon as possible. Last year, I got the albums from Rock Corner and Tower Records, they were among the earliest to put it up on sale while Speedy Video only put them up in mid-December. So late!

Alright, finally Gmail hits the 5GB disk quota allocated to all Gmail and Google Apps accounts. This equals the disk quota provided by Windows Live Hotmail and the disk quota allocated by Gmail will continue to increase every minute!