Day 2: Chinatown MAF (Part II)

& so it was dark after our dinner @ Maxwell. Soya bean milk goes well with sweet bubble tea pearls, a good alternative to the market variance of grass jelly (which has tastes bitter by itself). Wandering around, we see Sri Mariamman Temple holding some sort of service, and the lights are brilliant. The temple is a beauty after its restoration, and is worth a revisit some other time.

The street market is abuzz with business, but the crowds are moderate, and the streets enjoyable.

A traditional lanterns stall, in pretty lights.

It's hard to find good old lanterns nowadays, as plastic battery-operated ones are safer, brighter, and has music coming out of them. They also come in shapes of favourite cartoon characters. However, I miss the old cylindrical paper lanterns, & how they make round shadows on the floor that shrink as you get nearer. There is also the joy of playing with candles, and then carefully peeping into the lantern every few seconds to make sure the candle hasn't fallen off its stand. The tiny fire flickers and the lantern has a warm glow to it. That is certainly more enjoyable than the mechanical melody of the light-bulb-lit lanterns.

A huge lantern decoration over the MRT station exit.

It's traditional festive mood with these huge rectangular lanterns with Chinese paintings on its screens, and intricate patterns lining its sides. Of course a stark contrast with the station exit architecture, but something locals have gotten used to & taken for granted these few years.

Beautiful design of a traditional lantern.

This is just one of the many similar lanterns they used to decorate the area. It has a very nice picture of Chang Er, drawn in the traditional Chinese way used to depict mythic & cultural characters, with the gold outlines & warm pastel colours with fading gradient.

Dragons rehearsing for CNY.

Of course the centre of attraction would be the Garden Bridge, a location famous for its CNY Firecrackers light-up. Two dragons line the bridge & meet at the city gate on one side. The symmetrical wave movement of their bodies symbolise an energetic and vibrant personality that is always on the move. Their orange glow exudes happiness and prosperity. It was an appreciable effort in decoration that brings on the festive mood. However, the Garden Bridge is flooded with too much pale white street lighting that spoils the ambience of the glowing lanterns.

The magnificent city gate & its guardians.

These dragons guard the grand city gate, which signifies the well-being of the community within, with its elaborate & intricate patterns & bright red lights. The Full Moon shines down from above, and the city is in a mood of festivity.

Lady Chang Er in her full glory.

Chang Er is a popular folk myth that tells the forlorn story of a relationship between her & the Qin Emperor. Soon she became the only representative role in that story, and had to prepare for lone appearances like this. Her second love on the Moon was also hardly around to be seen; most likely he would have been busy with his chores like we are on Earth. Poor Chang Er would appear in the clouds alone, while couples in love surround her to take photos. Even her rabbit is nowhere to be seen. She stands in the courtyard of two houses in an elegant pose, but behind that smile hides her sadness & loneliness.

She waves to us, as she prepares to board the shuttle home.

After we passed Chinatown Point and a little further toward Clarke Quay, it was time for us to go. Chang Er stood at the end, and once again waved to us. The bright 15th Moon shines behind her.

Mid-Autumn Festival in full bloom.

Enjoy your Mid-Autumn Festival with mooncakes and a cup of hot Chinese tea!

Day 2: Chinatown MAF (Part I)

Today was a sunny day. It was hot but the sight of the Sun was welcoming. I enjoyed the long shadows as the MRT cruised under the light of the setting Sun. Outram Park was busy with its usual crowd of elderly people and families. There was a basement shopping complex opening below Pearl Complex (just beside the MRT station), so we decided to take a look. Never mind the entrance staircase looked incomplete; there were people before us walking down it already. So we treaded down the stairs. The space looked sparkling new, & the shops look... unoccupied. It's natural for a newly opened space to have some unoccupied shops right? Besides the lighting & flooring were all nicely done up already. Then the guy walking in front stopped, & turned back to look. There was a couple standing with him; they were holding some paper. The guy looked at us puzzled. I stared back at him quizzically. Lips was already happily hopping down the last few steps while I stopped in the middle trying to make sense of it all. Then it was all so obvious; the couple was with their agent going to look at their new shop! Lol... so it's not open to public yet. Lips hurried up the stairs embarrasingly.

So we contended with browsing through the old shops on the 1st floor. Giordano was having a 20% sale with their GSS price tags, & we didn't see anything nice. Yangtze cinema was showing a Japanese show & some other stuff. It's been getting some attention lately for its promise to show stuff other than "art". It was a peaceful evening in Chinatown.

Beautiful blooming flowers welcoming motorists to Chinatown Mid-Autumn Festival.

There is an animal kingdom where the characters play & flaunt their beauty in the small grass patch between the roads.

The Prince of the jungle birds perched high among its fellow mates.

Ladybirds sunning their wings with the flowers.

"Hurry up or we'll be late for Chang Er's mooncake treat tomorrow!"

A beautiful swan in a stunning pose taking flight.

Next, we went into the maze of street market, where they were selling small yam & a plant part that looks like a pair of black horns (凌角). The yam is supposed to be "in season" right about Mid-Autumn Festival week, and there were many stalls selling them. But what we saw next was stranger:

Radioactive glowing mooncakes =O

Looks like tabletop decorations? No... they are edible mooncakes of a different ingredient. These mooncakes are best eaten cold, & they have a bouncy texture. Still can't get it? They're "Agar-agar", or jelly mooncakes. So special...

It was day-time when we came:
And in a blink it was night:

To be continued...

Day 1: Cooking

Today was a cloudy day. It was one of those days when the sky was a uniformly dull grey & you couldn't see where it ended. There was an uneasy feeling of enclosure, of being masked.

We were planning for a Barbeque outing, but decided against it due to the impending weather & consistent laziness. Instead, we went grocery shopping @ the nearby Jurong Point to prepare a home-cooked dinner. There wasn't supposed to be much cooking involved; the trick was to get something that can be made in 5 minutes, then add lots of side ingredients & decorations to make it look cooked up.

So we ended up with spaghetti & sauce, & 2 tubs of ice-cream for dessert. The preparation was a mess; the tiny veggie things need to be rinsed 2-3times to wash off the shells (much like beansprouts), and they keep clinging on to my hands. The fresh shitake mushrooms were fragile & in my regular habit I scrubbed them and pieces broke off. The only part that was easy to handle was cutting the black olives. I just picked them out of the jar using the small knife, like how a pirate would pick his food. So after much tossing & cooking, the fragrant smell of the tomato pasta sauce & tingling sweet aroma of ready-to-eat salmon mix meant it's ready to eat. & this is what we had for dinner:


Looks like we grew some veggie hair on our spaghetti, & that yellowish soil works really well. Whatever, it was tasty & filling. & if one wasn't enough:


A while after that, we dug into our tubs of Wall's ice-cream (which was on offer, $5.60 for 2 1L tubs). The Apricot & Peach was smooth & nice, the fruit bits were soft & edible. The Chocolate & Strawberry is just the usual sweet stuff. Get the A&P, it's nice for the price.

And later that night, I managed to spend 5 hours on my homework (while surfing forums & chatting), & dutifully completed my Physics online assignment. Cheers! One down, more to go.