a singapore christmas

wow...the celebrations just ended for me. this is my first year celebrating christmas in singapore.i must say that it has been an interesting one, jam packed with heaps of fun and activity.to put it simply, it's an enjoyable and eye-opening experience.

one can never forget the joys of christmas shopping. haha.. i think i'm beginning to sound like a girl =p it's just the feeling you get when the person whom you are buying the gift for likes your gift. christmas is a season of giving, isn't it? i think the best gift can even be the simplest gift... such as a small candy/chocolate, it's the thought that counts. as for me, i'll be happy to even receive a card. really, the best gift for christmas is love. just as God sent his Son to die for us, i feel we should adopt an attitude of giving during this advent season. there's so many lovey dovey things associated with christmas too..such as kissing under the mistletoe and all the romantic things that happen during christmas. lovely time of the year indeed!

after a long day of shopping and wrapping of gifts, i went to aunty julie's place for a family christmas eve dinner.i took the way through namly road to her house, and ascended namly hill as a shortcut. boy, i sure miss running down that steep slope during tahan training before i joined council. i still remember we had to run all the way to the top and then back down in roughly 1min30sec. the worst but most important part was to keep pace with your group, mine being the cooks. we cheered everyone on...and we made the time together. ah..such beautiful memories.anyway, when i reached a.julie's place jason was already there, all excited about his new digicam =p. chris was playing the guitar entertaining all of us with some jazz pieces. well, it was dinnertime once mike finished preparing his foie gras and cherry sauce. the sauce is one of the best i ever had (ingredients: lots of cherries, some wine, chicken stock, sugar, and some butter too, i think.) we had a feast that night - soup and baked salmon from mezza9, fresh oysters, foie gras with cherry sauce, roast duck, this vege called 'rocket'... served raw, lightly fried asparagus and 'mini-cabbage' (argh, can't remember the name for this one) we also had red wine with our meal and a chocolate cake from secret recipe for desert. hmmm...this menu is certainly the best i ever had. i think i should learn up and practice some cool recipes so that i can prepare it for potlucks or perhaps serve my guests in the future.

after dinner, me and jason headed down to orchard to meet up with wai hong. the bus ride was exceptionally long thanks to the traffic jam ala KL style. as expected, orchard road has been converted into a warzone of people spraying foam all along the streets. thanks to the experience i had back in malaysia( along jalan bukit bintang), i escaped any such attacks and treaded orchard road up and down twice from tangs to ps almost unscathed. we were joined by tow of wai's friends, angel and her sis ana. interesting people. we were supposed to watch kung fu hustle at 1am but since there was no tickets available, wai hong came up with an ingenius plan of catching that show at 4.30am in cine, which we just simply agreed to. now, we spent the 4 hours prior to the movie practically doing nothing besides walk, talk and drink. we actually planned to saty at the food court at the basement level of cineleisure but everyone was told to leave by the guards at around 2am. *sigh* i was almost burnt out by the time the movie started, almost dozing off during the boring advertisements. haha. once the movie kicked off it was laughter and surprises all the way, and i miraculously stayed awake throughout the movie, as if i took a drug to do so or something. the movie was typical stephen chow, there was more action than talking so the fact that i am watching it in mandarin didn't really affect me that much.

once we stepped out of the cinema at around 6.20am, i was at the brink of collapse. my frail body is giving up on me...must've been the shopping and walking all day prior to the movie. i realised also that the streets of orchard are cleaner now, i think the cleaners must've worked all night to clear up the mess generated by the hyped/crazy people on christmas eve night. really, i urge everyone who has not been to orchard road on the night of christmas eve to do so at least once. it's a really good experience, albeit a shocking one. i am utterly disappointed by the way some youths behave aggressively by spraying directly onto passers-by. it might get into the eyes and cause eyesore and irritation. maybe i'm a little too serious, but i think they should not over-do it. this makes me wonder sometimes, in how many ways the christmas message have been interpreted differently?

i only managed one hour of sleep, then dragged myself to church. sang carols and exchanged greetings. got some small gifts and cards here and there. some commented my new hairstyle is cool ^_^. went for lunch with alvin, allan n justina, then back. prepared my gift for gift exchange, then ZZzzzzz.....

after church on sunday, rushed back to get the stuff to make doorgifts. went back to school to get council dance cd, climbed gates as usual, then coro to buy choc goodies for everyone. reached claire's place at 2+ pm to start decorating her house, preparing doorgifts and cook! i think i'm the unofficial kitchen i/c for today...i was like giving advice and making most decisions about food matters. hehe. stayed in the kitchen for quite some time, i really enjoy that job! the wok's my weapon...hahawent to take a stroll with tiong around acs barker coz he has not seen the school before. we had an interesting time at cold storage too. haha. i shall not elaborate on what we did here. anyway, by the time we went back to claire's, the baked potatoes were already done. time to cook all the other food. took a break towards the end with a game of pool. i think zack will make a formidable opponent to me. the fun that followed throughout the night was just superb. took photos, ate the yummy food, sang carols. seb recited poetry... so romantic of him. played a lotta games too... passing the parcel was interesting. there's this forfeit where you have to pass a poker card using your lips... haha. samuel was nominated the guy with the nicest body by i.wong, haha. sam, you're the man! funny funny antics by zac n zing too. something i noticed during the games session, thought provoking for me...shall not discuss. dance till you drop didn't get a very good response, but the last part which was the gift exchange was nice. yixin was a bit surprised that i was her 'christmas angel' haha...hope she liked the 'classy and nice' vase i gave her. i got a nike armband from weilin which was really nice too. yay! helped clean-up, then finally return to hostel. long day indeed. christco kebahbah! we rock! 3 cheers to everyone for giving full support and participation to christco.

hmm... thought of this very lame joke just before turning in.
christmas ~ x'mas

christCo ~ X'Co?

wish you all a blessed christmas and a great 2005!