Mooncakes and pomeloes by the beach

Every September, kids of all ages (yours truly included) gather to gobble down mooncakes, play with sparklies, burn their lanterns and go on a little arson spree - setting fire to anything regardless of how potentially inflammable it may be. This year was no different. The older folks (i.e. my mum-in-law) was dead set on going to East Coast for dinner, despite protests from the rest of the gang, on the pretext that the kids go play on the beach, blah, blah.

So off we went! Took us about an hour to get there as Nancy wasn’t a very good driver so I had to drive at 70 km/h, all the while checking my rear view mirror to make sure I hadn’t lost her. But despite my best efforts to drive at my slowest while not hogging any traffic, she still got lost anyway.

We finally settled down at the hawker centre; getting a vacant lot in the carpark and trying to get a table to plonk our asses down were gargantuan tasks given the more than usual crowd as it was the Mid Autumn weekend.

After dinner, we headed into the darkness towards the beach to start our bonfire of lanterns, candles and other assortment of combustible materials. It was hell trying to light a single candle, let alone start a fire. For starters, some smart aleck (i.e. me again) forgot to pack the lighter. And the wind was so strong we were almost certain some typhoon was coming our way.

Following a few frustrating attempts, we finally got the lanterns lit up. So out came the mooncakes and pomeloes for desert! Even the skin of the pomelo wasn't spared from becoming another lantern for us.

We decided to call it a night when we were all out of candles and sparklies. More desert in the form of ice-cream and we headed for home.

Religion vs. Christianity

Having been a staunch Buddhist during my younger years, it is almost inevitable that I get asked quite frequently 'So what is the difference between Christianity and other religions?'. The answer was always at the back of my head, that Christiniaty wasn't so much a religion but more of a relationship with God.

Today, I saw these words on a T-shirt that brought fresh revelation, clarity and terseness to that thought:

RELIGION is HUMANS trying to work their way to God. CHRISTIANITY is GOD coming to men and women through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Couldn't have put it better myself.

Impromptu barbie

It was just another lazy Saturday. We had half the mind to chill out at East Coast but were too lazy to pack everything into the car and the thought of having to unpack later made us change our minds. Eventually we fell asleep (me with my glasses, waist pouch and phone still on me) while deciding what to do. By the time we awoke, it was already 6 in the evening. Damn, the whole day had almost whizzed by while we were ding-donging.

Penny was craving for barbie food, so since we had some charcoal left, we pulled out what we could from the fridge- two pre-barbied sotongs from the streets of Taiwan, a few pork chops and some sotong balls from Nancy's barbie earlier in the week, a packet of NTUC cheese sausages and a few sweet potatos. A quick dash to NTUC for a packet of pre-seasoned chicken wings, Dodo Crab Stix, two ears of corn and some fizzy drinks and we were good to go!

As always, I fired up the pit while Vel and Penny prepared the food. Surprisingly, we had quite a spread despite using mostly leftovers! Vel, as usual, was eating mostly sausages and corn, leaving Mummy and Daddy to finish off the rest of the food. We had a nice slow fire and it was a cool breezy evening, so we took our time to cook our food. Fortunately for us, our neighbours weren't home so we didn't have to worry about bothering them with the smoke.

We called it quits at about 10pm when Penny and I were stuffed with so much carbon (carbonised food and carbonated drinks). Not surprisingly, we didn't manage to finish all the food (we couldn't pry apart, let alone cook, the pork chops as they weren't thawed enough).

God sent some rain as we were ending our little party to cool everything off. We fell asleep feeling gratified that God had once again blessed us with a wonderful day.

07.08.09

Remember this date. That's when the new G.I. Joe movie will be released. Like any other fanboy, I can't wait! Just looking at the preview pics of my favourite Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow was enough to bring a tear to my eye.

Many years ago, any mention of me collecting Transformers toys would be reciprocated with implications of me being immature, childish and other such similar gobbledygook. Nowadays, every Peter, Paul and Mary wants to be an Autobot or Decepticon with all those silly T-shirts, decals on their cars and what nots. So who's childish now, poseurs?

You have been warned. G.I. Joe will do to 2009 what Spiderman did to 2002 and Transformers did to 2006.

Yo Joe!!

Swinging at Colbar

In search of a nice, quiet place to have a chilled out lunch a few days back, we found ourselves at Colbar again with our friend Angeline. Honestly, the food isn't fantastic, but I've been there enough times to know that you couldn't go wrong with their Chicken Maryland and milk shake.

After chowing down our meal, we found ourselves at the tyre swing that was hung from the branch of a really old tree next to the hut. Velouria was the first to go, then coming back to bug all of us to join her.

Even Penny hopped onto the tyre to attempt to swing herself around. I ended up having to push her around after she gave up.

I reckon this one of the last few remaining places in Singapore where you can find such old skool stuff. They even have a rusty metal slide and a rickety wooden see-saw. Ultra cool!

Let's just hope it will remain this way for a while.