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.