lost in wonderland

it's officially christmas season once again.

i don't celebrate christmas, you know in religious terms, but i do parade along orchard road from plaza singapura up to tanglin mall sucking up all the festive atmosphere like everybody else.

call it our annual pilgrimage route if you will.

this year the decoration theme is fairy tale wonderland. hmm.. i don't see any fairy tale characters anywhere but having waded through throngs of people that filled every inches of the place, i did feel a bit like alice lost in wonderland sometimes.

above is the gorgeous entrance to orchard shopping district. what i called it though, the gorgeous entrance to orchard's ERP.

it's kinda cool you know. one second you're admiring the entrance with the word 'merry christmas' on it, the next second you pass through the gantry with 'ERP in operation' and voila, you're about 2 dollars poorer. such an adrenalin-filled ride!

my suggestion for next year, consider decorating the ERP gantry instead.



bel


if there is any indication of magical creatures, they are above. the one inside the glass box i mean. the one outside is me. no not the one gloriously flocking in white lights though.



temporary retail stores in front of tangs shopping center.

it's not christmas in orchard road until this tree in front of the paragon erected up. of all the christmas trees in orchard vicinity, this is my favourite. there's something about the tree, or maybe the paragon backdrop, making it just elegantly magical.

not only at the outside, christmas trees grow indoor too. this one is inside takashimaya sc. it's a bit tired actually, looking the same years after years but it's one of the biggest, so who cares?



























the one below was taken while waiting for golden compass midnight show at plaza singapura. the christmas tree photo i mean.

which later turned out to be the highlight of the night considering how boring the movie was. seriously, what on earth was nicole kidman thinking? i'd rather spend time admiring the tree below rather than wasting 2 hours of my life watching that uninspired movie.

ok 1 and a half hour of my life. i'm sure i didn't sleep longer than that.





the tanglin area in comparison is very much less crowded. even the fake soap bubble snow could not attract much people. so apparently it was the wet bikini girls and skimpy trunks guys that attracted the crowd everytime in sentosa beach soap bubble party, you know, not the bubbles.

ok maybe that was obvious.

i like strolling from borders to tanglin mall along those gorgeous but quiet western style shophouses. chances are you gonna see lots of caucasians along the way, making you feel every much like in some european country. i guess this must be how europe feels like during christmas in 50 years time when global warming hits its peak.








the christmas theme in tanglin mall this year is, well, i don't know exactly what it is. instead of big toy-laden christmas tree like last year, they put few cute european style houses and a stable with replica horses in front of the mall.

my guess is this has something to do with baby-jesus-in-the-stable scene. except i don't see any human replica inside. instead, they blow fake snow in the stable on few pre-arranged timing per day when people can go in and play with.

doesn't make any sense if you ask me.






another thing that doesn't make sense as well was having turkey for christmas gathering. i mean, turkey is for thanksgiving, right? but i guess someone needed to use up those un-sold thanksgiving turkeys one way or another.

i'm not complaining. i always see people having whole stuffed turkey in the middle of dinner table on tv so i had always wanted to do that once. so we ordered american chestnut-stuffed honey-coated turkey, chicken ham and log cake for the event, last saturday noon at our ex-colleague's house in hougang. two of our current colleagues are gonna fly to the states for training, so this is kinda the last get together too.



..


i must say i prefer chicken over turkey. anytime anyplace. first, the turkey was hard and tasteless. and secondly, do you know what they eat the turkey with? cranberry sauce.

cranberry sauce! isn't that the same like eating white meat with fruit jam? totally didn't go.

the log cake wasn't that great either. it was dry and forgettable. totally not worth the calories and extra gym hours it was gonna incur. if i wasn't paying 14 dollars for those, i would have thought santa was punishing me with those for being a bad boy all year. honestly.

we had fun there though, and that's all that matters.






it took 4 takes to get the group photo on the right because we kept sticking out candy sticks to the people in front.




if i haven't said so, merry 'Xmas everyone!



...ed