Its that time of the year again when you wonder where the spirit has gone.
Yes, the Lunar New Year hard-sell festivities have begun,
cheena ditties of prosperity and luck fill the air and some sweaty guy in a God Of Fortune costume is making his rounds again at the
kopitiams with a gold-coin container filled with 4-D numbers.
Sigh.
Someone inject some
joie de vivre into me please! Because it seems that for every Lunar New Year that comes with increasingly scary ease, the mood to enjoy the occasion (remember when we were children?), dissipates with equally alarming fizz.
Just the other day, the maid asked me if she could toss last year's New Year goodies into the bin. I think she had to try pretty hard to hide her disgust at a person who keeps Pineapple Tarts for a year, even if they are in air-tight containers. Well nobody ever visits me. And to be eating these things alone while watching TV is pretty sad doncha think?
Anyway, we try to get the spirits up by visiting Chinatown every year. Yes, the annual pilgrimage to the Mecca of Cheesy Chinoiserie. It sort of works for a couple of days, I think, and then the memory of sweaty bodies pressing against you puts you off all over again. A very vicious cycle. Laughable sometimes.
This evening's visit wasn't that bad though. Perhaps the Lunar New Year is still about 10 days away so the crowds were less maddening. We finally got the chance to visit the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple which was erected from public donations not too long ago. I cannot find myself stepping into a place like this on any other occasion and it was more a 'by the way, on the way' thing. Well I thought it was a pretty cool place although I didn't see a single molar =))
Amitabha, just joking!
Chinatown itself was more subdued this time. But the usual suspects were all there. The Savouries, the Gaudies, the Sweets and the Crunchies. And for the first time in many years, I didn't shove anyone.
Well hope the pictures bring some Lunar Goodness back into anyone who's feeling just like me. That the Lunar New Year is going to the moon and never coming back.
Labels: Musings, Photography