Tonight marks the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and from where I sit, out of the three-panelled glass window, I catch a glimpse of the moon hanging in the cloudless night sky.
Tonight, like the night before, she is full, silvery and round, and the sight of her marks what is perhaps the only celebration of the Mid Autumn Festival for me this year.
There are no mooncakes nicely arranged on a plate in front of me.
There are no cups of jasmine tea or oolong tea for me to sip on.
There are no lanterns.
And there are definitely no pomelos.
I've finally come to understand what it is people speak of when they say they don't realize know what's going on about them. I've finally come to sympathize. Because it has happened to me too.
It isn't that I'm unaware of the decorations at Chinatown.
Neither is it that I'm unaware of the bazaar stalls offering battery-operated lanterns and traditional paper lanterns to children and adults as they're passing by.
It just so happens that for the last couple of times that I've been in the Chinatown area, I've hardly registered the sight of them bright, colourful, beautiful, huge lanterns strung strategically across Eu Tong Sen Street.
I mean, I know they're there. I know they're beautifully decorated paper lanterns in oriental colors of pink, yellow and mandarin orange, and I even know that the star lantern marking the junction of the Lantern Festival is this huge ship complete with masts and sails.
But somehow I never lingered long enough to take a picture.
And I never found the spirit to stop and make a wander among the stalls in the bazaar to soak in the sights.
I did consider making a purchase of mooncakes- even just one- for the sake of munching on a baked mooncake of lotus paste with salted egg yolk inside, but time went past and I never got to it either.
Not's all lost, however.
I did make a quick wander amongst the booths at Taka where there were samples for the taking and a wonderful introduction of everything unusual and exotic being offered this year.
I do remember the gift of tea-infused mooncakes from TWG a couple years past. I do remember the little mini mooncakes that we had a year ago gifted from somewhere.
And best of all, I have my memories of the Mid Autumn Festival in days of childhood. There was a year where we had Shanghai mooncakes with their distinctive pastry. There was another year where we had green tea snow skin mooncakes with lotus filling. And there was still another year we had a very interesting box of ice cream mooncakes from Swensens gifted by a family friend.
I'm glad for the gatherings at my grandparents'.
I'm glad for the pomelos and the baked mooncakes on the table.
I'm glad for the bamboo pole across the gate that held all our lanterns.
And I'm glad for the lanterns that I could happily call mine.
I wish I'd taken a picture of the lanterns at Chinatown this year though. They were really quite pretty. But since I don't have any, I guess I'll make do with this.
(It's from Chinese New Year but it is the most oriental looking flower I have in my picture cache now...)
Tonight, like the night before, she is full, silvery and round, and the sight of her marks what is perhaps the only celebration of the Mid Autumn Festival for me this year.
There are no mooncakes nicely arranged on a plate in front of me.
There are no cups of jasmine tea or oolong tea for me to sip on.
There are no lanterns.
And there are definitely no pomelos.
I've finally come to understand what it is people speak of when they say they don't realize know what's going on about them. I've finally come to sympathize. Because it has happened to me too.
It isn't that I'm unaware of the decorations at Chinatown.
Neither is it that I'm unaware of the bazaar stalls offering battery-operated lanterns and traditional paper lanterns to children and adults as they're passing by.
It just so happens that for the last couple of times that I've been in the Chinatown area, I've hardly registered the sight of them bright, colourful, beautiful, huge lanterns strung strategically across Eu Tong Sen Street.
I mean, I know they're there. I know they're beautifully decorated paper lanterns in oriental colors of pink, yellow and mandarin orange, and I even know that the star lantern marking the junction of the Lantern Festival is this huge ship complete with masts and sails.
But somehow I never lingered long enough to take a picture.
And I never found the spirit to stop and make a wander among the stalls in the bazaar to soak in the sights.
I did consider making a purchase of mooncakes- even just one- for the sake of munching on a baked mooncake of lotus paste with salted egg yolk inside, but time went past and I never got to it either.
Not's all lost, however.
I did make a quick wander amongst the booths at Taka where there were samples for the taking and a wonderful introduction of everything unusual and exotic being offered this year.
I do remember the gift of tea-infused mooncakes from TWG a couple years past. I do remember the little mini mooncakes that we had a year ago gifted from somewhere.
And best of all, I have my memories of the Mid Autumn Festival in days of childhood. There was a year where we had Shanghai mooncakes with their distinctive pastry. There was another year where we had green tea snow skin mooncakes with lotus filling. And there was still another year we had a very interesting box of ice cream mooncakes from Swensens gifted by a family friend.
I'm glad for the gatherings at my grandparents'.
I'm glad for the pomelos and the baked mooncakes on the table.
I'm glad for the bamboo pole across the gate that held all our lanterns.
And I'm glad for the lanterns that I could happily call mine.
I wish I'd taken a picture of the lanterns at Chinatown this year though. They were really quite pretty. But since I don't have any, I guess I'll make do with this.
(It's from Chinese New Year but it is the most oriental looking flower I have in my picture cache now...)
