For one, there were hardly any CNY songs playing. You might hate them playing in departmental stores everywhere in Singapore, but you don't realise how much they add to the mood until you're here in angmohland and there isn't any real CNY festive mood save for some really insipid dragon dances and the obligatory lantern decorations.
They even held up the lion and dragon dances just to let SIX guests of honour paint the dragon's eyes, coming up with the lame excuse that the dragon was still sleeping until all 6 guests were done. The dragon must have been abusing Dormicum or something, only that it was really a lion.
The angmohs mixed it up as usual. Another thing they mix up here is assuming Cantonese and Chinese are the same language. Well, they are written the same but spoken quite differently. But I guess they all sound like Hindi to the average angmoh.
They do have other interesting things though, like Chinese chefs outside stores making dragon beard candy. It was also interesting to see angmohs in the lion dance troupes here and realise that these angmohs know more about this Chinese custom than I do.
The stage at Trafalgar Square. I would have taken a better picture but it was hard with the huge crowd in front of me. I think there were at least 10 thousand people in this place? It was nice to see a huge crowd though, but I had to watch my bag.
The lion dance. It was still awaiting 4 guests at this point so it went back to sleep after shaking around for 1 minute. I never saw what happened to it after it finally woke up because I got bored and left. The next 4 guests would take about half an hour to wake this thing. Considering it shook for only about a minute each time, there was a lot of time for the emcee to bullshit.
And the dragon dance. There was an interesting section where it tied itself into a knot but other than that it was pretty much the same spinning thing again and again.
Chinatown. Extremely crowded. At least they were all clad in thick clothing and it was cold so it wasn't gross trying to squeeze through them. I'm sure everyone has had their share of slimy crowd experiences, so thankfully this was actually pleasant enough.
These guys were taking the chance to make a quick buck from the festive crowd by selling noodles for 2 pounds. They said "No pictures" but that was after I took the shot. Now its on the Internet. I thought they were handing out free noodles because business was that brisk.
Lion dance at that shop on the right. See the lion about to enter the shop there?
And now the lion attempts to enter a hair salon to wish it good business for the year ahead. We were stuck in that very same doorway trying to get out, so when the lion came over we got a "first class view".
Some chefs outside a store making dragon beard candy and explaining to the locals what goes inside one.
It started snowing in Chinatown and we all got a severe dandruff attack. At least that was what it looked like because the snow wasn't thick enough. Haha.It was a damn cold night.
The temperature was minus 3 degrees, and it snowed quite heavily.
The first handful of snow I have ever held in my life. After holding it I regretted doing so because I couldn't feel my fingers. It wouldn't even melt in my hands because it was that cold.
Walking Mich and Joce back in the snow.
The road outside my university, Bishops Rise, all paved in snow.
Snow.
SNOW!
SNOWW!
The morning after. 4 inches of snow man. Madness. And it was still snowing.