...because of the endless smoke from the incense. Traditions and due respect aside, I detest going down to temples especially on this day when people grab bunches of josticks and walk around with them as though they were a bunch of flowers. I'm always grumpy and tired because of the fact that we have to rush down to Bishan early in the morning during Qing Ming Jie just to beat the crowd and realise that almost the whole neighbourhood in Bishan probably has the same mentality.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I detest this festival, it's rather nice to go pay respect to my great grandparents albeit annually, to let them know that they've not been forgotten. But the burning of papers and incense is ridiculous. There's a huge bonfire just so people can toss whatever they want to send to the netherworld inside. I can smell the smoke before I even walk in and after standing there for 5 mins, I start to tear. To make matters worse, people light cigarettes and leave them in on the table of offerings for the dead. It just goes to show that you can never wean yourself from cigarettes, not even after death.
Enough of this disrespectful rant.
This, however, is one of the reasons why I'm not out today even though it's a bright and sunny Sunday morning. I was supposed to go out with Songyao for lunch but he woke up late. I'm not complaining though, don't really feel like squeezing in crowds and fighting for tables today. On top of that, I've been sleeping close to three the past few nights - lack of sleep = tired.
Saturdays always seem to be packed with fun. From rushing down to Novena in the mornings, doing some quick shopping and then rushing to meet the some of the choir people. These meetings though, in Qimin's words "reek of male planning".
In the evening, I headed to my aunt's house where the energy was because my baby cousin, the birthday girl, is a monster. She'll get your adrenaline pumping by running round the pool without the slightest inclination that she'll probably drown when she falls in. Then swing the sparkles around as though they were mere twigs. Tear down party decorations and decorate herself with them and when she's all high on god-knows-what, she'll throw all her presents around. She finally settled down to play with a kitchen set that I wanted too(: I wanna cook! The rest of us played along as her bored/demanding customers.
I've got tons of pictures to show, when I finally remember to bring my camera up from the car.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I detest this festival, it's rather nice to go pay respect to my great grandparents albeit annually, to let them know that they've not been forgotten. But the burning of papers and incense is ridiculous. There's a huge bonfire just so people can toss whatever they want to send to the netherworld inside. I can smell the smoke before I even walk in and after standing there for 5 mins, I start to tear. To make matters worse, people light cigarettes and leave them in on the table of offerings for the dead. It just goes to show that you can never wean yourself from cigarettes, not even after death.
Enough of this disrespectful rant.
This, however, is one of the reasons why I'm not out today even though it's a bright and sunny Sunday morning. I was supposed to go out with Songyao for lunch but he woke up late. I'm not complaining though, don't really feel like squeezing in crowds and fighting for tables today. On top of that, I've been sleeping close to three the past few nights - lack of sleep = tired.
Saturdays always seem to be packed with fun. From rushing down to Novena in the mornings, doing some quick shopping and then rushing to meet the some of the choir people. These meetings though, in Qimin's words "reek of male planning".
In the evening, I headed to my aunt's house where the energy was because my baby cousin, the birthday girl, is a monster. She'll get your adrenaline pumping by running round the pool without the slightest inclination that she'll probably drown when she falls in. Then swing the sparkles around as though they were mere twigs. Tear down party decorations and decorate herself with them and when she's all high on god-knows-what, she'll throw all her presents around. She finally settled down to play with a kitchen set that I wanted too(: I wanna cook! The rest of us played along as her bored/demanding customers.
I've got tons of pictures to show, when I finally remember to bring my camera up from the car.
Current Mood: 
sleepy
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