New Years Comes But Twice A Year

After a rather quiet start to the New Year came the booming celebration of Chinese New Year, which much to our chagrin lasted for three weeks. In the beginning we were excited to learn and immerse of ourselves in this unique culture tradition after all we live in the heart of Chinatown. The streets became more crowded and bright throngs of locals, who apparently only visit the market area once a year came to collect flowers, kumquat bushes, pussy willows, golden Buddhas and red signs of luck to decorate their homes and businesses. The local Buddhist Temple that holds a holy relic of Buddha’s tooth opened up for us to explore. Acrobats came from China to show off their almost super hero like flexibility.
Our apartment also looks over a small Buddhist temple that hung lanterns and covered the trees surrounding it with red lights. On the first night of the New Year it stayed up past twelve, including a puppet show. Inside the temple they were selling bags of New Years offerings of tangerines and incense. For the next two days Singapore virtually shut down, many businesses remained closed for the entire week. As the week went on, for us the excitement wore off. The temple across from our apartment often remained open with constant drumming or singing until about two in the morning. This might have not bothered us so much, but at the same time a massive pipe located between our bedroom wall and the bathroom broke leaving a water mark that in the end was about twelve feet by six feet. We had to move out of our bedroom and live in the office which faces the temple and its banging drums. Our landlord ignored our reports for three weeks and it wasn’t until we sent photographs that she very reluctantly showed up, made some odd comments questioning if this was our doing, but as a “Christian” she would do the right thing. I am still not sure what God had to do with the situation, although he may intervened and I was able to let the comment slide.
Valentines came and went in Singapore with a subtly that I did not expect. Perhaps it’s because so much pressure is put on people here to celebrate both Christmas and Chinese New Year with consumer products, large dinners and cold hard cash. John surprised me by taking me for Pecking Duck something that I had been craving for months. We ate four different duck dishes and I don’t think my belly had ever been so full! The restaurant was located in the Rochester Park Restaurant area. The restaurants are all located in a neighborhood of iconic black and white houses that have been converted to restaurants. It was a nice quiet evening as no cars are allowed on the street so you can stroll.