This beautiful sight greeted us as we emerged from Sunset Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit yesterday. This cloud formation is called the altocumulus and supposedly warns of impending rain; nevertheless, still an amazing spectacle. That reminded me of the sand ripples at the bottom of the seabed which had fascinated me as a child.

Uncle Paul, who had come back from Malacca with his family to celebrate the Chinese New Year here, suggested that we have dinner at the Gurney Drive hawkers� corner. The traffic congestion five kilometres away from our destination portended the state of things to come.

Gurney Drive is not the place to go to during festive holidays. Traffic came to a crawl as we entered the beachfront. Parking space was hard to come and Peter, my cousin, had to wait a while to get one. The hawker�s corner was packed to the brim but Uncle Paul who had arrived earlier than us had a table waiting for us. The food was cut-throat expensive. I did not eat much as nothing caught my fancy.

We adjourned to the promenade after we had finished our food. It was equally crowded there. There were makeshift stalls selling fireworks. Children and adults were lighting all kinds of sparklers, roman candles, rockets and missiles that lit up the night sky in a pyrotechnic of colours and explosions. That was also a hazardous place to be with merrymakers recklessly hurling firecrackers all over the place, notwithstanding the acrid fumes that filled the air. We left a short while later and got stuck in another traffic jam on the way back.

Tags: Chinese New Year, Gurney Drive

Posted at 5:58 pm in General | Permalink | 11 Comments »