It's Mid Autumn!

So I survived the week of tests, lab report and homework datelines. Thank God for helping me through!

And as I was walking home from the mrt station, suffering from the bad smell of haze (and wishing that I was teleported home instead of breathing in the dusty air), I saw kids having fun with lanterns, candles and sparklers!

I wished I was young once again.

So I got home, dropped my bag, picked up my camera and decided to go for a walk round the neighbourhood.

What was I thinking? It was, and still is very hazey out there.

My initial intention was to just take a picture of the huge field in front of my block.

Which obviously didn't really turn out well.

So, a little disappointed, I decided to walk around and see if I could catch anything nicer on my camera. And to my pleasant surprise, I bumped into my ex-collegue and her two very adorable kids!


They just can't stand still! It was so hard to get this shot!

And then, I bumped into my primary school friend and her 13 year-old sister who did this..


Compare the two innocent kids holding lanterns and this mess of candles plus whatever combustible material. You see, as you grow older, you become less innocent and more destructive.

***

Just before all these, I was feeling a little nostalgic when I saw all the happenings around my neighbourhood. The little children having fun, parents screaming at the top of their voices. Be careful! Don't burn your finger! Stop swinging your sparkler! Don't run too far away!

I used to love mid autumn festival. I loved burning lanterns, newspapers, throwing sparklers. Anything that's hazardous. My sisters, especially my erjie thought me the art of playing with fire. And I had a really good lesson on that when we almost burnt down the corridor back at our two-room flat in toa payoh. I think my erjie was badly reprimanded, but I suffered no punishment. The pros of being the youngest in the family. =)

And the playground back at our toa payoh hometown would be ultra-happening. The candles would be all over the playground. On the slides, the see-saw, even the swings. They were everywhere and really was a beautiful sight. But the next morning, the playground would look like war zone. Where matchsticks were equivalent to used bullets, candle wax as shed blood, burnt lanterns/ cardboard boxes/ newspapers were like burnt corpses.

It was cheap thrill. It was the next best festival after Lunar New Year (which was the best 'cos of ang bao.. HA! Nope, wasn't Christmas 'cos my family don't celebrate this special day, yet.)

Who cares about what it really meant. To young kids, it's all about fun. To a young phyllis then, it wasn't called mid autumn fesitval, but rather lantern festival or mooncake festival.

I just want to play with candles and sparklers and burn everything down!!

Let the fire burn!!

***

Really thank God for the short walk around the field.