Christmas 2011

IT'S hard to talk about Japan if I don't share something about where I come from - Singapore. There's only 2 kinds of weather here - rainy & sunny. The month of December is usually plagued with heavy downpours that resulted in floods in some areas in Singapore. In recent years, floods developed in the main shopping belt, Orchard Road. The damages are usually cars with engines soaked in the flood rending it redundant and murky flood stains on high-quality goods from luxury labels located in the lower levels of shopping malls. You might see some of these luxury bags floating around the store.

December was an exceptionally hectic one as it followed with an offer and acceptance contract after almost 3 weeks of intensive interview process for the job in Japan. This is in addition to multiple trips to doctors to treat a dog-bite wound, helping out for a day in the St. Teresa's Church Amazing Race for its Youth Camp activity, and then it was preparation for the visa application. I made time amongst these events to spend some time with friends & family.

Early December, the FSPs (word play here on Figlie di San Paolo, I called us the Fun Sophisticated Princesses, hence we ended up not taking the route of the habit), gathered at Nat's to bake gingerbread men cookies for Christmas. We churned out cookies like an assembly line and baked more than just men and gingerbread, but also cinnamon chocolate butterflies, bunnies, elephants, hearts etc... Sr. Wendy said to bake a gingerbread nun but we completely forgot.

A few days before Christmas while I was shuttling between the lawyer's and Singapore's Immigration, I decided to take a breather and took a stroll along Orchard Road with mom. The theme for the Christmas light-up was Christmas Blooms in Singapore. With the exception of the streets lined with hanging blue lights, sponsored by Hitachi, none of the malls went with the theme. Takashimaya in Ngee Ann City had a crystal tree by Swarovski that paled in comparison to those Swarovski crystal trees in Tokyo. Ion Orchard had a tree allowing visitors to walk round the top of the tree and view Orchard Road from higher ground. That experience was a shaky one. The platform swayed when a kid jumped and ran around. On a side note, I liked Louis Vuitton's subtle participation in the Elephant Parade through its visual merchandising.

Christmas Eve was spent attending the midnight mass. Headed to Changi Airport thereafter to hangout over coffee. I reached home round 3:30am or 4am, had about 3-4hours of sleep before heading to Celeste's to help her mom prepare a sumptuous Christmas dinner. It was my first time seeing & learning to stuff a turkey and stitching it up, as well as learning to prepare French-baked potatoes.

I went to Pulau Ubin for the first time in my life on Boxing Day. Most of my friends have been there, so when I said I haven't, they were either in shock or just laughed their heads off. I've always wanted to see how it's like, so when dad suggested, I went "OKAY!!" I like that place. It's laid back, even the dogs at the jetty were so relaxed! I've also never seen so many bicycle rental shops congregated at one place. When we returned to shore, I suggested visiting the Changi Chapel Museum. For my European friends, it is a museum that documents a part of Singapore's history of the Japanese Occupation during World War II between 1942 and 1945. When I visited this museum for the second time, I was amused by the 日本語 grammar & conversation book used in Singapore then. Late afternoon, dad wanted to check out  Keppel Bay Marina, so we went.

The next day, Dec 27, Linus & Marcia (I call her Mars) dropped by for dinner. Linus was due to leave for Tokyo in 3 days from that day. His posting was given on a very short notice, so we met up before he left. Mars suggested to have something "Singaporean" and honestly it was really difficult because except for chicken rice, and muah chee - Singapore's style of mochi, I don't really know of any food that screams Singaporean. I spewed a plethora of nonsense like, "There's Seah Street Deli at Raffles Hotel.... but it serves western food, only the name sounds Singaporean." and after WhatsApp-ing her a picture of Grandma's Cooking, I followed with a text, "The price of their dishes hor... I might as well cook." So we decided that I cook. 

BUT it was my mom who did the cooking in the end :p I mean, if we have to host a dinner, given a choice between mom and I, I would rather mom to cook. It was also because there's not many opportunities left to taste more of mom's cooking when I leave. The only dish I prepared for that night was to recreate Celeste's mom's French-baked potatoes.

So that was possibly the last Christmas in Singapore I've celebrated... until 2013 perhaps...