CNY 2015

I know I am a little late on the greetings but better late than never, so.... HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR to all my fellow yellow-skinned buddies out there! Blessed Year of the Goat to one and all- Goat xi fa cai, meh the huat be with you! *insert oranges* 

Ultra lame I know, but those Goat puns are too funny not to use!

On the eve of the Lunar New Year, the Husband and I wanted to join in the festivities taking place at the Chung Tian Temple in Underwood (disclaimer: we aren't Buddhists but we just wanted to go and see the Lion Dance and various other New Year displays). 

It was a very wet and gloomy evening with sporadic downpour. My cheapie cloth shoes were thoroughly soaked through and through, it made for a very mushy and horrible experience indeed! 

There was also this gong in the middle of the courtyard, people could walk up to it and sound it. I think it's to get some blessings or something, I'm not sure. Anyway, the adults sounded the gong really loud and it made me jump a few times. The little kids though were cuter. They were so excited and shy at the same time, I managed a snap a picture of a little girl who was so conscious of everyone around and she only sounded the gong after some cajoling by her dad in the background.

There were still heaps of people around and everyone gathered in the main area whilst waiting for the Lion Dance to start. This troupe was a little different, the tail end of the "lions" were actually little children! So cute. Also, this troupe was predominantly Caucasian. It is my first time seeing our traditional dance being performed by people from a different race, it was very cool. 

I had a little accident at the Temple and it involved food (what a surprise hey). Volunteers of the Temple had set up little booths along the corridors, and they were selling all sorts of New Year goodies. I also saw quite a few girls holding sticks of fairy floss so me being a greedy monster and having a sweet tooth, went to join the queue. 

I was like, oh my god $1 fairy floss?! I felt like buying 10 but the Husband stopped me. 

Anyway, I bought 1 stick and as I was walking away from the booth, I could hear like a little fizzing sound, like as if someone was eating popping candy beside me. I turned to look only to discover in dismay that my fairy floss was disintegrating! I never knew this could happen! It was literally shrinking and melting right before my very eyes! If you can see in the photo above, the sugar crystals were all over my fingers! I was in such distress because the Lion Dance was about to start and I had my precious camera in the other hand! I quickly squished the floss into a tight ball and stuffed it into my mouth. It did taste really good (yes I can discern sugar quality) but it came at such a high price and I don't mean financially. My fingers were all sticky, there were sugar crystals all over my pants and my hair (causing it to knot), my camera was also sticky and the screen got smudgy etc. In short, it was a total disaster in catastrophic scale.

I was feeling quite miserable on the way home in my soggy shoes and sticky hair/pants/everywhere.