The River Hongbau festival also had anamusement park with mostly the insane kind of rides that only hurtle you in loops. After an evening of eating Sichuan food there was just no way that I was going to hang upside down locked in a cage. Again.
Once again, the experience of a festival in Singapore is a very clean and controlled environment. The last two fairs we visited — the Montgomery County Fair in Maryland and the Tennessee State Fair in Nashville — each had wholesome elements such as 4-H livestock competitions but there is always an element of seediness to be found. Ex-cons running the carnival games and rides games run by former Deadheads who lost their way in search of a magic ticket. In other words, my friends.
Years ago I was taking a lunchtime walk through Washington Square Park in New York City with a friend and, from the distance, a somewhat bedraggled man began to approach us. Instinctively, we veered away until he called out “Mitja!”.
It was ________, whom I last saw in Berkeley four years earlier after he missed a court appearance and I found him sleeping in his closet.
Me: Long time no see! Where have you been, _______?
________: Oh man, I followed the Dead for a while and then my foot got run over by a ferris wheel in Kansas.
But of course. You never know when a ferris wheel will roll by and catch you off-guard. Very sneaky.
At the River Hongbau festival everything was, of course, very clean. No garbage on the sidewalk, everyone behaving well, ferris wheels up-to-code and fully anchored. After Giuliani became mayor of New York City many people complained that he turned Times Square into the corporate and retail environment of Disneyland but people here would probably not see that as a bad thing. In fact, I am surprised the Lion City does not have animal-costumed tourist ambassadors frolicking around the city.
After her experience riding Space Mountain at Hong Kong Disneyland I was not so sure that my daughter would trust me when it came to thrill rides, or any ride. But she did not hesitate when she saw the giant plastic bubbles floating on a pool of water with kids rolling around inside.
She sat calmly inside as the bubble was inflated around her and then spent about ten minutes falling all over the place, loving it. I was just glad she did not pee in there like the child of another military family. It is against the law to not flush a public toilet so I am sure they do not appreciate a wetting down of their giant hamster liberty balls.
We visited the River Hongbau festival on the Singapore waterfront two weeks ago, one of many celebrations at the start of the lunar new year.
This year’s theme was a mouthful:
Welcoming the Year of the Tiger through promotion of Chengdu to enhance the offering of River Hongbao in Singapore and promote close ties and collaboration between Singapore and Chengdu City.
Perhaps the Chinese version is shorter.
Chengdu is the capital of China’s Sichuan province. There were demonstrations of local arts and crafts but I was mainly interested in the food. I should not have been surprised to find that almost everything tasted like it was on fire and I suspect that in Sichuan a meal is not considered satisfactory unless at least two dishes are dripping with hot chili oil.
Marinating lotus root, mushrooms and chicken feet.
Luckily, I love spicy food. I also like non-spicy food. I will try just about anything and loaded up on meal tickets to sample the hot sesame balls and the fresh pancakes, sweet or salty, that are folded in half and contain a pork filling. Only the chicken foot in the middle of the vegetables stopped me. I have tried them and they do nothing for me. I suppose they do even less now for the chicken.
Sugar decorating demonstration
We enjoyed the fireworks and view of the Singapore skyline with other Navy friends. Before we left for the night I went to buy a panda puppet with my leftover vouchers. As I was fumbling with the money two photographers pushed me aside in order to get a good shot of a visiting politician. It turns out I was within two feet of Teo Chee Hean, who is Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister.
He currently holds two Cabinet positions in Singapore, but tonight he simply held a stuffed panda toy.
Today we received a package at our Fleet Post Office (FPO) Box containing all of the mail sent to our old address in Maryland. Somewhere along the way they let gorillas jump up and down or rested a cargo container on it.
Priority mail, 17 pounds. It flew from Columbia, Maryland to San Francisco where it boarded a United Airlines flight to Singapore as part of the Military Postal Service.
At one point someone made a feeble effort and covered a six inch hole in the side with Priority Mail tape but ignored that the top was almost completely ripped open around two of the sides and you could see , through a 2.5-inch gap, our mail sliding around.
For the past two weeks Citrus has had a crush on a boy in her preschool. An older boy, perhaps already five.
Every night she is excited about the idea of seeing him the next day although her attempts to talk or play with him are usually thwarted. Sadly for her, he usually plays with the other boys.
She was excited to learn a few days ago that he said he would marry her but only after he married one or two other classmates first: Hannah with the straight hair (also known as straight Hannah) and Hana with the curly hair.
On the phone the other day she told her grandmother the great news.
Mima (Grandma), I already choose my husband! I already choose Danzel! I choose Danzel to be my husband today. But Danzel said he would marry straight Hannah first, then me.
Yeah, and I like him a lot. Because he is always looking nice and I always think his hair is beautiful. Yeah, and he looks nice and it looks to me, Sweet. And that makes me like shout his name when I want him to play with me when it’s playtime and sit next to me.
But one day, when I wanted to sit next to him in the Chinese room where the tables are, [another boy] which has green Crocs, he stole my chair. Yeah.
Just for the record, I will not be the kind of parent who pulls out a video camera when a date comes over to pick her up. Really. That happened to me once so my daughter will be spared as tempting as it may be.
To celebrate the end of the New Year festivities my daughter’s class made tang yuan, or glutinous rice balls. All of the preschoolers rolled the colored paste into little piles of balls which were then whisked away to the school canteen for cooking in a light syrup with pandan leaves or ginger.
This was a recipe that everyone enjoyed making but the children’s reviews were generally short and blunt: Chewy and disgusting. Not exactly the hallmarks of family unity and completeness that the dumplings symbolize. So much for tradition!
Playing around while waiting for the tang yuan to cook.
Grandmother and granddaughter making glutinous rice balls for the New Year.
