25Th December. What day is it? Why is that day so special? Because it is Christmas Day. Every year during this day, I will be sitting in front of my computer playing some game which will make me play on and on for hours without stopping. Friends always ask me why is my Christmas so boring..they say I should go out for countdown or celebration at bar. Well, I do not like crowd that much, that's why I prefer to stay at home and go through a boring Christmas Day. My boring routine on 25Th December each year stops on the year 2008 (this year). This year it is a special Christmas for me. It's the first time I celebrate outside of a house with my friends. We went Portuguese Settlement for Christmas countdown on the 24Th of December 2008......
At around 6pm, we already at Ujong Pasir which is a name for the place where Portuguese Settlement is situated. We went early to avoid all the traffic jam and to ensure that we have a parking for our cars. After parking our cars, our first destination was to an old restaurant to have our dinner. Why do I say it is old? Because I saw the signboard of the restaurant having the slogan Tahun Melawat Malaysia 1994 or 1998, I could not remember well. Most of us ate fried mee but some ate 'laksa'. 'Grass' as usual ate 2 type of food..one plate of fried mee and one bowl of laksa. Such a big appetite he has. ^^ The food there weren't that tasty but we were hungry so any food that can stop us from starving will be fine. Therefore, we did not complain about the food. After finish eating, we paid the bills and head towards the Portuguese Settlement. Along the road to the settlement, we were able to see many people selling snow spray and also accessories that will light up in various shape. The girls bought some of the accessories while the guys spend their money on snow spray...actually we are not spending money for nothing..that snow spray is a kind of protection....from.............................PEOPLE.
After buying those stuff that we need, we walk around the settlement area enjoying those beautiful decorations that are being set up by the residents there. The whole place is lighted up in various colours of light. It's a beautiful sight that we will never forget. Some houses with their gate open and some close. We can go inside those houses with their gate open to take photo but we can't do that if the gate are close. We took many photo as remembrance.
Beautiful aren't they? My words cannot describe how beautiful are those decorations. You need to see it for yourself to believe me. After walking out the outside of the Settlement, we went the inner part where there are more decorations for us to see. The crowd started to build up when we were walking through the main entrance. People of different race and different hometown came to celebrate Christmas eve at the settlement. At first I thought the houses at the outside had an amazing decoration but the houses in the inner part had even more fantastic ones. They just took my breath away.....
After hours of looking at beautiful decorations, we proceed till the end of the Settlement. There is a pavement for us to sit while looking at the sea. All of us were sitting after hours of walking but we couldn't rest long as our worst horror started. People started spraying snow spray at each other. Thus, we also did the same by spraying our friends.....snow spray here...snow spray there...snow spray everywhere...ALL OVER OUR BODY. This is the protection that I was talking about earlier on. If you do not have a snow spray, people will start spraying u randomly and u have nothing to counter attack back. Just like a sheep waiting to be eaten by a wolf..Friends or strangers they will start spraying you until you scream out loud for..help. The truth is that the snow spray is illegal to use and is unhealthy because of the chemical use. You can barely breathe when people spray at you because of the strong smell. It gets worst if those spray got into your eyes or mouth like what happened to May and Winson. The feeling was awful but yet fun knows no boundary, so, people still spraying around at each other without caring much about the hazard and risk. Well we went there for fun and excitement..so why bother? Just Spray till your bottle is empty..It's Christmas Eve by the way. The results of snow spraying activity is as shown..
So, the moral of the stories is, that snow spray is hazardous but it can be fun and also horror to some. We used those snow spray to create a snow like feel to snap photo. The photo of Jie and SMay at the telephone booth and the Chinese word 'Diao" as shown on top was created using that RM 10 for 3 bottles snow spray. ^^ After those fun of spraying at each other we stop for a moment to rest as it is closing to the hour that we all had been waiting for....Countdown to Christmas Day. While waiting for that hour, Me, May and Yaya went to the food court situated inside the settlement to have some snacks or food as we were hungry. We was excited to try the seafood there because we heard stories that they are fresh and delicious till the very last piece but our excitement and hope just crash and burn after every shop owner told us that they had stop selling food because it was near to countdown moment. Sad and disappointed, we walk our way to find a place to sit down and wait for 12 A.M as we were dead tired and our legs were in pain. As the moment got closer, all of us stood up and waited for the D.J on top of the stage to start the countdown. The moment that all of us had been waiting for had finally come...the whole crowd started counting down on the same rhyme...10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2.....1.~MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! and the whole place was feel with cheers, laughter and of course, SNOW SPRAY. The air of the place was filled with the spray and all u can see was white in colour
and have to stop breathing for a moment. Everyone were greeting each other the same phrase "Merry Christmas" and some were dancing to the music. Our Christmas celebration at Portuguese Settlement ended there....A wonderful and beautiful Christmas day spended with my dear Friends~~~~
The story does not end there, when we walked out of the settlement to our cars, we were squeeze among the crowd and were push around as there were too many people going out of there. After almost 20 minutes, we successfully walked out of Portuguese Settlement and towards our cars. Y.C wanted to go eat at some stall but some of us were too tired even to eat anymore so we decided to go back home and call it a day...A day full of excitement, fun...and of course Surprises..
PS: Surprise?!! Surprise....This is the surprise that I was talking about, on Christmas Eve, 24Th December 2008, Grass and Minz officially became a couple..CONGRATULATIONS.
Thank you for reading and have a MERRY CHRISTMAS~~
