As with every year, my family members would make a pilgrimage-like trip to the Riverside Angbao Festival (or whatever they named the festival). This year, the festival is held at Esplanade Park and there were actually nothing much interesting (for me) to see. Alright, it's not exactly empty because you can still see carnival fun-rides, food and beverage stalls (such as the Taiwanese Stinky Beancurd), stalls selling caligraphy, art pieces, providing onsite protrait paintings, read-ups on the twelve Chinese zodic animals for the year of the Rat.
I did not take a lot of photographs yesterday because I was busy carrying things for my parents and taking photographs of them on the family camera. They loved to take photos during such festivals and the following are the few I managed in-between those times. It's raining hard right now as I typed this post. Hope the folks going to the festival today ain't badly-drenched since there is actually very little rain-cover there.... -________-
This is new and looks kinda of fun in the middle of Esplanade Park rather than in Sentosa. Sort of miniature water-ride for the children. It was a hot day yesterday and if only the rides were for adults, I would have jumped in already. Hahaha..
Flowers! I like the way the organizers arranged a beautiful array of flowers in one part of the festival for picture-takers to get a nice backdrop. Most of the shots are inclusive of my parents which I will never show on this blog so this is the only snap shot left as I was moving away from the site. My parents are like little children again whenever they visit the festival so I had to catch up with them as they ran around...haha
Most of the visitors to the festival can't really miss this. Standing at more than four storeys tall, this is the iconic God of Fortune that people would want to be touching and sometimes, the statue wil shower tiny golden-coloured paper flakes (representative of gold dust) for the waiting people below to grab. It is said that those who get the flakes will have riches and wealth for the new year ahead. However, it did not seem to shower any during my visit. Maybe it's too early in the afternoon? Who cares. My family kept moving through the festival anyway.
My family actually made a longer stay at this wishing well thingy where one must throw a coin at whichever wooden tablet if they want that wish on that tablet to be fulfilled. Visible ones on the photograph includes (left to right) - health, progress, wealth, harmony, peace, having lots of children, etc. A few of my family members threw some coins and actually hit the tablets. I'd rather keep my coins for a cool drink at one of the stalls later on. Heehee.Chinese Lunar New Year Family Movie: Ah Long Pte Ltd (2008)
Before going to the Riverside Angbao Festival, we actually went to watch a family movie together. My mother is an avid fan of local movies and even though my father wanted to watch CJ7, we decided on Ah Long Pte Ltd at Orchard Cineleisure.
The movie revolved around the unlikely marriage between a dance teacher (Mark Lee) and a loanshark gangster (Fann Wong) and how they had to cooperate in order to fight off challenges from a rival loanshark gang. The theme is not very suitable for CNY because there were a lot of fighting and swearing in the movie but it was pleasant enough to include a few themes of loyalty, trust, betrayal, love and even compassion.
All in all, not that horrible as the movie critics said but it is uncomparable to I Not Stupid. I would be looking forward to watch CJ7 when the family-related activities simmered down.
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