On a Portugese Christmas

Ding Dong! merrily on high
In heav'n the bells are ringing
Ding, dong! verily the sky
Is riv'n with angel singing
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis

Okay fine, it's one day post-Christmas, but you got to understand, being a non-Christian, I still adore Christmas for all the jolly spirit and joyful atmosphere that it brings. As far as I remembered, it has always been a celebration where I would be looking forward to because all the movies shown on the television are ever so interesting. So maybe I didn't get what the true meaning of Christmas is back then. And I don't really think I still celebrate it for the meaning of Christmas either...

5 of us: KK the roomie, CH the ex-housemie, Michelle the groupmate, OY the ex-same-hostel-girl and of course myself. We left Klang at 3.30p.m., dropped by the University for 5 minutes and finally hit the North-South Highway roughly around 4.20p.m.. The 2 hour drive was pretty boring, and tiring, and sleepy, if you're asking me. But Hark! the herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King,... We arrived in Melaka town safe and sound around 7p.m.. And the feeding of the stomach began.

Satay Celup. Wooot!

We headed over to the Jonker street...

And had our share of ABC.

While waiting for another colleague, Sharyn, to come over, we walked down the street and cam-whored a bit at the Red houses.

After that, we went for the cendol...

[ooops... no pics]

On our way over to the Portugese village, we stopped by Newton food court for some Chinese satay and fried kuey tiaw.

Deck the halls with boughs of holly
Fa la la la la la la la la
'Tis the season to be jolly,
Fa la la la la la la la la
Don we now our gay apparel,
Fa la la la la la la la la
Troll the ancient Yuletide carol,
Fa la la la la la la la la.

We walked over to the Portugese village around 10. Peoples were walking towards one direction, presuming it's the village. And amazingly, they were all youngsters. Couples were holding hands, friends went crazy with the triagular red hat, some went for the raindeer head-band and what not. Us? We went a bit crazy too I thought. Michelle was mourning and grumbling that she forgot to bring her triangular red hat and to forget to wear all the aparrels that she already planned to wear on Christmas eve... Me? I kept reminding her "LOOOK AT THAT HAT!"

When we arrived the D'Albuquerque road, we saw people mountain people sea. So many human beings were walking down the aisle. And when we walked ours down the lane, we saw the usuals at countdowns. People setting up stalls by the side of the road and selling all the sprays and what not. Disgusted yes, but we bought ours anyways.

Houses in the village are all decorated really nicely. Some even have their own special lawn set up with Santa Claus... You know, all decorated for the festive season like what we normally see in the Christmas movies, where houses in the West, they'd like, spend bucks and bucks of money to set up a really nice front yard during the Christmas...

Anyways, decorations aside, we walked to the square and it started to snow! WOoooeeeeee!

So yeah, the photo-takings finally stopped there.

Gotta protect me lens!

Anyways, it was really fun in there. For once after a few times going to countdowns, I made my own snow. Just that, the sling bag and the camera was a bit bulky to move around with...

See the blazing yule before us
Fa la la la la la la la la
Strike the harp and join the chorus
Fa la la la la la la la la
Follow me in merry measure
Fa la la la la la la la la
While I tell a Yule-tide treasure
Fa la la la la la la la la

Right after the "threeee.... twoooooo.... oneeee...... MEEEERRRRYYYYYY CHHHHHRRRIIIIISSSTTTTMAAAASSSS..." thing, and running around spraying aimlessly like crazy, everyone was basically pushing out from the square.

In one way, yes, I feel we're just creating rubbish in that village... And it'll be days for the villagers to clean up the mess all these non-Christians made... Or at least I thought so. Because, it seemed like, Christians do not generally countdowns for Christmas right?

Anyways, we went hang out in Jonker Street after that. OY's brother works in a gay club down there. And gosh, seriously... I have never been to LaQueen or Frangi or Marketplace whatsoever gay clubs in KL, but this one in Jonker... it's whoaaa.... I'm fine with it, but Michelle felt grossed and disgusted. Maybe they never seen guys hugging guys...

Headed back to CH's place for the night. Shall come back to KL on Christmas day...

Fast away the old year passes,
Fa la la la la la la la la
Hail the new, ye lads and lasses,
Fa la la la la la la la la
Sing we joyous all together,
Fa la la la la la la la la
Heedless of the wind and weather,
Fa la la la la la la la la.

Woke up at SHIT! IT's ALREADY 11?!

We drove down to town again. The boys wanted to try the chicken rice ball. But since it was a long queue, we headed over to the new mall and tried out miller crepe cake. Something like that. NICEEEE. And by 3ish, we finally had our share of balls. By the time we were about to leave, it was 4ish. And from 4ish, it got delayed, to 5ish. And it started to rain... And finally, we left at 6p.m..

We headed over to the Curve for our Christmas dinner. TGIF was packed. Tony Roma's packed. Manhattan's packed. Didn't feel like the Bubba Gum whatever Shrimp. So we reserved seat in Italiannies... And I think I saw the bunch of atheletes there. We went for a movie, Bedtime Stories. And headed back to HTAR. Weee... Christmas day...

Maybe not as glamourous as some. Heck not even a celebration of its true meaning... But well, we did had our fair share of gatherings. Weee..

Merry [belated] Christmas everyone!