On Monday, I took a day’s leave to accompany Catherine to run some errands. After which, we headed down to Chinatown to get a feel of the Chinese New Year’s festive mood.

We started off at Chinatown Point and had our lunch at Delifrance. We had wanted to dine at Swensen’s for its 1-for-1 lunch treat but decided against it when we realised the restaurant was very packed, even when it was almost 2pm then. Apparently many people working around the area were still having their lunch at that time…

As we were leaving Chinatown Point, we took some photos with the nice CNY backdrop the mall had set up, though it wasn’t easy to get a good shot with Darius feeling uncomfortable under the glaring sunlight.

The Year of the Tigers!

The weather was indeed very hot, just like any other day over this past week. Still, we proceeded on to travel towards Pagoda Street, where lines of stalls were set up along the street. This was surely a great place to feel the atmosphere of the upcoming CNY, thanks to many of the street’s nicely decorated shops, selling festive stuffs like tiger dolls, cushion covers, ornaments, decorations and clothes.

How could anyone resist entering the shop after seeing its beautiful deco? ^^

First, we checked out a few shops selling CNY decorations as we were attracted to their beautiful merchandise. On top of that, as their shops were air-conditioned, they became good places for us to temporarily escape from the hot sun and cool ourselves down. ^^|

Although we had already put up decorations we bought in the previous years at our home, we wouldn’t mind adding a few more to them, especially after seeing the variety offered at the shops.

In the end, we got ourselves two cute tiger-shaped dolls and a row of fire crackers ornaments. We also bought a pair of pineapple-shaped decorations for Catherine’s parents. Since most shops were offering similar merchandise, some tried to get an edge over others by offering lucky draws for customers.

As for Darius, we had to carry him in our arms instead of letting him walk himself so that he would not wander off himself. Well, he’s not exactly very interested in all these bright red decorations around him and as usual, was more interested in wanting to walk around himself, which he couldn’t. ^^|

Besides the decorations, we had also bought some cushion covers for the new year. Besides offering quite an amount of variety, the covers were also sold at very reasonable prices, at as low as S$2.00 per piece! The make and designs were well-made and nice despite the price.

Quite a nice selection of CNY clothings

While we were shopping for a cover, we were also attracted by the new year clothes offered by the shop. We had been wanting to get Darius one of these oriental-style clothes for his new year as we had been feeling regretful of not doing so last year, especially after seeing how adorable the other kids looked when wearing them. As Darius would only be able to wear these clothes during the CNY season, we wanted to savour every opportunity to dress him up in these clothes.

Just a week or so ago, we tried one of these clothes on him at a departmental store. However, he was very resistant to it and kept struggling and whining. This made us think that he was disliking the material of the clothes or the feeling of being ‘choked’ since the topmost button was pretty close to his neck. That was why we disappointingly believed that we could forget about seeing Darius in an oriental suit for this coming new year.

However, when we tried a suit at the shop in Chinatown on Darius again, he only fussed a little and did not complaint after that. Yeah! So we could get him to wear an oriental suit for the new year after all! ^^

We had initially thought of getting him a red coloured suit but after trying the golden and white pieces on him, we thought he looked nice in them too. In the end, we bought the golden coloured suit.

We had intended to only let Darius wear the suit on the first day of the CNY but we couldn’t resist letting him wear the top first. Since were in Chinatown where the festive mood was strong, it would be appropriate for Darius to be dressed in the oriental clothings.

Couldn't open his eyes under the bright sunlight

Also, after buying the suit, we spotted some oriental caps near the entrance of the shop and couldn’t help but try putting them on Darius. We knew we wouldn’t be able to keep a cap on his head for long as he would almost immediately take it off. Yet we managed to keep it long enough on his head to snap a few photos! ^^

Quickly snapped the photo before he took the cap down

After that, we continued walking along the street and moved into the alleys where stalls were mainly selling melon seeds, CNY goodies, young coconuts and most commonly, Taiwanese jelly (also called ‘muah chee’). Over these past few years, these jellies had suddenly become very popular among Chinatown’s stall owners, and we had no idea why. We prefer the ‘traditional’ sweets but it was very difficult to find any shop selling them. In the end, we had only located one shop selling these sweets and got our sweets from them.

A view of one of the alleys

Overall, despite the hot weather, we were glad the alleys weren’t very crowded, probably because we had gone there during the day on a weekday. Otherwise we would certainly have problem navigating the place with Darius and stroller in tow.

Despite the perspiration and tired feet, we were glad we were at Chinatown to feel the atmosphere of CNY. It certainly helped lifted our moods to welcome the Chinese New Year in just less than a week!

Oh, by the way, the queue in front of the famous ‘Bak Kua’ shop was still as long as ever… ^^|

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