So how was your Chap Goh Meh dinner last night? Bet it was way better than what I had for dinner. Yes I’m still not over the fact that I had economic rice for dinner on Chap Goh Meh. Partly because my mom would always cook a feast for dinner on that night so eating like this takes time to adjust.
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Yesterday was also the first time I’ve seen a Kong Ming Deng (sky latern) up close and also lit one and set it up to the sky. It was really fun!
We planned to gather at a friend’s place at 9pm but it started to drizzle so we pushed it ten minutes later as the rain was just a sprinkle. So 8 of us gathered at rendezvous point on time except one. We waited, called, sms-ed and even went to her place to get her but she couldn’t be reached. In between, we joked and laughed because it has been way too long since the last time all of us gathered like that. I even got chased on foot by one of them because I called her short.
Half an hour and lots of sweat later, we gave up waiting and went to the open area to light up our lantern. First we opened it and spread it on the ground while using some newspaper as a mat for it. Then we all wrote our wishes on it, in Chinese! The horror! Most of them wrote in Chinese and their handwriting is really nice!
The few of us (who are bananas) wrote in English. I wrote ‘我 郑芷颖, wish everyone a happy & peaceful life’.
Lighting the lantern was nerve wrecking because we were so afraid of it not being able to take off into the sky (another group’s lantern didn’t go up but instead went down to the lake) and we’re also worried that the lantern would be burnt before it could take off. Another reason why we were so worried was because our lantern had 2 holes in it and we fixed it cello tape.
So cautiously, we lit it and allowed the hot air to stabilize and inflate the lantern. We were hesitating whether to let it go because there was no wind to help it go up that time and the lantern looks really unstable.
But somehow; in the middle of all the ‘eh, not yet!’ and ‘wait for a while’, the lantern seemed to be fed up of us being so noisy and took off on its own. Obviously, we were dumbfounded but also were really happy that it took off well and went straight for the sky.
We were the last of the many groups there to light up the lantern and everybody stared at it as it kept going up and up. It was really nerve wrecking watching it go as well. I don’t know why, but the lantern was rocking left and right as it went up. We (more like I) shrieked every time it rocked in fear of the fire burning it.
After that, we went for a drink and chit chat until around 11.30pm before going back to our dorm.
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This morning, most of us had 8am class and it was Law of all subjects! Can you imagine how hard it was to keep awake in a 2hour Law lecture when you slept late the night before and the subject is boring in nature? HAHAHA!!
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