The past week has been rather eventful with many opportunities to socialise, since the real Thanksgiving date is finally here. After more ChristmaSing production work in the studio, came our long weekend of feasting.
It started on Wednesday night, when we had our Mass Media Thanksgiving dinner, where most of the people involved in video production with One Light Media and their families came together. Through a couple of games and some food, we managed to get to know a few more people, added a few more names to our facebook friend lists and such. Also, our fridge's full of leftovers now, still figuring out with my friends a plan to clear all of them without food wastage.
On Thursday night we were invited to Cupertino to have our Thanksgiving dinner among a Singaporean community living in the area. We finally have a familiar taste of home, though I could tell that the American culture has influenced the taste, preparation, etc one way or another. Still, tasty food and we all had our fill, as well as planned our activities for the next day too. The day ended in an impromptu trip to Tanforan mall, to witness the happenings of Black Friday, a time when shops opening at midnight with terrific sales. Kenneth bought a Playstation 3 at a great price, and he's been glued to the TV screen ever since.
Dinner menu for our Singaporean Thanksgiving dinner.
Inching closer and closer every minute. He'll kiss the screen any moment now...
We caught a movie with our fellow Singaporean friend Pei Ying. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. A movie that tries to be book-accurate gave us the most unsatisfying ending ever - a cliffhanger. I liked how the movie explains the workings of the Hunger Games universe as well, and provides more depth to the first Hunger Games movie. We walked around the mall shopping for the rest of the day , not realising that we've all skipped lunch. The mall was more packed than usual, given the crazy sales going on, clothes were going "buy one get one free" at some places, and discounts went up to as high as 90% off the original price. Listening to the conversations going on around me, this was what I heard at one point.
"Hey, you wanna buy this? It's cheap."
"Yes it is, but we don't need it. It'll just take up space in the house."
"But it's cheap."
Saturday was a mad rush. A morning spent installing yet more lights in to the sanctuary earned us the rest of the day off, which we spent visiting the Exploratorium in Pier 15. Comparing it with the Singapore Science Centre, which I've visited multiple times on school trips and competitions, the Science Centre loses out to the Exploratorium in terms of interactivity. Every single exhibit inside the Exploratorium is interactive, giving visitors the freedom to try their hands at whatever concept the display is trying to show. This turns the Exploratorium to sort of a big playground. We barely managed to finish looking around before we had to leave in a rush to our next Thanksgiving dinner, at Rev. Chanson Lau's place over in the Sunset District.
Dinner menu at our 6th Thanksgiving dinner for the month
We brought a chocolate cheesecake over from our favourite Cheesecake Factory, and though it made us late by nearly half an hour, it turned out to be worth it, after we tasted the cake. It was heavenly. The house, being on top of a hill, had a balcony that faces the ocean, giving us a wonderful view if it was in the daytime. That said, night time shots of fog rolling in was a sight to see as well. It looked creepy to some extent, looking out to see a clear view one moment, and seeing everything covered by fog the next.
Sunday was a little more special than usual, as the church saw the baptism of 10 people, including Harry's son, Matthew. All of us went out to a buffet restaurant for lunch, before Harry decided to bring us down to the Pacifica Pier.
Baptism service on Sunday
Buffet lunch - First round
Pacifica Pier
I'm thankful for technology to have advanced far enough to place good camera sensors into modern phones, as none of us had our cameras with us, being an impromptu trip. The view was magnificent, the ocean looked wide and open and free as it should be, with no ships in the background spoiling the view. Our coasts back home look terrible compared to the ones here, which is no surprise. Even the sand here appeared different. Darker, made up of very fine eroded rock, yet smooth. The warmer-than-usual weather here seemed perfect for us, being citizens of hot-furnace Singapore. We spent time walking along the beach, spotting out different rocks, watching seagulls, finding crab remains in the sand, so on and so forth. Watching the sun set completely would've been great, but we were not prepared for the temperatures that would follow at nightfall. Being lucky enough to see such a wonderful sight at the magic hour already, we swung by Harry's soon-to-be new house before going back home.
December's here, Cyber Monday's tomorrow and we're looking at doing a crazy number of shoots this month leading up to ChristmaSing. We're reluctantly counting down the days left before we leave for home, and trying not to think about what awaits us when we touch down back in stressland. So no matter how busy things are gonna get, you can be sure we're going to enjoy and savor every moment of it.
A few minutes left before the internet cuts off, better end it quick.
Might come back and edit the post.
Signing off, Shawn Ang
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