"The whole place looks like Disneyland, come see, you won't be disappointed!" Stephen declared.
While there is a huge lack of Christmas atmosphere in the streets or malls of Perth as compared to Singapore, the magic lies in the suburbs. Or what Singaporeans like to term as the heartland, ironically in a heartless society. I guess this synchronizes with why shops in Perth notoriously closes too early for tourists' liking and the "whole town is dead". The Aussies put huge emphasize on their family and homes more than the malls and streets. Why hang out in the malls if the homes here are way more comfortable? It is also right that malls close early so that retailers get to spend time with their families as well. It makes perfect sense to me. Singaporeans expect the world from their retailers. They have to work long working hours to cater to our irrational thirst to consume. Then we ourselves shun retail jobs because they are too tough to handle. The same goes for the FNB, construction and many other industries. What assholes we are.
Enough about Singaporeans. The post is about how some locals celebrate their year end festival. According to what I observe so far, more of them are doing it in style.
When I took Albany to this house (left) a few minutes drive from my place, she was delighted and was began to climb stairs and inspect every element that caught her attention, forgetting the fact that it was actually somebody's house. However, it was the time of the year where trespassing was welcomed. The owner of the house were wishing every curious visitor, 'Merry Christmas' and even offered little Albany a candy.
I knew Albany would enjoy such an experience for sure. During one of the evening when I was taking her home from the hospital visit after Jen gave birth, she wailed throughout the ride because her mummy was not going home that night. The only time she stopped crying was when I drove through the tiny street along Subiaco where there were lightnings coiled around the street trees around there. She got quiet all of a sudden and commented, "Look daddy, lights!" It was then I realised my daughter had never been in the city at night before, since her bed time is 7.30 pm. She would be considered a "suaku" back home. I found it quite cute that she was amused by simple things such as a street tree with lightning and was convinced that there was no hurry to introduce her to the world so quickly. I had met "worldly" kids who behaved like they had seen it all and knew it all. It isn't my business how other parents wish to bring up their kids but I am not interested of having an annoying specimen like those in my household. Myself is one too many.
After trying to take some pictures, I gave up. Perhaps I have terrible photography skills or lack the patience. When I realised I could not capture the beautiful feel and essence of the atmosphere, I gave up. It would be wiser to soak in and enjoy it instead of wasting my time on taking the perfect picture. The only regret was my eyes were not a video camera and my memories could not be stored in a retrievable hard disk. If I had spent excessive time taking meaningless pictures, I would have missed out the delightful scenes of my daughter thoroughly enjoying herself. No perfect photograph is worth losing a moment like that.
I would take her to the recommended "Disneyland" tonight, where a full street of consecutive households actually took the effort to decorate their houses with lights. I would not be taking any pictures, using what Stephen shared with me instead. I want to live the moments with my family instead.
