Christmas Party @ Orchard

Last evening, after Church service, I accompanied my wife and son down to Singapore's Orchard Road to have a look-see-experience of the Christmas party that evening. Both of us really hate crowds, and my son was pining for his computer games rather than a walk down the busiest road in town where cars are not allowed today. But we went anyway.

The last time I was down there on such an occasion must be 15 years ago. I remember vividly accompanying my team mates in a diploma course I was pursuing then down to Orchard Road. The toughest project that I have ever worked on with them for the last couple of months was completed and it seemed the right time to unwind. There was a similar party on that night and I thoroughly enjoyed myself then.

This time around, it was more subdued, but nevertheless enjoyable as we soaked in the sights. The sound hadn't really started then as the party was scheduled to start only at 8pm. We were there at 6pm. But there was enough to see. The picture on the right shows the tallest Christmas tree along the road that day, and it is situated just in front of Paragon Shopping Centre. This is also the first time my son was walking down a car-less Orchard Road during Christmas. We had previously avoided the place because of the crowds - and he was still young. We walked from Somerset MRT towards Tangs, weaved between and among the crowd, had an ice-cream each with a pepper-flavoured taiwan sausage thrown in for my son, took some pictures with my sub-compact 4 megapixel digital camera, and exited at the Orchard MRT station at about 7.30pm, well before the party started, and headed home.

Large and noisy parties weren't our cup of tea. It was enough to have had a taste of the evening's events. Besides, my son was happy that he was going home to his beloved computer.