That was the overall comment that I have for our weekend outings. We went to the Lantern Festival at the Chinese Garden on Saturday and RSAF Open House on Sunday. At both places, we were overwhelmed with human jams. Not quite unexpected though, given that this week is Singapore's week-long school holiday.

Chinese Garden, 6 Sep 2003

Anticipating a huge turnout and to ensure we could get a carpark lot, we reached there early at 6:30pm. That indeed was a right decision.


The sky was still bright when we arrived, so the lantern didn't look as nice. We saw Dr. Tony Tan with his granddaughter, paying the garden a visit too.


Fire-work made of bulbs. Ain't as good as the real thing, of course.


There were lots of lanterns everywhere, big and small. Not forgetting, of course, Hello Kitty and family, which were the theme of this year's festival.


Jayden was sound asleep when we were just half way through.
By the time we left at 8pm, the place were jam-packed with people, and it was clearly impossible to take a good shot. How glad we went early.

RSAF open house, 7 Sep 2003
KA decided to forego driving there after reading about the limited parking space. What a right move - the carpark was completely FULL when we reached there as early time as 9am !! But as no transport was allowed to the open house premises, we got to queue to board the chartered bus. That was a 15 mins wait. At the entrance, we were greeted with queue no. 2, the X-ray scanning security check.


After clearance, we head right to the viewing gallery for the aerial display at 10am, queuing for the 3rd time for a seat. Here we are, waiting excitedly for the show.


It was a stunning display, despite the scorching sun. The parachute descending was our favourite part.


Queues, queues, everywhere. With such a huge crowd, we daren't think of getting the free air ride. So we lined up instead at the static display for the C-130 aircraft cockpit. However, we had to gave it a miss after standing for half an hour in a queue that hardly moved. Joined a shorter queue instead at the Chinook chopper. There, Jolyne finally got her 10-seconds fame as a pilot. Wanted to queue for the fire-engine ride, but gave up after hearing that the wait would at least 1 hour. We left the place at 2pm, but was stuck in the traffic for another half an hour, because of the long stretch of illegal parkers all the way out. These people should be killed for wasting other people's time :( .

We did have fun alright, even though the hordes of people everywhere somewhat discounted it. Besides a drained body and a sun-tanned skin, I guess the kids did bring back with them memorable and enriching experiences. But er, I'll probably think twice before bringing them to such events next time! :p