Happy Mid Autum Festival 2008

Happy Mid Autumn Festival everyone!

Looks like the older we get, the less people want to walk around with lanterns.

I remember just last year I made Andrew and Razzie walk with me around Taman Tun carrying lanterns.

But lucky for Fruitcake and I, we now have Isabelle to bring out and do the lantern walk with! She seems to be a willing party!

That’s exactly what we did last Saturday when Plaza Mont Kiara organized a lantern festival complete with moon cake sampling and acrobatic performance.

While walking back home, who called be but Razzie! He was having coffee at Coffee Bean. Happy Mid Autumn Fest Razzie Boy!

Why is it when we are adults, we loose the magic of childhood?

Why do we stop questioning why the world works the way it does?

Why do we stop running in the rain?

Why do we stop doing finger painting?

Why do we stop dressing up for Halloween?

Why do we stop talking to animals?

Why do we stop watching cartoons?

Why do we stop playing with lanterns?

Other adults may look at us oddly but so what? It’s them who have lost the magic and missing out on simple, unadulterated, magical fun. And why? Just because they are shy? Or adults should not engage in kids activities?

It’s not that I haven’t grown up. I’m 30 going on 31. I have a stable job and am climbing the corporate ladder. I accumulate credit card debt which I pay in full every month. I have a house and a car. And loans for both.

So don’t look at me funny when I bring out my crayons and colouring book.

The dragon and fish lantern from last year. Yes it survived, though after flattening them for easy storage and expanding them again this year, they may not see the light of Autumn Festival 2008.

Belle is showing interest in either the lantern, the fish, or the colours. Good! She’s going out with us again next year when she can walk and carry her own lantern.

According to Fruitcake, Belle is always eating. I’ve no clue what’s in her hand in the pic cos whatever she gets her hands on, goes into her mouth.

My pretty dragon lantern all lit up.

A really big moon cake my mum bought containing 7 salted egg yolks in lotus paste. Check out the size in proportion to the chop sticks.

This Is How The Deathly Hallows Ends?!!

My eyes were closing and my brain was shutting down. But I knew I had to stay awake. I sat up then flipped over to my tummy and then continued in child’s pose. The battle scenes were exciting and so was the twist in the story. I liked how Dumbledore’s Army and the Order of the Phoenix stood together to fight. They were helped by so many of the other magical creatures, live and inanimate objects joined for a fight to defeat the evil Voldermort! And the question on everyone’s minds since Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone - whether Dumbledore was indeed right to trust Snape or not.

My eyes moved faster and faster as I sped to finish the book. The battle scene finally ended. JK Rowling is merciless. Just within the first few chapters, half a dozen characters are killed off. By the last few chapters, I’ve lost count of the wounded and the dead. Sad as it was with a few of my favourite characters killed, I still say it was a good story.

As I reached the last few chapters, I slowed down to savour what would be the last of the amazing Harry Potter series. It has been a wonderful journey spanning 10 years of reading and following the life and coming of age of the ‘Boy Who Lived’. The younger readers would have grown up along with Harry and would have resonated even more strongly with him.

Then came the final chapter. And then the last page.

I’m outraged! I can’t believe it ended this way! In just a few pages, JK Rowling negated all the fantasy which she’s conjured in people’s minds so amazingly well in all 7 books.

I can’t help but get a feel that she’s doing it for herself. She did it to safe guard her character. While I can understand why she would want to do it, I felt it was unfair for the readers. The millions of kids and adults out there! Those last pages took away all the magic which was becoming part of our everyday lives and more so when a new book is released every year or two. It was even corny.

I’m utterly disappointed and want to yell ‘IMPERIO’ at JK Rowling and I want to cast ‘OBLIVATE’ on my mind but I didn’t even have it in me to cast a Patronus. I cast my wand aside along with the book and hid under the duvet. And I realized with full conviction that I’m now a Muggle.