Run, 2007 is coming!

The end of the year has always been my favourite part but this year, it seemed to have whizzzzed past me (or me it, I'm not sure). Christmas was quite hectic, with work deadlines and gift-shopping and a looming job interview joining forces to knock me out.

I still remember how I scurried around the mazy mall a few times in a panicky mode, lugging my violin and trying to zig-zag my way through the crowd. I rushed into those crowded Gifts-n-Such shops and scanned their shelves up and down, frantically flipping their notebooks and cards or poking at their trinkets, trying to find something nice.

But if you want to talk about running in a frenzy, nothing beats new year's eve. Me and 2 other pals, W and YZ were basically driving around Sing*pore, first in search of a decent dinner, which was difficult because everywhere was full of people, and then a decent countdown party, which was much worse.

We first climbed down Fort Canning Hill and marched to the National Museum, but found it too arty-farty. We didn't want to usher in the new year watching a few contemporary dancers twirling around incomprehensibly. So we climbed up the hill again and drove to the Esplanade area at 11.30pm. But W's car was running out of fuel and we were caught in a jam while the minutes went by. "I don't want to count down to the new year in a car!" W wailed. Us spending the dawn of the new year pushing her conked out car in the jam was a real possibility. We had to turn off the air-conditioning to slow down fuel consumption, and I made helpful comments like "Hey, look, the sign says Esplanade Drive closed 8pm to 1.30am!" while W starts to hyperventilate.

Finally, we got ourselves out of the traffic mayhem and parked the car at a basement carpark with 5 minutes left. "Run, run!" we shrieked and bolted out of the car and ran up 3 flights of stairs to the exit which turned out to be locked. We were stuck, huffing and puffing in that stuffy, narrow stairwell but good thing there was an uncle and auntie who were as tardy as us. The mighty uncle wrestled the door open and we tumbled out into the open air. Freedom! And so we managed to join the countdown crowd with 3 minutes to go. What a thrill. Let's see whether we can top that this year.