Mid Autumn Festival

I had been quite busy for the past 2 weeks preparing for presentations and quizzes, which came full force on me right after the one-week recess. And blame it on myself for not spending my time well during the break. But it's finally over, for now, at least until after the weekend. I promised my 3-year-old cousin Debbie that I would come home to play with her today. Had been prohibiting her to come to my room after dinner for the past few days as I had to prepare for my quiz.
Since it's Friday and Mid-Autumn Festival today, guess it's a good time to take a break from stressful stuff huh? hee. We lit quite a few lanterns. There were these traditional fold up lanterns with Ultraman and Hello Kitty pictures on them.. so cute.. haha.
Was reminded of the times my siblings and I spent on our old house balcony, every year this day, lighting many lanterns and playing with candles. It used to be the foldable paper kind for a long while until my mum came home one day with the plastic fish type. It was our first lantern with an animal shape. We'd usually re-use our lanterns until they were either torn or burnt. Then came the day the fish lantern met its fate. Due to strong wind or something, the fish suddenly start to burn.. I saw catch fire, but there was nothing I could do to 'save' the 'helpless' fish... haha... fried fish.
Then there was this time we stuck cotton sticks to the flame and watched in wonder how differently and beautifully the cotton end goes up in flame in comparison to the 'normal' candle wick.
It was really a day I looked forward to every year. But as we grew older, the enthusiasm kind of died. Sure, we still light up lanterns outside our house, but it wasn't as fun anymore. But now, with a kid in the house now, the fun seemed to have come back, well at least a little.. =P
Anyway, the moon tonight was really big, low and reddish when I was walking home from the train station. But later in the evening, the haze due to forest fires in Indonesia got so bad that the moon couldn't be seen anymore... sigh.