Paktor Petaling St.

- June 15, 2015

My sister was still ironing out stuff at her home after the break-in, so we offloaded the kids from her hands and brought them to church. Quite stumped when it came to lunch. Simply stopped at a new restaurant near KH's place called Restoran Lian Hin. Typical kopitiam fare at slightly more jacked up prices. Halfway through lunch, Little Monster actually fell asleep. Sent them home after that while mum and I made preparations to go out to Gospel Hall KL.

Mum was helping out at the Petaling Street Lunar New Year Festival (a project championed by Chong Keat Aun and Co., defenders of Jalan Petaling). KH also tagged along (muacks!). Arrived there at about 5:00 PM and helped out to set up the stall. Settled that in forty minutes. Left the aunties to the other logistics while KH and I went to paktor at Einstein Cafe, one of those hipster-vegan joints. A woody interior fused with random art with a high retro feel to it as they had maintained some of the original features. If you're not into coffee, you can give their banana milkshake a try. By 7:00 PM, we were ready for business and unfortunately the rain came too. Just a short downpour, thank goodness. The rain would have ruined everything cause there's no shelter. Mum's stall sold fried bihun and some sponsored biscuits.

By 7:30 PM, we had the first performance-- Chinese classical orchestra from Tsun Jin. The sounds system kinda ruined it for them. The opening ceremony was in the form of a lou sang by the organizers and local elders. That was followed by a dragon and lion dance (lions with Hibiscus motif). Then there was a Chinese fan and handkerchief dance followed by some singing. Cantonese opera that came after that was in a mixture of classical and contemporary language. The contrast was quite interesting. Performance arts were stopped for a short calligraphy session. An old master drew up a couplet and dedicated it Jalan Petaling. Another singer came on stage and wow-ed the crowd. There was also a political monologue that was converted from its usual expletive-filled splendour to something more subdued and sarcastic to match the auspicious celebration. The night ended with some stand-up comedy and a percussion performance. By the end of the night, both of us were tired, but it was an interesting way to spend time together.