Cup Runneth Over

The Santa caps have been brought out of the cupboard at Cold Storage here, yesterday the old Chinese cashier had sported one and also a young lass on top of her kerudong. Two days after Cup Day down in the south. The day after Diwali. Today in fact Komala will be closed for Diwali, although the officially designated holiday was Tuesday. On Guillemard corner Henry Christmas Trees had brought out their plastic firs over a week ago (the originals from the plantations up on the Peninsular arrive nearer the time); the CNY red deco will be out in early January (5 February for 2019). In Geylang the small Hindu market is not worth Henry’s while. Outside OneKM Christmas spheres with a difference this year, a kind of multicoloured Pick Up Sticks arrangement refreshing the theme, the Mainland lads with furrowed brows down on the tiles the other morning double-checking the plans and measuring their hanging ropes. A hard track had been the complaint a day or two out from the race down south; “ridiculously hard,” a connection of one of the runners had bemoaned, the man advocating watering. Then on the day itself a downpour arrived that spoilt the festivities. Another horse was put down on the day too, behind colourful banners in order to screen convulsions from the punters. 500kg. beasts under the whip running for their lives on ankles the size of those of humans, the Animal Lib. activists highlighted in an ABC online item that had been shared with Auntie Helen the Catlady. The gap between Cup Day—long a national holiday down there, recently joined by the AFL Grand Final, in Melbourne at least—and Christmas ever shortening. In Afghanistan and Syria the boys will be served pudding in their Green Zones and extra Skype laid on; perhaps a surprise visit from the new PM, Foreign or Defence Minister. The advertisements in the newspaper this morning had almost doubled.