Sunday, March 20, 2011

parade of colours


I have never celebrated nor really seen how St Patrick's Day was celebrated before. And I was also pretty photo-deprived. So when I was told that there was a parade on St Patrick's Day in the city centre, I decided to bring Ever and go. 


Me and two friends of mine set off around an hour before noon, after having breakfast together -pancakes, muffins and cookies. :) 
I had asked for the sun the day before, and thankfully enough, it met us, petting us on our backs and heads with its gentle warm hand. We beamed back at it and praised its beauty. It was so happy that it accompanied us all day long.


We walked to the city centre, giving me a chance to capture some of the atmosphere along the way. I was limited by when and what I could stop at, as I had to catch up with my friends -and I also didn't want them to have to wait for me and be late.
The walk, which had once seemed to be pretty long to me, was a blur of almost familiarity. It was harder to try and take in every little thing with the same eyes of naivety as I had before. I could no longer stare as long as I once had at a fancy building or into the clear glass of a shop at its wares. Maybe one day, I'll be able to make stories of them in my head again. We must never let things get boring.


And we reached the city hall. There was already a crowd there, and more people like us streaming in.

There were people with green hats, green clothes, green headbands, green scarves, green flags and even,  green hair. There was a band practicing in the yard of the city hall, as well as some other performers. 
But now, I guess that I'll hand it over to the photos to do the talking.



































A sweet little girl looking like an Irish princess








The people kept moving and squeezing forward, it was sometimes hard for me to capture the paraders. We were already off the pavement, but sometimes, I was hesitant to go right to the very front -even though I had a camera- in case I blocked the little kids. 

Then a monster came. 


It talked to us. Well, it talked more to the little kids, who didn't quite know whether to be frightened or amused. They answered its questions -which were said it a deep, hollow monster voice-, all while backing towards me. A braver girl tugged on the monster's coat, which made the monster go, 'WHO WAS THAT?' and the girl jumped and squeezed to the back. The monster then demanded 'WHO DID THAT?' again to the poor terrified children at the front, and a few boys pointed to the girl. 

The monster turned and reached its head out to the back. The girl smiled meekly at him.

And the monster swallowed the girl up. 


(LOL!!!!! Ok, I made the last sentence up. ;D)


It was a small and rather short parade, and before we knew it, it had ended. People began pouring back out onto the streets, little children leaving with their families, babies in strollers being rolled away and some teenagers joking around and taking photos with their compacts.

Me?
 I went, 'What?!! That's it?'



LOL!
Hope that everyone had a great St Patrick's Day! :)


*Special thanks to my friend who lent me her photoshop. :)

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