Watered-down Christmas

Christmas back in Muar was kind of a watered down affair as our minds were often distracted by the water problem, or rather the lack of it.

The whole family was back for our annual Christmas gathering. Thankfully Muar town was spared from the recent floods that had affected so many neighbouring towns and villages. However the flood did leave a damper on celebrations, as the water supply was cut-off for almost a week. So, there were like 6 adults and one toddler who had to live off the remaining water from the roof-top water tank. Definitely mission impossible.

So for drinking water we turned to mineral water (which was sold out in most places); for washing and bathing, we turned to rain water, and when the rain water supply stopped (yes, heaven decided to hold the taps), we looked for water at places we never even considered before, like roadside water pipes, rain water tanks and even nearby Malaccan towns. All in all, people can be quite resourceful when the situation demands them too, especially those who are willing to stop at roadside drains to collect water, albeit illegally, from the water pipes.

People were buying this babies off the shelves in cartons

Every precious drop collected in an assortment of containers

Something brewing at the junction near my place

Oh it's just people collecting water from water gushing out of a water pipe. courtesy of some smart bloke who loosened the bolts

Other than the water hiccup, we did the usual Christmassy stuff like decorating the Christmas tree, attend Midnight mass, enjoy a good meal outside and of course, unwrapping Christmas presents after the clock struck twelve on Christmas morning. I even managed to catch Open Season and Apocalypto on VCD. My advise, watch the latter and dump the former. Too bad the Christmas party that my friends and I were planning had to be cancelled as some friends decided to avoid the water problem in Muar by skipping town.

A shot of the Church hall before mass

From another angle

Since I had time, here's the spiral staircase to the upper level where the church bell is located

Anyway, this episode just shows how reliant and attached humans are today on life’s comforts that we would be miserable without them. Like how I came back on Wednesday and was disspaointed to find that the Internet was crawling. Doesn't matter whether it is water or internet, we just can't live without them!