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Marina Bay SINGAPORE Countdown - The Wishing Spheres

My Dear and I visited the Singapore River on this cool and windy Sunday afternoon.
What greeted me on the Singapore River was mind-boggling and intriguing:

"What is this?" I thought to myself. Have I been transported back to the yester-years of 1950s or 1960s when Singapore River was still polluted? Even then, the refuse or debris was not something that seemed so strange: giant white balls? Even the waters towards the up and coming Integrated Resorts were not spared!

Anyway, I am exaggerating things a bit as I have known all along that these giant balls were actually wishing spheres: take a closer look at them and you could see the wishes of Singapore for the coming new year 2009 inked on them:

I have inked my wishes on one of these wishing spheres a month ago for an organization but little did I know that they were really giving these wishing spheres free for the public to ink their most fervent wishes for the coming new year.
My Dear and I went to a booth set up near the esplanade to queue up for our opportunity to make a wish for Singapore and Friends of other countries.

There were quite a number of people in front of us, including a group of Korean ladies who also wished to do their part to bless the world.
Scores of children were also having fun with the giant plastic balloons.
Alas, when it came to our turn, the officer-in-charge told us and the queue behind us that there was no more wishing spheres already and the fact that their room was also being "filled to the brim", leaving no room for them.

He redirected us and the people behind us to obtain the wishing spheres from the station in the Esplanade Concourse itself.
My Dear and I went to the concourse dutifully and we were not disappointed. We managed to get our large, smooth, sleek, elastic and bouncy ball and we immediately worked on it!


There are only 10,000 wishing spheres for the whole of Singapore. These would be released during the New Year Countdown. It is a meaningful event to be able to be one of the 10,000 to ink your wishes for the up and coming New Year!
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Comments

Anonymous said…
This makes me think of our wedding ceremony at the town hall. Our guests were not allowed to throw confetti or rice bec the cost of cleaning it up weighs heavily on the council budget - honestly hor, with a little bit of flexibility in accepting our willingness to clean it up ourselves, the day would hv been memorable .. however, sudden snow flakes whirled its way down that january morning n it was magical !
Mon Dec 15, 01:34:00 AM GMT+8
Singapore Short Stories said…
Hi Dutchie, I am happy that my post reminds you of your wonderful wedding scene!
Mon Dec 15, 08:54:00 PM GMT+8
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