Adventures of the Snowman

This is a picture of me. I kinda like the way I look, with a nice smile, hands and a turf of nice hair on my head.

I was created by Alet & Chi on the 21 Sept 2008, Sunday, along Blesbok Route, Golden Gate. It was actually quite a miracle that I was born. It had been warm in Golden Gates for the past two weeks where temperatures during the day actually reached over 20 degrees Celsius. It seemed like summer was just around the corner. But suddenly temperatures dipped on 20 Sept, Saturday and it snowed on the top of the mountains throughout the night!

Fortunately, when Alet & Chi arrived at the top of Blesbok Route around 9am, not all the snow had melted. And with their bare hands, they started rolling snow around for my torsos and head. Alet made a huge ball for my lower torso, and Chi did my upper torso and head. I was really grateful to them as their fingers and hands were so frozen and numb from making me.

However, I was a bit frustrated at the by-standers who just simply watch Alet & Chi make me without helping, and just as my basic structure was done, suddenly everybody had a lot of suggestions and ideas. One guy put stones as my eyes, another even tried to make me a hand and put his gloves on me! I mean HELLO?????!!!!! Where were you all during the most difficult part in my creation – the poor ladies were the ones who dipped their hands into snow for me. It is so typical of human behaviour. During the most shitty moments, there is usually only a few pioneers who are not afraid of getting their hands dirty, while the majority just stand and watch. But when things are going on well, suddenly everyone wants to own it or me in this case.... fortunately, both Alet & Chi were quite firm with these strangers, and we took a series of wonderful pictures together! It was really fun! We used the timer and took many silly poses together. It was definitely the best moments of my life.

Soon, both Alet & Chi said their goodbyes and went to their car to warm up. They must have been freezing cold. I was sad to see them go, but nevertheless it was heartwarming to still see them hanging around just to make sure that I was okay.

Unfortunately, more strangers came along and wanted to take picture with me. There was even this young kid, probably not more than 3 or 4 years of age who cried when her mother brought her to me. She had never seen snow and it was her first time seeing a smart looking snowman like me, and i guess she was just overwhelmed.

More random people passed by and took several pictures with me. I started to feel glad that I am bringing so much joy to people around me, then this middle age man came along and tried to put his cap on my head. The next moment happened so fast that I didn't even have enough time to think, and before I could protest, i found my head missing!!!!!! I was simply horrified! My head broke and splattered into lumps beside my lower torso. And this homo sapien actually then placed his hat on my torso and took a picture with whatever is left of me. I was really mad! If I could move, I would probably perform a kamikaze full body launch at him and freeze him up!

Fortunately, along came another family whose grandmother saw the incident. She then tried her best, without gloves, to try and fix me up. Although i lost my turf of hair and my smile, but i did get back my head. She also tried to fix back my eyes. I was so touched by her gesture. While her family continued to take pictures and played in the snow, she was just working hard to put me back. I think humans and their behaviours are really interesting. In a short span of time, i was amazed to have experienced and witnessed such varied types of human behaviour!

My heart sank when I heard Alet's car starting. It was really time for my creators to go. As their car moved off from the sideway onto the road, they turned, looked at me and waved for the one last time. A trickle of water started to fall down my broken cheek. Was it the warmth of the sun that was consuming me or was I simply sad to see them go? I wasn't so sure, but I felt tremendous warmth and peace in my heart. Thank you, my ladies... ...