cymbals, orchids and flowers, new clothes, Lai see packets with coin for the young 'ins and generally a time to be spent with family and enjoy some down time. Or if you're a westerner then its a time to observe, give out Lai see, and partake in a four day weekend!!Our weekend was partly exploring HK further and partly experiencing Chinese New Year in China. We had our first guests, entertaining Liz & Glenn for dinner on Saturday night, quite a lot of fun, our view lived up to its reputation, although it was lucky they were here at night as the fog has been dampening (ha!) it the last week or so. It gave me confidence that we can actually entertain here, even if we can only have 2 people to dinner at anyone time, but it also lit the fire to have a house warming.... although it appears to be pushing out to April once taking in everyones schedules.
We went out to Lantau Island on Sunday, the site of the largest bronze seated Buddha in the world (apparently the bronze & seated bits are critical to the biggest in the world status...) I thought it was quite spectacular, and had a lot of fun taking photos and
experiencing the rituals that went alongside the temples. You can't imagine how much smoke a bunch of incense can cause but Trent and I both came out again smelling like we'd smoked a pack each!!
Monday was fireworks night, apparently HK banned crackers about the same time Australia did, something along the lines of it being a fire danger..... We decided that if we were to truly experience the fireworks it had to be out on the harbour, so we went the traditional Chinese Junk, paid a small fortune, and watched the fireworks in the rain. However, it turned out to be a wise choice, those on the HK island side of the harbour couldn't see anything once the rain came in and the smoke blew towards them, so it was all worth it in the end!! 
And to finalise the New Year, we have both had dragon displays at work. According to the legend 'Nian' would come down from the mountains, hungry, and eat people. But a wise old man observed that Nian wasn't a fan of red, glittery things or loud noise, and armed with these observations the Chinese have not allowed a New Year to go by without scaring the living bejesus out of Nian (& any
westerners too silly not to leave...) Holy dooly do these guys know how to make a racket!! Lots of fun, eye blinking, dancing on poles, charging around in dragon costumes to the crashing of 8 or 9 drums and cymbals!! I can assure you there are no evil spirits left in either of our buildings!!! It was a blast!! 
So Kung Hey Fat Choi to you all!! May this year bring you prosperity and wealth, and fertility & virility to those who want it!! The year of the Pig is suppose to be an extraordinarily good year to have children, so if you're not up the duff yet (or your best playmate isn't) then get cracking, next year's the rat, and everyone can work out why thats not so good.... ;-)
Love to all
Nik
ps, Big Ted & co are going home, Kent Removalists have agreed to ship our unwanted possessions back for free - rather big of them, given we never wanted them here in the first place!!
2 comments:
Chinese New year is great fun! would be even better in an asian nation! Glad to hear you guys are doing so well...your posts sound vibrant and fun!
I'm well jealous. It looks like a great experience.
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