Well, I seem to have survived the first three days of CNY.
At least there isn't too much to think about - you stuff money into Lai See envelopes and buy various boxes and tins of cookies (preferably from Denmark, for no discernable reason). You give cookies, you get cookies. You give out lucky money to other people's children, they give lucky money to yours. Everyone is very happy!
We went to the flour market, but I was very disappointed. Endless orange trees and those curious yellow things that look vaguely like plastic lemons on sticks, but absolutely no sign of any flour (we've just got a bread machine, but the supermarket has run out of wholemeal flour). Ah well.
The big news story seems to be that some elderly rich bloke is getting married to his long-term girlfriend (or "Two old gits to marry" as one disrespectful British newspaper put it). At least we didn't get hours of "rolling news" coverage on TV, but what was it doing as the second story on the Chinese TV news, on the front page of the SCMP (with a full page inside) or on an outside page of Apple Daily? No relevance at all to Hong Kong, I think you'll find.
I stumbled across your blog while I was doing some online research. As someone who had the privilege and pleasure of living in China for some time, your post made me nostalgic for the celebrations and festivals there.
Posted by: Bill | August 15, 2006 at 03:17 AM