We participated in the third annual Earth Hour a few weekends ago along with a few thousand others in HK. While it is advertised, it hasn’t received a lot of traction as yet and it is only the second time for HK to participate. We were early adopters having seen the first one advertised on the Sydney Morning Herald website and thought we should participate at a distance and maintain our links with home.

And so began our annual games of Scrabble by candlelight.

While 1,400 buildings in Central turned off their lights, only a few neighbours did the same. The difference in our area was negligible and we later found that those that did participate, thought there was also a lack of interest in their neighbourhoods. This is not as a result of poor publicity but perhaps a mixture of conflicting messages from the government as well as not knowing what else can be done at that time of night with no electricity.

On the government side, due to receiving a higher revenue that expected from tax last year, we have all been given a rebate through our electricity. It means we receive a certain amount of electricity free. We have never used to our full allocation (not that we try to) but many others have the mindset that if it is free, they should use it.

On the entertainment side, most local HK people would typically be out and about with family and friends at this time on a Saturday night. They would be eating out and then going to karaoke or playing mahjong. The problem with this is that generally, the air-conditioner or the dehumidifier would be left running at home and it is likely the lights would also be left on (depending on whether or not the amah was out too or looking after the children at home.

If mahjong or karaoke by candelight was held in Victoria Park on the same night with the view to raising awareness about Earth Hour and some street stalls provided food, tickets could be sold, we could all watch the lights go out on the buildings in town and identify the companies that didn’t participate. Some generators would be required but this would be a lot less than the electricity that is normally used. This would meet all the Earth Hour targets of raising awareness, community participation and promoting those that did participate.

In the meantime, our Scrabble skills are improving at about the same rate the hole in the ozone is shrinking… I’m ahead two games to one.

* Thanks to Something for Kate for the title to this post.

There may be another late post next week as Mr Shallot and I are having a long weekend in China while he participates in a half-Ironman. I’ll be lazing by the pool with either a frozen margarita or cosmopolitan – after midday of course!

Thanks to all those who managed to track me down over the past few weeks due to my lack of posting. I’m still alive but have been quite busy. After next week, I’m going to try to post on Saturday instead so I don’t run out of time on the weekend.