or: Chinese New Year Preparations

Today has been one of those picture perfect Hong Kong days, provided you make an allowance for a small amount of haze (ie pollution) on the horizon. It’s barbecue weather. The temperature is relatively mild and feels about 22 degrees Celsius (thanks Accuweather) with little humidity so everyone’s hair is looking fairly normal and not many have broken out into a sweat just by walking out of their front door.

With this in mind, I decided to go for a walk so I could think about what to write about today.

I headed to the waterfront since water is always relaxing. Even with the billion boats that cross Victoria Harbour each day, I find it peaceful. I like to watch some of the containers being unloaded from the cargo ships, through to the little sanpans that are used to collect rubbish, the ferries to the outlying islands and Macau, the tiny fishing boats and even the tugboats. I like to watch them all.

It’s also entertaining to watch the fishermen (it is rare to see a woman fishing in this area). I am yet to see any catch a fish in all the years I have been here and hope they don’t rely on their catch as the only source of protein for the day.

On a Sunday, many helpers / amahs  go to this area, pitch their tents in the Sun Yat San Memorial Park and chat, play cards, do each other’s nails and hair, eat some divine smelling foods, sing and dance, practice marital arts, and call family and friends overseas. I’m not sure any do all of these things but this is some of what I usually see and hear when I walk in this area.

Today is a little different because it is almost Chinese (Lunar) New Year.

There are more HK local people out too buying flowers and preparing for the festivities. From Tuesday to Thursday inclusive are public holidays and once Tuesday starts, there can be no more cleaning, haircuts or preparing lai see (the red envelopes with a crisp new note in them to give to single people and those that provide a service to you and your family, as well as to any staff who may report into you). It is bad luck to do all of these things during the festivities.

I have been doing some cleaning and will finish it tomorrow. I’m not easily motivated to clean though I do like how it all looks. It’s the effort in doing it that I can find quite a lot of other areas where I would prefer to channel that effort. Some people enjoy cleaning. I am not one. It will be done before the New Year though.

I also don’t have to worry about preparing so much lai see this year. One of the upsides to not currently working.

What I’m finding interesting as I’m typing this is how many people in the apartment block opposite me have washing hanging out to dry. This isn’t unusual in itself, it is HK after all, the land where washing hangs out of many windows, sits on balconys or in the lounge room in front of large windows that can’t be opened due to safety concerns. The unusual thing is that it is Sunday.

It means these families have done their own washing.

I’m not sure why that is the case so can only guess they either have a lot that needs to be finished before Chinese New Year starts or they have all changed their washing day to Sunday because they like washing or it’s a nice looking day out so why not wash today rather than all the other days that have been a little overcast or cold.

I’m doing my washing tomorrow.

I’m such a rebel.

* Thanks to The Cruel Sea for the title to this post.