The LambCutlet Disorganisation

9th of February — 雞年快樂，恭喜發財! For those less well versed in the local tongue, “Happy Year of the Rooster and wishing you happiness & prosperity!”. Having already had a long day; it was definately a case of “start as you mean to go on!”:

• Just before midnight, myself and my cousin 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) started to make our way to the Lok Fu MTR station walking through public garden & recreation ground where once stood the flats my uncle’s family used to live. Those flats have been pulled down just over a decade ago and where built in the middle of the 1900’s to cope with the huge influx of people’s fleeing mainland China. The new flat is literally lightyears better than what existed and all part of Hong Kong’s constant renewal
• Once into the MTR station and aboad the train, we had our first proper chat catching up with how things are at our respective home and what things have been happening since, plus she was very surprised I still recall how to get about the ex-colony! We alighted around Mong Kok and pretty promptly managed to meet up with her friends we’d arranged with earlier for our little excursion in the tiny hours of New Year’s Day!
• With everyone together, we got ourselves prepared by grabbing a drink from one of the stalls serving a few types of melon juices, sugar-cane juice, plus some others I couldn’t quite decipher what they were. All were prepared with copious amounts of crushed ice though! ;)
• Even though we decided to pass on going to 維多利亞公園 (Victoria Park) as the crowds there numbered something like 1 000 000, I certainly can’t say it was much quieter where we had decided to go to as most of the main roads heading in that direction where pedestrians whom snakes around the roads forming long queues overwhelms the cars causing so pretty big traffic jams! The traffic police were trying their best to manage the crowd of cars and people though…
• After about 45 minutes or there so, we finally arrived at the market fair just a bit after 01:20 HKT. The venue itself by day is a sports ground but my guesstimate is that there would have been at least 10 000 people there? In any case, it was going to be hard going to not travel in which ever direction the crowd wanted to go in!
• Aside from the crowds, it was also very noisey, mostly with the stall traders trying to out-shout their nearby traders with shoppers purchasing goods by handing money over the sea of people before being handed, hopefully, the goods and some change!
• With it being the Year of the Rooster, there were many cute and cuddly things on a chicken theme, plushes of all shapes and sizes were being sold though by far the oddest were the egg-roll plushes!
• Other things being sold including many little wind-mills which signify the bringing in of better fortune as they rotate, flags and banners of many types with auspicious sayings, red lanterns and lastly the “usual” New Year’s flora of peach blossom, pussy-willow blossom, manderin orange trees, peonies and narcissi
• With myself being 177 cm of height, 5′ 10″ in old money, in Hong Kong is comparatively tall since most men would only be about 165 cm, 5′ 5″ and not uncommon for girls/women to be under 150 cm or 4′ 11″, though my cousin just makes the grade at 152 cm, 5′ 0″. Makes for a funny photo anyway as I couldn’t actually kneel down much more given the relentless scrum behind me!
• By 03:30 HKT, we had pretty much seen what we wanted to see there and buy what we wanted to buy. My cousin was pretty impressed with her haul of 3 wind-mills and one of her friends whom had brought some blossom branches of various sorts earlier the previous day still had them completely unscathed even though the crowds on many occasions threatened to have crushed them into oblivion!
• Next up was back to the district where I’m staying at the hotel and pop into one of the bars to meet up with a few more acquiantances and have a few drinks. During the chit-chatter that followed, turns out the average office worker in Hong Kong works 9 a.m. till more-or-less whenever, 6 days a week totalling at least 50 hours! Explains why most workers know the bars so well as they’d often go for a drink at least a couple times during the day!
• The preferred drink of our little group is what I’d describe as quirky in a typically Hong Kong fashion… Iced tea with whisky anyone? :D Cousin sensibly chose to mix her whisky with soda, though I just opted for some of Phillipines’ finest San Miguel Pale Pilsen
• My years of drinking in Blighty in amongst the company of Scouser’s and Geordie’s has paid off a little since I’ve built up some tolerance, which was definately a good thing since if I was to join in on any of the drinking games that the others were playing whilst I looked on from the side-lines trying to figure out what was going on I would have been doing a heck of a lot of drinking! My cousin was also rather worryingly good at some of the games… Eeek! :D
• 06:00 HKT came rather quickly and was time for the bar to stop serving and close for an hour to tidy up and be ready for another day. With this some of the group made their way home though myself, my cousin 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) and two of her friends decided to go for a morning 飲茶 (Yum Cha) at a restaurant we found and ordered the usual scrummy dishes! :D The company within the restaurant were slightly unexpected elderly people though they’re more likely to be early risers than the night owls we were!
• It was gone 08:00 HKT by the time we’d finished and was greeted by the bright glare of daylight as we headed outside and get respective modes of public transport to make our ways home. Finally collapsed into bed at the hotel sometime around 09:00 HKT to try and get a few hours sleep before going back up to uncle’s for 18:00 HKT to have dinner with the extended family and perhaps a few packets of 利是 (Lai Si)!
• Sod’s Law would have it though I was ready to go out for 17:00 HKT, a couple things came up which needed to be dealt with meaning I ended up being rather late, not showing up till 19:30 HKT Was also not helped by missing my bus stop as the bus I took went a slightly different route throwing me off as I was not being able to use the landmarks I had used the last time!
• Dinner was another veritable feast which my uncle’s wife having spent most of yet another day preparing, which by the time we’d finished, proved too much food for even 12 people! This was also the first time in nearly 15 years where I’ve seen my two elder cousins, daughters of my aunt (Chinese kinship terms are much more specific and better able to explain families and can mostly refer to specific persons without using names!) and though they were in their 20’s when I last saw them… both looked completely unchanged despite the extra years! What was different was the fact the children they now have are teenagers whom were babies or not even born yet at the time I left!
• Though an adult, yet still single; I recieved are unexpectedly large amount of 利是 (Lai Si) from the elders plus my cousins whom have married though the question of if I was seeing a girly came up yet again. Not a case of not wanting to find, just haven’t yet found! Anyway, as per the end of all New Year’s period dinners, it was time for eating some fresh pears plus cracking open lots of dried melon seeds and opening candied things from the “Tray of Togetherness”. Also managed to have some mangos too which I’m rather fond of :D
• By about 22:00 HKT, my aunt and her daughters plus kids needed to make their way back to the respective homes and made arrangements for my cousin 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) to pick me up at 19:00 HKT on the 10th and take me to aunt’s place and have a family meal there too!
• It wasn’t long till the time was gone 23:15 HKT and I said my goodbyes too so as I wouldn’t miss one of the last buses to take me back to get some much needed rest! :D

Roll on the 2nd day of the 1st month in the Chinese lunisolar calendar! ;)