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| Jan 23/Dec 29
It's a looooooong day ...
I promised myself that I
will to be lazy. So I slept for almost 9 hours. I wake up feeling
guilty and worse of all, to a thundering stomach. Hey, how about
some poisonous (in terms of cholesterol level) BBQ meat rice?
Crunchy skin, thin layer of
fat, and juicy meat. 
I only allow myself to think of it during
holidays because it's embarrassing to drool in front of my clients.
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BBQ food is almost a must for
New Year. BBQ pork, duck, chicken ... etc. attract a big line up in
front of this famous BBQ shop.
BBQ meat rice dish from
heaven.
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People, people and
People... |
After
lunch, I stroll to a nearby flower market. Don't think Hong
Kong is a huge nut house if you see lots of people walking on
the streets with flowers. Flower is must for
New Year. |
More people, people and
people ... |
One of the "New
Year's Eve Flower Market". If I tell you this big place
will be packed with one human being/sqr foot, you would tell
me to get out of here. Well, let's watch on... |
A booth selling peach
blossom [luck with opposite sex or good development in
business]. Not a pot-size flower they are. |
"Hey, get some
Golden Fruit or you will regret" (that's only Kam
speaking  ) |
Other things you can see
being sold at the flower market. |
More things to be sold
... some really irrelevant things not showed here are sowing
machines, crazy glue, books etc. The flower market might as
well be called the "New Year's Eve Flee Market". |
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| The
government organizes "New Year's Eve Flower Markets" in
all areas of Hong Kong. Booths in the markets are auctioned off in
public. A 7-day booth ending in the early morning of New Year's Day could cost between a few hundred dollars to US$25,000 (snack booth
usually). The most popular flower market gets a traffic of 400,000
people on New Year's Eve alone. Yes, 400,000 hundred-pound
creatures, not electronic page hits on eBay. |
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Time to
see some nice things. Flower names below are translated from
their Chinese common name (some are even unknown to me). It
will take another 100 years of studying before I can label
them with names like "Paeonia". No complain
please.  |
You have seen this many,
many times on Kam's eBay paintings. Now you can see the real
thing. Peony, the flower of wealthiness. Temperature is
warm this year and the blossom is well over it's peak before
New Year. |
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Chrysanthemum KING. They
are the size of a couple of fists. Chrysanthemum is not a
lucky flower though. I guess we just want it for it's bright and
delightful color during New Year. |
Lily |
La la la ... Ok, I don't
know the name of this one ... although it looks familiar ... |
Some mutant Chrysanthemum
... |
More mutant Chrysanthemum
... |
Bees...
ok, Tulip too. |
Even more mutant
Chrysanthemum ... |
Daffodil |
Chains of Gold - anything
with silver or gold is a lucky charm |
Come on Kam,
Chrysanthemum again!? |
La la la ... |
Orchid? |
Another species of Peony |
More wealth, more Peony
... |
I found only one booth
selling plum blossom. Why? Plum sounds like "mould"
in Chinese. The spirit of PB is good but who wants to get
mouldy in a new year? |
A small pot of orchid
that carries a price tag of $300. I can spend that much on
Chinese paintings easily but for flowers ... |
Silver Willow. People
like these 5 feet branches because the look like strands of
silver. |
Ok, don't hit me. This
could be another species of Chrysanthemum. |
Close-up of peach
blossom. It has what it takes to be the popular New Year
flower. |
How to deal with a peach
tree? 1) Pay $200 for a 6-feet tree; 2)strap the tree on
top on your car; 3) go home as quickly as you can; |
4) display it as
illustrated. |
More peach blossom |
Loose Skin Orange
[luckiness]. |
The bigger the tree is,
the better the luck. The oranges are not as beautiful as other
flowers we have seen and they are rarely eaten. Chinese want them just for
a sign of luckiness. They will be thrown out after New Year.
How environmental unfriendly. |
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| After
a good day's walk, it's time to have gathering dinner with my parents
and my sister (who is working in Macau now and can only come home a
day per week). No one wants to do the dishes so we dinned out.
Sad to say, the food was
so-so but we have a nice chat over the food. After all, that is all
that matters with a year end gathering dinner. |
There are plenty of people who
don't like doing dishes. Thus the restaurant is very full. |
Someone at the restaurant is
really hungry. Note: it's a piece of Tofu in between the chopsticks,
not a broken tongue. |
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| On
New Year's Eve, the action happens around mid-night. At the turn
of the new year, Chinese (or maybe just Chinese in HK) like to stay on
the street because walking around sounds like getting lucky in
Chinese.
But you can't just walk around without a destination, so every one
heads for the flower market. Imagine some 1.5 million people
trying to get lucky on the street ... |
It's 15 minutes to mid-night
and the road is busier than busy. |
People in front ... |
People at my back ... hey,
hey, you are touching my behind! |
People everywhere... |
| It's
near mid-night. I
tried to get lucky and make it to the nearby flower again. At about one mile
away from the flower market, I run into the crowd - the big crowd.
Cops are all out blocking the streets. The crowd can now only move
in one direction towards the flower market. It takes me 25 minutes
to move some 200 feet. I am smelling the shoulder of the guy in
front. And I can feel something touching my behind. Gee, I cross
my fingers that it's not the hand of a man.
After 1.5 hours of
struggling, I am still a few hundred feet from the entrance. I
think I have "gotten lucky" enough, plus I figure it
will take me another 3 hours to make it out of the flower market,
I call it a day. Oh, it's already the Year of the Snake. Kung Hei
Fat Choi & happy New Year! 
Back home, I put together
a few web pages and auctions before the Year of the Dragon
officially ends. Sweet dreams. |
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