A wet and quiet beginning to the new lunar year of the fire rooster (or chicken) over here in Hong Kong

Very "business-y" looking chicken (or are they roosters?)

on sale at this year's Lunar New Year Flower Market

 

These floral chicks were among the cutest of the

fowl-themed items on sale there 

 

...while these chicken costumed sales people get my vote 

for having been the most game (pun intended!) ;b 

 

As I write this blog post, the dehumidifier in my flat is on at full blast.  All in all, it's been a wetter -- and warmer -- beginning to the new lunar year of the fire rooster (or chicken) than I had thought would be the case; with rain falling on the first day (fortunately only after my beach clean-up crew were safely at a cafe having lunch), second day (for the first half an hour of the hike that a friend and I went on in Lantau that afternoon), yesterday and also today (both of which I spent indoors for the most part).

 

In contrast, the week before had some really nice sunny days, including Chinese New Year's eve -- which (Puppet Ponyo and) I took advantage of by going on a lovely hike -- and the day that I went and checked out the Lunar New Year Flower Market over in Causeway Bay's Victoria Park.  And the next couple of days or so are supposed to be dry too -- but that's what the Hong Kong Observatory also had forecasted for the first couple of days or so of Chinese New Year! 

 

The next couple of days also will see Hong Kong returning to normal in terms of shops and businesses that closed for the holidays re-opening their doors.  More than incidentally, potential leisure visitors to the Big Lychee are hereby served notice that Chinese New Year is probably the worst time of the year to be here as much of this usually loud and lively city shuts down so that the locals can partake of the most important festival in the Chinese calendar.   

 

As an example: a friend of mine wanted to buy some bread yesterday evening and got to belatedly realizing that every single bakery in her neighborhood and the neighboring one was closed!  And while it's expected that many non-chain Chinese businesses will close for the first few days of Chinese New Year, it's worth bearing in mind that the Koreans, Thais and Vietnamese also celebrate the lunar new year -- and even such as my favorite sake bar closed for Chinese New Year's Eve and the first four days of Chinese New Year so that its Japanese proprietor and her staff (a couple of whom are local Hong Kongers) could enjoy a long -- by their standards -- holiday break!