(Almost) Chinese New Year

In January we began the long run-up to Chinese New Year as the Chrismas decorations were replaced with CNY decorations, celebrating the arrival of the Yar of the Sheep (or Ram or Goat).

Elephants Mall in ICC had an interesting display of cheery blossom trees and sheep

Including this massive sheep doing its knitting under a rainbow made of balls of wool.  

And temporary stors sprung up selling CNY decorations and lai-see envelopes

Part of CNY is the lantern festival (link) and Times Square had an lovely display of flying lanterns.  

Granny and Grandad were due to visit during CNY so I wanted to get tickets for the seated area of the CNY parade in TST.    Tickets went on sale at 8am on Saturday 7th Feb, at the HK Tourism Board at Star Ferry in TST.   They sold out within a couple of hours.

Tickets had to be purchased in person and were limited to 4 per customer.

Rika and I joined the queue at 7am and waited for about 90 min to get to the counter where we were given a chit and told to come back between 10:30-10:45 to choose and pay for our tickets.   So I was going to miss my tai chi class.

While we were waiting for our time-slot, we went for a walk up to Signal Hill,Garden which I'd never been to before.   Signal Hill is a small but steep hill behind the East TST station.  It has an old Time-Ball tower and small garden overlooking the harbor.  

Its well with a visit.  At 9:30 in the morning, the garden had a lively crowd of tai chi enthusiasts 

I love the fact that Hong Kong Parks are filled with people practicing tai chi.   Although to be honest  the Tai Chi I see in most parks is seldom of a particularly high standard.  (Which of course is fine, since it is better that people enjoy doing this healthy activity at a mediocre level than not at all).

So I was quite excited to see that the Tai Chi group at the Signal Hill Garden were pretty expert, with nice forms practice, push hands and an old master in the corner explaining some subtle self defense applications (what seemed to be joint locks)

And a nice view across the harbor to North Point where my club has its HQ.   We headed back down to the Star Ferry to pay for our parade tickets, and I managed to get to Wan Chai in time for my 11:30 tai chi class.