I have several good things to say in this post. First, it is officially the Year of the Dragon, which is the best year of the Chinese zodiac ;). Second, my mom is visiting me in Hong Kong, and so far we are having a great time sightseeing, relaxing and eating. Third, I've now been blogging for one year! Thank you all for reading.
Now on to the bookspotting: this week I spotted a woman in McDonald's reading a yellowed paperback copy of Joyce's Dubliners. When she put her book away I noticed she had three other yellowed paperbacks in her bag. I spotted a Western man carrying a John Grisham book and a Chinese man carrying a Stieg Larsson book (I'm pretty sure it was The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest). On our way home on the Airport Express yesterday the girl in front of us was reading on a Kindle, and for once I could see the title of the book: Everyone is Hanging Out Without Me. I spotted eight Chinese books this week, mostly in the hands of people on the MTR. Eight is a lucky number, so I'd say it's an auspicious start to the new year.
Have you seen any New Year celebrations in your area? Are any of you fellow Dragon babies? What are people reading in your town this week?
Hi Shannon...my Chinese family (Debbie my sis in law is married to Eric who is chinese) had a huge party..I am so glad your Mom could visit. Send photos or post .. enjoy your time!
ReplyDeleteThanks! That party sounds like a lot of fun.
Deleteit's me susan ..i am old and don't know how to kindlebooklog yet
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog Susan!
DeleteHi,it's the first time that I visit your blog,I found it amazing and what I like the most is the harmony between the photo and the text.
ReplyDeleteso don't give up blogging,me too I have a blog that you can visit .
See you soon
Thank you for stopping by! I'm glad you like the blog and I will take a look at yours too.
DeleteHey hey! Happy New Year to you too! :)
ReplyDeleteI've seen shops decorated nicely, and our university had an Asian clubnight, but other than that, it's been pretty quiet... :(
Yishi x
I guess it makes sense that it would be. I usually didn't notice when it was CNY back home because there isn't one main Chinese area in my hometown.
DeleteHappy Year of the Dragon! That's so cool it's your year and that your mom is visiting! I'd love to hear what all you have planned. I have such great memories from when my mom visited me in HK. We'd go to TST, the Peak, Repulse Bay, Stanley, and Happy Valley. In April I'm going to make my return to HK after a 14 year absence! It'll be a quick 4 day trip, but worth every minute of it!!
ReplyDeleteSince it's so cold in Chicago, I haven't seen many people out and about because I'm usually in my car. Bummer. So I'm not sure what people are reading.
Again, Happy New Year!!
Hi Susan,
DeleteThat's great to hear that you'll be in HK in few months! We'll have to get lunch if you have some time during your visit.
Yesterday I showed my mom around Central and took her to my favorite Vietnamese restaurant, then we went to Stanley, and make it back to TST in time for some of the New Year's parade. Today we're off to the Big Buddha on Lantau.
I hope it warms up in Chicago soon. It sounds like a good time of year for lots of tea and books :).
Lunch would be great! Do you work on Saturday? That's our last full day and I haven't scheduled anything that day yet apart from dinner. Or if you wanted to do a walking tour, we could go with you on that. We can figure things out over e-mail!
DeleteHappy Bloggiversary!! Hope you have an awesome time with your Mum! I'm not out and about this week so no idea what, if anything, people are reading. Mind you, these days with catching the intercity bus, then the inner city bus to work rather than the train then the MRT, it's a LOT harder to scope out what people are reading without looking like the crazy stalker girl. Ah well. I'm readng Game of Thrones on my Kindle App, I can tell you that much!
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful year of the Dragon!
Thanks Kath! I hope it isn't as cold up there as it has been in HK this week. We've been shivering our way around all the sights. I hope you're enjoying Game of Thrones! I'm on the last book.
DeleteHappy New Year, Shanon, and enjoy touring with your Mom. I'm curious about the picture at the top, with the dragon in beautiful colours and the toys. You had a similar picture on Januray 16. Are these pictures from a Toy Store? They are very nice.
ReplyDeleteThanks Giora. The pictures are from a puppet display in The Landmark building in Central. There are four different sections with automated puppets, each portraying a scene from Paris. There's at least one dragon in each display. I hope the Year of the Dragon is starting out well for you.
DeleteKung Hei Fat Choi Have a great time on Lantau with your Mum. Unfortunately it looks misty as I look out my apartment window towards Lantau. Last time I was on the cable car, we were in mist and it was so eerie we couldn't see anything in front, behind, above or below,and it was absolutely silent. It was like floating in space ( I imagine). We were at the parade in TST too, on Haiphong Road at the junction with Lock Road. We were just one row of people back from the barrier, so we had a good enough view, but unfortunatley the pictures I took are poor because being quite short, I always seemed to get someone else's camera centre screen! I'll put them on my blog together with tonight's fireworks ones.
ReplyDeleteJoyce, that's exactly what it ended up being like for us! We couldn't see any of the cars around us, and by the time we got up to the top everyone was lining up to leave. We had a nice, warm lunch in the Chinese restaurant and then quickly climbed up to see the Buddha. We could only see the outline through the fog even when we were standing right underneath it!
DeleteI saw someone reading a book called something like How to Shit Around the World. Wish I'd gotten a better look...
ReplyDeleteI also attended some Chinese New Year festivities in Thailand. Young boys climbed some giant pole-like structure, and then hauled up one of those enormous snaky dragon puppet things (articulate much?) and it shot fireworks out of its mouth. Then I ate some dumplings.