The Lion Dance Comes to K-11 Art Mall

 

Chinese New Year is a beautiful time.  There are decorations and flowers everywhere…

(these little “orange” trees are ever-present)

One very popular one are these wishing trees…branches with Lai-See packets hung from them.

During the weeks of Chinese New Year Lion Dances are EVERYWHERE!

At first glimpse…one might think they are watching a Dragon at work…but alas, no, these are Lions.  You will see them on corners, in parks, at malls.  Well…actually, you tend to HEAR them before you see them.

My first real encounter with Lion Dancing happened in January 2012.  Most Mondays a group of us would head down to Pacific Place to have salad at the Metropolitan Café.  We would eat, rehash our Weight Watchers meeting…and then sit and chat.  It was a weekly tradition and we had loads of fun sitting and catching up.  After 2 PM, the Café would empty out,and we would have the place pretty much to ourselves.

Then…the drums started from afar…and we didn’t think much of it.  Then the drums continued, and continued…and got closer, and closer, and then…the drums arrived.  We tried to wait out the drumming…but it went on and on.  FOR HOURS.  After an hour of TRYIING to keep conversation going…we left. (Note to self…NO MUSIC during dinner at any weddings I’m involved in planning!)

Fast forward to today.  I entered the K-11 Art Mall (I live above it)…and I heard the drums.  FLASHBACK…I wanted to flee. As I made my way upstairs…I noticed the “offerings” hanging above the doors OF EVERY RETAILER in the Mall!

See the “greens” hanging…every shop had one!  A quick search discovered the following:

“Chinese martial art schools or Chinese guild and associations will visit the houses and shops of the Chinese community to perform the traditional custom of "cai qing" (採青), literally means "plucking the greens", a quest by the 'lion' to pluck the auspicious green normally 'vegetables' like lettuce which in Chinese called 'cái'(菜)that sound like 'cái'(财)(fortune) and auspicious fruit like oranges tied to a "Red Envelope" containing money; either hang highly or just put on a table in front of the premises.”  --From Wikipedia 

The Lion grabs the greens

…then carefully cuts away the greens and  Lai-See (offering packet attached)…shakes it’s head…and TOSSES the greens back into the store!

(see above…going in for the kill…grabbing the packet)

 

Shaking his head (YES…I know it’s blurry)…getting ready…and

TOSSED … back into the store.

The aftermath…

This goes on from store to store to store!

SMILE Yogurt wasn’t quite ready…and had to hurry to get their offering up in time!

A new one for me…(well, it’s all new)…was one of the jewelry stores had MANY packets tacked to the walls…and the lion went from packet to packet and grabbed all of the offerings.  Entering the store:

  It looks a bit like the Lion is licking the wall…but EVERY packet must be collected!

The Lion travels with a big group!

And it must take hours to go from store to store to store…EVERY store participates b/c it is believed the greens and packets will bring good luck and fortune to the store!

Here is the Lion…in all it’s glory.  Shots were tough b/c of the crowds!

I’m in absorption mode…must take pics and admire all that is Hong Kong. 

Happy New Year!

 

We got back Dec 31 at 8 am …and did a darn good job staying awake…we unpacked, ran to our “crack” noodle shop for lunch…errands, dinner…and then BANG hit the wall at a whopping 8:30

What a set of party animals we are!

I am like a child when it comes to Hong Kong having a fireworks event.  I watch the barges get into place…I count them (sadly, CNY barges have decreased from four to three….I’m thinking budget cuts).  This year there were two barges BUT…there were lots of tiny boats all around promising a different show!

I set the alarm on my phone because, well, let me admit it…LAST year…well, we slept through ALL the festivities outside…I woke up at 12:15…crowds gone…all quite on the Waterfront.

I was NOT going to miss anything this year.  There were promises of light shows at 11:15/11:30/11:45…and fireworks off of buildings at the same time. 

I will say the “light show” and building fireworks were just ok…(though the building fireworks DID look like shooting stars)

Then, finally, the crowds outside starting getting restless so I grabbed my camera.  The Hong Kong Convention Center started their countdown!

The show then began.  The problem with having a camera is that you forget to SEE!  You don’t take in the whole picture because you are so focused on what is in the view finder! This time I really worked to not only grab some pictures but look at what was happening.

I also have to remember to take pictures EARLY in the show b/c the smoke from the previous bursts just gets in the way!

The New Years show is the shortest…but I really loved it.  Chinese New Year folks need to take note!!

Awake until 1 am and then CRASH…until 6:30…a good night for me!

Happy New Year to you all.

This is completely stolen from FB…but you now have a book with 365 blank pages…write a good one !

I’ve lost that Blogging feeling

 

How long does it take for the “new” to become the “not so new”?

When I came to Asia I committed to writing about my experiences.  I knew I was being handed the opportunity of a lifetime, and I wanted to make sure I not only took full advantage of that opportunity…but it was also important to me to actually remember all that I saw, smelled, tasted.

My dad used to keep diaries.  He had years of them…and I always loved reading them…the day in, day out, normalness of his life…of my mom’s life…of our lives.  It’s really our only record of our family.

We have a small family.  Not many cousins, and sadly, I don’t know a lot about our ancestors or history.

I wanted to leave a little something behind that told the story of the years I had here. My goal was to write about all of it…right as it happened, when my ever failing memory was fresh…the places, the names, the impressions.

Year 1 was EASY! EVERYTHING was so new…I literally would run back to write about my day, my travels. (Jan 2011 to Dec 2011)

Year 2….well, the wheels started coming off the cart…slowly off the cart…but…sure enough, things started to slow down…even though my traveling was accelerating! (Jan 2012 to Dec 2012)

Corey would say “you are losing your audience”…he may have meant readers…I now know it means …me

Year 3…well, the cart was now sitting by the side of the road…I was still an avid picture taker…and I thought that having the pics would help me reconstruct. It will be invaluable.  Corey always wanted me to change how my pictures are stored on the computer (why no names?? ).  I held on to date and picture order for one reason…continuity, consistency…Thank heaven!   

Year 4 - It’s time to catch up. It’s time to keep up. That is going to be my charge … I’m not under the impression that my kids want to read this now…but maybe, one day, they, or their kids…will want to know…or maybe, just maybe…when someone does a search on line…they will see MY experiences (I will be page 9,000 on Google…but I might be found)…and read my words, and know just a little, about my/about our lives.

In an effort NOT to set myself up for failure…I will not make promises in writing, no “resolutions”.  However, I will, this year, search for, set time for, prioritize…getting that feeling back…the feeling of newness…wonder…awe.

Playing tourist in my own (Seattle) back yard!

This one is ALL about the pics! 

I took a fair amount of grief for having waited well over two and a half years to visit the various markets that are literally two MTR stops away from my house.  It just seems to happen that so many of us live in great places…yet don’t take advantage of what there is to SEE in those places.

Case in point:

We’ve been in Seattle for about 13 years…ok…you can take away the HK years…but it’s still well over 10 years.

While I have driven North on the I-5…I’ve never gone more than 3 miles east off of WA522.  Why would I?  There’s nothing out there right?

Well, I learned quickly on December 26, that I have been missing SO much beauty and it was a mere 90 minutes from our house.

I love eagles.  The American Bald Eagle…the once endangered, now protected kind.

It started many years ago because of the California Channel Island “Eagle Cams”  I sort of got a little addicted to watching the parent eagles incubate the eggs (like watching paint dry); then after the eggs hatch, I would watch the babies struggle to move and eat…then beat the shit out of each other in an attempt to kill each other (I called it “beaking” the professional call  it “siblicide”).  It is natural I guess…survival of the fittest and all that.

I did move on from my addiction … mostly…(Facebook updates filled in the gaps of my needs)

Christmas was rolling around and Kirk asked if I would like to go on an Eagle Watching River float trip he saw a Groupon for?  The BEST gifts are those that family and friends think about you and the things you love (or were addicted to).

I told Kirk we had a limited window to go on the trip when we were back…so he set it up for December 26.

The day boasted an amazing blue sky.  Our weather hadn’t been terrible while we were back…but it sure wasn’t THIS! Truth be told also…Corey did not want to go.  He was actually a little pissy about it.

We drove north on the 5, We had some snow at the house, and as we made our way to the Howard Miller Steelhead Park in Rockport WA. We could see how just few miles were a huge difference in weather.  There was a lot of snow on the ground from the dusting we had.  But the roads were clear, and we moved right along.

We arrived at the park…not really quite sure where to park, or what to do…but finally found the “shuttle” that would be picking us up after our float ended.

We got our own raft (nice since the only person I had to compete with for a prime picture taking spot was my Brother in law!)

Here’s the view as we turned to go down river

It took about 2 minutes to spot a pair of Eagles and a juvenile!  “Juvies” as we fans call them are a great sign that eagles are not only surviving

You can see this guy (girl) has yet to develop its’ white feathers on the head…and blends right in to the trees!

Here’s Corey, Mair and our guide having a discussion…

  Sadly…today is the day I decided to change some camera settings …and the result is smaller files…which makes them impossible to crop…so I’m super disappointed in what you won’t be able to see…but here’s a few 

 

Here’s the Eagle deciding he’s had enough of us looking:  OFF he goes!

We saw many Eagles!  We also had breathtaking views!

These two are the ride home! Light through the mist and reflecting off the sun

So…a great day was had by all.  I got to see Eagles.  Corey admitted it was pretty cool….Stewart and I shared the front of the raft easily and didn’t fight over photo ops!  Mair didn’t freeze…

SO…look around…open those eyes…and go see those things that are right under your nose…Take the time to explore close to home.  You just  don’t’ know what you might be missing!