Love all the Feb pics but will need to catch up on Jan.

I'm back from the big trip to Disney .. of course no trip there would be complete without a photo of the castle

It just goes to show that you should carry your camera with you at all times. I went down to the bank today to do the usual weekly banking for work. When I got there, there was a huge crowd because the bank had organised Chinese New Year celebrations. This is not the best photo that I took but it's the only one that doesn't show any identifiable faces. The bank was so crowded it was very hard to take pictures but I figured Ren would probably be interested to see this. I am sure it is very small scale compared to Hong Kong, but it was fun and the customers seemed to enjoy it. In this shot, the ladies are posting red envelopes into the dragon's mouth. Not sure what that's all about but I am sure Ren can enlighten us.

Wow! That looks like fun! Yes it is a most exciting time of the year. The Lion Dance is one of the most important parts of the whole CNY festival. Usually four or five people are inside the costume, and there is a drummer with them. They go around all the shops and businesses to dance for good luck the next year.
(In the race with the original 12 animals, the Lion arrived too late to take part, so the Representative said he could dance at the end to scare the bad spirits away. So he does that after the celebrations are over.) The shopkeepers hide a lucky packet inside a lettuce and hang it up high outside the shop. At the end of the dance, the lion takes the lettuce, throws the leaves around and takes his gift!
It is great fun as you can imagine, very noisy and exciting.

Here's the Lion at Stanley Market. Like you Mother Goose, I had a hard job finding one without faces of people.
What I think your photo is is preparing for a Dragon dance. They only take place in parades and fairs, the opening of new businesses etc, and not always at CNY. The VIP is called on to dot the dragon's eyes with a paintbrush. There were lots of those in 1997. They obviously stretch a long way down a road where the parade takes place.
Lesson over!

There were only two people inside these costumes but the dancing was excellent. There was a drummer too. The bank staff served candy and orange pieces and I believe that the oranges are of significance too.

Candy and fruit are very important as if you "sweeten" the lips of the Kitchen God, he will report back well of you when he gets back to Heaven!

Shortly after I arrived in Singapore I got food poisoning. Four of my Chinese colleagues were very kind and came to visit bearing gifts of fruit. And because of the Chinese superstitions about numbers they had to bring even numbers of fruit. It's a bit mean to only give two, four is an unlucky number, six can be unlucky sometimes, so they each gave me eight individual fruits.

I still don't know what someone with food poisoning is supposed to do with 32 oranges.

Learn to juggle? ;-)
auntie1 - Butu's eyes are only blue like that under flash - a most attractive look, n'est ce pas? There's certainly a Happy Basenji bite...he had his second vaccination today (and got chipped - wow, did he scream :-() so in only one week (so who's counting) he will be able to be walked and get rid of all that Puppy Energy....

The Chinese New Year decorations that were up yesterday in the café I frequent

Copago, were you in Florida or California? I've never been to either Disney resort as of yet.

Today we are at the top of Mt Eden in Auckland, New Zealand lloking towards Eden Park. As I post this a cricket match between New Zealand and Pakistan is being played there. Later in the year it will be where New Zealand wins the rugby world cup...

Barbados sunset

Here are some of the sweets and stuff for CNY: crystalized ginger, coconut, melon seed etc

A reminder of summer



Fishing

The Western Railway Headquarters in South Bombay.

Dave, we were in California


I am not sure how I have lived without these all my life. It would be worth going back just for them! (surprisingly I didn't lose any weight while on our trip LOL)

Churros are delicious. There is a guy here in Perth who has a mobile churro van and you can usually find him at various festivals and markets. He knows us quite well now as we are regulars. He told us that he sells out as fast as he can cook them.






This is a little gecko air-freshener for my car that I received for Christmas. My daughter named him "Sheldon" and the reason for that will be perfectly obvious to those of you who are fans of "The Big Bang Theory" (one of my favourite shows).

Guira cuckoo

The sidewalk ploughs had been by today, throwing up big hills of snow, but it was clear enough and warm enough for Precious to venture just a bit farther than usual.



We even went across the street!

A Bicycle Generator I transformed into a mount for a Pinwheel. It ran for a year until the 'bow' in one of the wings split. I just haven't gotten around to making a new one for it (I have a new model in mind that will solve the splitting problem!)

Puppy sitting tonight



This was Mollie chasing catching her ball in the snow a few weeks ago

Churros are sooo good. They are really popular over here. I love how English speakers pronounce the word "churros"

Love all the animal pictures, Precious and Mollie look like they're having fun. That's a whole lot of snow, Liz!

LOL .. I had a Hispanic woman trying to teach me the pronunciation of it. I think she's still laughing. Those rolling Rs are tricky!

Alcatraz sitting out in the bay.

Rajabhai Tower at Mumbai University

The really nice thing is, you don't need to pronounce the word correctly to enjoy them



...and more has been falling all evening!

and here's where you buy the CNY sweets and goodies.

Oh Ren, I can see that I am going to have to visit Hong Kong during Chinese New Year!

While I was out walking my dog, the shadows cast by the agapanthus against my neighbour's wall caught my eye.

Thought I'd better photograph my Champagne rosebud before the wind and rain got to it!

Beautiful rosebud, and I love the shadows MG.

Precious decided to climb a snow mountain today - she's at about my chest height here, I guess. Happily, she decided to come back the way she went up, otherwise I'd have had to follow her!

In contrast, Rosie, at 13, is no longer an adventurous cat. Come to think of it , she never was! She still scrubs up well though. She has spent a lot of time indoors lately as she hates fireworks.