On/Off the Wagon

And just like that, it's so easy to slip back into the mantra of not writing new posts here :O Granted 3 days isn't exactly a long hiatus, I usually enforce a "skip one day you must write something the next" rule. The only excuse I really have is it's been rather busy these past three days, what with Valentines Day happening on Sunday. Ha, I wish. Unfortunately Chinese New Year also fell on that date so pretty much any Valentinian activities I would've planned (which probably would've been minimal. And solitary) was usurped by the Year of the Tiger.

In fact, on the night before I wrote a status update about how we were deliberately trying to be late, and this somehow induced a spat of hate :'( We had dinner scheduled for 8:30 and we needed to be at the temple at midnight ... so we had to be a little bit late otherwise we'd finish dinner and not have anything to do for a coupla hours. Favourable weather and unprecedented traffic conditions meant we arrived at dinner at exactly 8:30, although slow service and forgetful waiters meant we finished dinner at about 11pm, which was perfect for us (though would've grieved us no end any other night).

At the temple we arrived just in time for the inner-sanctum lion dance, which basically involved human-sized lion puppets/costumes to dance to the deities and consume some oranges and cabbages (our offerings to the deities, the eating of which purifies the temple).

I've always sort of wanted to learn how to do that. Not the super-crazy acrobatics (though would no doubt be handy skills to have for my future), just general movement. I know there are training schools in Sydney, just too bad they don't have any in Canberra :S You'd only ever be hired during Chinese New Year, but hey, why not? It'd be a cool night job since they'd only be during dinners anyway.

Once the temple was purified it was time to plant our incense in the ... *counts* ... 10 different deities/shrines around the temple. There were upwards of 100 people there ... so imagine everyone there needing at least 10 incense sticks, though many had 30, all igniting them simultaneously and scrambling to place them. I think my hair still smells of smoke. Luckily I successfully navigated my way around old, half-blind grannies who would've otherwise burned the hell outta my body, though I no one would've believed me ... all that smoke was caused me to tear up something fierce.

And then here came midnight. Since it was raining most people remained underneath the cover of the roofs, which offered no view of the parking lot downstairs where the firecrackers were. Me, being young and intrepid, followed a fulsome gang of merry lads and went out to the balcony to watch. Biiig mistake. Not only was it incredibly down (and probably damaging to the ear to be that close) but the resultant pillars of smoke blew right into our faces ... we were literally running from a giant Smoke Monster :D

Then the fireworks started. From the rival temple. That's right, the rival temple. You'd think these would be peaceful people, on such a holy occasion. But no, I heard the owner yell out to his lackey, "Quick! Get the fireworks going we gotta be better than them!!" It's one thing watching a big fireworks show, but it's something different altogether watching a mini-show from the launching pad being less than 10 metres away (and the rivals were several kilometers away).

And once we Australian-Chinese had left our indelible mark upon the late Sydney skies, the heavens started pouring and we all got soaking wet. It was actually rather refreshing and kind of symbolic, now that I reflect upon it, but at the time it was definitely a nuisance (sitting in a car for 2 hours in wet bunched-together underwear = never a pleasant thing to experience).