The New Year Just Goes On and On and On...

One reason to wish I was abroad at the moment, apart from the hideous weather and low light levels, is that I'll miss the Chinese New Year in a warm climate.

Since I'm a Dragon and chatted with a Chinese lady, much younger, who's in the same category in the past, I'm up to date with the iconography and enjoy the loud fire crackers and special food produced for the banquets in cities where the festival is a major social event.



Chinesefortuneclaendar.com explains that the Dragon has Seven Sons, according to the old mythologies, and they are a busy bunch indeed, mostly involved with artistic endeavour and keeping the peace , apart from Number 4 who loves howling. But since positive thinking is seemingly embedded in the system, this is a good quality linked to protectiveness.

A year ago we were in Singapore and followed the crowds to the beach. I have never seen so many people per square metre anywhere before and some of the photos would be worth sharing again.

Since the Chinese see red as a fortuitous colour, unlike Europeans for whom it means anger and danger, a bokeh image in that colour might be a good start to the run up to the Year of the Dragon.

2011 has been the Year of the Rabbit.

Perhaps that's why so many people have been running so fast all year just to stay still?

Round We Go Again

The New Year always brings a predictable flood of reminiscence and predictions from media sources. It can be extremely long winded and as a result I find myself looking out at a chilly garden wondering when I can muster enough courage to take it on again.

Sweeping leaves is a healthy pursuit, but not when it could involve catching a chill or picking up one of the remarkably efficient viruses that now lurk in every building in the land. Show the slightest weakness and these enviably resilient strands of dna kick in.

So I continue to change channel whenever the news comes on, watch old movies while planning a spectacular 2012. Since gardeners seem to measure time in aeons, not paltry swathes of twelve months at at time, I remember 2011 as a mixed bag as usual. The first half included a lot of travel, which would have once seemed an impossible dream. To visit Australia, Italy and the UK in the space of four months is not something I would complain about, but it makes being home a very valuable experience.

Travel was always a bit of an upheaval, but even though I rarely suffer home sickness or culture shock, the sheer inconvenience of getting from one place to another made me decline an invitation to an event abroad towards the end of the year.

Home it shall be, thankfully, for some time to come.