Thinking back to when we celebrated our ‘homeland’ New Year’s Eve we remembered how we had spent it going to a restaurant that we had only been to once before and met a couple of couples and it was very simple and quiet. At that time I didn’t really care that it was quiet because my vision of the coming of the Chinese New Year was in my head as I thought of fireworks, red lanterns and parades with dragons and oxen and other various characters roaming the streets. Now that we are in the middle of our Chinese New Year holiday I am over the fact that this New Year will be quiet as well. Save for a few fireworks nightly, that are mostly obstructed by the tall buildings it had been pretty lacklustre compared to my vision. So quiet in fact we didn’t realize that most of the restaurants would be closing by 5 pm on February 11th so we ended up eating at a Volleyball themed Kentucky Fried Chicken because we had left deciding where we would eat dinner and it got too late. Oh well there were plenty of other nights to enjoy when the weather gets better so we headed back home to the apartment on the subway for the hour ride home.
We got into a routine of coffee, breakfast sandwiches at the corner venue and maybe a cigar or two a little earlier than usual. The weather has been all over the map this holiday as we have experienced cold, blustery winds with the threat of another snow up to sitting on the rooftop on our lawnchairs in tshirts and shorts and sunhats with 15 degrees and sunny outside. Bring it on we said! Enough of the cold we are ready to get into better shape and enjoy the sunshine and warmth. The next three days are to be golden! Temperatures from 15 to 18! We will take it!
As for the remaining week and a half of John’s holiday we have planned an outing tomorrow to a zoo, another day we have planned to bike ride at Eco City and two nights we are booked into the Holiday Inn downtown. On New Year’s we got so tired of trying to find a restaurant that I didn’t get to taking any downtown bridge pictures at night that I was wanting to get. So staying downtown next week will give me a second opportunity and perhaps a redo of New Year’s is in order. We aren’t really sure if the quiet is due to the pandemic or New Year’s here is ordinarily quiet, hard to tell, or ask for that matter. We also plan to ride the Tianjin Eye which is the huge ferris wheel seen in many pictures of Tianjin. I will save the details of how big it is…til we actually do ride it. I’m not overly keen on the height we will be going up but counting on an unbelievable photo opportunity will help me along.
John and I have also taken it upon ourselves to write a couple of songs together. We have enjoyed it for the most part and a song or two have been produced and recorded and shared on our phones and on Instagram. I have also started the long task of illustrating my next book about the two stray dogs we have been watching since we arrived in Tianjin in September. Every few weeks I would write a chapter based on the goings on in the park near our apartment. I named the dogs Pickles and Parker and I have already completed the narrative and have enjoyed writing about characters other than Felicity Mouse. I figured while I was still in China I should write a story about it and add some culture to my stories.
