Chinese New Year is one of my favourite celebrations: I love the emphasis on grub, decoration and MONEY! The Year of the Goat began yesterday, on the 19th of February, so hip, hip hooray for me, as I’m a Goat. The Belle and I met up in Chinatown to celebrate what we hope will be a happy, healthy and prosperous 2015.
I love Chinatown. I love it when it’s hot, and I love it when it’s cold and rainy. Obviously, I love it when I’m feeling jolly and bouyant, but, even when I am sad or worried, there is something about this little patch of streets south of Shaftesbury Avenue that can always take my mind off my woes and lift my spirits.
Chinatown has all the stimulation anyone could wish for: appetising scents; purposeful noise and bustle; lights and colour; great food; a bookies: a gay bar; and, (most importantly), loads of fascinating things to buy, often in brilliant and (to me) incomprehensible packaging.
I’m a double goat in a sense, being a Capricorn as well. Capricorns are noted for their penchant for high-end, luxury goods, coupled with an innate tightness that causes them to resent paying anything much over wholesale price. But Chinese Goats LOVE to spend, and make excellent Lottery Winners of the Viv Nicholson variety.
Chinatown is one of my favourite places to spend time and money. However broke you are, there is always something to buy, even if it’s just a pair of chopsticks or a delicious bun. Pictured above is my haul from yesterday: it could have been bigger, but my Capricorn Goat was in the ascendant, and tugging on the reins of my Chinese Goat.
The Blooming Tea (above) is a Year of the Goat gift from the Belle: I plan to review in more detail as soon as I find a suitably charming receptacle to place the tea-flowers in. I have my eye on some Lucky Cat bowls that look perfect … Next visit!
