Fireworks

Chinese New Year finds me celebrating on my own, enjoying the solitude and the opportunity to get some work done without distractions.

Chinese New Year wouldn’t be right without fireworks. It would be like celebrating Christmas without a Christmas pud or Brussel sprouts. The celebrations you might see in a Chinatown in the west doesn’t really do it justice. I’ve seen them, a few firecrackers and bit of prancing around with a dragon. Over here, you could forego the dragon, but never the fireworks. Come 4pm New Year’s Eve the city degenerates into an orgy of blinding flashes and deafening explosions that doesn’t let up for about 36 hours.

Alcohol

I have an allergy to seafood, I’m not sure which ones are the main troublemakers, I’ve never had the desire to carry out the experiment. Aside from the, er, rapid expulsion of any offending particles, I also get flu like symptoms – aching joints, headache and slight dizziness.