Tomorrow is Australia Day. "What are you doing for Australia Day?" everyone has been asking. At the supermarket, Australian flags abound and in the meat section, that annoying lamb man (I refuse to write his name) has his signs plastered everywhere about how Australian it is to eat Lamb on Australia day.
I love my country, and I appreciate the day of work but I don't agree with Australia Day. This is a day that commemorates the day that Australia was entered by the English who declared it empty, despite the people living here. Because of course, they did not count people of colour as people (the original survey only had flora and fauna).
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So what I am doing tomorrow is cleaning. I'm not having a party; are you kidding? Chinese New Year is next week! We're going shopping for supplies and then I'm tackling my room and my bathroom. I might even fit in a vacuum! Okay, maybe the vacuum will happen this weekend.
Chinese New Year will involve many people coming to our house, having to clean frantically after the ones on CNYE leave (I hope they realise that we're kicking them out at 11pm this year, no repeats of frantically vacuuming and mopping the house at 11:40pm like last year)
It involves special food, beautiful decorations, family, avoiding wearing the colour black. It also involves not cleaning on the first day (technically it's sweeping) as you don't want to sweep away all your good luck. Oranges, love letters, the white biscuits with the red eyes. The loud chatter of the crowd of friends, the music playing in the background.
CNY is a full sensory experience. It has always been one of my favourite holidays. I might not get a public holiday for it (although I usually take the day off work) but it means a lot to me.
Also! I hope to catch at least one Lion Dance. Last year one of my favourite restaurants Tak Chee had two wind their way through the close confines of the shop. So in addition to excellent food, we got entertainment! Yes!
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