winter's last struggle

After more than one month of dry spell, Beijing got some snow over the weekend, which also marked the end of the 15-day Spring Festival. As expected, there was free flow of fireworks yesterday. It started already on Saturday, culminating to a climax on Sunday evening after the sun went down. Seeing the entire sky lit by fireworks was no longer a novelty for us. We instead were quite irritated by the constant hum of explosion.Of course, we understood that people were just having their last bit of fun before the Chinese New Year drew an end. Olof said this was probably one of the most liberating moment for the Chinese in an entire year - the time of the year to really have some real fun. Maybe that's why so many Chinese were willing to spend the money (the fireworks are not cheap by the way) for such a short span of thrill. Anyhow, no harm with having fun, but a neighbour living in our condominium obviously decided to take his fun one step further by challenging the no-fireworks-in-our-condo rule. He lighted fireworks just outside our block. What's worse was the security guard on duty did nothing to stop him! We ringed the property management and told them to set up on enforcing the rule, which the security guard eventually stopped the man from lighting another fireworks. We did not complain to spoil his fun on purpose but rather because he was setting off fireworks in a very populated area, which constituted a fire danger. We saw the fireworks exploded right outside our windows. It wasn't beautiful, it was hairy.

Anyhow, another "new year" has begun and it's time to turn on our engines and start charging forward. There will be many changes for us in 2010, expecting a new life into our family notwithstanding. All in all, I hope everything goes well.