Xīnnián hǎo

The park looked glorious this morning as the sun started to flood everything with a reddish glow. Everything looked magical and new. Fortunately, there was no frost on the path, so I could enjoy it completely. Obviously, I stopped to take a photo.

On my return from Starbucks and Waitrose, I was accosted with an unexpected greeting.

The woman with the dog that isn’t allowed to visit old people any more, was chatting to another woman with a dog, when she suddenly spotted me and yelled out “Xīnnián hǎo!” The exclamation mark is all hers.

I was just about to say good morning but stopped, looking quizzically at her. She helpfully pointed at my chest. I looked down.

Yesterday was Chinese New Year so I was a day late but that didn’t matter, because, this morning, for no reason at all, I wore my Chinese t-shirt which says Dragon.

That was when I figured out she was saying Happy New Year in Chinese. I smiled and said “Except this is Dragon and it’s Tiger this year.“

“I’m Dragon,” She proudly proclaimed. I smiled and resumed my slow journey home.

Actually, another sign caught my attention today.

Someone has been putting stickers on the green cabinet at the end of Long Garden Walk for a while now. They seem to be magnifying conspiracy theories or spraying scorn on people’s misconceptions. I remember one with Bill Gates’ head and the words ‘Your body, my choice’ written beneath it. The day after I saw it, someone had scratched it off. It was then replaced with another one saying something else.

Anyway, I did laugh at the one today.

I’m thinking it will also be defaced by Friday when I return to the shops.

In other news…back in December, I wrote a blog entry about a soldier I’d researched called Frank Croon. The post was mostly about the pitfalls of researching, and it inspired Phil (my supervisor) to suggest writing a piece for the Surrey in the Great War website.

It took me a few weeks to get the tone right while including all the relevant information but, eventually, I posted a final version off to Phil last week. While a lot of it was based on my blog entry, there were a few bits and pieces that had come to light since then.

Today, Phil emailed back to say it was now live.

If anyone’s interested, they can read it here.