xin nian kuai le
It's not too late to say, 'Gong Xi Fa Cai,' to you yet because the Chinese New Year revellers technically have 15 days of celebration, the last day being the Lantern Festival. My flatmates and I had a mini hot pot dinner to usher in the new year of the rooster. All sounded exciting when I suggested to buy a fondue set in replace of our traditional hot pot--we could have oriental hot pot dishes in a fondue set, I thought, and then instantly went out to buy the cauldron, and the most important methylated spirit of course. On that evening, food was prepared and T's room was ready; for a second it didn't look too different from a feast at home. Later we realised that the fondue burner didn't work quite well with the spirit, therefore B placed a couple of candles beneath the pot. After much hassle chopping the candles to the right size, the room appeared to have a warm glow--they burned and burned, got shorter and shorter, with the soup showing no sign of heat and bubbles. Instead of looking like a group of satisfied coven around a boiling pot, we sat there with empty stomachs close enough to devour any raw meat in sight. B couldn't take it any longer, so he poured the spirit into the burner and light up the match. Hum... the newspapers and the carpet were set on fire, relax, just a very small area. All were very nervous but successfully controlled the situation. Naughty B then moved the fondue set next to the doorstep and lit the fire up again. This time the fire was bigger, and even blocking the doorway. Oh my gosh. Anyways, the fact that I am still here writing means that everything is fine, so dear landlady if you are reading this, no need to worry. You might think that our lovely evening has gone for a burton--not quite right--there's a thing called a stove? Besides, in Chinese culture, we think fire brings lots of money!
I posted this exciting story of mine to the BBC News 'Have Your Say' column, but they didn't bloody appreciate it and chose the boring sappy ones instead.