xin nian yu kuai.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Chinese, that means Happy New Year. It may have been weeks since you thought about the New Year, but not so fast. Just as those resolutions were starting to fade, the Chinese New Year whirls through as a reminder of how quickly you failed to achieve them. sigh.

In good faith, I spent my Sunday afternoon in Chinatown. Lured by the promise of an extravagant parade and the possibility of free food, it was too good a chance to pass up. Unfortunately, we missed most of the parade and the only free things in sight were red envelopes full of cheap chocolate. I did manage to hunt down some tasty Lo Mein and a couple dancing dragons though!

Tomorrow is one of my most beloved days of the church calendar. Not much can top a day where you can guilelessly gorge yourself on syrup smothered pancakes in the name of your God. Yes, being a Christain has its perks.

Although I am a little dissapointed at the commercialization of Shrove Tuesday in England. To the masses it is known as "Pancake Day," and they couldn't tell you any of the religious reasoning for the feast. It is so commercialized that it warrents a special display in the grocery stores -- complete with flour, nutella and lemon juice. What is this display missing, I ask you? Syrup. Why? They don't put syrup on their pancakes here. They squeeze fresh lemon on top and coat it in sugar. Hmm... I'll give it a shot tomorrow but we'll see.

I did manage to find a tiny bottle of "Maple Flavoured Syrup" hidden in the corner of the store. There wasn't any Mrs. Butterworth's to be found. I am not sure if this stuff will work but my fingers are crossed that it does the job!