Chinese New Year
The start of the Chinese New Year celebrations in Sydney started yesterday - the year of the Pig. Sue and I headed into Sydney for several hours in the evening, catching the train from nearby Roseville to Central Station, which is next to the park where the opening events were taking place. The train was quite crowded with commuters, but an easy ride of about 30 minutes.

Once at the park, we bought some food and waited for the events to begin, which comprised a series of speeches mingled with some dances and songs - very Chinese of course, with some varying degrees of enjoyment! The best was a drumming troupe, the worst was a modern 'girl band' called the Angels who had come over from China (who are on 'Quandong TV every week') and were appalling mime artists!

Once the events were officially started, a large number of very loud firecrackers were set off just next to where we were standing, and the 'pig' image was lit (pictured). We then had a quick tour around the stalls and headed home for a bottle of wine.