Meister Station Macau Grand Opening & etc

It was a mighty tiring day yesterday, but I had fun :D

I went for dinner out wiht my friends last night, and well, long story short, it got quite late, so I didn't want to park my car in the far-off carpark, and tried my luck in my home area. Although there was no legal park-meter space, there was still legal non-parkmeter overnight spaces (you can only park from 19:30-09:30, for the rest of the day, it is no park and no stop yellow line)...

So early in the morning I already had to get up to drive my car away. I then walked with my dog out to the usual field we go to (it's further off from where my car is parked, ooooh!) so I gave a good workout to the dog.

I later on went to my friend's donuts shop's grand opening. Just when I arrived, I saw the florist bring in my basket of flowers that I ordered for the event. It's all very nice, but my comment is... formatting-wise, my name COULD be written SMALLER..................... but ohwell, what's done is done....

There are lots of flower baskets! Congratulations!

I know about certain parts of a shop's grand opening auspicious ceremony(ies), but I don't really know what the significance are, and I've never seen a complete shop opening thing. OK, granted, I didn't watch the whole thing this time, but I stayed long enough for the Lion Dance.

Have you seen the Lion Dance? Do you know what the Lion Dance is?

You are in luck!

I made videos XD
I wasn't sure of the Youtube video lengths, so to stick on the safe side, I had to cut a few times...

Video 1: The Lion Dance Team comes in with a style.

Their drums and those clang clang clangs make a huge ruckus. I think a few tourists got lucky and found out they had a chance to see an opening ceremony :D

Video 2:  Offerings to the gods

I won't be able to tell you the significance of anything that sits on the table of offerings. I only know that in the end the suckling pig gets chopped up and everyone has a bite. And burning those papers (special papers) means sending stuff to the gods... or so I understand...

Video 3: Eye-Dotting Ceremony

The Eye-Dotting Ceremony officially "brings the Lions to Life". They start dancing then.
I cut a major part out from here as it was photo time after that.

Video 4: The Lion Dance

I heard from a friend that it's not a random thing that one lion goes into the shop and the other one dances outside. I heard each of the lions (Gold and Silver) represents some historical (or fictional? or relgious?) figure. So the Gold Lion goes into the shop (I don't know for what) and the Silver one dances outside and catches the fish to eat and... whatever these actions signify.....

Video 5: Firecrackers

The last part of the dane and the firecrackers. I got blasted a bit as there was no place to hide, but at least the Lions were in front of me haha

Congratulations to my friend Marie on the opening of Meister Station! Donuts in Macau, FINALLY!

Some more random photos...

  

I didn't stay to watch the remainder of the event, as Jenny asked me out. We went to China. I did a bit of shopping in China, had a light tea, and also got a free gift... the manicure place was doing a Mid-Autumn Festival fun event. They ask you a stupid (IQ-challenging) question and if you score you get a free gift. I got a free gift...

Question: "On pimples/acne/zits, when are you most not worried about them?"
Answer: "When they appear/grow on somebody else"

Talking about shopping and stuff, another friend helped me to order somethin from the China-style Rakuten or eBay... I dunno... perhaps you have heard of Taobao? I got a couple of stuff... dirt cheap.... Everything you see here? Just around US$10.

And I finally got a DVD of Les Choristes. I've wanted to watch that for the longest of time.... I've got the soundtrack, but never watched the movie... yeay!