Kung hei fat choi

Today's challenge was to photograph what I was doing between 3 and 4 o'clock.

After a busy morning catching up with emails and thanking the many people who have sponsored my niece and me for a charity swim, I went into London's Chinatown to catch the tail end of the Chinese New Year celebrations.

It was cold and very wet in London. Despite that, there were thousands of people milling around, enjoying the spectacle. I could have blipped photographs of the dragon dance (although the poor light this afternoon and the consequent slow shutter speeds resulted in more blur of the dancing dragon than I had intended). Alternatively, I could have blipped pictures of the many street stalls selling crackers, ornaments, lanterns, hot food, sweets, etc. Or I could just have blipped a photograph of the crowds.

However, this is the picture which best summed up the afternoon for me. All over Chinatown, the restaurants were extremely busy, with the chefs working hard behind the steamed up street windows, while cold, wet onlookers, sheltering under their umbrellas, looked in at the food being prepared and examined the colourful menus.

Shortly after this, we retreated to a cafe away from the crowds to warm ourselves up with a hot chocolate, before going to Trafalgar Squasre to watch the (brief but) enjoyable final fireworks to close the celebrations.

Got back home to a mini blizzard.