As someone with a Chinese studies background, I'm nigh on obliged to do a Chinese New Year post. So, in summary, it's now the year of the Ox, which apparently means that we will be successful if we work hard, like an ox. The seemingly obvious question of why this applies this year in particular is a matter to take up with a Chinese immortal sage living on a mountain top/astrologer/Hu Jintao. Some seers are predicting economic doom and gloom due to 'a lack of fire' in the cycle (rather than our current predicament it appears).
I had to work hard from the off, as I had been invited to a New Year's banquet by Chinese friends from work, which started at 11.30 this morning. I bravely ploughed my way through the dishes to find everyone scurry off promptly at 13.00 in order to get back home to watch the New Year's eve variety show from the motherland. I wondered if former classmate Daniel 'Da Niu (Big Ox)' Newham would be entertaining them? If we're working on the Chinese's favourite idea of systematic correspondence, then this year should be a good one for him!
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Should be a very auspicious year for anyone with family in Ox(ford). Useless information: Oxford in Welsh is Rhydychen, which is a literal translation of Ox (rhyd) and ford (ychen) - although just conceivably not in that order. Hope you can work that into conversation sometime soon.
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