Hello Artist: While I was at my appointment I mentioned that I thought the RSD had gone from my left foot to my left hand. I am left handed but that hand is weaker than my right. This woman is really alert. She noticed the difference in my leg length when she saw me walk. Most doctors would not have mentioned it so they would not have to deal with it.

How are you doing? I am curious, how do the people in Hong Kong celebrate the holidays? Or do they celebrate at all? I know that countries have their own customs. What is it like there? Do tell!! Regards, Lil

Hi Lil,
I am so glad you are getting help. I have changed my diet. It's a bit rough getting started but I think it helps some. Big Hugs, Roz

I'm OKish, you know...mutter mutter, grumble, grumble.

Well, very big and very commercial. Hong Kong has more public hols than anyone; we get all the Western ones plus the Chinese ones, which is good news - luckily the HK Chinese will use any excuse .

You can count the time between Christmas and Chinese New Year (usually around late Jan/early Feb, another long holiday for that - it's the Chinese equivalent of Christmas..!) as one long public holiday in terms of decorations - they go bananas and light up every conceivable place, spend a fortune on lights and stuff. It only takes a minor alteration to switch from Christmas (Santa, reindeers, snowmen, the whole 9 yards, to whatever the new year is - dog, rabbit, ox etc...) so we have the decorations up for 2 - 3 months.

Nearer the time I'll try to post a pic of the lights.

About 10% of Chinese Hongkongers are practicing Christians (the missionaries made great inroads in China), so many do actually celebrate Christmas, the rest are Tao-Confucion (sort of Buddhist, ancestor worship, kitchen gods, that kind of thing, very superstitious) but no formal religion. There are many other nationalities here, though, apart from Westerners, lots of Indians and S. E. Asians, so Hindu, Muslim or Buddhist and many Philippinos (mostly Christians).

Regardless of race, people will often decorate their balcony or roof with fairy lights and/or chinese lanterns. So it's pretty.

Usually the locals have a big barbeque outside (any excuse for a barbeque, here) - the weather is often good, although it can be cool - and invite all their friends and family. So it's noisy.

The shops start playing carols in October (!) Westerners usually have a traditional Christmas, the shops sell everything, including Christmas Crackers - it's based on a British Christmas, since they were the previous management. The whole thing, as you'd expect from HK, is one giant capitalist enterprise...and we lap it up .

You might spend the day on a boat or the beach, but always with friends. Many people's families come from overseas for it, since the weather's fine usually and because many Westerners here drink like fishes, major hangovers Boxing Day... Me, I don't care where I am as long I'm with my doglet... turkey sandwich on my local beach with the dog-lovers will do us perfectly. (With a little bit of stuffing).

So not too different, once you've got used to a Chinese Santa Claus, plastic snow in the sub-tropics and the festive season lasting from Oct - Feb
all the best!

Artist...what are "Christmas Crackers?"

Hahahahaha Lisa
I wondered if they had crossed the Atlantic and thought perhaps not!
Here are a couple:



Christmas crackers are *essential* for a Proper British Christmas. You put a couple by each person's plate when you lay the table.... They are rolls of crepe paper, (very fancily decorated) twisted at both ends, with enough paper left at each end to grab hold of, and they contain a present, a paper hat, a joke and a small fire cracker. They're cunningly made so they break apart when pulled hard.

The fire cracker itself is like the cap in a toy gun, big bang and a bit of a spark. It is right in the middle of the inside of the roll, stuck on a length of thin card that runs lengthwise through the roll. At the end of your main Christmas meal, you have a tug of war with everyone else, you take one end of the cracker, someone else takes the other and you pull hard as you can. The fire cracker pulls apart and someone gets the "big" half of the cracker - plus all the presents inside....then you put on the hats, read the jokes, play with everyone's toys and....that's *Christmas* UK style!!!

Shops everywhere sell them, some are cheap and useless with really lame jokes, others not so bad...you might find a dog whistle, or small magnifying glass or compass, a puzzle, that kind of thing...some of the best contained indoor fireworks, but I think they've banned those now...so, I think you wear paper hats in the US, yes? - that's how those started! Funny ways of foreigners, huh ?

Or are you now going to tell me "oh that old thing, that's what we call so-and-so when we have them at Easter"??
all the best!

Hello Artist: Thanks for the reply. It sounds like so much fun to be in Hong Kong this time of year. Everyone is celebrating something all the time. How I wish I had the opportunity to travel to distant lands and mingle with the people. It sounds like people in Hong Kong really know how to throw a great party. Have fun!! Regards, Lil

Thanks, Lil,
Sorry to mess up your thread...straight face...back to normal
atb!

Jo55,
Try to find an atlas-orthoganol chiropracter, NUCCA chiro or Upper Cervical is the newer term for the NUCCA Chiro's. Alot of times when one leg is longer than the other it is because the Atlas (top bone of the spine on which our heads actually sit on) is tilted even as little as 1 cm, can make us lopsided.

They are not alot of these types of Chiro's around but see if you can find one by googling or even Good Searching them. There is a website for each type of Chiro I listed above. After a car wreck in 1991 I went until Oct 1996 with my Atlas twisted around my brainstem approx. 7 cm. I had the headache from HELL all that time up thru 1997, as it took over 1 year to get it to stay aligned more than a few days. I now only need to go to one every couple of months more or less to stay that headache free. I had a triple whiplash in this accident. I had been to all types of MD's, was hospitalized with dehydro ergotamine pumped into me twice a day for 10 days, tried a new type of surgery for headache relief (was about the 12th person to have it done btw), went to multiple chiro's. I would walk in & walk out with the same damn headache. One chiro even would go be a team chiro for different countries during the Olympics. He told me he knew my problem was in the Atlas area but he didn't know how to fix that. Then my neighbor heard of an Atlas Orthogonal Chiro & brought me all the info. By then I had stopped trying to find a fix for this headache. I was so totally disabled at that time that I was on Social Security from 1991 to 1997. When I was finally headache free for about 2 weeks at a time & went back to work Full Time. Anyway they can usually come as close to fixing uneven legs, hips, shouldres etc as anyone else can. Anyway I am still doing well 9 years later. One thing is that they take X-rays. I wouldn't want anyone messing with my neck like without x-rays. But they take one that seems totally off the wall, but once they show you it after calibrating it, it will become clear as a bell why they do this. They take it from the top of your skull down thru to the neck area. I never had one like it before this, nor since this.

I never thought I would end up disabled due to anything else. I was so happy & I did have my life back for 6 years anyway. Better than nothing right?? But who the heck would have thought that they could end up disabled due to a pain condition again. Well I did. And talk about depressing huh??? Yuppers it sure is. Bad enough to loose your life once in a lifetime to pain. Try doing it twice. Thought I would loose my sanity at first. But this time once I got past all the ANGER, acceptance came easier.

Well take care all of ya's & hoping for painless days, hours or even minutes.

DebbyV

oops double post..............LOL