Tai Chi and dried fish

In Junction Park, Lok Fu, there are many elderly men and women who practice a stylised tai chi [it's not Tai Chi, but a warm up stretching and movement]. The instructor stands at the end of the basketball courts and uses a small loudspeaker to convey the moves to the many elderly who line the courts and surrounding park areas

There are also plenty of plodders, shakers and quakers. They move around the park about 6.30am and into their morning routines to get the body moving.

I walked to the park this morning and while there I took a place next to the step platform and went through a strenuous yoga routine, including lunges, downward facing dog, cobra, Chaturanga, one-legged pigeon pose, Dandasana, wide-legged forward bend, Triangle, Warrior 1, and intense forward bend. Judging from the looks there is not too much knowledge of Yoga and some of the Asanas. The best thing is the local council has paved the area around the step platform and children's play equipment with soft matting, which is great for yoga in the park. The joggers kept on lapping while I went through the sequence.

Sweat plus in the humidity at 7am.

Before lunch I went to Shanghai Street to buy a small cooking pot [Kruger - Germany, Aluglass-Induktion, aluminium and non-stick, $100 HK] so I can cook some small meals in the dorm kitchen rather than eat out every night.

On the way there was a small shop selling dried fish, mussels, and shrimp [like Ikan Bilis in Indonesia]. They also had there dates or prunes on the footpath drying in the sun. Only they were about 15 cms away from the busy Shanghai Street. Also the photochemical smog in Hong Kong is quite thick. So I don't hold much hope for the health benefits of dried fruits from this venue.

Now it's reading Chinese Politics: State, Society and the market, and the less intriguing China Counting: How the West was lost, before classes start tomorrow.

I don't know if I should do Ananda Balansana [happy baby pose] while in the park.