Early start today. Alarm went off at 5.15 and I was up, out and on the road to Brighton. Turns out that lots of people get up to go to work in the middle of the night, but I was still in Brighton for my morning porridge by eight o'clock.
Anyway, Happy New Year to you all. Today we move out of the year of the tiger and into the year of the rabbit. Not sure if this means that we should expect the birth rate to increase soon?
There are twelve animal signs of the Chinese zodiac, and there are lots of stories about how they came about. Most of them seem to centre around the Emperor challenging all of the animals to a swimming race across a river, and that the ordering of the signs of the zodiac correspond to the order in which the animals completed the race. The rat was the winner of the race, and so is first in the cycle.
Despite not being good swimmers, the rat and the cat both hitched a ride on the back of the ox. The sneaky rat pushed the cat into the river half way across, and then waited until the last minute to jump off the ox's back to claim first place with the ox coming in second.
After the ox came the strong tiger, and only then did the nimble rabbit arrive on the far shore. But, it hopped across the river, bouncing on stones, and came in next, and that's why the year of the rabbit follows the year of the tiger.
By the way, Nicky and I were both born in the year of the ox. Apparently, some of the characteristics associated with the sign of the ox are:
- dependable
- calm
- patient
- hardworking
- modest
- logical
- tenacious.
Obviously I am far too modest to say anything further. I'll leave it for you to comment ... !