The Best Part of Chinese New Year?

I have scored! Like, the huge-est bigtime scored EVER!!! A miraculous score! It's like that time I found that HK$75,000.00 Chanel dress in a sample shop on Johnston Road, in my size too, for HK$300.00. Yup, you'd have thought that was a hand-of-god, once-in-a-lifetime score but, indeed, we've just had another one of those!

But to understand how much of a score I've just had, you need background: When we were setting up this flat, six years ago, I found a set of 600 thread-count Egyptian cotton bedsheets at Wing On Department Store, on sale for HK$500.00. Since I'd only previously read about 600 thread-count Egyptian cotton bedsheets, this seemed like a good opportunity to find out if they were worth all the hype, so I got a set.

And yes, they are everything they are meant to be, only, unfortunately, they raised the bar and set a new standard. From that very first sigh, as I slipped in between those sheets and life felt so good, I had to have these and no other so all my other sheets got the toss!

I tried to buy more sets but Wing On had no more and the only place in Hong Kong that sells them is Lane Crawford (think Hong Kong's Harrods) and there they cost over HK$5000. a set and I can't justify spending that amount on something so essentially - let's admit it - trivial!

So, it's six years later and those sheets have been the only ones used, washed every week at the Chinese laundry down the street, dropped off in the morning and picked up, dry and ironed in the afternoon, and just getting better and better, softer and more luxuriant with every wash. Amazing! Gorgeous! Wonderful! Worth every superlative! I cannot recommend them enough.

But six years! We asked a lot of those sheets and even though they delivered I thought it was time to give them a break and so, for the past month I've been trying to find another set for a reasonable price. No luck. I even wrote to Ex-Pat Online asking if anyone could help, and got lots of replies, all of which said I'd have to go up to China because I could only find them in a certain store (not all the same stores, I should mention) in Shenzhen. So I planned a trip up there next week, after the Chinese New Year rush is over.

And to this end, I asked Keith to ask one of his colleagues to write out the Chinese calligraphy for 600 thread-count Egyptian cotton bedsheet set, so I'd have something to flash around (N.B. my best tip for shopping in China, by the way: get someone to write down what you're after!)

And that's when this miracle started: he asked and she said "But you don't have to go to China to get them. Tell Denise they have them on sale right now at XXXXXX (you have to beg me for the name!)", so that's where I dragged Keith off to yesterday!

Well, it was amazing! Better than anything I could've expected.

First off, check this out:

If you're not impressed,
double-click to see properly!

As you can see, they're not 600 thread-count Egyptian cotton bedsheet sets. They are thousand thread-count Egyptian cotton bedsheet sets! The Platonic Ideal for bedsheets! And it isn't one set, it's four! And they're all mine. Life simply doesn't get better than this.

You think? But it does! They were only HK$300.00 a set. Shocking, huh! I said to the saleswoman "What's wrong with them?" and she said "Nothing. The Australian who owns this store is a foolish person!" OK, HAD to hear that story and it turns out that the store is run from Australia and the woman doesn't trust the Chinese so prices everything before it's sent over, and - can you believe it??? - she doesn't understand that the HK dollar is different from the Aussie dollar. The saleswoman said "We try many times to explain that HK dollar is worth 1/7th less than Australian money but she doesn't believe us and just thinks we're trying to cheat her."

I said "Someone that stupid doesn't deserve to stay in business." and she nodded and shrugged and said "We don't care anymore. We're on wages." Can you believe it? I mean, fancy not trusting the Cantonese, the world's best entrepreneurs, to know how to sell! And that a major part of being the world's best entrepreneurs is knowing that you aren't going to stay in business for long if you're anything less than scrupulously honest!

I said "You need to find out where she sources her stock so when she goes out of business, you can set up your own store!" and the lovely saleswoman looked at me with a real "Duh!" face, like I was waayyy behind her on that count!

Anyway, with such foolishness before me, how could I not take advantage of it, and so I got four sets thinking that would see me through the rest of my life ...

... but then, can you believe it, when I got to the counter to pay, thinking "This is such a score!" another saleswoman says "The New Year sales are on. All stock is discounted!"

I could scarcely breathe. "How much?" ...

"70%" off everything!" Boy, it was like ... no, I don't have the words to describe what I felt!

But immediately outside the store, a drummer started banging on the dragon drums and it felt so right!

And when the drummer, who was so good, turned out to be a tiny little boy, it felt like, indeed, it was a day for miracles!

The little drummer boy!
Already as good as any other I've heard!

Ahhh, life is good!