It was a public holiday in HK yesterday as part of the Mid-Autumn festival, a rich festival full of lanterns and dancing and things. In short, it is all to do with the full moon in the 8th lunar month. Whilst the full moon was actually on Tuesday, the holiday was on Wednesday in order to recover from a late night moon-gazing.

Legend has it that the Mid-Autumn festival is linked to an ancient fable of Chang O, wife of the Divine Archer, who lived around 2170 BC. Apparently the earth had ten suns circling it, each taking its turn to illuminate the earth. One day, all ten suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. The earth was saved by a strong and tyrannical archer (the Divine Archer) who succeeded in shooting down nine of the suns, leaving only one, the moon. The Divine Archer stole the elixir of life from a goddess (as you do), and, in order to ensure eternal life, his
wife drank the elixir. However, when she drank the elixir she found herself floating / flying to the moon. She remains there to this day and by the full moon of the eighth lunar month, her beauty casts a silvery glow upon the earth.

As with all festivals, there is a particular celebratory food. The Mid Autumn festival has the aptly named, Moon Cake. Apparently, during the Yuan dynasty (AD 1280-1368), China was ruled by the Mongolian people. Leaders from the preceding Sung dynasty (AD 960-1280) were unhappy with submitting to foreign rule and set out to coordinate a rebellion, without it being discovered. Almost in the manner of a Trojan horse, the leaders of the rebellion knowing that the Mid-Autumn / Moon Festival was drawing near, ordered the making of special cakes. They packed into each Moon Cake a message with the outline of the attack. On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attached and overthrew the government. Following from this, was the establishment of the Ming dynasty (AD 1368 -1644) and Moon Cakes are eaten to commemorate this legend.

Whilst the legend may be pretty special, the Moon Cakes are pretty vile. They look very tempting, but are made from ground lotus and sesame seed paste, together with egg yolk and other such things. I'm hardly fussy when it comes to food, but these taste rather like yucky protein bars. Sawdust mixed with bird seed. Yes, definitely bird seed. Overly organic bird seed. Or the bottom of a bowl of deeply organic sugar-free muesli - lots of soggy nasty tasteless sawdusty oats. Blurgh.

In other news, Ollie*... no, sorry... um, not Ollie, politics... Yes, what is going on? Are they all getting slightly confused? Cameron described himself as "heir to Blair" and now Brown is likening himself to the "heir to Thatcher". Have they both got their knickers in a twist, here? It's a tough one to call though. Brown, credit where credit is due, has appeared pretty trustworthy so far and his conference speeches have been alright, albeit lacking in much substance. His interview with Mariella Frostrup was entertaining, especially the parting shot: "So when
will the general election be then?" Ms Frostrup asked, in the only way she can. Silence reigned. "Charming as you are, Mariella, the first person I would have to talk to is the Queen," came the reply. Beautiful. Even the Torygraph are praising him. I don't seen the Guardian praising Cameron. Cameron is a wet, murky green, Etonian blanket, who is frequently less in-touch than the England rugby team, and that's saying something. If they called an election tomorrow, the chances are that Brown would get in, albeit with a narrow margin. I'd hedge my bets at voter apathy being at an all-time high too. I think perhaps the Tories could do with their own "heir to Thatcher". It may shake things up a little bit. Perhaps we could coordinate a rebellion. Thatcher Thins, anyone? Brown Biscuits? Cameron Cookies? Yeah, ok. Hint taken. I'm off.

*Would I...?! Course not... love you really, Ol. :o)