Tramps Like Me . . . baby, I was born to run: Scrubba dubba dubba

Sometimes I wonder if I have Chinese blood running through my veins. This is most apparent whenever I see the great people of Hong Kong in their daily and weekly routines of cleaning. I love cleaning - it is probably one of the most relaxing things for me and I feel soooooo good after when cleaning for hours, I can sit down, enjoy a glass of wine and just be surrounded by cleanliness.

I know it is Saturday when I am taking a walk and I see laundry hanging everywhere. Saturday is laundry day! I love laundry -- love washing it, hanging it, drying it and folding it. When I see laundry hanging high above, I think two things . . . 1) yeah, laundry! and 2) aren't these people worried that their laundry might fall down and get dirty?!

For me, I will continue to hang my clothes inside my apartment -- it's windy here and the pollution outside makes Los Angeles look pristine.

At exactly 5:00 every single day, someone comes into my office at work to remove the trash -- exactly 5:00 (it is eerie). Then at 5:30, they are back with the vacuum. Once a month, there is an entire weekend set aside for office cleaning. Gee -- I fit right in!

On another note, the Chinese people are so clean, that they even have a holiday where they clean the cemeteries! Two of my favorite things -- cleaning and cemeteries. The Ching Ming Festival is held in early April. This is when Chinese families go to the cemeteries and tidy up the graves of their ancestors. Now, they don't do the type of deep cleaning that I would do; however, they fill up bottles of water and then pour the water over the headstone. Some even pull up weeds. They also put flowers and plants on the grave.

Lining up for cleaning water

Even the Gardner plot was spruced up for Ching Ming!

The most ironic thing is that after all of this cleaning, the families burn "offerings" on the site (which most times cause fires on the mountains). The "offerings" are sort of three-dimensional paper items that represent stuff such as air conditioners, cars, furniture, clothing, and other material things that will make their loved ones happy.