Bund Restaurant & Karaoke

Today we (Da Haung Kung-Fu) was asked to help out to open a new restaurant in Haymarket. It's called Bund Restaurant and Karaoke but in Chinese they called themselves "Shanghai hotel" something something (So sorry my Chinese is horrible). It is as it's called, the main area inside is for patrons who are just there for the food, then there are a few other private rooms which is available for karaoke and dining. Man these types of places are opening up quite a fair bit now, I know of a Japanese restaurant that does quite close to the same thing.
The front was decked out with Chinese style bouquet of flowers and so was the whole entrance leading into the main dining area. This is a traditional custom that all restaurants do when they first open, it's partly a sign of wealth and other reasons that do not come to mind but it also helps to attract new/more customers. Each bouquet has a pair of ribbons streaming down it forming a triangle and down each and everyone there is little scripts written on it. Some stating the date of opening others wishing the restaurant wealth and lots of business.

We were just about to leave the door with this lion for today. I actually quite like this one a little bit more than the others only because it's newer but also it's the lightest. But instead we left with the silver 'hok san' lion (which i didn't get to take a photo of).BeforeAfter

This time the 'Cheng' which is chinglish for ......... I have no F'ing idea actually, i think it might be lettuce but it ain't quite right. But today's one was a bit different from the normal, usually it would be a lettuce with a red pocket inside hanging from high up somewhere and we would jump up and eat it like so. This time though it was a lucky fruit platter with 8 mandarins and 1 massive grapefruit.
The story goes something along the lines of this and i'm not 100% sure, but the fruit symbolises hidden wealth and the lion will come around opening each and everyone of them up to 'unleash' that hidden wealth and prosperity to the owners of the restaurant. And so the bigger the fruit it is believed there is more hidden goodness inside thus the big grapefruit.
I ate the mandarins four at a time and the grapefruit last, the mandarins was ok to peel open but was slightly bit challenging to rip it in a way where it is presentable. The grapefruit on the other hand was amazingly difficult, even though before hand i made two small cuts into the skin so i could get my nails in easier but even then... oh my f'ing gah! My nails felt like they were close to breaking, so i left it barely opened, lol. The symbolism is all still there so it's all good.
Kevin today was his, well our first time lion dancing in about 5 months and his back was in agony. Me? Well i was ok, other than the unstoppable hand tremors i got after and even now my legs and lower back is still a bit sore.

Hahaha, oh well i guess it's a sign to actually put some effort into training.