This morning I was on my way from the bank, where I paid some bills, to the telephone company and then to the laundry to pick up some shirts. Just a normal day really, wandering the suburban streets and doing my chores. When it all started! Bang,bang,bang – only about 50 metres away. Well I have to say it always takes me by surprise and I nearly hit the deck thinking that there was a battle beginning in the surburban streets of Nanjing. However before I had the misfortune of placing my face on the concrete I looked up the road ahead of me and couldn’t believe my eyes.

A lady had been approaching me with several boxes piled high, she was just a few feet away. She was getting ready to strap the boxes to her bicycle, when out jumped a couple of chickens! They had obviously been startled out of their semi comatose state by the fireworks and they were on the run. The lady had some experience with these fowl creatures and she quickly grabbed one by the wing and hung on despite all the squawking and fluffing of feathers, however she wasn’t quite so lucky with the second one and it took off like a Ferrari down the street. So off she went with the other chook firmly in the nook of her arm, leaving her other parcels on the roadside.

Image via Wikipedia

As the escapee reached the road a #121 bus came around the corner and went straight over the top of it. I held my breath, I didn’t want a dead chook squished in front of me and I knew the poor Chinese lady was also holding her breath – this bird was probably on the menu for her restaurant tonight! The bus continued on its way and the chicken emerged startled and more frightened and determined to outwit busses, cars, people and bikes and head for the hills.

Now chooks don’t seem to run in straight lines and also don’t seem to know where they really want to run to. Add in a healthy dose of adrenaline and you have a chook doing circuits at pace, being chased by a Chinese lady who is yelling to all her ancestors and clutching her other precious cargo to her breast.