31st Dec 1941 - 2nd Jan 42. Barbara Anslow's diary.

Amah came again and brought a few of my clothes crammed into a rattan Hong Kong basket.  She had ruffled her hair to make herself look like a peasant instead of an amah who was helping the defeated British.  Being New Year, we were not allowed out lest celebrations be made.   Hill fires (charcoal) were wonderful over at Taimoshan ((across harbour beyond Kowloon)).

((Charcoal fires were a common sight on the Kowloon hills.  Without knowing much about them, I understood it was a thriving industry; they were deliberate fires to produce charcoal, which was used for cooking - I suppose on Chinese chatties, where you fed bits of fuel into the space beneath the earthenware containers.   We had chatties, some makeshift, in camp and had to use twigs, grass etc. whatever you could find, to feed it. ))