Regular readers have heard me wax lyrical from time to time about those soupy dumplings I first tried in Hong Kong, and later wherever I can get them…xiao long bao…

Anyways, when I was in Hong Kong, I could easily have had these 3 meals a day. In case you’re interested, there are about 310 calories in a serving of 5 of the succulent little beauties. Being on limited funds, being on my own, and being in a new country, I would grab these wherever I could, although there was this great place right next to where I used to stay at the Excelsior, that was just a little too convenient.

There is this restaurant over there which does dumplings to Michelin rated standards- which sounds like a dream come true for me, except for one teeny little detail. You get a ticket and wait. Hello? One of my favourite tweeps tweeted today that he was facing a 3 hour wait. At lunch time on a Monday? You can’t be serious. I get the irrits at a 40 minute wait at our local yumcha, and time any visits to Din Tai Fung to keep the waiting time to the absolute minimum.

I don’t do queuing, and I most certainly do not do delayed gratification. I have Venus in Aries and trust me, when I want something, I am going to want to hunt it down Right Now. And with Venus square Jupiter, I want a lot…Right Now.

My neighbor and I are doing these tarot classes at the moment and she laughed last week when I asked “don’t you ever just want to go straight to the outcome card?” I was serious.

In contrast, a friend with Venus in Scorpio is painstakingly putting away money each week for a special weekend she wants to take her husband on. For her the anticipation will make it so much sweeter- especially when she breaks out the new lingerie saved for the occasion. Speaking of which…anything new? I have to wear it immediately.

Another friend with Venus in Taurus is waiting for a particular man she knows and wants…and has been, waiting and wanting, that is, for some time. For her sake I sure hope that he is worth it. Someone else I know with Venus in Virgo delays doing things until the time (or the finances or the situation) is exactly right- which it never seems to be.

My mother (Venus in Aquarius) used to say “you can’t miss what you don’t have, Joanne.” She might be able to detach, but I can’t. I do miss it, I yearn for what I can’t have- usually an opportunity that isn’t coming around quickly enough. Yes, Pluto is involved heavily in my chart and inconjunct Venus, so I obsess a bit and then I move on- to something else, and yearn for that with the same intensity.

I know the argument for waiting is that the taste is so much sweeter- sort of like the first time you kiss someone after wanting to for so long. You can only ever experience a first kiss once, a first anything once. But surely once there has been a first, you can then look forward to the second- unless the first was pretty crap, in which case it was better that you find out early in the process rather than wait and be disappointed…in my humble opinion anyway.

They say that if you get it easily it isn’t worth as much, but what if when you get it, it really wasn’t worth the wait? To use the same analogy, what if he is a crap kisser? All that time that you could have spent doing something else? And if he is great, think of how many wonderful kisses you would miss out on while waiting?

The Economist in me thinks also about the opportunity cost of delaying gratification:

• What if the book ending is naff, the dog dies, the heroine gets the wrong bloke, or it is otherwise really disappointing? Your time would have been better spent reading something you enjoy or can learn something from.
• What is the movie ending is not how it should be? Ie the dog dies, the heroine gets the wrong bloke, or it is otherwise really disappointing? That’s 3.5 hours (including travel, parking and waiting time) that you’ll never get back.
• What if you miss out on something in the meantime? And yes, I know the whole “the one you miss out on is the one you never get”, but I’m Plutonian, so, what if?

So yes, this all makes me sound like a spoiled bitch, and I guess I am. I am actively trying to stop and feel gratitude before moving on. I am also trying to actively remind myself that things happen when the time is right for them to happen, but have to admit to more than a small part of me (the Pluto part) wondering whether there is something that I can do to hurry the process up just a tad.

I googled the Hong Kong Dumpling House. Apparently the dumplings are miraculously good- like dumplings elevated into something higher. I guess if I snacked on something first (hunger never results in good manners), and concentrated on the people watching opportunities, or did a spot of shopping in the meantime, or even read a book while waiting, I could manage the wait…if the dumplings really are that good.

How does your Venus reflect what you want and how long you are prepared to wait to get it? How do you respond when you lose or miss out on something of value?