So here I am at last! Most of you will know of the unfortunate illness Les suffered whilst in the UK, which caused him to be in hospital for two weeks and still off work now, seven weeks later! But the good old NHS (with a little help from BUPA) got him on the road to recovery. Now, so long as he sticks to the diet and keeps on taking the pills (seven different kinds!) he should be OK. But he won't be climbing mountains anytime soon!
We had a relaxing time in Scotland, going out for the prescribed 2 half hour walks daily, rain or shine and we also managed to catch up with family and friends once Les had recovered sufficiently from his surgery. It was great to see the boys, Callum is so grown up and Jamie is almost walking! Janie and Peter came up for a long weekend to see Les, not quite as spectacular as visiting him in Hong Kong, but we all enjoyed our time together at Eyemouth and they have vowed to return to HK next year so we can finally do the helicopter trip.
Meantime, at Calamity Central... I hired a car to visit him in hospital, parked it in a quiet corner of a car park and came back to find someone had run into it and driven off without leaving details. £500 to pay. Next, I bought a nice tea towel for our Eyemouth flat, then decided it was too nice to dry dishes, so I framed it, first ironing it flat on the carpet ( I know, I know!) Burnt carpet needs renewing. What else? Well, I came back to HK, plugged in my computer and BANG!...Remember that new cable I had to to replace in April, well, it blew up, damn near set the apartment on fire! Burn marks on the side of the (rented) sofa (thankfully came off with leather cleaner) New cable purchased this morning. Oh,and Les left his reading glasses on the plane.
On the positive side, I am following Les diet and exercise programme, so I have lost some weight without even trying. I hope to keep at it now we are back in HK. It's very hot and we are having to get used to it all over again.
Things change rapidly in HK: we noticed a complete revamp of our shopping centre, including the removal of the lift, its as if it had never been there. Sadly, my handy Dymocks booksellers has gone too, so I need to source another one as I just signed up for their loyalty programme before I left.
I have not yet caught up with any friends as this is the quiet season for expats, many are still in UK, Canada or US for the summer. However, tomorrow (Thursday) I am meeting three friends for coffee, leaving Les to his own devices for a couple of hours. Then in the evening we are meeting up with a work colleague and friend from the US who was recently in our holiday apartment in Eyemouth, so we are looking forward to hearing his experiences. Hopefully he had a couple of days without rain!
Next week, Les will start a slow return to work, with one day at the HK office and one in Shenzhen.He promises to take it easy and follow the doctor's advice of going in for two, then three, then four days before graduating to a full week by September. Whilst he is off, we will combine R&R with a couple of day trips to see places when they are a bit quieter during the week, as usually he only has time at the weekends when things can be a bit crowded.
By September, the expat calendar will be filling up and in fact I already have a booking to go to a local "ghost festival" and Les is coming with me to a talk about "Pirates of the China Seas" Ahrr, Jim lad!
As I write, Les is busy trying to sort out details for our October week holiday, when we hope to go to Singapore. I'll keep you up to date with progress on that, and all the other details of life in Hong Kong.
But for now, I'm away to collect the laundry and then have a cuppa before we do our exercises!
Hup two three!
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