All about Jamie

This blog is not really about Hong Kong; let me introduce our brand new grandson, Jamie Lewis Barnes born Monday 29th August at 14.59pm weighing 7lbs 8.50z.
We are looking forward to our trip home on Thursday so we can give him a cuddle...and a cuddle for big brother Callum too!
On Tuesday evening my lovely friends Sue, Pat and Lesley met me for cocktails to wet the baby's head. It was a happy hour event, 5pm till 7pm so our menfolks joined us as soon as they escaped from work. The 8 of us had a great time drinking cosmopolitans, champagne, Long Island ice teas and chocatinis ( a potent chocolate alcoholic drink so thick the straw stood up in it!) The venue serves complimentary filet mignon mini baguettes so it was dinner for free! Well not quite, for being gluttons for punishment, Les and I passed a pizza shop on the way home. Actually, we didn't pass it at all, we went in as we are indeed gluttons. Before I knew where I was, I had pizza and salad in front of me, and a glass of wine in my hand! Happy Days!
Today insead of housework and packing, I met Elaine with Hannah and we went baby shopping.
Now I'm home and I really must finish packing!
No more havers for a while as I'll be back in Scotland, then in Vietnam. Hong Kong Havers will resume mid October.

My week in words (no pics this post)

On Monday, Les took a holiday, his first day off work since Easter, so much needed. We went to Tai O, the village on stilts and had a leisurely time there, strolling around and having lunch. No pictures this time as you've all already seen it!
Tuesday was my Cantonese lesson and this time Stanley brought me a cup of "yuen yueng" which is a strange and potent mixture of iced coffee and iced milk tea. It's a typical local drink. It wasn't unleasant, but I think it had a lot of caffeine in it! He says people drink it to wake up. Maybe he hoped to increase my capacity to learn, but anway whether due to the lesson or the drink, I had a pounding headache for the rest of the day.
On Wednesday I met a friend for coffee and some shopping...then lunch. She took me to a Vietnamese retaurant so I could try pho, a typical dish which she says we should try when we go to Saigon next month. It was delicious; very hot chicken broth poured over sliced veg and shredded chicken with noodles to make a light yet filling soup. Apparently it is eaten, with variations, for breakfast lunch and dinner. Poetry as usual on Wednesday evening, whilst Les and Lola toiled over his Mandarin lesson.
Thursday I had ...er....another coffee morning and met some new ladies. In the afternoon I received the most wonderful news...2 of my bestest, closest friends, Jean and Susanne, have booked flights to come over here in November! Woo! So exciting! I'll need to warn the locals of this development as I'm sure we three will get into some scrapes or get lost or lose something during the two weeks.Actually I should probably warn the British Consulate too, just so they are ready when we need them! I'll be able to try out my tour guide skills, as they've said they want to see things rather than buy things.I've told them to pack comfortable shoes as we will be walking a lot, not to mention all the steep hills and stairs on the island!
Les had a couple of evening conference calls this week, so I caught up with some emails to the UK to set things in motion, alerting people to the imminent invasion of the Scots from Hong Kong and Australia.
So now the weekend approaches and today's agenda includes housework :( and deciding on a dinner venue :).
On Saturday evening, we are going to Lamma with some friends for dinner in the famous Rainbow Resaurant where I had lunch with Doreen, Elaine and Hannah in June.
Sunday as usual will be our day of rest, we'll probably stay around the local neighbourhood and then sit by the pool. We had heavy rain yesterday and it is a bit overcast this morning (it's Friday, no matter what the post date says at the top here!). However the weekend forecast looks to be sunny. Whatever the precipitation, one thing is for sure, it will be hot, hot, hot; and humid. Squelch.

Kung Fu and Lion Dance

Two older ladies performing a Tai Chi type dance exercise using fans

This is a Shaolin form of martial art. This boy was wielding an enormous sword!

The Lion ready to dance

Today we were in Kowloon Park watching the weekly display of martial arts, traditional dance manoeuvres and a spectacular lion dance, all for free! It lasted two hours but as it was very hot we moved on after an hour. The park was very busy; groups of people dancing, maids having a picnic on their day off,multi-generational families enjoying ice cream. A great place with a great atmosphere!

Eating out and eating in

Chan dan mien
Dong naaih chah

Temple street cafe

We eat dinner out at least once a week; because we also love to buy food and cook, this is less that most of our friends, some of whom eat out five or six times a week. On Thursdays, we eat somewhere "local" which means a pavement place with plastic stools, a roll of toilet paper in lieu of napkins and excellent food. Our favourites are clams in black bean sauce , spicy prawns, green veg with chilli or with garlic and spicy noodles. The custom here is to share all the dishes and eat them as they arrive. They usually bring the clams first, then the prawns and veg tend to arrive together, then the noodles last of all.This is washed down with a big bottle of beer. There is no lingering; eat and go is the rule. If it is a Friday or Saturday, we often look for somewhere serving lamb or fish, because we eat a lot of chicken and pork in the house.Squid is a popular starter and something I wouldn't attempt yet at home, because I'm not sure how to remove the clear "plastic" bone in the middle. I once watched fishermen doing it in Africa but haven't done it myself yet. Anyway, these tend to be Westernised places and we usually order a dinner each, as is the Western custom. However, we need to get in the habit of sharing as we always have way too much food and last time brought enough lamb home to serve next day! Desserts, we don't do other than ice cream at home. As for home cooking, I like to use my traditional wok and bamboo steamer most nights. However, Les eats rice every day in the canteen, so I only serve it once a week. I like to try buying things from the street markets as they are so cheap and fresh compared to supermarkets. On Saturday, we bought 50p worth of lettuce....she shoved 4 enormous heads into a bag. What to do with 4 lettuces? Make lettuce soup, of course. It was green. Very green. But tasty!
Ice cream flavours have included the usual vanilla, almond fudge and also the more exotic purple yam or tropical fruit with mango, guava and watermelon.
On Tuesday, my Cantonese tutor took me out for a typical Hong Kong Breakfast which I had to order in cantonese. I practised the menu all morning then we got there and he said, "Oh, no, I don't want pork today, get me beef instead, you do remember the word for beef, don't you?" Uh oh. So I gamely ordered " yat won chan dan mien, yat won dan nghou mien, yat bui dong naaih cha, yat bui dong gafee syu tim" She read it back to him....AND IT WAS RIGHT!!! Yesss. If you are interested, I had a bowl of noodle soup with a fried egg and some kind of pork luncheon meat floating in it. He had the same kind of thing, only with beef. He had iced sweet milk tea and I had iced coffee with a little sugar. At 10.00. am. Yes, for breakfast. Hmm. But I tell you what, I only ate a banana for the rest of the day. Until the lettuce soup at dinner, of course.

USS Ronald Reagan

USS Ronald Reagan arrives in Hong Kong

The USS Ronald Reagan is in town, with a flotilla of smaller vessels. It is a huge aircraft carrier with thousands of personnel on board and they have been away from their base in SanDiego for a long time. On Saturday evening, an American friend hosted a BBQ at her home for a few of the young sailors and we were invited. We met about 18 of them, including five women. They enjoyed a fabulous steak and chicken dinner (and so did we) and we really enjoyed meeting them and hearing a little about their lives at sea and back home. I spent a while chatting with a young woman who lives on Coronado, San Diego where we did a home exchange some years ago. She knows the exact house we exchanged to! It is one of only 2 tiny bungalows left on a street where all the houses now are glass millionnaires palaces, so it's quite distintive. What a small world we live in.

Kilted Callum

HOW CUTE IS THIS!!!

Jen sent it from her phone, they are going to a wedding and she was trying on his outfit to make sure it fits. Imagine; he's not yet 2 and this is his second kilt! Also check out the feet, Les bought him the timberland boots in the US last year and they only now fit.

What's on in Hong Kong this weekend?

Well, for a start, my weekend began on Wednesday evening at the poetry club,with readings, chat and a few glasses of wine! Then on Thursday after a late afternoon laze at the pool, we went to Temple Street Spicy crabs for dinner. It's Friday morning here and I am off out to a meeting about the education programme I'm volunteering with, then meeting friends for coffee. After that, I need to get a manicure and pedicure.Tough life,eh?
Tomorrow we are going to look for a shopping mall in the shape of a big boat. We don't really need to buy anything, but it looks crazy so we want to find it. We have been invited to a BBQ in the evening and will meet up with my Australian friend and her husband there. An American ship is in town and an American friend is organising the BBQ for some of the ship's company. Sunday we plan to laze around at the pool, so necessaire after such a busy week, non?