I'll make this a quick post because I am going out this morning to a welcome coffee morning for newcomers to Hong Kong. (I'm also going out for coffee tomorrow morning and on Friday morning...). As well as that, I'll have my weekly poetry group tonight. Such a social whirl!
Next week, my Cantonese lessons begin. I'm not sure yet what to make of this; part of me wants to learn at least enough to buy from markets and part of me shies from what will probably be quite difficult, especially as others have told me there is an expectation that learners do at least a little writing. It looks so complex! I'll tell you more about it once I've had my first lesson.
I took Les to Lamma for lunch on Saturday, it was very hot but the ferry trip over and back was cool and refreshing.On Sunday we went to a huge shopping mall to buy some kitchen utensils. What a nightmare! First we got two trains then looked for the free shuttle bus....the queue was literally a mile long. At least. We queued for about 15-20 minutes. I was almost on the verge of opting for a taxi but as Les said, we are tryng to live as locals so we need to do as they do, which meant queuing in boiling heat in an underground car park for the free bus. When we got to the mall, it was as you might expect jam packed. The bus queued for ages to get in to the drop off point. Frustrated passengers were getting out of cars in the car park queue, leaving their hapless spouses to wend their way to the carparks, all of which seemed to have a "FULL" sign on them.
We found a Jusco and managed to hit it on a sale weekend, so with lighter pockets and heavier bags we gave up on Ikea and the rest of the mall and lugged our wares back to the free bus then the two trains home. If I need to go again, I'll go on a weekday.Apparently thay have a giant bookstore there but I don't think it would be relaxing there with that amount of people. The gym there is one of the venues I was considering for joining for the weekly zumba class, but on second thoughts, I'll look for somewhere easier to get to. Two trains, a bus and a long hot walk is enough of a workout on its own. I do miss zumba though and I certainly need the exercise, so yesterday morning I looked out the zumba CD Lisa burned for me and had my own wee private class right here in our livingroom! It was great fun, I boogied on down by myself doing as many steps as I could remember and improvising the rest. The warm up and cool down I remembered well and just shoogled about for the rest of an hour. Still fun, still sweaty, but I missed the banter. I just wanted to be sure I could still do at least a bit before I go to join a class full of Skinny Minnies in lycra. Anyway, must shoot off now to my first of three coffee mornings.