Our "Hostess with the mostest"
Every month, a group of Laydeez get together at Laurie's house for coffee and a chat. On Thursday, she had a few surprises in store! We had champagne (at 10.30am), a Christmas prize draw, mince pies and fabulous old Christmas music; Bing Crosby et al. What a great morning!
I have been doing a little bit of Christmas shopping, just a few house gifts to take to Australia, so that was fun.I've taken more Christmas tree pics, uploading shortly, and some friends have now got caught up in it and are taking pics of trees in their local area and sending on to me!
The weekend in Macao was a laugh; Les had a go with the Chinese fortune sticks in the afternoon and his said "If you gamble tonight you will be lucky". So he had a go on the slot machines and won $300! We spent a whole day wandering round the old Portuguese influenced part of Macao, not a camera between us. The weather was sunny but there was a snell wind. We ate Portuguese on the first night and Mexican (via Portugal) on the second. We did not go to the famous Cotai Strip, which is a new landfill area full of Casinos. We caught an early ferry home on Sunday as we felt we'd seen enough of casinos to last us a while. Unfortunately the crossing was quite rough and the man behind us was spectacularly, noisily, sick for almost the whole hour. Every time I looked at Les he had his eyes shut and his hands over his ears; he said every time he looked at me I was enveloped in a Pashmina with my fingers in my ears!(The Pashmina was over my nose because the sme...) Ok, enough, you get the idea!
Anyhoo, what else is new? Well, I passed my listening and speaking Cantonese with 69% but there is a long way to go before I could say I can actually speak sentences. However, I can (sort of) make myself understood in shops, restaurants etc, although mainly they just laugh and say "Well done". I think they find it amusing that I even try, as they all speak such great English it hardly seems worth my bother.
Both Les and I have had a bit of a cold this week, so I have been out less than usual. I dropped out of my study group lecture on Chinese cemeteries and also reneged on a lecture on Chinese opera. I did go to my Book Group on Tuesday where we had a great discussion about Kazuro Ishiguro's Never let me go. Even though it has turned a little chilly here, we were still able to sit on the balcony for our lunch and discussion. There were about 20 of us and the balcony could have held another 20 easily. It had a wonderful beach view.
Last night, Les had the first of his office Christmas parties. Because he works part of the week in China and part here in Hong Kong, he gets to go to two parties!So anyway as usual at these dos there was a raffle...and as usual, Les won something! An envelope containing $1200. Not bad, eh?And I noticed our local supermarket has a good deal on champagne.....
Our weekend so far looks as if it will be quiet. We'll probably go and buy some kind of heater, or maybe even a rug,it's getting to be quite chilly sitting in this big airy room in the evenings now. The weekly trip downstairs to the supermarket with the shopping trolley also needs to be done; there is not much food storage space here, so I tend just to buy daily and then stock up with tins, bottles, etc. at the weekend. Les loves to collect the stamps they give for purchases. He saved the last lot and we got a frying pan and a wee saucepan. Now the deal is for white porcelain. He's just been counting his stamps (what fun we have here! Never a dull moment, eh) and announced we already have enough for two espresso cups and saucers or four coffee mugs. But I'm aiming big!I like the look of the big serving platters! We need to buy loads more groceries before the deal ends in April. I hope to have the platters by the time the family gets here in March.See, already I can feel that you, too, are getting caught up in the excitement of our lives out here!
We don't as yet have our usual tourist trip planned for Sunday, depends how we feel. Les is still quite choked up with the cold, although I feel a lot better. The sun is shining but I expect it will be cold out. But it's all relative, as I know Scotland is shivering and would think our 17 degrees is warm. My friend Sue is currently in Tokyo and is excited by the big fat flakes of snow that are falling there, as she is from Perth, Australia and they don't get snow.
I have quite a few outings planned for next week. On Monday I have my art lovers group,we're going to a museum, not a gallery this time.Tuesday, there is a trip to an outlying village to witness a ritual ceremony, called "pacifying the dragon",which only takes place once every 30 years. On Wednesday, some girls might go to the cinema, I'm organising it so need to see what is on. I quite fancied Rum diaries with Johnny Depp but it ends Sunday, bummer.I'm meeting Elaine and Hannah on Thursday and on Friday I really need to get my hair cut. I look like a wild wummin in all this wind.I also have two Cantonese lessons, Stanley is making sure I don't miss out due to our forthcoming trip to Melbourne. So there's another busy week!
Only ten days to go till we fly to Melbourne!
I have been doing a little bit of Christmas shopping, just a few house gifts to take to Australia, so that was fun.I've taken more Christmas tree pics, uploading shortly, and some friends have now got caught up in it and are taking pics of trees in their local area and sending on to me!
The weekend in Macao was a laugh; Les had a go with the Chinese fortune sticks in the afternoon and his said "If you gamble tonight you will be lucky". So he had a go on the slot machines and won $300! We spent a whole day wandering round the old Portuguese influenced part of Macao, not a camera between us. The weather was sunny but there was a snell wind. We ate Portuguese on the first night and Mexican (via Portugal) on the second. We did not go to the famous Cotai Strip, which is a new landfill area full of Casinos. We caught an early ferry home on Sunday as we felt we'd seen enough of casinos to last us a while. Unfortunately the crossing was quite rough and the man behind us was spectacularly, noisily, sick for almost the whole hour. Every time I looked at Les he had his eyes shut and his hands over his ears; he said every time he looked at me I was enveloped in a Pashmina with my fingers in my ears!(The Pashmina was over my nose because the sme...) Ok, enough, you get the idea!
Anyhoo, what else is new? Well, I passed my listening and speaking Cantonese with 69% but there is a long way to go before I could say I can actually speak sentences. However, I can (sort of) make myself understood in shops, restaurants etc, although mainly they just laugh and say "Well done". I think they find it amusing that I even try, as they all speak such great English it hardly seems worth my bother.
Both Les and I have had a bit of a cold this week, so I have been out less than usual. I dropped out of my study group lecture on Chinese cemeteries and also reneged on a lecture on Chinese opera. I did go to my Book Group on Tuesday where we had a great discussion about Kazuro Ishiguro's Never let me go. Even though it has turned a little chilly here, we were still able to sit on the balcony for our lunch and discussion. There were about 20 of us and the balcony could have held another 20 easily. It had a wonderful beach view.
Last night, Les had the first of his office Christmas parties. Because he works part of the week in China and part here in Hong Kong, he gets to go to two parties!So anyway as usual at these dos there was a raffle...and as usual, Les won something! An envelope containing $1200. Not bad, eh?And I noticed our local supermarket has a good deal on champagne.....
Our weekend so far looks as if it will be quiet. We'll probably go and buy some kind of heater, or maybe even a rug,it's getting to be quite chilly sitting in this big airy room in the evenings now. The weekly trip downstairs to the supermarket with the shopping trolley also needs to be done; there is not much food storage space here, so I tend just to buy daily and then stock up with tins, bottles, etc. at the weekend. Les loves to collect the stamps they give for purchases. He saved the last lot and we got a frying pan and a wee saucepan. Now the deal is for white porcelain. He's just been counting his stamps (what fun we have here! Never a dull moment, eh) and announced we already have enough for two espresso cups and saucers or four coffee mugs. But I'm aiming big!I like the look of the big serving platters! We need to buy loads more groceries before the deal ends in April. I hope to have the platters by the time the family gets here in March.See, already I can feel that you, too, are getting caught up in the excitement of our lives out here!
We don't as yet have our usual tourist trip planned for Sunday, depends how we feel. Les is still quite choked up with the cold, although I feel a lot better. The sun is shining but I expect it will be cold out. But it's all relative, as I know Scotland is shivering and would think our 17 degrees is warm. My friend Sue is currently in Tokyo and is excited by the big fat flakes of snow that are falling there, as she is from Perth, Australia and they don't get snow.
I have quite a few outings planned for next week. On Monday I have my art lovers group,we're going to a museum, not a gallery this time.Tuesday, there is a trip to an outlying village to witness a ritual ceremony, called "pacifying the dragon",which only takes place once every 30 years. On Wednesday, some girls might go to the cinema, I'm organising it so need to see what is on. I quite fancied Rum diaries with Johnny Depp but it ends Sunday, bummer.I'm meeting Elaine and Hannah on Thursday and on Friday I really need to get my hair cut. I look like a wild wummin in all this wind.I also have two Cantonese lessons, Stanley is making sure I don't miss out due to our forthcoming trip to Melbourne. So there's another busy week!
Only ten days to go till we fly to Melbourne!
Hi Joyce, so sorry you are both feeling poorly. The cold and wind seems to be killing off the germs here, which is just as well because Sus and I have been swamped with the makings for holly balls and wreaths!!!
ReplyDeleteThe pictures you are posting of the Christmas Trees are fabulous. I have been so busy I have not had time to set ours up yet.
So glad Les's raffle ticket paid off - must have been his lucky red tie!! Gordon's tie is lucky too - he wore it on Thursday and schools in the central belt closed at noon due to a forecast for 90mph winds!!
Have a safe trip to Australia, a very merry Christmas and wonderful New Year holiday.
Love Jean xxx