Lull

We are entering a short lull....Martin and Renee have gone, Gillie leaves tonight, Margaret and Duncan don't arrive till next week. Just time to get the sheets laundered. To our chagrin, the laundry closes on Sunday, so although Les took two loads on Saturday, I have another two to go today. We are so lucky to have the space to have our friends/family to stay or for dinner, it's been great fun.

Martin and Renee enjoyed their visit, especially the hectic and riotous time when they overlapped with David Jen and the boys. It was great to see them all together. Martin and David have got so alike they are almost like twins! Especially confusing on the days they chose to wear the same colour t-shirts!
I was able to arrange for M&R to hike the Dragon's Back, a classic Hong Kong hike. We also went to see Matilda Hospital where Renee was born and she got a tour of the building. In 2007, a new wing was added and people born there were invited to make a handprint to create a wall of Matilda babies. Renee was invited to make her print, so Matilda's wall now proudly sports a green Renee Braden 1982 handprint. It was a nice touch and she will have a lovely time telling her Mum all about it, with accompanying pictures.Then we went to see the apartment where she lived as a child. Afterwards, we took the green minibus back down to the Star Ferry. However, Renee and I boarded and paid, but then the bus was full ( it only holds 16) so poor Martin was left behind! Unfortunately the next bus took a completely different route, so whilst we waited at the ferry for him, he found his way home by train. I came back to find him like a homing pigeon standing outsde the apartment door. Renee was meantime standing vigil over on the island... Anyway,we all arrived back here safely in the end. On their last night, we took Martin and Renee to the very same cocktail bar we took Fraser, Ashley and Fiona six years ago. We saw the light show from the island side, it was interesting to see how far it stretched, all the way to Hung Hom and beyond.

For the next ten days, I will be once again concentrating on my HK social activities. Tomorrow I have Book Group and then a Cantonese lesson. On Wednesday, I am going to visit Kadoorie Botanical Garden with an expert on orchids for a guide and after lunch we will go on to the HK Railway museum. Then there is the monthly Kowloon Coffee date on Thursday which is always fun and will probably lead to some acitvities later on.I've turned down a backstage visit to HK Performing Arts and a hike on Cheung Chau as my diary is already full!

Time flies...

Whew! What can I say? It's been a rollercoaster so far! I'm on my third solo grandbaby sitting stint after a hectic and rain sodden day at Ocean Park. We had a fabulous day at the Peak on Wednesday and a hot hot hot day at Disney on Tuesday. As well as that, we have visited Stanley, Temple Street Night Market (kids in tow), Kowloon Park (three times !) our pool (countless times; a big hit) and went to Discovery Bay for an afternoon with Elaine and Hannah. We also had lunch on Lamma. So tonight the babies are sleeping and everyone else is playing snooker at the clubhouse. Tomorrow I promise I will snap out of Granny mode and opt in to the night time activities. But then, who will mind the babies and get up at 7 for the early morning bottle? Mmm. Me of course! It's hard work, but I'll miss them so much when they go! Still, we have two full days and two evenings to go, so we'll get up to something before the grand departure.My computer has again developed a fault, maybe time to renew? So I am on Les' work computer, therefore no pics till I get myself organised.

Hot hot hot

Just a few of the stunning exhibits at the Hong Kong Flower Show


At last, the sun has got his hat on! Unfortunately today I am indoors as I am meant to be revising for a Cantonese assessment this afternoon. Instead, I've been distracting and diverting all morning. I've cleaned the bathrooms and rearranged the freezer, then cleared a wardrobe so our visitors will have space. I've been to the bin 3 times with old magazines and general clutter. But alas I have not revised.
At the weekend, we built up the bed for Callum and the travel cot for Jamie and rearranged some furniture so it all fits in. On Sunday we tried out the bus from Kowloon to Stanley. Boy does that take a long time! We thought it might be easier than changing at Admiralty for when the kids are here, but the long bus journey would not be much fun for Callum after the first fifteen minutes.Once we got there, we had a lovely walk along the prom in the sunshine, a dim sum lunch then a visit to the market... just for look.We came home with a painting and a remote controlled helicopter... The helicopter is deemed unbreakable; we'll see about that! It flew into my precious orchids, then attacked a white wall which then needed a scrub to get the black marks off. I'm seriously worried for all the chandeliers in here! Les needs a lot more practise before the boys get here!But the painting is lovely.
Yesterday I went to the Hong Kong Flower Show which was stunning. On Wednesday I am meeting my young friend Shannon to give her a small engagement gift and to catch up as we haven't seen each other in ages. Then on Thursday, I am going to a gallery exhibition for lunch and to meet the artist Rachel Hovnanian. The installations look to be very stark, white plaster, but of course I'll know more once I've been there and seen it, so more on that later. Then it will soon be Friday and David Jen Callum and Jamie will be here! At last! And as I said at the top, it is glorious weather. Hoorah!

Mid march

So, what have I been up to this week? Monday: NIA then lunch with Pat, Chris and Katrina before coming home to finish off the dreaded ironing. Tuesday, study group at Helena May for a presentation on Chinese snuff bottles and then one on Chinese gardens, followed by a quick hop over to Pacific Place for Book Group.As always a fantastic discussion, this was on Hemingway; everyone had done some research, so the discussion was well informed and interesting. Just what is needed for a really good Book Group! The debut of Miss Aria Lily Hernandez was warmly welcomed! She was a little star and slept quietly throughout, despite all the eager "aunties" waiting for a cuddle! Then off to far flung Siu Hong for the interview programme at Lingnan Uni.
Wednesday was fantastic! Study group had arranged a private tour of HSBC archives to look at the George Chinnery paintings we had learned about last term. A wonderful afternoon, so rich in colour ..and culture! I tell you, you won't recognise me on my return to Scotia's shores, I am SOOO cultured, me!
On Thursday, I went to the theatre with a friend whilst Les had a boys night out with work colleagues; I felt (vaguely) guilty that he was already tucked up and fast asleep by the time I got home.
Friday kinda disappeared; I remember vacuuming and dusting, but that was so boring, I forgot it immediately.
Saturday saw us acting as tour guides for 2 of Les' work colleagues. We took them to Tai O, the stilt village then onwards for dinner at an Oz restaurant on Knutsford Steps. I had kangaroo and fairly hopped home after.
Today, Sunday, we revisited Les' idea of hell on earth, Ikea, for yet more bedding and cot sheets.....just in case.

Off to the Races and other pursuits

The beautiful souvenir race night ticket and my badge for the Members Enclosure for our Race Night.

And what a night it was! When I said in the last post I thought we would get something to eat and a wee drink, how wrong I was! We had a full on buffet dinner and free flowing wine. It was amazing. Our table was right by the window, we could see the finishing line below us. The track was floodlit and the horses gleamed. I loved the spectacle of it all. However, the betting was a different story. Mine were all donkeys and the ones that didn't fall, throw off their rider or actually collapse on the track are probably still running....
We had a great night even though I won nothing and Les won only a few dollars.
On Thursday morning I had signed up for a 3 hour walk and after the late night and free flowing wine, I felt like staying in bed. I'm glad I went, it was a flat walk so easy on my old knees and for most of it we were on a new promenade right by the waters edge.The weather was dry and not hot, so perfect for walking. At the end of the walk, we went through the Science Park and saw this amazing giant egg shaped structure which on closer inspection turns out be an auditorium. Cool!



At the weekend, we went to a Damien Hirst exhibition. The "Spot" exhibition was being shown simultaneously in eleven galleries worldwide: 4 in USA, 2 in London, then Paris, Rome, Geneva, Athens and here in Hong Kong. Altogether Hirst painted over 300 spot paintings in 25 years. All different. All spotty. Les was completely underwhelmed, even when I tried to point out how no two spots were the same colour and in every painting every spot was precisely the same size, even though from painting to painting the spot sizes varied from one millimetre to about half a metre across. I can tell, I'm boring you now, too, aren't I!
After that,we went away to the huge furniture warehouse at Ap Lei Chau because as a loyal customer, I had a dividend of $1,200 to spend. However there was just one snag..to get it, I had to spend ANOTHER £1,200. We looked and looked and finally came to the conclusion that we simply didn't need anything! So instead we went to a different store where we knew they had free biscuits and had a wee snack before coming back again. It sounds daft to go all that way for nothing ( it takes about an hour) but we didn't have pressing plans and the bus journey away over the island and back is always interesting.
On Sunday, I took Les to the Chi Lin Nunnery as he hadn't been before. I like that place more every time I go there. I've been in May, July, November and now March and the colours in the gardens are different every time. Also, because they change the route you must follow every time, I come across things from a different angle so they always look different.We met some people we knew as we were making our way back to the station, it's always amazing when that happens as it is such a big, busy city.We had a cheap Chinese lunch of noodles in hot and spicy soup with some dim sum as well and it cost about £5 for the two of us. For a change, we took the bus all the way back instead of the underground train. It took a long time, over an hour, but sitting upstairs in the front seat gives great views of all the local areas we pass through. As a bonus, Les gets a nap.The last part of the journey was on another bus, this time the wee 16 seater green and yellow minibus which is like a toy in comparison, but great fun!
I looked on the Hong Kong Observatory site earlier and the Spring forecast, March to May,is for normal to above normal temperatures and normal to below normal rainfall, so that is good news for our first visitors. 18 days and counting! I've bought the coolest cutlery set for Callum, it is in a box and has tiny chopsticks as well as a fork and spoon!

Leap Year Day! (Almost)

The weather has cleared and we can actually see across the harbour again. Still a bit cold, around 17 degrees and a slight drizzle today. However, everyone says it will start to heat up in the next couple of weeks which is just as well, because we are down to counting in days, not months, till David Jen and the kids get here. 24 days to go! Then only another 7 after that till Martin and Renee join us. The others we are still counting in months; watch this space though!
The boat trip on the junk on Saturday was great fun, even in the rain, and the restaurant we went to for lunch was fantastic. I bought their cookbook and hope to have a bash at recreating their signature dishes. It wasn't Chinese, it was Western food, beautiful dishes full of flavour. We loved it.The sad part was saying goodbye to our dear friends Sue and Chris who are returning to Australia.
I went to see Cosi Fan Tutte on Sunday. It was a little bizarre to hear an opera written by a German, sung in Italian with a big screen giving English and Cantonese subtitles! Afterwards, my friend (another Sue) and I came back here and Les cooked and served us Sunday dinner in true Masterchef style.
Monday' s talk was from a music teacher who let us hear 10 pieces of music and we had to guess the composer (from a list she provided so it was good for guess work) and tell her what we thought the music was "saying" to us. Great fun and I'm proud to say I got 5 correct! However one of them was Lennon/McCartney so that was a bit of a no brainer to be honest. The others ranged from Aaron Copland to Stravinsky. Immediately afterwards was our NIA class which I'm loving. Glad to say she is willing to continue now that the trial 4 week period is over so we can't be hopeless cases! It's funny though; she is really thin, has fabulous posture and moves so gracefully.She was a professional ballet dancer before she taught NIA. So anyway, here's me trying my best to copy all her moves and thinking I probably look just like her...then I passed a plate glass window mid-manoeuvre... and saw a bl***y great cart horse in a pink top and enormous baggy jogging pants with a big red sweaty face. Astonished, I looked behind me and as I turned, glanced back at the window and saw the carthorse was turning too. Yes, dear readers, 'twas I, me myself . Oh dear!
So putting that swiftly behind us, moving on, in the late afternoon a group of us went to see The Artist. I just caught the headlines saying it won 5 Oscars before I went. I spent last night watching the full Oscars show on TV. What on earth has Billy Crystal been doing to his face? It looked like he'd been blown up with a bicycle pump.
Tuesday I gave my Paisley Shawl presentation to the Study Group. It was well received and they were impressed with my Power Point skills, so I've been asked to put on a wee masterclass for them.Uh oh. It was achieved by trial and error, I've forgotten so much, so I'll need to have a practice before I go back to them on that! I'm glad its over. I liked the idea of the research and didn't mind standing up to present, but I found it really difficult to organise my thoughts and put them on paper in any cohesive way. I've got too used to being able to ramble on here in any old fashion. But my bibliography was spot on. I haven't forgotten how to cite references academically correctly!
Then in the afternoon,I had my Cantonese lesson and it was a disaster. It was as if he was talking in a foreign language. Oh, but wait a minute, he was! Honestly, I couldn't remember a thing, my brain was still hurting from the Shawl presentation and I was really tired. So then he slaps on an assessment in two weeks time and says he hopes I get a better mark than last time. Also I need to do a lot of revision because I've forgotten too much, he says.
Tomorrow night we are off to Happy Valley to see the horse racing. We'll be a group of 20 so we've taken a box and I think we get food and a wee drinkie too. Before that, I really must attack the dust; it's like tumbleweed in a deserted street on a Cowboy movie set in here. See,there's that Oscars influence creeping in!

Culture Vulture

What? I hear you exclaim! Oor Joycie? Aye, well am ur a cultyur vultyur.Read on!
The weekend was lovely,we went as I said to an island but just for coffee as by the time we had done the weekly shopping...So where's the culture? Well, on Sunday we went to an architecture exhibition in the local park. We didn't just stumble on it, we went on purpose to see it. It was amazing. There was this exhibit of a bamboo bowl filled with porcelain rice bowls, representing the city as a bowl and everyone's home as a wee bowl within it. And the wee bowls had tiny wee people cast inside of them. It was exquisite. I had no camera.On Monday I attended a talk on art investment; what to do with a spare £100,000 (minimum investment ) that you need to salt away for 5 years. If only! Then I went to NIA, my exercise/yoga class. On Tuesday I attended Study Group to hear a talk on Chinese furniture and one on apsaras which are artistic representations of nymphs in Buddhist art. It was really interesting.Wednesday I spent doing my Cantonese homework for my afternoon lesson and writing my presentation for next week's study group, when I will talk about Paisley Shawls. At night I went to Poetry Club and read 2 poems, one Robert Burns and one my own (Mary's Man for those who know). Thursday, I'm away for a two hour hike near the coast and then to Temple street at night. Saturday is the lunchtime cruise I told you about earlier and on Sunday I'm going to the opera, to see Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutti. So thats a week of culture if ever I saw one!