Fun with friends

I have been having fun this past week or two! In the company of various groups of friends, I have been up to Shenzhen three times;each trip a load of laughs from start to finish. We've tried on purple wigs and pink feather boas, we've bought bracelets, bangles and baubles and commented on,  encouraged and criticized each others choice of fabric, dress style and fit. We've borrowed and lent in two currencies to the point we almost can't remember who owes who how much in which currency.
I have also drunk wine and coffee, eaten lunch in a variety of locations and attended a concert, with another to come this week. In addition, I've been to a book launch (with free chocolate mmm...) and of course my  regular Wednesday  night poetry club.
Now Christmas is really coming to the fore and it feels strange now that the weather is so hot and sunny! A friend and I attended a carol concert, as a mutual friend was singing in the choir. We had wine and mince pies afterwards. I 've also been offered (and turned down!) mince pies at three other events this week.
Les and I joined two couples for a lovely pre Christmas dinner and today (Sunday) we began packing for the Christmas break. We leave in 2 days and the packing is complex as we need winter clothes for 10 days in Scotland over Christmas,and lighter clothes for 4 days in Dubai over New Year. Life is tough! Les is down at the pool having a quite sun top up whilst I dither about deciding on daft things to pack, like earrings and necklaces.
Tomorrow I will attend a Christmas breakfast party and on Tuesday morning I have my manicure booked. All the pressies are bought and packed but not wrapped and I will finish writing cards on the flight home.
So on that note Havers wishes you all a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
We will return in 2013,

It's already feeling a little like Christmas

We had our Corona Ladies Christmas Lunch on Monday, the first turkey dinner of the season. It was a lovely afternoon and also a good chance to make arrangements for the next couple of weeks, before everyone departs for the Christmas holidays.It was a busy week for me, with a bookgroup on Tuesday, dentist on Wednesday followed by "Life of Pi" in 3D (more crazy specs?). I loved the book, it is one of my all time favourites and it was the one I picked when I was a World Book Day giver two years ago, so I have distributed 24 of them around the world. At night I went to Poetry Club, so a very busy day. On Thursday I had a blank, yay! and on Friday, I went to a trial session of a new exercise class. Over the years, I've tried going to the gym, aerobics, cycling, yoga, zumba, aquafit and NIA. This one was Wing Chun kung fu. Wing Chun was a style developed by a woman, a Shaolin nun who realised she'd need to use her body differently to win in a fight aginst a taller and probably stronger man. We learned basic posture, how to be "centred" and then the first exercises or "formations" of the discipline. Next we knocked seven bells out of each other by punching and blocking and then kicking using the shin, not the foot. The reason is there are too many small bones in the foot, so the shin bone is bigger harder and less likely to break. All very interesting stuff.
Friday evening was spent with Susie, our Chinese /Scottish house sitter, who is over here for a family wedding. So strange to meet her in Hong Kong, her home city, but where we now feel more at home than she does! Anyway, our house is fine, she tells us and Ann and Robert will be checking things in her absence.We had a lovely evening, drinks, dinner and then back home here for cakes and wine.
Saturday was a quiet day but in the evening we went to a Christmas market, with real fresh trees, mulled wine, egg nog, all under the open skies with tall buildings all around, quite surreal.Sunday I spent the morning cooking, then we went Christmas shopping.
Next week is going to be busy again, with a charity concert on Monday evening, 2 bookgroups on Tuesday morning and afternoon, a book launch on Wednesday evening, lunch out on Thursday and another trip to the tailor in China on Friday. I collected one dress last week but the other one needs a bit of alteration..It's too big!! Woop woop!

Here to there and back again

After our short break in Seoul, we had 4 nights at home in Hong Kong before I set off for Scotland and Les went to New York. I had a fantastic journey, including an upgrade to First Class, with a wee private cabin and champagne all the way.I know you don't get there any faster, but boy does the time fly past quicker! And sleep? Well yes, with my matress, duvet and full size pillow, plus all 3 windows shuttered and my cabin door closed,yes, I did, for about 4 hours.
I had a whirlwind week of meeting family and friends, including 24 hours in Bristol (via Squeezyjet, no champagne this time!Well, not until arrival chez Wheeler, where we did in a bottle before bedtime). All my travel plans worked out well, thanks to my fabulous friends and family who picked me up, dropped me off and ran me hither and thon, thus obviating the need for a hire car his trip. I'm still smarting from the CDW slap on, because I didn't take the extra insurance last trip when some sneaky pig ran into me and drove off without leaving details.
Meantime, across the pond, Les was also lucky with upgrades from business to first ( mind you he had to use air miles, mine was free!) but less lucky with the weather; he arrived just in time for Hurricane Sandy, so spent 3 days holed up in his hotel room with pillows along the window! Anyway, we both made it to Dubai and met up in the lounge just nearby the champagne bar, as you do.
Since coming home, we have hosted some wonderful Australian friends. We first met 6 years ago  and it was lovely to catch up and show them our adopted city. They were great fun and it was sad to see them go on Sunday. On Monday morning, I had another sad farewell, Katrina announced she was leaving HK for England...in 24 hours! So now 3 of my original friends have gone; Sue, Pat and Katrina. But, welcome to Kate, so plus ca change, plus c'est la meme, as they say.
I went up to China to see my tailor (God, how pretentious does that sound!) on Friday and arranged to have 2 winter dresses made for my trip back home in December. Then Les and I were staying over in Shenzhen as we were attending the company family fun day on Saturday. Fun? Well, it depends on how you classify fun...we were collected at 7.30am and finally got into the theme park at 11.30...straight to lunch, so no time to actually see anything. Which was just as well, since, being November, half the rides were closed. Lunch was ...well, different. For a table of 8, we had: a giant bowl of clear soup with tomato halves and scrambled egg floating in it, a washing up bowl of boiled rice, half a chicken, head bones and all, a whole fish (have you ever tried to divide a fish into eight using only chopsticks?), 2 plates of differently flavoured tofu , a dish of cabbage and one of turnip cubes. Plenty of food, for sure, but quantity certainly over ruled quality.
After lunch, we wandered about aimlessly for an hour, feeling like filmstars as many people wanted to have their photo taken with us,  since we were the only Western people among several thousand Chinese. I tell you,a good few of them will know us again, going by the close scrutiny they made of our faces.
Next up, an hour queuing for a cable car, the only means of getting to the next part of the park. If I'd had a sharp stick, it would have been a relief to poke it into my eye. Eventually, we reached the summit, eyes closed, not looking down...then we were told we had to descend three flights of stairs to get to the bus stop.After the first two flights, my legs were jelly and my knees were watermelons, then we saw an encouraging sign; only 135 steps to go !Yeah!
Next up, a bus, then a train to get to the venue for a cultural show. Wow! It was spectacular! Chinese acrobats, ballet dancers, sound, music,copious use of holographic technology, what a show. I loved it. At 5pm it finished and Les colleague kindly drove us to the border crossing, finally arriving home at 8pm.

The airport at the end of the world

Carved and painted roof

Street food stall; a fishy treat!

Old doorway with roof shadow like a frill at the bottom

"38th parallell" bronze statue

Bubbling bulgogi

Les on a B52 flying fortress

Part of the National War Memorial sculpture

Ceremonial tiger drum

Flying into Incheon Airport, Seoul, was a strange experience. We flew in low over great expanses of mudflats, not a building in sight.All around was sea, dotted wth small islands or sand bars. If not the end of the world, it seemed you could see it from there. An hour's bus transfer took me to the hotel. There was a little tent set up out front and loud, rousing military-style chorus music blasting from loudspeakers. All the hotel staff were wearing bright blue waistcoats over their grey hotel uniform. Some had red head bands with Korean writing on in white. All very jolly looking! Turns out they were in protest at the hotel management and within 2 days this had escalated to a full blown strike resulting, on the day we left, in the closure of most of  the hotel restaurants, room service and other amenities! Luckily for us it was on the day we left and the breakfast buffet was still operational.
Seoul was an interesting city. First glance made me think it was flat but on walking out the hotel I realised it was far from it! More like San Faancisco.

I had dinner in the hotel's Italian restaurant (one of about 8 in house)as Les was still at a business dinner. Next morning, it was bright and sunny, so we walked down to the station and caught the great value city bus tour, one of those hop on hop off things. We toured all the historic palaces, with carved roof beams, spent an hour in a reconstructed traditional village and another hour in the artist quarter of Insadong. Having had the luxurious hotel breakfast,  we only had a coffee all day! At night we took the free hotel shuttle to Itaewon, the main tourist shopping and eating area and were spoiled for choice; everything from the various Asian styles, through Russian, Portguese, American diners, French bistros. Absolutely every cuisine imagineable. We settled on a fusion type pace where we were able to combine the salad bar with a hot food buffet and table service, including Asian and Western and both the quality and range on offer were superb.
We were glad we did not have long to wait for the shuttle bus back to the hotel as it was a tad on the chilly side compared to Hong Kong. I wore a leather jacket, 2 layers, a scarf and socks for the first time since January in Scotland.Next day we spent a long time at the Korean War Memorial museum. It was mainly outdoors with scores of planes, tanks, copters, guns and other big grey scary war machines. Les loved it. I was amused, then frustrated then very angry by the behaviour of scores of school children on field trips, ranging from toddlers (what's the point in taking them to a war history museum?They could barely walk!) to teenagers., all roaming around with little or no supervision. Where were all the teachers? The pupils were rude and loud, yelling, running around, pushing past and, for me worst of all, leaving litter strewn in their wake. Of course, I had to act on that one. I approached a group of teenage boys and asked, "Do you speak English?" Proud to show off their language skills, they said they did, so I pointed out their tinfoil lunch wrappers on the ground at their feet and then pointed to the close proximity of a clearly labelled trash can. They apologised, picked it all up and put it in the bin. Success! I felt better after that. In 35 years of taking Scottish kids to libraries, museums and literary festivals, I have never experienced such bad behaviour...well maybe once when a boy in my charge uprooted a sapling in Charlotte Square gardens at the Edinburgh Book Festival... but it wisnae his fault, honest! A big boy dun it an ran away and he was left holding the stump and looking glaikit.
In the afternoon, we wandered round the famous Namdaemon street market, which operates from 11am till 3 am with stalls selling junk, kitchen wares, souvenirs, food to eat and to take home, toys, clothes, shoes...all haphazardly thrown together in no real order. Stalls were sometimes just a tarpaulin on the ground or an adapted motorbike with a fold out table at the rear . We ate at a street restaurant; bulgogi with kimchi and other accompaniments. It was delicious.
After arriving back to a balmy 27 degrees in Hong Kong, we dumped our bags and headed straight back out, downstairs to the club lounge to meet up with some neighbours for a wine tasting. It was nice to chat  and for the husbands to meet, as we ladies already knew each other.
Today it is laundry time, as we need a quick turnaround on warm clothes.I leave for Scotland late Wednesday and Les goes to Maryland, USA on Thursday.

Post holiday antics

It hardly seems possible that a year has passed since we last went on the Mandarin Oriental private boat to celebrate Hannah's 2nd birthday, yet here we were again,on Saturday 6th, celebrating her 3rd! Of course now she is a big sister as well as a big girl. We had a lovely day sailing round the islands and again went to Rainbow Restaurant at Sok Kwu Wan on Lamma for lunch. It was gratifying to see so many junks on cruise trips so soon after the terrible disaster on the 1st. It was a dreadful tragedy, it was mourned, will be thoroughly investigated and the families will be helped by their community, workplace and financially. We had three days of official mourning and the laser light show was suspended. Many of the neon adverts along Victoria Harbour dimmed. went off or turned black and white as a mark of respect. But Hong Kongers are very pragmatic people and the boat owners depend on leisure trips to make a living.

This week, I met a lovely English newcomer. Kate and her husband moved into our building whilst we were in Singapore and by chance we met them twice in the lift, got talking and I invited her to come to Corona with me. That worked well and since then we've had lunch three times and been on a hike. The hike was wonderful. 17 of us took a bus to the East of the island and walked on narrow cliff top paths for about an hour before descending into Big Wave Bay. Except for the weather, it was not unlike the cliff walks around Eyemouth! I managed reasonably well until the descent.1000 steps played havoc with the old knees but luckily my new purchase helped. I've bought a walking pole!
A further half hour walk brought us to Shek O, a seaside village where we had a Thai lunch before getting the bus then train home. Out from 9.00am until 3.30 pm, then just time for a nap, a half hour in the jacuzzi then steam room to help my knees and then  have dinner ready by 6.30.That's how the time goes by in Hong Kong!

I attended Book Group on Tuesday when we discussed Pearl S Buck's The Good Earth.I loved it, I'm amazed it has passed me by all these years. I remember shelving multiple copies when I had a summer job in the Paisley Central library when I was about 14. My Mum had read it and I remember her telling me it was a really old book, (1932) but it seemed so alien to me as I knew little and cared less about China at that time. My loss, that's for sure; it won both the Pulitzer and the Nobel Literature prize!

From time to time I fill in a customer survey for The Co-Op and this week I won £100 amazon vouchers for commenting on their products. I like their carrot cake very much, so I told them!

Over the weekend, I'll be looking out some heavier clothes as Les flies to Seoul in Korea on Monday and I join him on Wednesday. Currently, the temperature here is 27 and it has been very dry, so we have a RED fire danger warning in force. In Seoul, it is forecast to be 18 so for us that will seem cold. It will be good acclimatisation for the following week, when Les goes to Maryland US and I fly  to Bonnie Scotland. Brr!

Singa Pura

Boat Quay by day

Singapore Sling at Raffles Hotel

Dinner by the river at Boat Quay

Merlion Statue

 We had a wonderful time in Singapore. We visited loads of historic sites, so I can tell you with some confidence that the island state was originally people  by Indians, Chinese, Malaysians and Europeans, so it is a real melting pot of cultures. It got it's name erroneously, as Singa Pura means Lion City. In fact, the first sighting of a big cat was much more likely to be a tiger, as they were populous way back then.The modern popular mythical beast, the Merlion, is half lion and half fish.
Singapore became a significant trading port thanks to British Statesman Sir Stamford Raffles who had a vision for Singapore as Asia's premier city. He died relatively young, but is well respected still as the "father of modern Singapore"

We visited all the regular tourist haunts: the River, Merlion statue, Raffles statue,Raffles hotel, Fullerton hotel, etc. We spent a sobering morning at Changi Prison Museum and Chapel and a glorious afternoon in the National Orchid House at the Botanical Gardens. We went to Sentosa Island, did some shopping and visited the National Museum and an art gallery. We took a river cruise. We had a night trip to the brand new Gardens By the Bay and gaped at the magnificent Marina Bay Sands hotel. We ate at Lau Pa Sat (Satay Street)Thanks to Les work colleagues, we saw loads in a short time as they acted as tour guides for a day and on another evening took us to eat spice crab in one of the government (cooncil) housing estates. It is such a safe city and so easy to get around by MRT as they call their underground rail system. It was a bit of a whirlwind! However, the nightly complimentary cocktails in the hotel's club lounge helped us ease from day to evening smoothly!

Holiday on the horizon

We are going on holiday! On Sunday 30th we fly to Singapore for a week, we haven't been there before, looking foward to it.As we know loads of family and friends who have been there, we have a lot of tips on what to see, do, eat and drink.
Les has the week off work due to a combination of local and national holidays coupled with some annual leave.It is Jung Chau Jit, mid autumn fesival  and also Gwok Hing, National Day which as you may remember is celebrated with an amazing, lavish firework display in the harbour right outside our window. As we will be away, we have given keys to Les colleague and his wife, who live in the same block as us, but do no have a good harbour view. Hope they enjoy the show.
I went on a three hour walk on Thusday and spoke to a new Corona Society member from Korea. (Yes, I can now easily walk and talk at the same time, thanks to our new health regime.)Now that's handy, as I fly to Korea on Wednesday 17th. She has kindly sent me some websites to look at for inspiration on what to see and do in Seoul.
When I fly to Scotland on 24th, I won't need any tips on how to fill my time.1. See the boys. 2. See David and Jen. 3. See the boys. 4. See friends and family. 5. Meet up with the soon-to-be-Travelling Sisterhood. Oh, did I mention I want to see Callum and Jamie?
November 3 - December 18 I think I will be Hong Kong based, then it's back to Scotland for Christmas and on to spend New Year in Dubai.
Holidays are great, don't you think? A chance to relax and refresh,  a break from work...Oh but wait, I don't actually work. But I still love holidays.