Visitors!

I am so excited, my first visitors (apart from mum and dad) are arriving tomorrow! Well, they're not officially MY visitors since they aren't staying with me, but I am so excited Lynne and Emilio will be here for a whole week!

Chris and I have written a HUGE list of things they might like to do and see while they are here. It's a bummer I still have to go to work, but at least we get another public holiday on Friday :-)

Shenzhen shopping

What a fabulous day we had on Friday shopping in Shenzhen. Abi and I decided it was a great way to fill in part of our 4 day weekend, so we headed up with a friend of hers. We spent the day looking at fabric, talking to our taylor to get some clothes made, buying handbags, jewellery, DVD's, sunglasses etc etc.

It was probably the fabric market that amazed me the most. I would love to know how many bolts of fabric were there - it seemed like millions! I loved walking around looking at them all.

And lunch was delicious - a kind of dim sum lunch. I've been meaning to have dim sum ever since I got here but haven't had the chance yet. It was nice!

It's amazing that to go into a different country to go shopping was easier and quicker than driving up to Sydney for a shopping trip!

Mid-Autumn Festival

Tonight was the mid-autumn festival. Has something to do with the moon... not sure what, but lanterns are all the go at the moment.

I headed into Victoria Park last night as that's where they have a big festival. Massive lanterns everywhere! It was beautiful. The lanterns are so intricate and clever - fish, dragons, boats, flowers, cranes, even a big rabbit.

I didn't spend ages there though, because it was Chris' birthday so I met him and Chris at Soho for dinner and drinks. Yet another nice night out with the boys!

Today was a public holiday called The Day After Mid-Autumn Festival. Of course. I only ventured out to go for a walk and properly explore Cat St market and Hollywood Road. This area is well known for antiques, jade, carvings, and art. I saw the most amazing carvings - out of wood, jade, metal, pottery, and even tusks! I'm not normally into stuff like this, but it was all amazing and there was so much to look at that I'll definitely be taking any visitors there.

I also passed another little park with a few things happening for the festival, so thought I'd go and enjoy some Chinese opera while it was on. I did try, but I couldn't enjoy it. Definitely an acquired taste.

A beach holiday at Cheung Chau

We have another typhoon warning tonight! The typhoon warnings are a bit bizarre. T1 is "just letting you know there is a typhoon kind of near Hong Kong and it might get a bit windy". T3 is "watch out, the typhoon is getting closer and you might want to shut your windows and tie up your boats, just in case". And T8 is "Too windy and rainy to go to school so you should just stay home today".

Yeah, what happened to T2, T4, T5, T6 and T7???

So yesterday we had a "hot weather" warning, and tonight we have T3, Amber Rain and Thunderstorm warnings. Cool! I'm checking the weather site first thing tomorrow to see if school is cancelled.

Anyway back to the beach holiday. We went to Cheung Chau island on the weekend. It is a short ferry ride away, and we were only there for a few hours, but once you are there you think you have gone to stay at the beach for a getaway.

It was really nice! There are no cars on the island, just lots of people on bikes, market stalls, fish in tanks outside restaurants, and lots and lots of tables lining the streets. We went and hung out at the beach for a while, had a wander, and had dinner at one of the hundreds of seafood restaurants. Lyzette I'm definitely taking you there, the kids would love it! I'll put more photos on Facebook.

A movie at last

I haven't been to the movies in Hong Kong yet, and I haven't even seen any on TV (I don't get any movie channels). So I booked tickets for the Australian Film Festival, to see Bran Nu Dae last night.

I met Chris C in Wan Chai straight from school so was feeling very daggy, but figured it was only a movie and it didn't matter. We had dinner and rocked up to the Hong Kong Art Centre, where we found out it was the opening night of the festival. A big buffet, free drinks, very dressy, speeches before the movie... how funny!

Chris and I really felt like we had gate-crashed a private party. Everyone seemed like they knew each other and had probably had special invitations. I was so embarrassed looking so daggy.

But I just love that movie!! I laughed the whole way through.

MTR

For a girl who last used public transport in about 1991 I felt quite proud of myself today. I had my first network meeting and it was on the other side of the country (ok not quite as drastic as travelling from Canberra to Perth for a meeting but it was still a long way!).

It took 5 train rides and 1 taxi ride. But the MTR (train) is the best public transport and makes it so easy. I know this is a completely boring blog, but it is all part of the adventure, learning to get myself around Hong Kong.

On the down side, as easy as it was, it still took a long time. An hour each way and a long meeting to sit through, and I'm really tired tonight!

PS The meeting was at the Australian International School where apparently it is tradition to serve real lamingtons! A little bit of home :-)

Mooncakes and a busy weekend

Yesterday I found a fantastic hairresser on my very first try! Woo hoo! He worked magic on my very annoying curly, frizzy hair. Too bad I can't visit him every morning!

Last night I went out to dinner with another group of teachers. It was a really nice night - organised by my teacher librarian friend. A beautiful Italian meal... osso bucco... mmmm!

Chris and Chris and I decided it had been far too long since we all had a good roast dinner, so today we went to an Irish pub in Wan Chai for Sunday roast. It was pretty nice, but nowhere near as good as mum's. We spent the rest of the day wandering around and shopping. It was pouring again today, and this photo of Chris was because at one stage we thought our whole Sunday would be spent in Japan Home Store (plastic stuff, great shop!) waiting for a break in the rain.

The photo of all the women might be a bit hard to see, but Sunday is a day off for all the home helpers, and they all gather in the city. There are thousands and thousands of women who line the walkways every Sunday. They sit and eat and drink and talk and play cards all day. Literally thousands!

The last photo is of the mooncakes I bought today. There is a festival coming up called Mid-Autumn Festival, and mooncakes are the traditional food for this holiday. I've been meaning to buy one to try. They look quite bizarre, and it was hard to tell if they were sweet or savoury, since I think they are made from lotus bean paste - whatever that is! I only wanted one but the box was so pretty I had to buy 4. I'll definitely be giving 3 away, I nibbled the corner and it was edible but not that enjoyable. And Chris C warned me not to be surprised if I get to the middle and find a whole egg yolk. Hmm...

I got them at the most amazing supermarket I've ever seen! Caroline you would LOVE it!

And to all my Canberra friends, I've been thinking of you this weekend. I missed the Harrison staff dinner AND the girls movie night. Hope you all missed me too! Feel free to email me, hint hint, it's very lonely here in Blogland!

Rainstorm

I had a great Friday night last night, it was a girls night with teachers from school. We had drinks at Soho and then dinner at Bombay Dreams - fantastic Indian food. It was good company and a fun night. There was a huge thunderstorm during dinner, for about the 3rd night in a row.

The other night the thunder was literally shaking the buildings, I've never heard anything like it. And the lightening was like a strobe light. I took a video of the patch of sky I can see between buildings, but of course it's not nearly as spectacular as the real thing.

Anyway last night's storm was a doozy, but it had more or less passed by 11.30 when I was ready to go home. I should have caught a taxi, but instead bought an umbrella from 7-eleven and walked, since it's really not that far.

I almost drowned! The thunder and lightening passed, but the volume of water being dumped on the streets was massive! I had to take my shoes off and wade all the way home. The top half of me was only wet (thanks to the brolly) but the bottom half looked like I had just climbed out of a pool.

I did notice that not many others were braving the weather. The bars were all still full but no one was coming out in the rain. That's because - as I only found out AFTER I got saturated - it was a Red Rainstorm warning. You aren't really meant to go outside in a red warning! The warnings for rain are Amber (be careful and don't go out if you don't need to), Red (serious rain, stay inside!) and Black (shops and schools close). Oops.

Discovery Bay

I got to be a tourist again yesterday - on a school day! I went on the ferry to Lantau Island to visit a school library at Discovery Bay. It was a great day! Not only was the library visit worthwhile and it was fantastic to meet the very helpful teacher librarian, but it was great to get on a ferry and go somewhere different.

Discovery Bay is an interesting residential area near Disneyland that is popular with expats. It seemed to me we could have been at a Queensland resort. Lots of palm trees, much more open and grassy, and very planned. You are not even allowed to drive cars at Discovery Bay. Very nice and holiday-ish, but I lost all sense of being in Hong Kong.

I preferred today, when I went for a drink after work with Chris and Chris. The corner at Soho has 2 small open bars with lots of small restaurants nearby and a few trendy shops, and right opposite our bar is a fantastic market street with tiny, wrinkled old Chinese people selling fresh fruit and veg. I'm not saying that to be mean - they really are very, very old!

There is also a noodle shop in that street - I couldn't help taking a photo of all the hand-made noodles hanging up to dry at the back of the shop. We ended up having noodles for dinner (not from there!) with the best prawn wontons I've tasted.

Discovery Bay, Soho corner and Noodles!

Gym

My building has a small gym that I've been meaning to go to. I've been here for a month but have plenty of excuses for not going yet - mainly being busy at the start of school, and the chest infection that had me coughing for weeks. I'm good at excuses.

So when Dad asked on Sunday night if I've been to the gym yet and I had to say no, I thought it was time I pulled my finger out and dragged my growing behind down there.

I meant to go yesterday, really I did, except I walked home past my lovely beauty salon and ended up getting my nails done. I'm still fat but my nails are a gorgeous pink colour!

And I DID finally go tonight, but here's the funny bit, I couldn't work any of the machines! Ha ha! I even tried turning them on at the power point (yes, took me a while to figure out that much) but nothing worked, so I gave up and went out to get Vietnamese take away for dinner.

I tried, Dad!

Party

I went to my first birthday party last night. It was quite funny, I didn't know many of the people there (of course) but neither did the birthday girl! Ruth is another newbie like me, I met her at the induction. One of her friends organised it for her and invited a bunch of people.

A great night, and yet another Thai restaurant that has made it to my favourites list.

PD day

No kids today. They all stayed home so we could have a professional development day. And it continues tomorrow! On my sleep-in day - imagine!

But we finished right on 3.00 so I was home nice and early.

So on the way past the bakery I decided to try out a Hong Kong pastry. Normally the things that would entice me to the bakery are sausage rolls or potato pies. They don't have those here of course, so I decided to try a MANGO CUSTARD BUN! It was actually really nice! I think next time I might be brave and get the weirdest looking thing in the bakery and see what it's like.

Flower tradition

Sometimes I pass shops and see these huge flower arrangements on the path or in the gutter, and was wondering what they were for. Apparently it is tradition to give flowers when a new shop opens - I'm now guessing from the builders or contractors.

I'm guessing that because our contractor sent this massive bunch to school last week to celebrate all the work they did in the school over summer (new classrooms, staffroom and multi-purpose room/library). I say massive, because this bunch is at least at tall as me, if not taller! I'm now looking forward to my new library being finished so I get to have beautiful flowers too!

Meanwhile the smog is way worse than before. It was a bit interesting, a bit of a novelty before, and now I'm sick of it. It was stupidly hot today, the kids weren't even allowed to play outside! It feels like an oven because the smog keeps all the heat in, and it's stirring up my asthma. I'm over it.