International shopping

Nothing much adventurous going on here I'm afraid.  The only exciting thing I've done lately is the movies - yes, it has taken me this long to finally go to the movies in Hong Kong!  The weather is still quite cool for this time of year - it was 12 degrees and raining today so a great day for movies.  I don't mind the weather like this, it's better than stinking hot, muggy weather.

It struck me yesterday when I was grocery shopping how international my meals are.  Hong Kong does not produce a lot of food, so my spinach, muesli, beans, tuna, and cheese are from USA, Germany, Kenya, Thailand and France.  And I was so excited to find good old Cadbury's turkish delight easter eggs from Australia!

Street Burgers

This is my name for the hamburgers we ate tonight.  It was at a little hamburger joint that is literally just a few stools on the side of the street.  It's on Hollywood Road, which is full of Chinese antique stores, so it is quite out of place!

Anyway we decided to eat there just for something different, because we tend to normally eat at our favourite few restaurants all the time.  It's not often I eat burgers over here, there are far too many other choices!

And one for the WOPS - although I think Ally might be the only WOP to be still reading this blog.  Ally would remember the big bag of goodies they gave me before I came to Hong Kong - lots of Aussie stuff like tattoos, pencils, a scarf, stickers etc etc.  They made me promise to bring it all over and use it.  It took me 18 months but I finally dug out the pack of cards and used them on the weekend for a cards night.  Thanks WOPS!

Hospital visit

Poor Chris was really sick last week and I ended up taking him to the hospital, where he stayed for a week.  It was a good hospital and they took great care of him, and it was conveniently just a 10 minute walk from school! 

It was a vegetarian, caffeine-free hospital and their meals were quite nice!  Chris C and I ate dinner there a couple of times while visiting - and as you can see Chris C was very good at helping Chris D finish his dinner :-)

It is the first completely round hospital I've ever seen, and as you can see it was undergoing major renovations.

All part of the adventure - my first and hopefully last hospital visit!

Hong Kong taxis

I have a love/hate relationship with the taxis.  I love that it is so easy to get one - I just step outside my door, wave my hand and a little red taxi will pull up.  And I love that they are so much cheaper than back home - which is lucky since I get one to and from school every day.

But I hate that nearly every morning the taxis stink of cigarette smoke, and I hate the jerky way they are driven - imagine tapping your accelerator foot in time to music and you'll get an idea of what I mean.  So many drivers do it, and it's really not nice since the road to school is as winding as the Brown or Clyde Mountain.

Anyway HK taxi drivers all seem to love their phones and GPS's, some more than others.  I think I counted 6 in this taxi.

And I was wondering on Friday where my lovely view went!  I normally have a great view of the Happy Valley racecourse, even when it is smoggy.  But on Friday the clouds rolled in and the entire city disappeared.  For a comparison there is a beautiful sunny day photo in the August post called Library Photos. 

Everyone is just hoping that this construction site across the road isn't going to be too tall when it is finally finished.             

    

Beautiful beach holiday

Chris and Chris and I went to Boracay for the CNY holiday - a tiny, beautiful tropical island in the Philippines.  It did take quite a while to get there though - 29 hours from when I left school to when I got to the island!  That included an overnight stop in Manila, a delayed flight, and a redirected flight.  It also included 3 taxi rides, a train, 2 planes, a bus, a rickety little boat, and a tuk tuk!

But SO worth it... check out these photos!

Our place was just a few metres from here.

We had a good giggle taking this photo, but the next day a coconut branch nearly fell on my head!

We hired this little boat to take us up to the other end of the island... great fun!

And this is the tiny beach the boat took us to.  It was so little, and yet had this little hidden bar on it!

 

Lion Dance

We had the traditional Lion Dance on the last day of school before the Chinese New Year holidays.  It is pretty spectacular to watch! 

Singapore and CNY

School started straight after New Year, and after 2 weeks of it, it was already time for the first trip of the year.  6 of us went to Singapore for the weekend to see Wicked the musical.  We had such a great weekend!

We had time for relaxing and swimming at the hotel, and also shopping on the famous Orchard Road.

Singapore has some amazing buildings.  We all really liked looking around and imagining what it would be like to live there.  This one is in Chinatown.

Kimberley's brother took us to a couple of great bars after the show...

This one was on the 33rd floor with the most amazing views!!

And we are now up to Chinese New Year.  Everyone has gone mad with decorating and getting ready for the Year of the Dragon.  Hong Kong has gone nuts!  It is so busy.  This is the fountain near my building that often has really nice displays, and the photo below is of my foyer, just to show that besides red and gold themes, pink blossoms and manderine bushes, many places also have big pots of flowers around.  Our school is full of them too.

I am now up to date!  I will soon have some stunning beach photos though, as I am off to Boracay tomorrow with Chris and Chris.  Yay!