National Day

It was so great meeting Lynne and Emilio at the train on Wednesday night! We went straight to Soho for a drink and a catch up, as it's such an easy local place to go to.

I had my first CPD day (professional development) on Thursday. I chose to do Chinese drumming - ok not so relevant to the library but it was so much fun! Afterwards we met Lynne and Emilio for dinner and took them to Rat Alley.

Yesterday was a public holiday, for National Day. But most things were still open, so we went up to the flower market and bird market, and another market at Mong Kok, and then Ladies Markets at Mong Kok. Lynne and I both found lots of things we "needed", and poor Emilio was very patient with us.

For National Day they had a little parade that went right under my bedroom window, and some fireworks down at the Harbour. It was nice sitting on the stairs at the harbour, until the first cracker went off and we discovered we were in a terrible spot to watch them. We nearly got trampled to death as thousands of people on the stairs behind us came hurtling down and went running towards a better position! We didn't bother running with them, we just finished our drinks and went for dinner.

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 :-)