More of Matthew

Ok, this isn't really about my Hong Kong adventure, but I just have to put up more photos of baby Matthew. Look how cute he is!!

Anyway how come no one told me I said "holidays" instead of "hospital" in my last post? I'm pretty sure Elizabeth wasn't comparing child birth to a holiday.

My only Hong Kong comment is again on how much effort is put into decorations over here! I went out for dinner to Rat Alley on Saturday night, and was amazed to find the whole place transformed for a weekend festival. Decorations everywhere!

And on Sunday I went over the harbour to the fancy shops, and there was such a crowd of people around the Christmas decorations I could hardly get through. I'm sure I'll be finding more Christmas decoration photos to put here! It is quite amazing.

We Have a Baby!!!

Woo hoo! My little nephew Matthew James was born today!!!!! He and Elizabeth and Mark are all doing well. I am so sad not to be there to meet him and hold him... but I have seen photos and I'm sure we will be skyping once they get home from holidays. Thank goodness for technology!

All I could do was go out for a celebratory drink, with Chris, Chris, Abi, Nicole and Tim. If I couldn't celebrate with family, at least there are some lovely friends to be with :-)

I am going to be such a baby hog when I get back for Christmas!

What am I doing here?

Actually, I am here because I got a job, so I thought it was about time my job got a little mention in my Adventure blog.

Mum reminded me the other day I don't talk much about it. One of her friends asked her how I am enjoying work, and Mum realised that she didn't know. I just forget to mention it!

I'm happy to say that I like my job. It has been getting busier at school, which is partly why I haven't done anything exciting to report on lately (and partly because I was sick last week).

I've been at school for 10 weeks now, and my main 2 jobs have been setting up the temporary library, and getting the library management system working. I teach 720 kids, I've been getting to know my colleagues, have been to courses and visited other schools, and have been getting my head around teaching in an IB school.

Now that things have settled down, my job is getting even more interesting. I have started the job of preparing to build a new library space. It is going to be lots of work, but very exciting! And I have at last had the time to concentrate on books again, and spent the whole weekend book shopping and going through a pile of catalogues. My favourite bit of my job - buying books!

I'm sure no one has read through to the end of this, but I wanted to write it anyway, since without my job there would be no Hong Kong Adventure. And I am so glad that I enjoy it!

Melbourne Cup

It felt like I was back in Australia today. We had a lovely Aussie morning tea which included tim tams and anzac biscuits. We ran a sweep for the Melbourne Cup, and then some of us were able to watch the race live via the internet. It was really dodgy streaming, but at least we got to see the end. And I'm happy to say my horse came first! yay! I won $200, which makes me feel very rich, until I remember the exchange rate is so wacky that I actually only won about $25 in Aussie terms. Still, it made my day :-)

Arrested in China!

Well, nearly. Chris and I were going to take his friend Anne up to Shenzen on Friday straight after school for some Friday night shopping. We got there ok, but we had a few dramas at the border. Anne already had a visa to enter China, as she was heading there on Saturday for a tour.

Unfortunately it was a 1-entry visa, which meant if she used it for Shenzen she couldn't get back in the following day for her tour, and they wouldn't let her buy one for Friday.

That was a bummer, but really, it was a nice train trip and we decided to go home and go somewhere nice for dinner instead.

Except we were stuck! We had already gone through immigration but hadn't gone through customs and we couldn't find a way back to departures! We were stuck in no-man's land for quite a while. We wandered around trying to find an english speaking guard, and we got shuffled from person to person - each who took our 3 passports away, until finally we were taken to the interview office. We were half expecting cameras to come out to shoot some kind of "Border Security" show!

Anyway after all the dramas we finally got back to the train (the photo is of Chris and Anne looking traumatised), and back to Hong Kong, and we had a lovely dinner at Knutsford Terrace. I had my camera this time, so got some photos of all the (over the top) Halloween decorations.

Cool Change

Back at school this week, but it has still been busy. We all met Jane for a farewell drink at Stauntons, and had a really yummy dinner before Jane left us to go back home on Monday night. And Amanda left us on Tuesday night. It was so nice having them here for a visit!

But Chris already has another Australian visitor here for the week, so we went out again last night, to Rat Alley.

It was probably the first time I was without my camera, and I really wanted to take a photo of the Halloween decorations. I can't believe how much they get into the Halloween spirit here! There were massive ghosts, ghouls, pumpkins, witches, and bloody body parts all around the area. All the shops, banks, supermarkets etc etc are all decorated, and I'm a bit over it.

And finally FINALLY there has been a cool change in the weather. It is no longer hot and stinky! Last night was the first night I slept without air conditioning, and today was a beautiful 16 - 24 degrees with clear blue sky. I can live with this! It's pretty funny, though, seeing all the locals in what looks like skiing jackets already!!

The rest of our holiday

Gosh I've been a bit slack on the blog. We've just been very busy!

It was great fun to have Amanda and Jane here in Hong Kong these last few days. We've fit lots in - Mong Kok markets, Stanley, Cheung Chau, Ocean Park, shopping, day spas, dim sum, Happy Valley races, lots of eating...

I can't believe I have to go back to school tomorrow - it is going to interrupt this fabulous holiday!