Awesome birthday

My birthday stretched from Wednesday through to Sunday and it was fantastic.

I met Mum and Dad and Caroline after school each day and looked around Hong Kong with them (with a fair bit of shopping thrown in).  We had a beautiful meal up at Rico's Spanish Restaurant on Friday and then went to Macau for the weekend.

We had great weather, a beautiful hotel with a room bigger than my apartment, we did touristy things, visited a couple of casinos, and went to the House of Dancing Water.  What a weekend!

The House of Dancing Water was a show a little similar to Cirque du Soleil, with a water theme and lots of clever acrobatics.  I loved it!  We sat there open-mouthed through it - I could watch it over and over again.

It was definitely the highlight, but also loved the Chinese gardens we wandered through, and the famous Venetian Casino.

I feel very spoiled, with Mum and Dad visiting, bringing Caroline as a surprise, taking me out for a birthday dinner, and then a show in Macau!  Best birthday ever.  Thanks Mum and Dad!

Birthday dinner

Happy Birthday to me from the Spanish performers!

Cat St markets

Crowds of Macau

Somewhere in Macau - such a nice photo of Caz!

A little excited to be going to the Dancing Water Show at the casino

Inside the Venetian - with an amazing roof that made us forget it was close to midnight

Chinese gardens

Grand Prix Museum

Surprise!

Mum and Dad have come over for a visit, and I was really excited tonight to go and meet them on the train.  I should have guessed Dad would bring me a suprise... Caroline!!  Wow!!!

Mem Fox talk

I was lucky enough yesterday to go and listen to Mem Fox speaking about the importance of reading aloud to kids. She read some of her books to us, and she was brilliant.  She is over here for the Hong Kong Literary Festival, and I know she is going to inspire a lot of people this week.

She made me want to get straight on a plane and go home to Matthew so I could read to him. 


Imagine having the chance to meet one of Australia's most famous children's authors over here in HK!

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.