Puppies

I was walking up the street to meet someone this afternoon and saw these cute puppies! Ok, some were a bit ugly but they were still cute. They do have pet shops here of course, so I found it quite funny that people just plonk down a little wire cage wherever they want, and sell puppies. I think Chris should buy one so I can have puppy visits.


I've had dinner at Wan Chi twice last week, once on Thursday after yet another Ikea trip (this time to price book shelves for the library since I have run out). I met Chris and Chris at Sabah, where they took me to last year and I loved it. I tried to take mum there but they were booked out. So I'm glad I got to go there again!

And on Friday night I went to the American Peking Restaurant which was absolutely beautiful. The principal and executive team invited all the new Bradbury staff. We had a great night, and it was really good for us newbies to get to know people a bit more. The bar afterwards had a great jukebox. When was the last time anyone got to use a jukebox??! How fun! I'm pretty sure the bar staff have now deleted the Glee CD due to overuse :-)

Today I met a friend of Chris', who happens to be the other teacher librarian in our cluster of ESF schools. Yes, there are 2 of us. It was great to meet her and talk shop, and I hope we see a lot more of each other. To have one other person who understands my job is a great support.

Meanwhile I was thinking of all my teacher friends last week during book week. For the last 16 years August has been my busiest month organising book week. I've only missed 2 dress up days, once when I was in hospital, and this year. It was a bit weird seeing photos on facebook when I wasn't part of it. I hope you all had fun!

Drugs in HK - the legal kind

I had my first visit to the doctor today. I actually was a bit nervous and was wishing I could just pop into my own Canberra GP. I'm not that sick, I've just had a terrible cough for a week and want to get rid of it so I can sleep again.

Anyway he was really nice! He spoke great english and everything he said made sense to me, and said he would give me cough medicine, and a perscription for my asthma if it gets worse.

I thought that was it, but when I went to pay the bill (about $7 Aussie dollars!) they also handed me 3 packets of pills, the perscription and a big bottle of medicine! Imagine never having to go to the chemist and paying huge amounts of money for medication!

Don't worry Mum, I'm about to google the pills before I start popping them.

I have books!

This is my new library space that obviously needs a bit of work doing to it. The boxes are the books all packed up from the old library, ready to be moved into...





the temporary library. All the boxes have now been moved down, ready for me to unpack onto the shelves. My trusty assistant Debra and I were book unpacking machines today.

Cat St Markets

I went to an engagement party today - some lovely friends of Chris. It was such a nice way to spend a stupidly hot afternoon.

On the way home, because I was walking home with Chris, we went a slightly different way. I'm finding my was around here ok, but I tend to stick to the way I know. Anyway we went down this little alley way and found this amazing street!

Lots of people have told me I should go to the Cat Street Markets, and I knew they were close, but I didn't know just how close! It looks like a really amazing place that I should go back to and explore more.

Crazy bamboo men

There is SO MUCH bamboo scaffolding here! Bamboo isn't that exciting, but it really amazes me to watch the crazy men who put up the scaffolding. These people climb up into the sky with no safety ropes or platforms or anything. They have normal little sneakers, and they just balance on one foot with the other leg wrapped around a pole.

I was watching these men putting up the bamboo opposite my balcony. I'm 7 floors up, so they are pretty high. One man was actually leaning his back on the building wall with one foot on the bamboo. It really sent shivers down my spine!

Friday - shelves!

A big achievement today - some nice people came in and moved and cleaned and built all my shelves for me. Even better, they will come back on Monday and start moving boxes of books down for me. It will look like a temporary library before you know it!

Even better than shelves was the after-work social drinks we had. We all went down to a bar for a few drinks, and it was a great way to get to know some of the staff better. They all seem really nice! It is a really big staff though, so I have a long, long way to go before I know everyone's names.

Day 2

My library still doesn't look like a library, but I got plenty of jobs crossed off my list today. Most importantly, we have organised people to come tomorrow morning to build all my shelves for me. And clean them! And after the shelves are built, I will only have room for 8 children to sit in the library to work! Ha ha! I'm sure the other 693 kids won't mind!

I discovered tonight that Hong Kong is not full of fabulous food, they sometimes get it wrong. I was still remembering that beautiful Vietnamese meal the other night, so I tried a little Vietnamese takeaway near me. It was so bad I ended up having rice crackers and ice cream f0r dinner.