A very busy month

We had an "ordinary" HK week in between visitors (Oct. 23-29).  While Jeff worked his normal 15-hour days (including evening conference calls), I busied myself with study group, two book clubs, chatterbox (English conversation with high schoolers), working out, and meeting friends for coffee or lunch.  One of the highlights of the week was picking up a new pair of gold earrings.  Joan's jeweller recycles old pieces that we are not using any more, so two pair of very dated hoop earrings that I hadn't worn in over 30 years suddenly became a stunning pair of everyday earrings.  Moreover, the jeweller made them reversible!

Janice and Ted arrived on Saturday, the 29th.  They had just completed a two-week Sinorama tour of China that included a TIC "adventure": while they were on their Yangtze cruise, a landslide occurred farther down the river.  As a result, they had to get off the boat and board a bus to get to their next destination.  The bus ride took 15 hours!  The driver drove like a maniac (with one hand on the wheel, the other on his cell phone).  Most of the time they were in the middle of nowhere.  The driver eventually stopped somewhere so that the group could use the WC.  Their guide rented two hotel rooms just for the clean bathrooms (a rarity in China).  After stopping for dinner at 1 a.m., they finally reached their destination at 6 a.m., thus completely missing a night in a hotel.

We had a lot of fun showing Janice and Ted around HK.  They couldn't get over how much it had changed since they were last here in the mid 70s.  Janice recalled that when they first came to HK, they stayed at a "guest house" in the infamous Chungking Mansions, replete with large cockroaches.  After ogling the grandeur of the Peninsula Hotel (and using their luxurious washrooms), we proceeded up Nathan Road and visited a guest house on the 5th floor of Chungking Mansions, so that our friends could see how little has changed in 35 years.  In addition to taking the Peak Tram, visiting Central and its escalators, the Big Buddha and Tai O, Janice, Ted and I went on Jason Wordie's tour of historic Stanley Village, and shopped in Stanley Market.

My favourite part of Janice and Ted's visit was playing Scrabble with them each night.  At first I was rather rusty, since my Scrabble set has not been used in years, but by the last night I was doing rather well (if I do say so myself!).  I also loved showing Janice, another retired librarian, the HK Central Library.

The day after our friends flew home to Toronto, Jeff and I moved to a new flat in Wing Way Court on Kennedy Road in Wan Chai.  Wan Chai is an eclectic area; to me it's the real Hong Kong.  Wet markets, clothing markets, two Starbucks within walking distance, local restaurants and Western restaurants, small mom-and--pop shops selling everything anyone needs and a lot of things that nobody needs, and thousands of people at every crosswalk.  Our apartment is up a hill (131 steps) and we have 360 degree views because there is only one flat per floor!  After squishing into 750 square feet for two years, we now have an 1850 square foot home with lots of storage space, and a more comfortable place for us and our friends and visitors.

The move itself was easy.  Santa Fe movers showed up at our old flat at 9 a.m., packed everything (we don't have that much stuff) by noon, and were finished unpacking at the new building by 5 p.m.  Joan and I watched the movers rebuild our Ikea wall unit in minutes!  Then we toasted our new digs with a glass of wine.
As I write this blog, we are sitting in our nearly empty living room waiting for a furniture delivery.  We've also just ordered curtains for the living room/dining room, and will start to hang our art work once everything has been installed.  I am very excited that we can now accommodate up to 7 people in our home, and are just waiting for friends and family to book their trips to Hong Kong.

My friend, Susan T., invited me to hear John Nash (of "A Beautiful Mind" fame) at City U.  Neither of us really understood most of Mr. Nash's speech - we attended simply because of his star appeal.  John Nash is a frail 83-year-old, who was helped to the stage.  His talk was projected on a large screen behind the microphone.  Instead of reading the speech from the lecturn, he turned his back to the audience and read it from the screen!  Most bizarre.

Thank you to Donna and David who gave us VIP passes to the HK Philharmonic pops concert (attended by 15,000 music fans) held at Happy Valley Racecourse (yes, it is warm enough here in November to enjoy everything outdoors).  Our tickets even included a free meal - chicken burger, chips and a soft drink.  In the photo above, you can see the fireworks that were choreographed during the finale - the Blue Danube waltz.  The encores were the theme from Star Wars and, in honour of the location, the William Tell overture.

We spent the week of November 12-20 enjoying the 12th annual HK Jewish Film Festival.  I thought that Nicky's Family was the best film of the festival.  The film tells the story of Sir Nicholas Winton, who saved the lives of over 600 Jewish children (including the CBC's Joe Schlesinger) just before the outbreak of WWII.  The most disappointing film was Barney's version.  Jeff and I enjoyed the scenery of Montreal and the Eastern Townships, but the acting and casting was awful.  (The book was so much better!)

Joan and I thought we had a treat in store for our husbands on Saturday, Nov. 19th.  We signed all of us up for a tour of Cathay Pacific City next to the airport.  We were hoping to go inside a flight simulator and see where meals are prepared for all of the Cathay flights.  Instead, we walked through a very non-descript, non-airconditioned building (on a very hot, humid day - they turn the a.c. off on the weekends), looked at a flight simulator through thick glass from two stories above, and had a chance to sit in some of the business class pod seats.  Our large group of expat Hong Kongers are very well-travelled, and most of us have flown business class at some point in time, so the tour was most unexciting.

In my spare time (ha!), I spent many hours preparing my paper on Norman Bethune for study group.  In spite of the fact that we had technical difficulties with my power point photos, the talk went well.  I'm now the resident HK expert on this notable Canadian.  Did you know that all Chinese middle school students still have to memorize Mao's homage to Bethune?  There are hundreds of Bethune statues in China, and several hospitals named after him. There is only one statue of Bethune in Canada - near Concordia University in downtown Montreal.

Joan and Ronnie entertained for Thanksgiving.  I love this holiday!  No hype, just food, friends, family, and football.  (The HK version does lack the family and football, though.)  Yummy turkey and trimmings, pies, wine, and conversation.






Now that the weather is cooler, the serious hiking season has kicked in.  A couple of weeks ago, we (AWA advanced!) hiked the Shing Mun Reservoir and MacLehose stage six  (I love dropping trail names - in truth, I just follow the group and hope that I finish the 10 or 12 kilometres without killing myself).  It was a perfect day!  When I packed my knapsack in the morning, I remembered 2 litres of water, a towel, lunch, snacks, sunscreen, mosquito repellent, and my bus pass.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera.  We saw British bunkers which fell on December 9, 1941, and prompted the evacuation of Kowloon.  There were hundreds of feral monkeys (and signs that warned us not to feed them), a few nomadic cows, and magnificent views of the city.

This past week, we hiked Lion Rock and MacLehose stage five.  Walking through the woods we saw the monkeys swinging from tree to tree and the babies romping with their watchful parents glaring at us. It reminded me of my favourite movie, The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy and friends cautiously advance while repeating "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!"

We certainly felt a sense of accomplishment when we reached Lion Rock, but then we looked over to the west and saw two more peaks that we had to tackle before beginning our descent!  The trail we followed is the dividing line between Kowloon and the New Territories.





I'm off to Montreal for a quick visit, and will blog Ho Chi Minh City and Ko Samui when I return.