Good Morning Vietnam!!

Hanoi, a sea of bikes interspersed with the odd car and taxi, you need to take your life in hand when crossing the road. The idea is to stop and pause by the side of the road for long enough for the traffic to see you, then you step on the road in the middle of the mayhem, you can't wait for a break in the traffic as that is never going to happen, you just have to take your chance and step into it. Simply keep looking in the direction of the oncoming traffic and walk bravely and slowly across the road without faltering. The motorbikes will weave their way around you! If you falter, then you will get hit.

Our first experience at road crossing began with lighter traffic as it was the middle of the day on a Sunday and most people were enjoying a leisurely Sunday lunch with family. But by the end of the day we risked life and limb to cross the road as the traffic had certainly increased. Fortunately we were with friends who live in Hanoi, so we just followed them into the fray.

We spent about an hour wandering through the old quarters of Hanoi initially along the street selling shoes. The shops are all very narrow as in colonial times there was a tax on the frontage of buildings, thus many were only 3 - 5 m wide but around 50 m deep. Even newer shops are the same size so I assume this tax is still in effect. Shoes spilled out on the footpath and with all the motorbikes taking up the rest of the pavement, we had to walk along the road, joining women in Vietnamese conical hats carrying their wares in baskets, one on each end of a pole across their shoulders, motorbikes and pushbikes carrying all types of loads, and the odd car. Bikes seem to be able to carry pretty much anything and a lot of it. We saw one laden with a load of eggs, trays of 3 dozen eggs piled 30 high and 3 deep leaving only a few inches of seat for the driver to perch on. What a massive omelet that would have made if he crashed. Others carried whole families, loads of vegetables, huge blocks of ice, boxes of goods, computers, TVs whatever you want I am sure they could manage to carry it. Mike and Amanda said that they just bought a large wardrobe, over 3 meters wide and yes you guessed it, it was carried home on the back of a motorbike!! They also had their flat screen TV and refrigerator delivered, both arriving together on the back of one motorbike.

We passed shops filled with silk and lacquer ware, galleries, bag shops, clothing stalls, flower markets and food markets etc whatever you want I am sure it could be found here. They call it the 36 streets of the old Quarter as it was originally built on 36 streets, but now it takes up more like 50 streets. You could spend days getting lost here in the maze of little lanes or sipping coffee in one of the many coffee shops, one of the great legacies of the French along with their bakeries.

We walked along the shore of one of the many lakes that can be found around Hanoi, remnants of a once flooded Red river. As it was a beautiful day weather wise, not oppressively hot and humid, there were many bride and grooms out making the most of the pleasant weather to have photos taken by the lake and on bridges crossing the water. Apparently it is the tradition in Vietnam for the bride and groom to spend the month leading up to their wedding wandering around in their wedding regalia having photos taken looking like star crossed lovers. There they were in the parks followed by a an entourage, like major film stars with a photographer, someone to sort out lighting, hair and makeup people and sometimes even wardrobe people if they were wealthy enough to have numerous changes of clothes. The brides seemed to be in either full white western wedding dresses with long trains or in deep red western dresses, red being the colour of wealth, prosperity and good luck. Couples seem to be happy to spend US$1000 on an album of photos of just the 2 of them and all in the days leading up to the wedding!!

I am writing this whilst sitting on a train, we are commencing our journey to Sapa, about a 9 hour train trip to the north of Vietnam in a soft sleeper berth. Sapa is situated right up near the Chinese border. My eyes are growing heavy with the clickety clack, clickety clack, clickety clack of the train. Soon I will be asleep.......

The barriers have opened...and they are off.. Iron Fist by a nose.

So can you guess where I have been.... We are in the middle of the horse racing season and Sunday was Ladies day at the Sha Tin racecourse. We were invited to join a group of people in a box with all food and drink supplied. Not a bad way to enjoy our first horse race in Hong Kong. The Chinese love to gamble but there are no Casinos in Hong Kong, so horse racing is really big. Over 80,000 people turned up to this race but being in a box, the crowds did not bother us. We enjoyed a lovely lunch inside airconditioned comfort then headed out on the balcony to view each of the races that were run in half hour intervals. That gave us plenty of time to decide on the better horse for a light flutter and to enjoy each course of food.

We started our days betting following a system that a colleague of Richard's insisted was the only sure way to win. This failing dismally, after the third race we changed our strategy to a more successful one of choosing the winner based on the name of the horse and the colour of the silks that jockey was wearing!! Suddenly there was much excitement as our horses continued to pound down the final stretch in the lead. By the end of the day we had lost somewhat more than we had won but as much of it goes to charity, we didn't really mind and besides we bet such small amounts that the bookies laughed at us. Later we read that HK$958 million had been made on the day, that is over US$123 million or Aus$134 million or S/352 million (Peruvian Soles). For one day's taking, that is a lot of money in anyones language. Both the racecourses in Hong Kong are actually owned by the government and as previously mentioned much of the money that is made goes towards some charitable cause or another. After just nine race meets this season, the government has apparently earnt over HK$1.2 billion (US$15,000,000,000 Aus $16,000,000,000 S/44,000,000,000) quite a nice little investment wouldn't you say. (The photo right is of Richard with his bookie and his first winning ticket!)

Midway through the afternoon, a nice man came and offered to show us around the racecourse. We went down to the pre race parade area where all the owners with their wives and daughters - sporting large concoctions on their head made from some poor bird, or three or four, - were proudly admiring their horses. This was also where the winners came at the end to receive their cups. Then we went into the members section of the track to watch a race conclude, standing right at the fence in front of the finishing post. The thunder of hooves coming down the straight, the screams of encouragement, the ease with which the horse and rider became one, the beauty of the horses, with each stride the movement of muscle clearly visible working beneath their glistening hide, this really is the King of sports.

Happy Loony Lunar festival

We celebrated Mid Autumn Festival on Saturday night the 3rd of October under the light of a beautiful, perfectly full moon. The Mid Autumn Festival, also know as the moon festival, mooncake festival, or Lantern Festival (I hope I did not forget any special names) takes place on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. Chinese people believe that on that day, the moon is the biggest, roundest and brightest, and boy did they get the timing right this year, it was the biggest, roundest and brightest moon, not that my photo does it much justice, sorry... The round moon is important as the term round implies family reunion in Chinese. So the Moon Festival is a festival for members of a family to get together wherever it is possible and it is also a time for lovers.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is Hong Kong's biggest festival aside from Chinese New Year. Bright Lanterns in the shapes of fish, rabbits etc. have been hung in the foyer of all the towers in our estate to celebrate the event and the city also seems to be draped in colourful ribbons and decorated with elaborate displays of lanterns, and moon cakes are on sale everywhere. So what is a moon cake I hear you cry. They are traditional cakes always designed in a round shape to look like the moon. The pastry is traditionally made with four egg yolks to represent the four phases of the moon and they generally have sweet fillings of nuts, red bean paste (my particular favourite) lotus seed paste, dates etc. However now days they can have any sort of filling, from savoury to even ice cream. This year some of the ice cream companies got into the swing of the festival and made their own line of ice cream moon cakes. I really should have tried one of these, but never saw them on sale close to home so figured they would melt before getting them home. But why not eat them then and there, where you bought them... I hear you ask.. and yes you do have a point. Well there is always next year, they are on the top of my list to buy then!! I even saw some moon cakes advertised in the shape of a bare bottom!! (the term 'to moon someone' in English slang means to show them your naked bottom as a prank!). Moon cakes usually come in a box of thirteen. This is to symbolize the thirteen moons of a 'complete year': the twelve moons and one extra moon...why an extra moon... who knows! We only bought a bit of a taster box with 4 moon cakes of different flavours most of which I enjoyed, especially the one filled with shredded coconut and nuts and the one with red bean paste (which is one of my all time favourite sweets from my time living in Japan) I do not think that Richard is as keen on red bean paste as I am...

So why is the moon so important to the Chinese. There are a number of moon cake festival legends. There seem to be two main legendary figures, Chang E and the jade hare. So here is a bit of history for you.

According to a story from the Xia dynasty, Chang E was the beautiful wife of the divine archer Hou Yi. He saved the world by shooting down nine of the ten suns that would otherwise have scorched the Earth. As a reward, he received the herb of immortality from a goddess. However, his wife knew that if he ate the herb, people would suffer eternally from his tyrannical rule, so she ate it herself instead. The herb made her float upwards to the moon. Hou Yi's deep love for his wife was the only reason he did not shoot down the moon.

The legend of the jade rabbit is a story about three fairy sages who came down to Earth and transformed themselves into old men begging for food from a fox, a monkey and a rabbit. The fox and the monkey were able to offer the old men food. The rabbit had no food to give the old men but rather than turn them away, he offered himself as a meal, jumping into a fire to cook himself. The sages were amazed by the rabbit's sacrifice and transformed him into a jade rabbit and let him live in the Moon Palace. I remember thinking about how funny it was for a rabbit to live on the moon when I was living in Japan as they also believe that there is a rabbit living on the moon but he is making and eating mochi (Japanese rice cakes)!! But I suppose we talk about the man in the moon!! I wonder what animal or being ancient civilizations of Peru believed lived on the moon. Any one with any ideas please let me know.

One of the reasons the Lunar Festival is celebrated by lovers throughout China is the role of the man in the moon in Chinese mythology. The Chinese have a saying: "Marriages are made in heaven and prepared on the moon". Apparently it is the man in the moon that does the preparing! The old man keeps a record book with the name of every newborn baby. He knows everybody's future partner and the decisions that he writes in his book are irreversible. Therefore, wannabe lovers go to the hills at the time of the Lunar Festival, and gaze at the moon hoping that their wish will be granted...

The moon cake is even said to have played an important role in Chinese history. In the Yuan dynasty (1280-1368 AD), China was ruled by Mongolian people. According to legend, the revolt against the Mongolians was coordinated to take place on the night of the Moon Festival. In the lead up to the festival, the rebel leaders ordered the making of special moon cakes, with messages about the attack baked into them. This is how they communicated with each other and successfully organized the attack and overthrew of the government.

Happy Moon Cake Day

Join me for a tour of our apartment.

Before we can actually commence the tour, we have to get to our apartment. First we need to walk through the gardens, past one of the ponds and a waterfall.

Now we are approaching our tower. Careful when you look up that you don't strain your neck. It is a long way up!

There is always someone to greet us with a smile, even if they do not speak English. It is amazing what you can get across with a bit of sign language, or failing that just ask one of the people entering the tower to translate for you.

Now we will walk into the Foyer where it is always lovely and cool to wait for one of the 4 lifts. The view out the window at the end makes the wait easy. It looks straight out into the East Lamma Channel. Sorry the picture is so dark!



Now up to the 34th floor where you will find our door. We are apartment B. There are 8 apartments on each floor, so as you get off the lift you need to turn to your right.

Now ring the door bell and I will let you in!

Welcome, welcome, welcome to our humble abode. It is only small so the tour will not take too long. This is what you will see when you first walk in. Please take off your shoes and put them in the little cupboard that you can see. It is common in Asia to remove your shoes whilst in the house.

This is what I call the living area of the house. Just a little area to sit down and watch TV or just look out the window at the harbour below. Richard is very proud of his new 42" flat screen TV so he is obviously going to spend more time looking at that than the view!

Next stop is the dining area, which is really just part of the living room. There are only 4 chairs in the apartment, but I know that more will fit around this round table, so I will have to buy more so that at least 6 people can sit down to dinner.

Come into my little kitchen, but if you think this is small you should have seen some of the kitchens we looked at. At least Richard and I can both be in the kitchen at the same time and there is plenty of cupboards which I desperately need to store all my Jalpanina pottery dinner sets!! And yes that is the washing machine in the kitchen. There is no room for it anywhere else, and this is where most people have theirs.

Now we are looking down the hall to the other end. Not that long is it!!

On the right hand side you will find a little room that could be used as a storage room, or a maids room but for us it is the office. It is very small and at the moment very untidy as things have just been thrown in and there still needs to be a considerable amount of sorting done. But it does have 3 bookcases which we really need and have filled completely.

Next let's walk down to the very end of the hall to our bedroom. You should have noticed by now that the theme is.... small, but it is very comfortable. The next two photos are taken in our bedroom. Again we have amazing views out the window which you have seen in one of my earlier blogs. The bedroom does have 2 large built in closets which you cannot see in the photos. I obviously have the largest one!!

And of course it would not be a master bedroom with out an ensuite to go with it. Behind the door is the bath. It is great to have a bath again, in fact we have two as the other bathroom (which looks exactly like this one) has one as well. So if you are coming to visit, you do not even have to share our bathroom!!



And lastly lets have a look at the two spare rooms. Now these rooms really are very small, just enough room for a single bed (and not very long at that... my feet just touch the wall if I stretch), a built in desk and built in cupboards.

So there you have it, not a lot but for us it is now home.There is of course room for visitors as the sofa folds out into a double bed and there are two spare single beds. I hope you enjoyed the quick tour.

Up to my ears in boxes

At last our shipping has arrived. The whole 73 packages, I won't say 73 boxes as some of the things were just odd shaped packages like golf clubs, didgeridoo etc. I was beginning to dread their arrival as I was worried they would not fit in the apartment and also I was beginning to wonder how they were actually going to get it all up to the apartment and unpacked in the small space available. However I need not have worried as this is what we were paying for, efficiency. And boy were they efficient. Whilst someone was bringing it all up from the basement, someone else was letting me know the numbers on the boxes as they arrived so I could check them off on the master list, and someone else was beginning to unpack them. They arrived at 10 am and by midday all the boxes were unpacked, some put away but a lot of it just on top of surfaces, beds, tables, cupboards even piled in the bath. The removalists then left with a nice stack of boxes that had been flat packed. Now the hard work began, trying to find a home for all our things... and did I mention that all this was done on a very, very hot and humid day so by the end of it all there were trails of sweat throughout the house. That very afternoon I received a call from someone in the shipping company to ask if she could come around on Friday to welcome us to Hong Kong. Why not I thought, and so spent the next day frantically trying to get some sense of order in the house before she arrived. Come Friday morning the living room was at least looking livable, as long as you didn't go further down the hall to see the chaos in the other rooms. She arrived armed with a welcome backpack full of all sorts of goodies, from a map book, to other books about living in Hong Kong: the culture and customs, a file already set up with dividers in place containing lots of helpful information about getting set up here, as well as mugs and other bits and pieces. What a lovely thing for the company to do, we will certainly consider using them again, which I assume is the motive behind it all. They even have a junk trip on the harbour for all the recent arrivals, so we are eagerly awaiting the date for that. So here I sit some time after all of this happened, the apartment is definitely looking more like home with all the pictures on the walls, lots of lovely little reminders of our time in Peru scattered around us, Peruvian rugs brightening up the sofa and beds. I suppose I had better take some photos to add to this blog.

Our resident cards have arrived so now we have access to all the facilities of the estate. We took a little tour of one of the sports complexes the other day and to my surprise on the roof we found of all things, a caged golf driving range and practice putting green!! Also there were 6 tennis courts. The rest of the sports complex housed a number of squash courts, badminton courts, basketball courts, activity rooms that you can hire and of course a gym. There is also a club house right near our tower block and it contains a number of restaurants as well as an indoor lap pool, outdoor swimming pool and another gym. This is the gym that I have started going to. It can be pretty busy at times but that is not surprising considering the view. When I am on the treadmill I look out across the East Lamma Channel watching all the myriad of boats go by. Fishing boats of all sizes trawl that waters around here, little fishing boats not much bigger than a kayak bob in the water close to the promenade so they are away from the busy central shipping lane. Some are powered by an outboard, they are prepared to go further from the Promenade as they have the power to get out of trouble quickly, but most of them rely on man power and their occupants, usually two, sit peacefully fishing with their heads protected from the weather with typical Chinese straw hats. Tug boats lead other vessels out to sea, there seem to be a lot of drilling rigs being towed out at the moment. Ferry's scuttle across to Lamma Island, some carrying only trucks and tanks, some with only passengers, but all weaving between the other vessels. And of course there are the huge container ships that are so commonly seen here in the shipping channel. One morning I watched 10 monster container ships either entering the channel coming into port or leaving. There had been a typhoon so I assume that the ships were a little behind schedule and thus backed up, so they were literally steaming in at 5 minute intervals! It is like the Heathrow of the water here! I have been told that Hong Kong has one of the busiest ports in Asia, second only to Singapore, so it is no wonder there is so much activity on the water, however watching all this certainly makes the time go quicker in the gym which is exactly what I need.

I have done the odd early morning session in the gym as well, but have since discovered that it is a lot quieter around lunch time. Early in the morning there is a completely different view to keep me occupied. The promenade becomes a hive of activity, especially amongst the elderly who at this time of the day are doing their Tai Chi - salutations to the sun. No wonder the majority of them look so fit and live for so long, Tai Chi obviously keeps them very supple and in a good emotional place. People of all ages, sizes, nationalities fill the promenade enjoying their morning constitutional, walking, running, Tai Chi or even fishing even though there are signs saying no fishing from the promenade!

A ferry to Lamma Island

The day started out very relaxed with a coffee and muffin whilst reading the papers but then got rather stressful. We had decided to head into town early as we had to meet people at 11.30 to catch the 11.50 ferry to Lamma, therefore not wanting to be late we decided that getting their early and relaxing with coffee was the way to go. We then headed down to the pier to arrive just before 11.30 to discover that we were at the wrong pier!! The one we wanted was some way away, and so we frantically set out by taxi to arrive just on 11.50. Fortunately Bridget had the wrong time and the ferry was not leaving until 12.00. Time for a deep breath to settle my pounding heart, and soon we were aboard the ferry heading around the West of Hong Kong Island, dodging the container ships ploughing their way to post, bouncing around on their bow waves and then down to Lamma which is to the south of the island. Actually we look out over Lamma from our apartment and could have caught a much closer ferry from Aberdeen Harbour. Lamma is one of the many outlying Islands and with an area of 13.6 sq km, it is the third largest Island. It is very popular with visitors as there are no roads or cars, only a small community of around 5000 living in the main town of Yung Shue Wan and surrounded by lots of greenery which make it a perfect place to find space, peace and quiet. These are three commodities that are difficult to find on Hong Kong Island, especially where we live.

We began with a wander through Yung Shue Wan (Banyan Tree Bay), following the main street that basically curves around the bay. There are a lot of little restaurants and shops, many of the more alternative type. We found a great vegetarian restaurant that is suppose to be perfect for breakfast, so next time we go there we will head off a little earlier and catch breakfast first. Then we headed off for the 4km up and down walk to the other side of the island for lunch at the suitably named village, Sok Kwu Wan (picnic Bay). We sure earned our lunch as the path took us the entire length of the island, often up steep inclines, passing by lovely idyllic bays and affording spectacular views. Remember the weather is very hot and steamy at the moment and we were glad that the day was overcast so that we did not have the direct sun pounding down on us. As it was I was beetroot red and very sweaty by the time we arrived at a pavilion on a ridge looking down onto Sok Kwu Wan with its many restaurants and fishing boats and rafts bobbing in the bay.

As we got closer to the bay we discovered that the rafts were in fact fishing farms with cages suspended from them, obviously for the restaurants. A small wooden boat manned by women, pottered around the harbour continually casting their glistening nets in search of fish as we sat down in The Lamma Hilton...a far cry from The Hilton chain of hotels. Simple round tables filled the outdoor covered area, with many fans to support the sea breeze in keeping us cool. We ordered platters of squid, prawns and scallops accompanied by bok choi, broccoli, and spring rolls. There is not a dead fish on the premises. All the fish are still alive and swimming in large fish tanks, if you want you can go and chose the exact fish that you want to eat and they kill it, gut it and cook it for you. So you cannot complain about the freshness, it was melt in your mouth fresh. After a huge feed, we headed down to the pier to catch the ferry back to Hong Kong Island, tired but fully satisfied with a great day out, a combination of exercise, great food and of course good company.

Stepford wife

An Apology before I begin. It has taken me a long time to get around to publishing this one, so it is about a week out of date. Also some of the photos have been taken with a mobile phone so the quality is not good at all. Sorry!

Dare I speak too soon... the weather seems to be changing. It does not seem quite as humid as previous days. My face no longer has that red sheen, and my hair seems to be much more controllable, no longer do I look completely like a wild woman... but nor do I really look like a Stepford wife, all groomed, slim and boutiqued. But having just had a 5 and a half hour spectacular lunch comprising of loads of my favourite sushi, lobster, prawns etc in a swanky hotel, I think I almost qualify. I met up with a friend, Bridget, from my life at Calwell High in Canberra from some 17 years ago. Bridget, like me, is currently between jobs so able to do the long leisurely lunch thing, something that we both decided we could get use to if only we could afford to!!

My nose is now pressed up against the windows of my apartment trying to read the name of the container ships that are steaming by, as today is the day that the Bahia Laura is due into port with our container in tow. A bit of a catch 22 as I cannot read the names without binoculars and my binoculars are on the ship! So I just watch them go by, praying that one of them contains my precious load, not that I know where on earth I am going to fit everything once it arrives... I seem to be settling into a bit of a regular routine. A bit of house work (yes that is a bit of a shock to the system) then off to Starbucks to get online to check emails etc. We still do not have internet. It seems that the cables coming into our building cannot support the speed of internet that we requested. So rather than actually telling us this in the first place and giving us the option of down grading or waiting an indefinite period until they could upgrade the cables, everyone just kept doing the typical face saving thing of saying "someone will ring you" which they did but with no answer to the problem. This went on for over a week until eventually the sales man who sold us the package admitted the problem and we agreed to downgrade in order to actually get it on in the house. So now we are booked in to have a technician come around on Monday afternoon, fingers crossed that we can then watch cable TV and use the internet at home. I can tell you that there is only so much Starbucks coffee you can drink in a week and as I have at least 1 visit a day sometimes 2 in order to get internet, I can say that I am pretty much over it all. I have also had to resort to a bit of stair running for exercise as we did not have our resident cards for all the facilities available in our estate. We were told they would take about 2 weeks to be processed and we were very excited when we opened our mailbox last night to find them lying waiting expectantly for us. Now the hard work for me begins. With all the gym facilities and swimming pools, internet in the house (I am assuming that all will go well on Monday) there will be no time at all to do any of the more boring tasks like housework!!!
Of course there is also the shopping to be done. Last weekend we found another plaza within walking distance of the estate, this one is 28 floors of shops, mainly furniture shops with both new and antique Chinese furnishings, a wonderful place to spend an afternoon browsing and imagining what fun it would be to furnish a large apartment with all the beautiful Chinese antiques, from ornate cupboards, heavily carved or stunningly lacquered to simple woven food boxes from monasteries in a past era that would make striking storage pieces. Red, black and gold are the prevalent colours and the smell of old wood, with underlying hints of incense fill our nostrils. Today we made the mistake of going to Causeway Bay to try to sort out mobile phones. Take a memo... try to avoid Causeway Bay and Times Square on the weekend as the crowds are unbelievable. Today being Saturday it was still relatively quiet compared with what I have been told it can be like on a Sunday. I suppose I will have to check it out one Sunday just to see how crowded it can get. As you can see from the photos it is not exactly quiet. Here we found 13 stories of shopping heaven!!! Richard has been given an apple mac by the school and he is having a lot of trouble getting it to sync with his phone so we are trying to sort out either how to get it to sync with the phone that he already has or find another phone that will easily sync with his mac, other than the iphone of course. Here we are back in Starbucks for the second time today as he tries to download some software which will sort out his problem. There is a lot of groaning, swearing and throwing hands in the air, so it does not look like it is going that well.

On Friday night we met up with Sujana, Tim and a friend of Sujana's for dinner in Soho. Soho is set high on the slopes of the surrounding hillsides near Central and is a popular place to go to eat as there are many, many bars and restaurants here. We went to the very popular Elgin Street, to the 'Bistro Manchu' which I have since heard is supposed to be one of the best Chinese restaurants that you can eat at, specializing in food from the north of China. So how to get there... we are of course keen on using public transport wherever possible. But the nearest bus and tube station is down the bottom hill, so it looks like being a long walk up. Oh well, we will at least build up an appetite. However that was not to be, can you believe it... there is actually an outdoor escalator here. In the morning it goes down the hill to transport all the workers who live in this area down to the bus and tube station and then from around 10.30am until just after midnight it runs up the hill to bring both the inhabitants home and the diners to their restaurants. There are twenty escalators and 3 moving side walks here running a total length of around 800 metres with a vertical climb of around 135 metres. The total travel time is about twenty minutes from the bottom to the top, but we did walk a bit while the escalators moved to shorten the trip. According to Guinness World Records, these escalators together form the longest outdoor covered escalator system. What fun, riding an escalator high up above the streets to get to your destination. Of course it is covered to provide some protection from the elements and before we knew it we were at Elgin Street and seated in the restaurant. The food was pretty fabulous, Richard said the lamb was to die for, unfortunately the smell of it was enough for me to know it was not going to be my cup of tea...pretty sad considering I am the daughter of a sheep farmer, but lamb is something that I can no longer stomach. After dinner we headed down to a recently opened restaurant called Soho 8 where we had a couple of drinks and did a very good job at sampling their dessert menu.


Our weekend continued with another night out on Saturday night. Again we met some other friends, this time Bridget and John at the Quarter Deck which overlooks Victoria harbour. The restaraunt was located in Fleet Arcade, facilities developed for visiting naval fleets. The menu of course was predominantly sea food, and the food was good. A gentle breeze kept us cool as we chose to abandon the airconditioning and sit by the water. Salty smells of the sea rode the breeze, providing us with a constant reminder of where we were, the neon lights of Kowloon providing the perfect backdrop. There was one extremely tall building being completed, apparently it is over 900m tall. Can you imagine a building that is almost a kilometer high. Now for all you budding physisists out there, perhaps you can tell me how they are able to get the water to the tanks in the top of the building when water only travels up as far as atmospheric pressure will push it and that is only about 14 meters. Also how on earth do you then flush the toilet on the ground floor without blowing the bowl up because of the water pressure of the water coming from the roof, almost 1 km higher than the toilet!!

The evening ended with an introduction to 'The Wanch'. This is a popular place to listen to live music as it is really one of the only venues that offer live music, and the reason that we have ended up here is because John organises the music side in his free time. It was a great bar with some interesting characters. We arrived just at the end of the first band, but in time to listen to an 'all Japanese' band with the lead singer a throwback from the Japanese glam rock era. His singing was not a lot to write home about but his mannerisms were mesmerising. The band itself were good musicians including an excellent harmonica player. A geat way to end the evening and we eventually rolled into bed at around 2am. Oh my god, two nights in a row of not getting in before 1am... it will be the death of me. Could I really be turning into a Stepford wife.