Monday 27 August 2007

Er, hello

For those of you who check this website every day for updates, and regularly suffer terrible disappointment, my apologies.
I know it’s been a day or two since I’ve updated, but there are reasons for this.
Firstly, I forgot. Secondly I’ve been very busy at work, sometimes too busy to do much else.
Anyway, it’s much too late to write in depth about the last few month’s activities, but I’ll start by writing a list of some of the things I’ve done since I last wrote.

1. The Betta Splendans died. A very sad time, but it reminded me that even beautiful things must die…a lesson I had to learn.
2. Mac and Dan offered fresh conversation
3. Work took us into China to visit factories. This will get a post of its own at some point, so watch this space. Or a space above this one that doesn’t exist yet.
4. The 10th Anniversary of the HK Handover celebrations. We sat on a closed motorway flyover all night watching the most amazing firework display I’ve ever seen. It was very surreal walking home on Nathan Road surrounded by thousands of people…one of the busiest roads in the world completely shut down for the masses…lit by neon lights and restaurant windows.
5. Helen came to visit. Helen is a good friend of mine with a strong interest in fashion. This meant I saw much of Hong Kong that I hadn’t explored yet. I.E I spent lots of time in women’s clothes shops. It was ok though. (fit women)
6. Adam and Tom came to visit. More friends of mine. They’d been traveling for two months before they arrived so they were very tired. And Tom’s toes smelt very bad. He hadn’t changed his socks once in all of his travels. We had a very strange night when we asked a taxi driver to take us somewhere good to drink. He said he’d take us to his favourite bar. We arrived in the middle of nowhere and a man on the pavement was there to meet us. The taxi driver had rung him. He then led us into a darkened high-rise, into a tiny lift and finally into possibly one of the most bizarre bars in the world. I won’t say much more about it apart from Adam won the bingo and I sung Abba songs on the Karaoke to the entire bar. There was also glow in the dark dice. They had a mysterious function.
7. Adam accidentally got addicted to vinyl toys.
8. Joseph and his girlfriend Sophia came. We went to Ocean Park, the local equivalent of Disney Land. We saw Pandas there, as well as Jellyfish. Stilted balloon people attacked me, but we ended up dancing and celebrating.
9. I went to Thailand for two weeks. We found the perfect hut on a beach in Koh Phi Phi Island so we just stayed there. I wasn’t there for traveling. As it was we saw monkeys every morning because they stole our possessions. I saw monitor lizards and skinks. We went scuba diving; a first for me, and it was fantastic. I was scared at first because of all the equipment and warnings and instructions, but that soon gave way to wonder at the beauty. I kind of hate it when people go on and on about how beautiful coral reefs are, because everybody knows that. It’s clichéd to say it. But annoyingly I have to agree. I saw sea snakes, green sea turtles, scorpion fish, lion fish, barracuda, puffer fish, box fish, Moorish idols, etc etc. I’m thinking about doing a course in Tynemouth when I get back, although I think it might be slightly colder. I read most of a Charles Dickens book in Thailand, but only once I had finished the last Harry Potter book, which was quite good.
10. I got food poisoning.
11. Speaking of Potter I went to see the latest film with Jo and his lass. The Cantonese audience made it hilarious. Every time a cat crosses the screen and does anything the entire audience (including me) started clapping and laughing.
12. My Mum, Dad and sister came to visit. This was great because it reminded me that even in this last quarter of my trip there are things for me to see. We had a great time, highlights were Mum vanishing outside the incense shop and magically reappearing a good two miles away after half an hour or so of searching for her, another highlight would be the Temple Of 10,000 Buddhas, in Shatin of the New Territories. There was a very strange vegetarian restaurant up there serving vegetarian sweet and sour pork, which turned out to be very nice. Georgina developed a liking for Cantonese food, of which I’m very proud. She resisted the allure of tofu and red bean ice-cream though. Photos to follow.
13. With this fresh vitality running through me I arranged a trip to Tai O village on Sunday with Mac, Dan, and Tim. Chris was with his girlfriend who has come to visit him so couldn’t make it. Tai O is a village on stilts in the sea, and my family went to visit it last week whilst I was at work. They saw mudskippers, fiddler crabs and pink dolphins, so I thought I’d better go and see them too. I did! Definitely worth it. Photos to follow.
14. On the work front I’ve been just a tiny bit busy. I’m quite proud that I’ve managed to work a full time job for this many months so far away from home… especially now that the hours are getting later and later. Sometimes I can be working as late as ten or eleven in the office, but it’s ok because I love it. This is a good thing because I only get paid until half five.
15. I bought a jade bracelet. Jade has huge importance assigned to it in Hong Kong, particularly by the elderly. It has healing properties, brings good health and if you fall over the jade will break but you won’t. So I thought I better get some. So far it’s cured my food poisoning and prevented me from breaking any bones.
16. A man slapped my hand in a market stall when I reached for the vintage Leica camera at the back. I wasn’t going to steal it. Possibly.


There will of course be many other things I’ve forgotten to mention, but no doubt they’ll come to me. Hopefully at some point soon I’ll post up some photographs to prove I was there.

Goodbye for now,
Paddy