Monday 25 May 2009

PPS

Today I literally cannot see the other side of the harbour from the office. It's less than 2km away but all that lies beyond the HK-side waterfront is a big white wall of rain.

PS

It is essentially dark now, at 11.44am. The palm trees across the way do not look happy. And even though I'm nowhere near a window, on the 19th floor of a 36 floor tower, I can hear the rain. It's pretty miderable. At times like this, I really crave a good old Engligh pub with a roaring log fire. To be fair, it hasn't really rained since the last typhoon (October?) so I shouldn't complain about the weather, but I will because ngoh hai ying gwok yan.

Should've guessed it'd be like this, as this Thursday is a public holiday here, and will be time for the annual dragon boating extravaganza.

On the other hand, today is a Bank Hol in the UK, and the temp was the same there as here yesterday....

The day that the rain came down

Actually, it started a few days ago, and hasn’t stopped since. So after weeks of moaning that weekends were too busy, and we never got a chance to relax, I had relaxation thrust upon me this weekend. And man was I bored. Ross still sailed, despite the downpour, and came home with the usual quota of bumps and bruises. Meanwhile, I had braved Causeway Bay, for a spot of shopping. Now, it’s usually quite frustrating to walk around in HK for many reasons 1) it is often uncomfortably warm to walk any distance 2) the pavements are very narrow, and most importantly 3) people walk veeeeerrrryyyy sloooooowly. And they don’t look where they are going, stop dead in the middle of the street, generally weave about and make life difficult. Which is why we often walk on the road not the pavement (don’t tell the police). Now imagine that scenario when it’s still 25 degrees (nice and sticky!), it is absolutely pissing with rain, there are about 500,000 people walking around Causeway Bay, and every one of them has a big fat umbrella just waiting to poke your eye out. Then try to get those people to move through a bottleneck-y bit of the street in an orderly fashion. Not gonna happen. It’s like that situation where the traffic lights go out of order at a roundabout and utter chaos ensues, even though everyone patently knows how to tackle a roundabout with no traffic lights.

Anyway… I went to the Football Club for lunch yesterday, very nice. We sat outside under the covered bit and watched the rain slant ever closer to horizontal. Also Brunch Club and Supper (odd name huh?) has opened on Leighton Road, and it is very lovely. The food is ok in the evenings, and more importantly they do great brunch – lots of egg options and stuff as well as healthy muesli + fruit. It’s also a really nice venue, much better than the pokey little one in CWB. It has loads of magazines, a piano, an OK view, and a kind of (fake) industrial loft feel. Recommended!

Monday 11 May 2009

Les vacances de M Eymard

Salut tous! Hong Kong is all Frenchified at the moment - it is of course "Le French May", but more importantly Romain is here to check up on us.

After an eventful Friday night at FINDS (at least one evening in LKF is obligatory for all visitors) I managed to stumble out of bed for early morning Pilates. By late morning, we were all packed and ready. Ross headed off to Hebe Haven for an afternoon's racing on Struan, and Romain and I caught the TurboJet to Macau.

I'm thinking of starting a new guide book series, for rookie tourists - it's based on the I Spy books of old. Your little book would list all the things you need to do and see there in order to justifiably say that you've "done" Macau. Think that we covered just about everything in our 30ish hours:
  1. Eat an egg tart. Preferably a custard-y one rather than an omelette-y one.
  2. Eat bakkwa (strange-looking but seriously yummy pork jerky type stuff)
  3. Visit one of Stanley Ho's establishments with the sole purpose of losing some hard-earned cash. How handy that they readily accept HK$ as well as Macanese patacas. And despite what you might believe after watching Casino Royale, you can actually go into the Grand Lisboa in jeans and flip flops.
  4. Visit something "cultural" - we chose the Guia fortress and lighthouse, atop the hill just behind our hotel.
  5. Make a ruckus in the hotel pool by talking (gasp!) while elderly ladies and gents warm up, then do a slo-mo front crawl in matching swimming caps.
  6. Guys only - try to look up girls' skirts when you go to the ruins of Sao Paolo cathedral. The elevated walkway is mesh.
  7. Pay your respects to the saints whose reliquaries rest in the Museum of Sacred Art. Oh, and remember, if you are suddenly outside again, you've missed it. Maybe you blinked at an inopportune moment.
  8. Spend as long as humanly possible at Fernando's. IMHO, this lovely Portuguese restaurant alone is worth a trip to Macau. Pick your bottle of wine, tuck into a beautifully fresh salad and a succulent grilled chicken, and relax.
  9. (see item 9) Order an unknown drink ("spirits") from the waiter in the yellow t shirt, and try not to laugh as four waitresses smell your empty glass to try and guess what it was so they can tot up your bill.
  10. Dip your toes in the sea - let's hope it's that colour because the sand is black (hence Hac Sa beach)
  11. Make sure that you come up with a new pose for each photo taken of you - if you run out of poses, just jump in the air. You'll look energetic.
  12. Avoid the crowd of paparazzi with their giant cameras who are following a mysteriously un-model like Chinese girl.