Fame at last

So I was on the telly the other day for a whole two seconds. We did a charity screening of the DisneyPixar movie Up, and there was a TV crew there from ATV news to cover the event.

The UA cinema is over at Whampoa Plaza in Hung Hom, right opposite the shopping centre shaped like a boat.

The movie was shown to 330 kids and their grandparents, I don't know which was cuter, the 2-year olds balancing the 3D glasses on the end of their noses, or the 92-year olds balancing the 3D glasses on the end of their noses.

Here are the sacrifices I made:

• Getting up at 7.30 on a Saturday morning



• Missing Pilates



• Wearing a t shirt that says "VoluntEARS" (witty pun no?)



• Having breakfast at Maccy D's in order to gulp down my antibiotics (yes, dear readers, I've had flu, tonsillitis and an eye infection)



• Suffering many severe (but inexplicable) tiny cuts on my fingers as a result of playing an integral role in the "Blowing up 330 balloons team"



• Taking part in a marathon photo-taking session which became more creative and elaborate (not to mention obligatory) as time went on.

On the plus side, I learnt how to say "Would you like to have a photo taken?" in Cantonese - "Ying seung". I also met lots of lovely people from other departments at work, including Kactus, which I think you'll agree is an interesting name. Anyway, I assume the participants enjoyed the film (as well as the complimentary popcorn and water I served with my own fair hands) but the day's proceedings were very much in Canto, so I can't be sure.

The bonus of this video is that you get to see the opening credits of the news, which I love. They remind me so much of The Day Today. Or Drop the Dead Donkey. Or something like that.

After the screening I got the ferry back from Hung Hom to Wan Chai. A month or so ago, we noticed that the roofs of the ferries were all very white - I think they had their annual repaint - but the one I got on Saturday was liberally sprinkled with black dust. I don't know what the Star Ferry runs on, but it ain't unleaded. In fact, I can only assume that they have a big furnacey thing on board (like in old movies) into which they shovel some fossil fuels. Big chunks of coal, most likely. Anyway, the ferry pier at Hung Hom's nice, much more spacious than the others, and Hung Hom itself is cool too. Actually we considered living there, but that tiny (and ever-shrinking) harbour is just too much of a mental block.

Mr Moore has booked his tickets for Blighty in October, while yours truly will have to stay here, slaving away over a hot Lenovo Thinkpad X200. Boo for local annual leave!

Very strange path for this tropical depression to take...it's currently heading this way (HK is the little red asterisk) but that could change at any time.

Update

We have booked our flights home for Christmas, which has helped to ease my pangs of homesickness. So we'll be back for a short while in 5 months' time - I'm sure it'll fly by.

We went out to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary on Saturday with friends. We went to Vivo for a couple of drinks, then to Cicada for supper (it's the sister restaurant to Erotica, as the Old bean likes to call it). Moved on to Gecko later, which is always dangerous and pretty much guarantess that the next day will be a write-off. And it was.

So a year and a bit in, we're pretty well settled. We still manage to motivate ourselves to do interesting stuff and discover new things, but it's hard not to be lazy when it's soooo hot. Last week I went to see a production of Antigone at the Cultural Centre, by a company called Theatre du Pif which I enojoyed very much. In fact, it was so good that I went again the next night with Ross. It was very simply but attractively staged, and after months of TV and films, it reminded me of the power that a live performance can have. Such a treat to see English-language theatre here that is good, strong and thought-provoking.

Still waiting for our next visitors - with any luck, Oliver will be next (you'd better sleep well on the plane cos I have lots and lots of plans!) followed by the Parental Moores. I just hope that the weather has cooled down by the time you all arrive because it's pretty horrendous right now. Next time we move we're going somewhere with a pool...

Rain rain go away

Here are a couple of videos of my walk to work on Monday, 27th July '09. The fountain in the middle of the crossing is usually a manhole cover. There was no rainstorm warning on this day, even though 70-100mm of rain fell in about 2 hours. 100mm is about twice the average monthly rainfall in the UK.

The more observant among you might notice that cars have stopped taking any notice of the traffic lights!

Typhoon Molave arrived this weekend - it was the 3rd typhoon in as many weekends, but this time it actually had a bit of an impact! This was not filmed by me, but some storm-chaser dude. Apparently over 400 trees fell during the storm, but only 3 people were injured. It really hit HK in the middle of the night, so I guess that limited its effects.

Langkawi

Bet you're all dying to hear about Langkawi, OK, maybe that's a slight exaggeration. But I feel I should record it for posterity anyway.

Flew to Langkawi via KL, all very smooth. Slightly surprised to be offered beer at 9am, but not complaining.

Got a taxi from the airport to the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club, just half an hour or so. Much of the journey was through settlements very reminiscent of Indonesia and Cebu - maybe that's what they mean by Malaysia Truly Asia - Malaysia Same As Everywhere Else in Asia. Bit of a generalisation maybe. Sunsail guy, Andy, was super chilled, really nice and helpful. We took our bags across to Princess Anna, our floating home for the next week, and then Andy gave us a lift to the supermarket so we could stock up. Ross actually bought Corned Beef in a tin - obviously we didn't eat that.

We spent the first night in the marina, getting used to sleeping in a 35' sauna without air conditioning.

First day's sailing - let me just mention now that if you're chartering a yacht, you might want to check that it has above deck GPS - we had this in the BVI, and it makes navigating a whole shed load easier. And lazier.


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Out of the frying pan, into the fire

AKA, leaving the T3 in Hong Kong, and flying to the severe heat warning in Beijing.

So there's a T1 right now, anticipated to be upgraded to a T3 this afternoon (no days off work till we reach T8). We're flying to Beijing tonight, where the heat will be quite extreme.

It's been quite a quiet week, unpacking and repacking. New photos on Flickr of Langkawi, which should also be showing on the slide show at the top of the blog.

Going going gone.

Welcome to our 100th blog post. Takeaway from CPK has just arrived, we've packed and we fly to Langkawi (via KL) tomorrow for a week sailing. Fingers crossed that they let us back in a week from now...

ps, HK visas renewed, and China visas collected, yay!

Breaking News

All primary schools, kindergartens closed for two weeks

Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen has announced that all primary and
lower-level schools will close for a fortnight.

The decision for the two-week closure, effective from tomorrow, was made
after a cluster of influenza-like cases at St Paul's Convent School was found to
be swine flu infections.

The school is about 1/2 km away from the office.

Lantau Trail to Pui O

Snot Frappuccino

Went to Starb's with Jacqui at lunchtime, to check out the new summer menu. Today's Specials - snot in your coffee. Actually, jelly in your coffee, but it's pretty snot-like! It's much nicer than it sounds. Combining textures is a big thing here, so sago balls in your tea, snot jelly in your coffee and gristle in your noodle soup are all local faves.

Also, here's a classic food picture, just for Jo. Aubergine bake.

And another one to sum up our Dragon Boating experience the other day. The weather was a little inclement.

June 4th

There's a 64 hour hunger strike going on downstairs at Times Square - doesn't take a genius to figure out that this is to do with Tianenmen. When I came past everyone was feasting on big bowls of noodle soup - preparing I guess. More later.

Photos

It's been a long time since I posted any photos - the blog's looking a little text-heavy to be honest. So here's a few from Romain's visit to keep you amused.

Photos are always on Flickr - hope the link works.

Everlasting Love

Bit of culture for the weekend – I dragged Ross to an HK Dance Company performance called “Everlasting Love” – a reimagining of tradition Chinese folklore love stories. The theme revolves around a central character, of indeterminate era, who is struck by how these traditional stories are still relevant and have continued to evolve – after all, love stories are pretty universal. I think Ross was right to be skeptical about it. The dance was immaculately performed (or at least looked it, to my untrained eye), the costumes were by turns beautiful or ragged, and the music was, well, Chinese. Somehow the “story” felt rather incoherent. Each love story, with a theme such as “Encounter” was presented in a series of vignettes, some of which were faaaar too long. Towards the end the music, costumes and the number of dancers on stage at once conspired to make it all a bit “Les Miserables”. I don’t think that was what they were aiming for.

The really astonishing thing is the late comers. It’s no secret that everyone is always late in HK (sweeping generalizations, moi?!) but this takes the biscuit. 5 minutes into the performance, at what they call an appropriate break, the house lights come up, and another 30 or 40 people come in. They chat a bit, rustle some stuff and settle in, before the performance starts again. I’d say this has happened at about 60% of the dance performances I’ve been to. It’s a tad distracting.

We’ve seen a few performances here now – of the contemporary ones, the two that I’ve enjoyed most are The White Body by Ea Sola, and an Outdoor Dance Gala by Helen Lai, performed by the City Contemporary Dance Company.

The White Body was very moving, and affecting, because somehow the message was clear enough for me to see and understand, but not patronizingly obvious. It was also extremely well performed, with music which perfectly reflected what was happening. The combination of high energy dance and music is pretty hard to resist!

I enjoyed The Outdoor Dance Gala partly because there’s not a lot of outdoor art here, so it was good to see that it is possible, and partly because it was hard to watch. The dancers were performing on the piazza outside the Cultural Centre in TST; it’s just a paved area near the harbor front. It was a very physical performance, with lots of flying bodies, hard impacts and noise. The risks and potential injuries kind of challenge what you expect from dance. In fact, the actual injuries do too. Being so close to the performers, you can see the grazes and scrapes gathered along the way.

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.