Big Buddha pics

Our day trip to Lantau island, click on the pictures to make them bigger!
R&B xx

Nerd

I had a moment of nerdy computer geekiness and have now placed right at the bottom of the page a countdown timer. This timer indicates how long it is till our first visitors arrive from England (Adam and Andy). When they arrive it will start counting down for whoever is visiting next!

Today we are going to Lantau island, there is a new cable car which is just over 5km long that takes us there from the local train station. Lantau island has great beaches, but we are going there today to see the Giant Buddha! Prepare for pictures.

bx

Food

I saw this at lunch today on the menu

If it runs, walks, squirms, hops, wiggles or moves in any way... chances are you can find it on a plate out here.
'
PS I never discovered what a "pot" was, or why a steamed frog would need it.

@ the club house

Every Wednesday (today) it has been arranged that everyone who works for the charity goes to a meeting at the club house which is attatched to the roof of the building my boss lives in. I went to have a look around the place last week and it is really posh, it has swimming pools, a gym, band room, yoga room, kitchens, snooker rooms, cinema and a bowling alley! Here is a picture of the kareoke room (there are three!)


I found a picture which i forgot to put on from the Ocean Park tip. This was taken just after Robyn walked into the shark aquarium and completely freaked out (bless her) she was joking around at this point but that soon changed!

read the signs

Robyn spotted this brilliant picture in the underground tube station. It was at a kiosk where you buy tickets and things like that.




















Now it would be fine if this was a bad translation in a market stall or something, but this sign has been created by the same people who make sure the trains don't crash... Please wait for a while? we shall never know what for...

On a different note we have come to an agreement with two girls next door regarding dinner. Each week we put $50 each into a pot. From this accumilated $200 dollars we can get four meals every evening for four nights. This has to be home cooked one night a week by each of us. The first week has gone rather well, but there was one night where creativity was lacking. We ended up getting an electric grill, bread, cheese and tinned pineaple for pudding and cooked it all on the table in front of our very eyes. For the first time in a while we all suddenly felt like realy unhealthy students all over again!

(And yes mum, i do need a haircut)

WEBCAM!

We have a webcam! we can now do video conversations or just voice conversations. We have tested it on Andy, the quality is brilliant. YAY!!!

Cable Cars

I found a couple more snaps of the cable cars, (and realized i never explained what they were). When you first get on them you can't see exactly how long the journey is, you go over the peak of the mountain and it just seems to go on forever! This combined with the fact that cable cars make hardly any noise gives you the feeling of just floating around the sky. Very strange.

It was yet another birthday party last night and so this morning there is a need for a nice cooked breakfast. Rob is fast asleep in her room, i stupidly forgot to close my curtains and missed out on the luxury once the sun began slowly baking me in my little greenhouse of a bedroom. Coming up next weekend is "National Day" in Hong Kong this day marks the "Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China". For us this basically means there is a public holiday on Monday with fireworks! We have yet to experience fireworks in Hong Kong but by I was speaking to a local teacher the other day and was informed that "The Chinese know how to do a good fireworks display". I was talking to another local Chinese guy at the school and asked him if he was here when Honk Kong was handed back from the UK to China. "Yes" he replied "we had many many fireworks displays that year"...Seems they have had plently of practice putting on a show then.

Our whole group are hiring out a junk boat for the occasion. It will take us on a night cruise around the waters of Hong Kong, there will be a buffet dinner and then we get to see the fireworks from the water! Should be good.
bx

Photos 2

Read the post before, before you read this one!
We saw some pretty funky creatures

like dolphins

and a panda!

(dad i could not get over how much the panda remided me of you in-front of the tv)

B&R x

Park Pictures

Well the first ride we went on was the log flume

And we got very wet

To travel around you have to go by giant escalators up the monutain to the park

Halfway up

The view was amazing

Robyn went on a rollercoaster, with loops and everything, not only hat but she sat at the front!

And we went on the most scary ride of them all!

Rob freaked out with the sharks, but she did go in even if she could not really look at them

The park is in two halfs, so we got the cable car across the mountains

This is something everyone is going to do when they come and visit

200 kids

Now this whole experience is going to be a learning curve, we all knew that when we signed up. ...But when me and Rob in the first three weeks of proper work found ourselves having to keep the attention of 200 eleven year olds in a fun yet educational manner. Well the learning curve just got steeper.

It is Saturday morning now so today we are going to a theme park called "Ocean Park". We have been told by every kid we meet that it is the best theme park in Hong Kong so feel compelled to give it a go. It has Pandas, Dolphins, rollercoasters and sharks. Robyn is frightened beyond understanding of Sharks and has never experienced a rollercoaster. I will make sure i bring a camera!

I spent the whole day yesterday visiting schools with my boss, This has its advantages especially as I get my lunch paid for. However I happened to mention that I have never experienced Sushi before... Soon enough we were grabbing raw fish and rice off rotating conveyor belts and tucking in.

I experienced crab, prawns, salmon and some type of shellfish. Along with a bit of a queezy stomach and the need to never see a sea dweller on a plate for at least another week. However I will admit some of it was very tasty.
Robyn is asleep at the moment, im just about to walk up the road to the fruit market to barter for a pineapple. We have got into a routine of having a fruit smoothy every morning for breakfast, this requires me to try and bargain at stupid o'clock over the price of apples etc. The trick is to walk away and pretend to go to another stall...as i said its all a learning curve.
bx

millionaire

The quote of the evening goes to Miss Robyn Stacey Greaves who over dinner came out with the following quote.

"If you ever want a laugh, try to get the kids to say millionaire, its hilarious"

She can be so cruel

Up at the peak!

This is the other side of the peak looking away from the city and into the sunset.... Ahhhhh

At Last!

We have got cable television and internet!!!!! At last!!! More things to be posted soon but we are getting ready to go to a Rock/ battle of the bands type thingy that our friend is performing in.
Bx

Movie Stars

Well we just got back on the old rickety tram from going to see a movie in Causeway Bay. We were having a normal movie experience untill it ended. One of the girls we were with needed to use the bathroom and so instead of exiting from the back of the cinema (like everyone else) we exited from the front. Suddenly it became clear why cinema goers were being herded out of the back door when we found oursleves smack bang in the middle of a movie premier.



Now after working in a phone shop for some time. I often persuaded people who were othewise uninterested in buying a phone with a camera to change their minds. I did this by uttering the words "you never know where you will be when you wished you had a camera". This was one of those moments, there we were trapped outside the press area watching Hong Kong celebs pose and twirl not really knowing what to do... so out came the phone! I clicked away fitting right in, god knows what the movie was, I will reasearch and get back to you.
bx

Forest Gump

Well we just got back from the peak and it was well worth the trip. I will write more about it soon because I'm trying to put together a video to go with it but am having geeky issues with getting it on here. Things took a turn for the bizzare when Robyn had an encounter with a Forest Gump lookalike. All will be explained on the video if I ever get it bloody working.

I have posted a few pictures of the trip to the peak but it is in our photo album. Go down the right hand side of the blog till you get to the "view our photo album" section. Click on the button and it will take you to another page. The folder you want to look at is called just plain "pictures" i think. I wont use the album that often but at the moment it is the only way I can upload pictures this evening.

Well its 9.30 pm and me and rob are shattered. She has just gone to bed and I am about to do the same. Tomorrow morning I have a meeting at her school, its funny sitting opposite her because she is always in serious teacher mode. I often have the urge just to pull faces at her to try to make her crack.
Night

bx

Peak

Well we have just been to our ritual sunday morning meal at the "Flying Pan" and are getting ready to go up to the peak today which overlooks Hong Kong. It's an unusual clear day today and the view should be spectacular. In the past week the temperature has dropped quickly, it is no longer so hot you feel like you have taken a shower after three minutes outside.

Expect pictures from the peak on here soon

bx

fire

Good to see the video could be seen by everyone! We were hoping to go to the beach today but the weather is a bit overcast. We then decided that we would go to Lantau island to visit a famous giant bronze buddha the weight of a jumbo jet. This was a good idea till we discovered that the cable car which you take to get there is not open till monday. Instead today became a "get things done day". We have been to Ikea (or as i like to call it "the seventh circle of hell") to get the last bits and pieces for the flat. We have gone to the internet shop and bartered our way to get an ultra fast internet and cable television packet which will cost us about 14 quid a month. This is going to be installed on Wednesday and means I can stop stealing other peoples connections over the ole airwaves. At lunch today we decided to go and investigate a nearby 64th floor revolving restaurant. While we were waiting for the lift Robyn got a phone call from a man, at first she thought it was a wrong number except this guy knew who she was by name. This guys English was pretty bad, but he kept on repeating that he was outside our flat, and there was a fire. I could only hear Robyns side of this conversation but she kept on asking "are you saying there is a fire in our flat?" Mystery caller insisted that he was calling regarding a fire and I was at this time pretty worried. Imagining our security guard at the front door perhaps being both the mystery caller and going far beyond the call of duty. Rob after about four pretty tense minutes of insisting the man spell the word finally got through to him, stopped him shouting fire and had him read out letter by letter what he was trying to say. Fire suddenly became F L O W E R. Adam it turns out very kindly sent Robyn some red roses. These were being held by the man on the phone who was insisting Robyn come and sign for them. There was no fire, just a panicked couple of white folks shouting into a mobile outside a revolving restaurant to a guy delivering flowers outside our flat. I aged about ten years.
Bx

PS, mum i know im overdrawn, dont worry about it the overdraft is still interest free and its only there because of the hefty deposit we paid for the flat.Im working on wiring cash from here back to the uk.

home

test

Robyn in newspaper

I found this picture of Robyn dressed in newspaper. It is taken from our orientation training where we were working on activities the kids could do. Robyn got rather into it :)

Rob has been taking part in a school swimming gala today. It is in Victoria Park which is quite close to my office. She was given the choice of either watching in the stands or helping in the pool. Word got round that being in the stands means sitting there for hours in horrible heat and so Robyn has offered to stand in the training pool and supervise. I have not talked to her yet but I have a feeling that she will be persuaded to take part in the student teacher race, although she is claiming that it will never happen.

Next wednesday I am going into a school to host a "reading event". This involves getting 200 hundred young kids into a hall then trying to get them to participate in English orientated games, activies and interactive things like that for over an hour. Since I found out about this event there has been a timetable clash and suddenly the staff participating has dropped to three. it may be sorted out but if nothing else I am going to sleep well that night.

We now have the laptop at home and can jump onto other peoples connections in neighbouring flats to surf the net. This only occurs if they have a good signal, are online and have not secured their internet from having other people nick it. What this means is that we may be able to start posting videos! so keep your eyes peeled!

Bx

Whitening Cream

People in Hong Kong, especially women have an obsession with keeping their skin white. in the sun they walk around with umbrellas. If you buy showergel you need to check closely it wont turn you into casper the friendly ghost.



And here is a random shot of a little market stall from above.

Bx

Pictures

Misty mountains

Fun and games at the "Flying Pan"

The waterfall with the rock pools

Junk Boat trip

Vampire? what vampire?


Our road with tram (the only double decker trams in the world you know!)

Our road wide shot

Laptop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So we have decided that we should not delay in purchasing a laptop, so about half an hour ago we walked to a local shop and paid for one! It is still in the shop having all the English software loaded on to it as I type, and im due to collect it in an hour. I also managed to convince them to chuck in a webcam for free! So now all we need to do is sign up to the internet. Internet packages are pretty cheap, it costs about 200 dollars (14 quid) to get cable TV and unlimited internet in our flat, bargain.

We were due to go up to the peak yesterday to see the view over Hong Kong, but our plans were foiled due to a red rain warning. This basically means stay inside or prepare to get so wet you feel like you should have been born a sea creature. This led to an amazing discovery though, we found a 24 hour cafe aptly named "The Flying Pan". This place does the most amazing fried breakfasts you could ever dream of, it is becoming a bit or a ritual meeting place as we all live so close and it provides board games, newspapers, fruit smoothys and general nice atmosphere.

Last night I went to a friends birthday party in the flat two floors above mine. In our international group of friends we have one Canadian girl who needed some jeans to wear as I think she spilt something down her own. She turned to the English birthday girl and asked to borrow "some spare pants". Rachel took the canadian to her room and offered her a pair of knickers before she realized that 'pants' in Canada are different to 'pants' in England. It was very a very funny moment and i nearly needed a new pair of pants myself.

Anyway, Robyn is upstairs having a bit of an afternoon siesta, in this hot weather sometimes it's the only thing to do. Meanwhile I'm off to get the laptop!!! We can't stop talking about how amazing it will be to listen to radio one online and be able to play i tunes. By the way if anyone needs digital cameras, I-pods or laptops plan to get one when you come and visit. We paid 5000 dollars for our laptop which is about 330 quid. It's a Toshiba and would cost five times the price inthe UK. It is so cheap for electrical goods here that people travel from mainland China just to purchase stuff. This could change soon though because at the moment the government is debating havign a "Goods and services tax" placed on products out here. I spoke to a few locals though and apparently it will never pass. We shall have to wait and see.

Bx

Wan Chai

Our flat is in Wan Chai, on Hong Kong island. It is really near everywhere you could ever need to be in Hong Kong, and right on the double decker tram lines. One problem is that because it is a bit of a well known party area there are more than a few establishments offering services from more than a few ladies with questionable occupations. I happened to walk past this area on the way back to my flat for the first time without Robyn by my side. Because of the lack of a lady I suddenly became fair game and was quite flustered at what was being called out to me. I told Robyn and she laughed, she says it's some type of revenge for all the whistling and comments girls have to put up with from walking by builders in England.

We hope to get a laptop by next weekend, and the internet sooner so we can all show you the flat on the ole webcam.

B x

The effects are showing

Yes, we have lost our minds...

Well it is the end of the first week and so I thought I would fill you all in on how it has been! Robyn is settling into her school really well. She has a bit of a fan club even after only a week, girls come looking for during lunch breaks to marvel at her white skin and stroke her hair. Meanwhile at the office i'm starting to get an idea of exactly what I have let myself in for. Two days ago my boss sat me down in the office and explained that the hardest thing I will find is adapting to the "Chinese way of working". She used this phrase quite a few times so I felt compelled to ask "what is the Chinese way of working?" Expecting the answer to be that I need to be organized, focussed and all round brilliant. She looked at me and said "Nothing here will ever happen easily". I have learnt now that this is the Chinese way of working, or at the very least communicating. Never did I feel it possible to leave a school meeting more confused and unsure of things than before I went in. Luckily this is not just a problem I have, but seems rather universal whenever West meets East and tries to organize anything. Words can't really describe the confusion that occurs in a cross cultural meeting. You honestly sometimes leave not quite sure what has been agreed. At one stage I had an urge to jump from my 18th story office window just to bring some finality and sense to a particularly mind boggling meet.

But it is getting easier, after a week I am becoming quite good at either understanding what is being said, or just asking questions to make sure I understand the message i'm being given.

Anyway, It is now friday night and im rambling on a bit. I have had a day of visiting schools and continuous meetings and subsequently have an overwhelming desire to go out and have a few drinks. Robyn is upstairs in the shower getting ready. Thank god it's Friday.

Sorry...

Sorry, we are both crazy busy at the moment with school just starting and me being dragged to meeting upon meeting, learning things pretty fast... and forgetting them faster.
We have also just sold out IKEA, as the picture demonstrates.

B x

First Day at School!

So, I've just finished my first day at school! Ben isn't back yet as he has to work until 6pm whereas I finished at 4pm (don't feel too sorry for him though as he was still in bed when I left this morning and only woke up to take a photo of me, which I'm sure will follow at some point...) This is basically the first time we've done different stuff since we got here, hence this is my first bit of blogging in HK. I didn't actually do any teaching today as proper lessons don't start until tomorrow but I was informed on my arrival that I would have a meeting in the afternoon to discuss the 'S.B.A', which lead to me spending most of the morning figuring out what S.B.A stands for (School Based Assessment, if your wondering - the Chinese LOVE acronyms...). I also got to meet the other English teachers, I'm pretty lucky because all secondary schools in HK should have one NET (Native English Teacher - I did warn you!), but I have three in my school (actually theres an American, an Austrailian, and an Indian, so I'm the only 'English' English teacher but you get the idea). This means there is a good bank of people to talk to if I don't understand anything or to just discuss the general madness of HK! I barely saw any actual students today although a very small girl carrying a very large pile of text books did turn up at one point asking for 'Miss Gweebs' before plonking said pile of books on my desk. (Unlike in the UK the staff room is a huge room of desks where staff can work, rather than the more sociable coffee room type thing we are used to - this in itself says a lot about the Chinese work mentality). I also found out today that part of my teaching will be based around tutoring the students to give a presentation/discussion about an (incredibly abbreviated) version of Jane Austen's 'Emma' - those of you who know me know how ironic and funny that is...Well thats about it for now, tomorrow I should actually be in a classroom, although not on my own yet, and I also have a meeting with our Project Director so it should be an interesting day! I can't work out which font Ben uses for this so if its totally different from the rest of the blog - oops!R x

In a juice bar

So it's saturday and we are in a juice bar having breakfast/lunch. We went on the Junk boat trip to the outlying islands yesterday as a celebration for finishing training. It was amazing fun, I tried wakeboarding but it is nothing like watersking, so I ended up drinking half the ocean. We stopped off at an island which was similar to the one from the television series 'Lost'. It had a waterfall running down the mountain to the right of the sand, we climbed up the rocks to a running pool of fresh water overlooking the ocean. Sadly I never got any pictures because my phone was out of juice and loads were taken by friends anyway, so i will steal them and put them up later. We ended the night heading home after watching the sunset behind all the mountains, stopping off for some amazing food on the way.

Not much else to report, today we are looking for suitable clothes for Robyn at school. She is working at an all girls school it has been recently revealed and starts on monday.

In the mean time here is a picture of the view from our flat windows.

Ben