Robyn and Ben in Hong Kong: October 2006

Halloween in pictures

Macau

Yesterday we went to another county, it was an hour away by ferry, we had to go through immigration and everything! passports stamped, i.d cards displayed and before we knew it we were in Macau!
Macau used to be owned by Portugal, in a similar manner to the Brits and Hong Kong. This resulted in arriving an Macau and having the distinct feeling that you have been transported into a missplaced part of Europe, it had big open squares and wide open roads, it was all rather bizzare. Take a look at the bulding on the left for example.

Macau is pitching itself to tourists as the Las Vegas of Asia, there are massive hotels here and gambling galore. Our first stop upon arrival was to visit Fishermans Wharf, which as far as I could see had nothing to do with fish but was in fact an avenue which took you all around the world in a tacky disneyland type fashion. For example...

You have Africa

What I think is meant to be an English hotel

And of course a coliseum, to name a few

What is more strange than a coliseum was that the whole avenue is deadly quiet. There was just elevator music being pumped around and nothing or no-one else other than us. Oh, and a very strange blue pipe monster which attacked Robyn and hugged her. This could be partly due to us visiting on a Saturday and this day being officially a working day in Hong Kong, but it all did contribute to a feeling that we were in the "Twilight Zone".
Once this strange tourist experience was over we decided to head back to the main ferry building and jump in a taxi. Problem was that I spotted a different type of taxi which seemed alot more fun. Pictures below.

So basically we got a couple of old men to pull us on a bike through the busy streets of Macau, at some points we were on the equivalent of the M25 in England, no one batted an eyelind. We were laughing and wetting ourselves at the oddity of what we were doing the whole way.
We were headed to Senardo Square which is the traditional hang out for locals and tourists alike. It was very European and you really did not feel that you were in Asia at all. We checked out some old ruins called 'St Pauls ruins'. As the name suggests it is a ruined church, but what was amazing was that they had records of the names of people who were buried in the crypt (which we also checked out) going back to the year 1530.

All in all it was an amazing day, we also discovered that the ferry system runs 24 hours, so that gives us a whole new country to explore on a night out!!!!!
Bx

Ape

ever wondered what Robyn would look like as a monkey?

well here you go

There will be more serious posts coming shortly, as soon as I can find the lead to plug my bloody phone into the computer.

Bx

OK try this

sorry, the video is working for me out here but clearly not for you lot. Double click on the video and it will load up a different web page called "youtube" Log in as myself by typing the username: weetman2001
and the password: aldoha

then at the top of the next page click on the bit that says "my videos" and then the top video on the list is the one of me and Robyn working.

Hope this works

Ben x

Trying again with the Karaoke video

Look at the post three down for an explanation :)

Quote of the day

So today I wound up talking in a seminar with 50 teachers. Problem was that we overan and so I was left doing my little bit very quickly as my audience was looking a bit angry and bored. Suddenly it came to me explaining a little bit about the types of people they could expect working in their school. This is what i said.

"All of the staff which we employ have recently graduated from university and be therefore educated to degree level"

Ok thats fine, then I go on

"Many of the staff we employ are considering or intending to continue on to become teachers... god help them."

What made me say something like that I don't know, I got a few laughs but it was a case of only realizing i said it once i was too late.

Robyn also did a demonstration lesson with 15 students and 50people watching in the back of a big hall, she was brilliant.

Sunday Junk boat trip

Here are some pictures from the junk boat trip on sunday!

Nikki, Hannah and Robyn wondering where the remote is for this rather boring nature film

Daniel taking a dive

Rav, Neela and Chris

A reminder about who used to own the place. Except they seem to have run out of red

Where we stopped for lunch

Small town docks

Far off mountains

End of day sunset
We were all shattered by the end of the day
Bx

ps if you have not seen the video before this post you have to see it!

karaoke

There is nothing about our job which is regular 9 to 5. Here is a great clip of us doing a lunchtime event. Moment of note is about three quarters of the way through the singing you can distinctly hear Robyn laugh.
It was really fun but quite hard work, I was sweating by the end of it as the air con could not cope with me dancing like an idiot trying to make the kids realize that if I can act like a fool then they can get up and bloody sing

Also Robyn would like to add that this is the first time either of us have ever done Karaoke in our lives. Drunk or sober... We now have a taste for it. ..

Bx

Bashing, Wetlands and the like...

Here are a couple of pictures from the Halloween Bash at Ocean Park which was very cool although involved queuing for a ridiculously looooooong time. Ben was lame and went home before we did anything scary...I wish I had, its amazing how scary people dressed up as the undead can be when your in the 'School of the Damned'...it involved lots of girly screaming and a kind of conga line approach to protect ourselves from the 'zombies'. However, it seemed less scary when at the Big Mouth Corner tour the next day I met one of the guys who had been dressed up as a zombie and who I vividly remember screaming and running away from...

Here is a picture of our recent Cantonese class where they taught us Chinese caligraphy mine either says "keep smiling" or "you are very ugly"...I made two but I forget which one is which...

These are from the Big Mouth Corner Tour last Saturday. The first stop were the Wetlands which was quite interesting (probably more so if you are into geography and the like) but actually the nicest part was getting out of the city and getting some fresh air!

They then took us to have dim sum for lunch where I caused my usual chaos by being vegetarian (dim sum is very meat orientated and by one of the guy's mimes I'm fairly sure one of the dishes was dog) I did get deep-fried lotus flower which was bizarre but quite nice.

The final part of the day was a heritage tour around some of the old villages in the New Territories, which was quite interesting (probably more so if you are into history and the like)

At some point I will post something about my actual job but at the moment its so stupidly hectic I prefer not to think about it when I get home ;)
R x

Busy busy busy

Words can't describe the week Robyn and myself have had so far, And its only Wednesday! We will give you a blow by blow account of what we have been up to on the weekend, in the meantime here is another classic sign we found on the way to dinner this evening.

Now there are occasions when a sign is just badly worded... But there is no interpretation that allows this to make sense.

Whilst i'm here i will treat you to some pictures taken of last weekend.

Rachel, Myself and a rather drunk Nick (actually we all were)

Nicky (the girl at the front) will hate me for putting this up. Hee hee

bx

Hairy shoes

I ended up wandering into an art gallery this weekend. After finding myself in the contemporary art section I was met with quite possibly the most bizzare display in the world. Shoes made of human hair.

One or two hairy shoes, thats fine, but take a look at this

I just had no idea what to make of it

Broken

Last night in our flat there was a blinding flash in a manner similar to someone secretly taking our photo. I stumbled to the window (this was a saturday night) and began searching for the secret celebrity hunter.

This morning I have just woken up, sat on the sofa and tried to turn the television on. Nothing. It does not turn on, it does not make a noise, it is a big black box which is now just taking up space. My mind now casts back to flash last night... was it the bulb in the television blowing? And if it was, surely that means that at the very least there should be power going to the box when i turn it on, but at the moment it does nothing so maybe it is somethign else?

Suggestion greatly appreciated

bewildered bx

Projectors

It is Saturday, 11 am in the morning here and after a busy week I have just woken up! Robyn is currently out being taken on a city tour by some university students which she is doing extra curricular activities during weekdays. This last week has been our busiest so far, as part of my duties I have to host an hour 'workshop', on Wednesdays for all the secondary school staff of the company. This takes ages to organize and sort out, always taking up a fair bit of time.

On Thursday I went to Robyns school to host a 'Who Wants To Be a Millionaire' quiz during lunchtime. All was going well at first, we had a big projector hooked up and the quiz was projected onto a big screen, kids loved it, really getting involved, all was going well... That was untill it became apparent that we were going to have four teams all winning the main prize. This would not do as we did not have enough chocolate to go around. Suddenly just before the last question was shown on the screen I had an idea! lets make the last question worth 50 points, and the winning team the first to raise their answer cards! This would mean we would have only one clear winner! I suddenly stood in front of the projector to stop the final question being displayed... thats when it all went wrong. Projected onto my crotch was suddenly a small circle of light, not particularly funny but in a room full of teenage girls it was the funniest thing in the world. Lesson has been learnt, mental note for classroom management has been made.

Anyway, tomorrow we are going to the beach again. Hope everyone is ok back home :)
B x

All these things that I've done...

So, as Ben has collapsed into bed and I'm strangely awake I thought I'd take this opportunity to wrestle the laptop from his clammy clutches and post a blog of my own (as I realise I haven't since my first day at school which now feels like a lifetime ago!) Over the last few weeks i've managed to make myself crazily busy...in a good way! Monday and Tuesday nights are now taken up by working with the PolyUniversity English Drama Club, helping with their upcoming performance of 'Romeo and Juliet'. I had my first rehearsal this Monday and after checking and re-checking (as I have found you have to do here) that I didn't need to prepare or bring anything, on my arrival I was met with "this is Romeo, this is Juliet, this is the script, I'll be back in two hours". Right. It then becomes apparant that all they have done so far is have one read-through and that the performance is in a months time. Right again. However, after getting over my initial brain blank it turned out to be lots of fun, probably because the uni students actually want me to help them and hang onto my every word like I'm some kind of Drama God...slightly scary but it makes a change from school! My job basically involes going through the entire script word for word highlighting the meaning, tone, emphasis, emotion etc. Theres another student doing the directing but she also looks to me like I'm some kind of professional. Basically as soon as you say your an English 'teacher' everyone looks at you like your sent from heaven and have the mysteries of the universe written on the back of your hand.

A similar thing was experienced at my new Thursday night activity known as 'Big Mouth Corner' (which I know some of you will find appropriate!) This is another PolyUniversity activity and basically involes chatting and planning little activities for students wanting to practice their speaking. The students are all really nice and a lot of other people in the company are doing it aswell so it's a good chance to catch up with everyone during the week. However, in an ironic twist for the last two weeks in preparation for our English classes we have had two Cantonese classes run for us by the students. All I can say is any language where saying the same word in a different tone can be the difference between saying nine, plastic, dog, and penis is not the language for me! There are 9 different tones that pretty much sound the same to me and which make the same word mean something completely different, if you say 'yes' with the wrong tone it is incredibly rude! I don't think Cantonese is something you pick up... Another interesting moment was when we were taught to sing The Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love" in Cantonese, I asked one of the students if we were singing a direct translation from the original and was told the line I was singing meant "something about chopping pork"...that would be a "No" then. There is also a photo of my attempt at Chinese calligraphy but I'll get Ben to do that as that stretches my technical capabilities a little too far.

Anyway enough rambling, I realise I havn't mentioned school but trust me thats about 100 times crazier than this extra-curricular stuff so more to come on that, well, soonish...Tomorrow we are off to see 'The Rocky Horror Show' HK style which should be a treat, then Friday is a Hallowee'n Bash at the wonderful Ocean Park, Saturday I'm going on a HK tour with the Big Mouth Corner students and Sunday I am hoping to collapse on a beach somewhere! So, forgive the rubbish-ness of my blogging/calling/writing but as you can probably tell things here are somewhat hectic, I will try to improve, though Ben's Blog OCD should tide you over until my next bout of rambling (which will include something about the actual job...honest)
Anyway, this is Miss Gweebs, over and out,
R x

See the signs

Yes thats right, its time for a new installement of "Bizzare Signs of Hong Kong"
This weeks theme appears to be fire.

I have no idea either

bx

Lifes a beach

It took a train, a freaky old bus, and then a small Sampan boat. It was all worth it for the scenery, perfect crystal clear water and the weather. (jealous?)

It started with lunch near the pier, Robyn had her back to the pick your own food section