Surf

We finally found a beach that has quite good surf, the pictures dont quite capture the potential but there were surfers and the waves were reasonable.




So you never know Dave it may be worth you bringing the ole board!

Not your everyday letter from a landlord

Check what we got through our letterbox today from our landlords.



Some tenants get electricity bills, some get notices of rent being due. We get an offer to purchase some "Hairy Crabs". What. the. hell.

You can tell we are in Hong Kong.

bx

Umbrella

It is raining in Hong Kong. Rain here does not tend to come in mild drips, it either buckets it down or it does not.

I decided that because of the rain I would purchase an umbrella from our local corner shop. Then it dawned on me that never in my life have I ever purchased or owned an umbrella! I have been in Hong Kong for the monsoon season, I was at uni in Bristol for 3 years (a pretty wet city) and Bournemouth and Woking for quite some time before that... and never have I owned or purchased an umbrella.

Is it me or is that pretty odd? I guess I just always got wet.

bx

Other Blogs

Hey everyone,
If you ever feel the need to read about other fellow co-workers experiences and adventures in Hong Kong I have discovered these two blogs. (click them)

Daniel And Hayley in Hong Kong

Hannah's Hong Kong Adventure

They of course may not be as brilliant, up to date and wonderful as our own little blog. but just thought I would let you know they exist.
bx

Where we live

Just realized that I we have not shown anyone where we live from a birds-eye-view type angle. This picture is taken from the peak looking out across Hong Kong island, then you have the water, then Kowloon starts. Where we live is on HK island but in the picture there is a useful little bush on the right which has managed to get into the shot. The top/highest leaf on the bush is almost exactly where we live, the wonderful Wan Chai. So there you go. This picture also makes quite a good computer wallpaper :)
bx

Buddhist Nunnery

Here are some pictures from our day out. The pictures are mainly of the gardens, the closer you got to the buildings,the more cameras were frowned upon.







I loved the signs in the grass that directed you where to go. It seemed appropriate that in a buddhist garden we are directed to the "way forward".

Chi Lin Nunnery

Today we are going to a nunnery. But not just any old nunnery, here is a picture.

This is the Chi Lin Nunnery. We have yet to explore it so I will give you more information about it later, but apparently it is the largest wooden structure in existence that was created without the use of nails... everything about the mammoth structure is all wood. Not a bit of metal involved, pretty impressive.

Also here is a funky drawing of the place that I found online.

bx

Mirror mirror on the... train station wall

What a night that turned out to be, though
i get points for creative use of concave mirror!!!!



We should not be allowed out in public...
bx

School Days...

I realise I havn't written much about school recently so I thought I'd entertain you with some pictures instead. The first ones are from Sports Day which, as you can probably tell, was pretty dull so we had to amuse ourselves with some random posing. The others are from the English Halloween party we had. As you can tell I have a lot of fun at school and the girls are lovely, this Thursday we had a school trip to Ocean Park which was great. All the girls think I'm even more insane now, as all the local teachers spend the day in the Cafe marking work while I was running round with the NET teacher going on all the rides, getting soaking wet on the log flume etc which they found hilarious.

School is generally hard work and tiring although planning and teaching lessons has become oddly normal now. It's actually the "extra" stuff that we do that takes up most of the time, this includes English Cafe, weekly events in the main hall, a performance of 'Annie' that I have somehow found myself writing the script for and which we are now rehearsing and also a scary amount of Karaoke. How I have gone from never having done Karaoke drunk or sober to doing it on my own, every week, in the school hall, singing random English versions of Cantonese pop songs that I have no idea of the tune or words for I have no idea...but it definitely wasn't my decision! It's safe to say that nothing about either mine or Ben's job is normal and, although it drives me crazy sometimes, it's definitely an experience!

In other news, last week was the university performance of "Romeo and Juliet" that I have been helping out with. It was very strange to be sitting in the audience instead of performing onstage but I was still really nervous for them! It went really well though and they were all really pleased with it afterwards which was really nice to see. I'm actually quite sad it's over although it took up a lot of time - hopefully they will do another performance next term and want my help again...
Anyway that's about it for now, I'm not sure what we're up to this weekend but whatever goes on I'm sure there'll be photos and blogging to come,
R x

Walking and eating

Not much to report right now. Robyn is on a school trip today to the wonderful "Ocean Park" theme park, lucky git that she is. I am basically spending a fair bit of my time organizing English fun fairs in schools and getting ready to start recruiting for next years influx of new people. It is all quite boring really but the perk is that I get to come back to the UK for a week and travel round the Britian visiting universities! Once I fully realize that this basically involves me being stuck in traffic on the M25 or similar places for most of my time, I will probably become less excited.

One of our friends had her parents come to stay recently. She said that it was quite a shock, not for the parents visiting, but more for herself. Her reason for this shock was because she realized how much she has become accustomed to life in Hong Kong. The example she gave was walking through the streets, it is quite normal to become ruthless when it comes to getting to your destination. Almost everyone is Hong Kong has to be rushing somewhere, and if they are not rushing somewhere then they have to pretend like they are so as to seem very busy and very important. If you so much as think that you can get away with ambling along and taking a casual stroll in some situations you had better be prepared to become crushed, barged elbowed and bruised. There is a similar rule when it comes to pedestrians and traffic, in any normal country cars have priority over pedestrians, this makes complete sense, cars are bigger. In Hong Kong this rule is reversed, the only way to get around quickly is to be fully prepared to step out into oncoming traffic and expect the oncoming car to grind to a halt and let you pass. If you do not take matters into your own hands and make the indication that you are stepping out then you may find yourself on the sidewalk for ten minutes at a time.

So our friend who had her parents visiting was walking through the markets of Mong Kok when she turned around to realize her parents were no where to be seen. They soon caught up and commented on her seemingly new approach to on foot travel. This got me thinking about other differences that have developed since Robyn and my arrival. The first thing that comes to mind is eating habits. Both Robyn and myself often comment that we have now become somewhat piglike. Its not for lack of care, its just that table manners are just non existant in Hong Kong. It is a case of hand to mouth, chopstick to mouth or more often than not food to tablecloth. In short, parents and visitors, prepare for dining with a couple of piglets.

bx

Robyn has gone retro

Robyn has become a bit creative with the ole computer. (As frightening and un-robyn like as that is), check out what she has managed to create though!

Anyway, not much to report really, Robyn is doing some Karaoke practice at the moment ready for tomorrow. She is sitting next to me singing to some unknown CantoPop singer, its very funny because she just realized she can't hit the notes and warbles a bit. She just looked at me and muttered "I hate my job", heeheehee.

I have been in a school this morning at a meeting preparing for an English type funfair event. It was pretty boring really but I got to help out in a lesson and then hang around in the school for a while as well, which beats the rest of the day I spent in the office trying to prepare for the funfair that we had the previous boring meeting about.

I also went to a "wet market" the other day. I have been to a fair few similar places in Qatar growing up and have walked past a few here in Honkers, going for a look around one however was quite an experience than just glancing through. Chickens stuffed in cages, toads in boxes being chosen and chopped on demand, eeels slipping on an ice display, fish heads being mashed to make fish cakes, turtles in tanks being lifted out for someones dinner. It was all pretty bizzare but quite worth a look around. (unless your a veggie)

Anyway, its up bright and early for me tomorrow, were going to see a friend in a band perform at a local bar where we live. Should be good. Night!!!
Bx

Sorry Jack

Jack, do you remember when I told you "i promise no students would ever see that picture of you in your uniform...."
well I lied, and then told some students about this promise (whilst i was showing them the picture) and they thought it would be a good idea to send you this.

They thought you looked very strange in your kilt. But they did learn a few new words, kilt, bagpipes, bouncer and spats. Them were the days huh? x

Robyn was standing next to this picture waiting for the MTR (train). I could not help myself


As you have probably realized we have been slacking in the blog area lately. This is partly due to Robyn helping out with sports day at her school, the final production of "Romeo and Juliet" and about a thousand other things. I meanwhile have been in a school all week helping a new staff member get settled in his new school. He landed from the UK on Monday, he was in his school on Tuesday.

By Thursday he was standing in front of the 1,100 students and introducing himself to the masses. I took this picture of the students who were all freakishly quiet, well behaved and barely moved an inch for the entire 20 minute assembly... weird.

Whats the weather like in England then?

Ahhh wish you were here...




Although the beach we went to was perfect and the air was fresh... to get there i made Robyn climb a fair way over a pretty big hill.

The phrase went something like "which idiot thought this would be a good idea" or words to that effect. It was all worth it though once we got there
bx

Unusual names

I have compiled a list of unusual English names that the students pick to call themselves. These are names that they have to be called in class, mainly because their Chinese names are too hard to pronounce.

• Shadow
• Blaze
• Monkey
• Winky
• Chicken Wing
• Johnsons Baby (Thats his full name)
• Frog
• Underpants
• Elvis
• No name
• Darky
• Bo Bo
• Zob
• Fire
• Crazy
• Answer (met two different kids called this)
• Jealous
• Melon
• Kiwi
• Mango ( a boy)
• Fanny
• Gash
• Banana
• Rat

What's stranger is the fellow teacher people who are in the room helping me create this list have become so used to calling the students these names that they no find them to be unusual "Johnsons Baby! Sity down now!" "Melon! Leave Kiwi alone!"

On an different note after not having the TV working for three weeks. It has just been discovered that the cause of the problem was that it was not plugged in. I am being blamed for this, I accept this blame and feel somewhat stoooopid.

Bx

PS. weekend will be spent at the beach, but a really unusual one that you have to trek for an hour through jungle to get to. I just have to try and discover directions with google.