Robyn and Ben in Hong Kong: March 2007

Visitor pit stop...

In a bid to stop Ben posting random crap/updates on his growth I'll do a quick update on some cool things that have happened recently. Basically the lack of posting is down the the crazy month long visitor-athon that has just ended - Adam's visit having been almost overlapped by my Mum and Pete's arrival. All had a great time, saw the sights, ate a lot and generally enjoyed Honk Kong. Now I have a few days rest (well, apart from having to go to school!) until we jet off to Vietnam for a few days (yay!) and then my Dad gets here and it starts again! Madness!

Anyway, Wednesday was the final performance of 'Romeo and Juliet' that I have been working on up at the uni, they did really well and I was rather proud and also quite nervous for them!

The balcony scene

Men in Tights getting violent

Dance-off Shakespeare style

The death scene

However, the highlight of the week was getting a free ticket with the school to go and see the Friday night of the Hong Kong Rugby 7s! My job was basically to walk the girls to the stadium then we were free to do what we wanted i.e. head to the over 18s area! As I know nothing about rugby I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy it but I really got into it and it's very easy to understand, the atmosphere was amazing although it was getting rather messy by the time we decided to leave!

The first game (hence the empty stands!) - Fiji vs Sri Lanka

England vs Hong Kong - despite being in the gweilo stands I was definitely in the minority cheering for England...

but actually I didn't mind!

This is a billboard of a random rugby advert that has been doing the rounds on local TV

Anyway, that's about it for now - bring on the Easter holidays and Vietnam!

R x

Right up our street

I took my camera with me on the way to the shops to show what Robyn and myself walk past every day, often more than once. Ahh the joys of living in the middle of Wan Chai market.

First up we have our front door to the flat, on the left is the Chinese fishy food place that I smell from my window every morning. The first windows you see above the green lattice roofing on the first floor is our flat!

If you look left this is what you see, the beginning of the smelly Wan Chai market. Not EVER to be explored or walked through whilst hung over.

Up this road there are vegetable stores (where you can buy a basket of veggies for hardly any money at all)

There are fruit stores (the old lady looking at the oranges is not included)

And the worst of our street market stalls. THE FISH MARKET. All of the pots contain live fish that you pick and choose to be given the chop.

Round the corner the market really begins. Bumping into old ladies and being pushed around is standard. The old dear in the forefront of the picture has already got me in her sights...

Here they sell 100 year old eggs. I'm not going to begin to try and explain what these things are, but they are very popular in China and basically rather mouldy... click (here) for more information about them.

There are loads of sweet shops as well. Quite a few of the sweets are dried roots and stuff like that which taste surprisingly nice.

Tons of flower shops too!

And plenty of dried fish....
finally whilst I was putting the video of Robyn being jumped over I thought I would put this video up as well of the fishy section of the market. Click (here) to see it.
bx

Robyn in a stunt

After many attempts I have given up with trying to put the video directly on here showing Robyn being jumped over by a Chinese student on wheels. So I am going to link you to it instead.

Points to watch out for is when she gets up and just tries to get the hell out of the area, only to be stopped and told she has to wait. She does get a prize for her daring though so it's all worth while.

It's hard to tell at first but Robyn is laying down closest to the camera waiting to be jumped over. This all happened whilst I was in England so I have know idea how she managed to get involved in skating style stunts.

To be taken to the video, click (here)

bx

contact us....

In a flash or nerdy boredom I have created a rather funky "contact us" section on the right hand navigation bar on the blog. Robyn is not aware that I have placed her email addy on here yet so she may well get me to take it down. At the moment though she can't do anything because she is in bed and a little bit poorly. She is trying to phone her school to let them know she wont be in today but at the moment can't find a staff teacher who can speak English.

Right, me and my cold sore have to make breakfast and get to work now.

bx

Deer droppings

It has suddenly become very humid.

Every year without fail when there is a sudden change in humidity, I get a whopping cold sore on my face. I used to get them all the time when I travelled from England to work in America during the summers and now it is here again. This one is especially horrible, red, scabby and right under my nose. Ronald (who works in the office) says it makes me look a bit like Hitler.

My first port of call upon realizing that I had this new development approaching on my face was to rush to Watsons and purchase some Zovirax. It took quite a few attempts with the guy behind the counter to explain that I was not looking for shaving products (which he kept showing me), but in fact looking for a cream that could kick my cold sore back from whence it came. Eventually I had to allow close inspection of my face before he fully understood that whilst I was ugly and unshaven, there was also a new addition to my top lip region.
I was too late with the Zovirax and now my cold sore is so big I have given it a name as it deserves its own identity, and possibly the choice to vote.

This morning my boss spotted it and now the following developments have occured.

A herbel tea will be consumed on a daily basis to cleanse my system, my boss figured that whilst I am doing it the entire office should do it too. Apparently this stuff gets delivered directly.
I also have to take some Chinese herbal tablets that will assist in 'cleansing my system'. This part is worrying because the last occurance that took place involving Chinese pills was when my friend Danielle could not sleep. She was given pills that contained some type of animal semen.

So in conclusion I think that with all this system cleansing I will firstly be going to the bathroom a great deal. I also think there is a fairly good chance I may consume deer droppings in the process.

bx

Funny signs of Hong Kong part 3

I don't even want to know if this sign is accurate, or quite what 10 dollars will buy you.

bx

Summing up Hong Kong

I never took these pictures. A guy called Tom Grundy who worked for the organization last year took them. I think they are pretty good and sum up Hong Kong really well, so thought I would share them with you lot! :) Click on them to make them larger.

bx

Hong Kong through the decades

1950s Hong Kong

1960's Hong Kong

1970's Hong Kong

1980's Hong Kong

1990's Hong Kong

Present day Hong Kong

If you stand still too long in Hong Kong, they will build a skyscraper on your head.

bx

At the races (again!)

Well its becoming very likely that I may be addicted to gambling. Our evening was packed last night. It began with us visiting a very local establishment that served...

.. Yes your eyes do not decieve you, spiced donkey meat! Yummmm!

This made Robyn rather afraid about the content of what she had ordered

But it all turned out ok in the end and neither of us consumed a spiced donkey. We then went to the horse races and gambled to our hearts content.

The only winners though was Nikki who won 5 dollars and Pete who won 118. I have yet to win anything, which only fuels my addiction..

We then went off to a local Wan Chai bar to see one of our friends play her last ever gig. She is moving to LA which is a bit of a shame. (for us not her)

But as the picture above demonstrates, we all got into the mood and were singing along quite loudly.

'The Shouting Couple' have gone!

The very old white male with the very young Asian girlfriend who lived across from us on the second floor have moved out!

Gone are the days where we have to hear them

Arguing
Swearing
Throwing things at each other
Shouting
Bumping into us in the lift and forcing us to pretend that we have never heard any of the above.

I know all this because I went into their now empty flat to steal their working TV with the landlord. Our toilet is stil leaking but everything else seems to have been fixed by the miracle that is Mr Yu.

All this brilliance is negated though because it seems that workers are now tearing off and replacing the tiles on the outside part of our building. Drilling, banging, and men peering at Robyn and myself through our windows are from today going to become the norm.

bx

Broken Flat

As of this morning the following things have gone stupidly wrong with out flat

We have no working television
We have no hot water
The water we do have is brown and sludge like
Our toilet is leaking all over the floor
The toilet will not flush
I just used the toilet prior to realizing this

I now have to go downstairs and try to communicate this to our Cantonese landlord. I am praying that I will not have to resort to some type of mime action to get the message across. I am also praying that I get the toilet to flush before anyone arrives.

Wish me luck.

bx

Cantonese lesson part 1

I have decided to attempt to learn a little bit more Cantonese than the meager amount that I currently possess. As mentioned before, it is a pretty difficult language to master so I thought I would share it with you.

‘This isn’t cooked mate!’ = Mm-goy lay dee soong may sook!
'We are vegetarians’ = Ngor-day sick jai

Some of my personal favorites are sentences involving emergencies
‘Quick, call the cops’ = Fi-dee bong ngor gill ging chart!

I find it amusing that a sentence that is needed for an emergency can be such a mouthful. By the time I would manage to correctly pronounce and ask someone to call the cops the thief would probably have escaped… … In which case I would have to give chase shouting…

…‘Stop! Thief!’ = Churn Yeahaaahhh!!!!!!!! (with feeling)

So to summarize, if anyone steals from you, give chase and make sounds like a cowboy.

bx

Chilling in a Lamma

Today we have been chilling in Lamma.
Not an actual Lamma you understand, we would never all fit inside one, but Lamma island!

As always it is a nice break from the normal hustle and bustle of Hong Kong. We went to the Bookworm Cafe YUUUUM and then poked around in some shops. We ventured as far as the beach (for those who know the place), but did not do the trek across the island. This was mainly because both Rob, myself (and everyone else in Chatteris i suspect) were feeling a little bit delicate from last night.

Here are some pictures la.