Hong Kong - Muggy Saturday

8.00am Saturday - It's warm and steamy(24C & 85% humidity already). But we're in Hong Kong for a two day stop over. Doing the sites :)

So here we have a few photos with brief comments. Too weary to write masses of text :)

Not sure what these chubby little blue thingies down at Harbour City were - but all of Hong Kong seemed to want to be photographed with them...

Firstly, the ferry. A trip on the water is always a must. And makes for great views of Hong Kong. $3.40HK (approx. 43c Aus) buys you a token to get onto the ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island.

Unless of course, you have an Octopus...

Hong Kong Island -

Garbage collection, local style

Hong Kong business district

Hong Kong Park...

Hong Kong Park is also home to the Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware. Until 1978, it was the residence of the Commander of British Forces in HK. It was converted to a museum in 1984 and claims to be the first museum in the world to specialize in the collection and study of tea and tea wares. 

On display, an exhibition of "Chinese Tea Drinking" featuring a collection of different tea pots, cups, bowls and ewers, including what is reputedly the world's oldest surviving teapot (C4th)as well as displays and films about the history of tea and tea preparation in China. 

Also of note, a smiling,jolly security guard. He had no English (and we have no Cantonese), but he followed us from gallery to gallery on the upper floors offering a series of unsolicited mimes which translated roughly as:

1. You really should be taking photos in here, so many interesting things to remember!
2. Please take one of our brochures, there's one for each gallery and they have lots of information - and they have English and Cantonese text :) :) :)
3. And the truly memorable "horrors of foot binding" 

Fascinating, free (and air conditioned!)

Next, a trip to the Peak for those spectacular views back over the Harbour. I really hate heights, but it's what you do in Hong Kong, right? So I agreed to take the Peak Tram up to the top.

It's steep. Very steep... And this is just the station at the Peak Tram stop.

Pretty impressive views from the top, though. 

And several refreshing walks around the edge. Lots of joggers and locals walking their dogs

Back over to Kowloon again on the ferry -  starting to rain with a thunderstorm threatening

Then another HK institution dim sum at the Luk Yu Tea House (Stanley Street). Frommer's famously reviewed it:

Luk Yu, first opened in 1933, is the most famous dim sum teahouse remaining in Hong Kong. In fact, unless you have a time machine, you can't get any closer to old Hong Kong than this wonderful Art Deco-era Cantonese restaurant, with its ceiling fans, spittoons, individual wooden booths for couples, marble tabletops, wood paneling, and stained-glass windows... the service can be indifferent, those looking for a slice of a bygone era should make a point of dining here.

Our review, food very good - all the dim sum classics (lovely fresh har gau, sui mai,BBQ pork buns and sensational egg tarts!). Service - not indifferent, a little brusque perhaps, but friendly and efficient. Cheaper than Chinatown in Melbourne and certainly worth a visit.

Then a trek back to the hotel, trying to avoid the coming rain and heat by dodging through air conditioned shopping malls and walkways. A few sights on the way...

Flags of PRC & HK...

Bamboo scaffolding (at the YMCA)...

Advertising...

 

Bridal parties everywhere - sweltering in their finery...

In the background - more advertising. Foreground, 1881  Heritage Centre (once the HQ of the HK Maritime Police). WBM's photo just about sums up Hong Kong for me.

And finally, back at the Langham. Frazzled and bedraggled...

China

Unexpected, almost totally unplanned, oh my ears and whiskers - we're going to China!

Let the blogging re-commence...

Migrating birds on evening in Missouri

Action: driving over a bayou with good music.

Winter in America is cold

Bridge over the Mississippi at Cape Girardeau

What a cold day, breezey and freezing.
"Winter in America is cold and I just keep growing older"........Doug Ashdown version was best.

Made a very quick walk around the old part of town and then headed back to the bunker to keep working.

Cotton fields in winter

Missouri is flaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttt.
The main geographic feature is the Mississippi but you can't see that unless you’re standing in it.

It is winter here and the fields are bare except for the bits and pieces of cotton left over from harvest.

Weather has been milder than expected; no snow yet for this stay.

I thought I knew what a bayou was; ie some type of Louisiana swamp that was somehow “blue” but up here it is applied to slow moving low lying streams as well.

Take care y'all.

Midwinter Madness

WBM and I spent Easter packing up Mum and Dad's house prior to sale. The buyer is very keen for a quick settlement and wants to be in by early May so everything had to be done quickly.It was quite an emotional and yet at the same time cathartic Easter.

To be honest, packing up my family's final house was something I'd been dragging my feet about. There's so much sentiment involved; what to keep, what to store, what to sell (who the hell will buy that??) and what to fling...  

Now the baby grand was a given. It's gone into it's own special piano storage, waiting for the day when our house renovation is finally done and it can move in with us. Besides, Mum always said she would haunt me if I sold it after she died - and I believe her!

What to with the furniture was another matter. Right from the heart of the '70's a whole house full of Davis "Priory" pieces. Solid Victorian Ash timber, leather seats and tapestry upholstered in '70's brights. Retro is in, but apparently "... we are still in the early seventies Scandinavian phase". The Salvation Army didn't have room for it and we didn't want to send it to the tip - but finally we found somewhere for it to go. Mrs Secondhand decided that it was perhaps the next thing in seventies retro and was willing to have a shot at selling it on consignment. We'll see.

So... for anyone into Lord of the Rings re-enactments; perfect for that fantasy role playing evening, as seen in Oblivion ...

Apart from the piano and '70's styling, Mum and Dad loved ceramics and cut glass and had been collecting since their marriage in 1956. Stuart and Staffordshire, Waterford and Wedgwood, Coalport, Carlton, Poole and Ellis; the house had become a hoard of knick knacks, objet and whimsies;

 

But Mum's particular passion was for Midwinter China. Pride of place in the collection was a hand engraved Midwinter Modern Fashion Shape dinner setting in the Bolero pattern. Quite rare and collectible I'm told; created in 1955 by Midwinter's celebrated designer Jessie Tait.

 

Not only that, but this set is the full catastrophe, a dinner service for 8 with all the trimmings, cups, saucers, jugs, tureens, teapots, cheese platters and dishes;

...and my favourite of all, the cruet set (sweet!);

Apart from a little crazing due to age (and we all know about that don't we?) the dinner service is in perfect order without a single chip or mark. It was rarely used - even at Christmas. Mum would make an exception for extra special dinner parties, but even then John and I were not allowed to wash it up (suited me fine!) It's still as bright and vibrant as the day it was painted.


Fear not Ma, I'll be keeping the Bolero; I love its cheery '50s eccentricity. Guess I'll have to take over the washing up though :(

Of a less certain fate is the Midwinter Stonehenge "Earth" dinner service. Once again, the whole guacamole;place settings for 8 - in fact sometimes 10 - Mum always bought spares just in case,  particularly after Anne and I were born! 

Yet again there are plates,jugs, bowls, salt and pepper shakers and 3 - (count them), 3 casseroles. This set was used a lot for Mum's dinner parties but is so darn heavyweight that it just couldn't be broken and is still in wonderful shape. But "Earth" is so relentlessly seventies, so brown, so made to be with the Davis/Lord of the Rings furniture. And oh those "Eye of Sauron" dinner plates...

Should I keep it - where would I put it?
Should it go? - but what about memories of those seventies parties? 

• Avocados & prawn cocktail
• Coq Au Vin or Stroganoff
• Apricots in Brandy or Cherries Jubilee
• Seppelts Moyston Claret
• Percolating coffee in the background
• Dudley Moore on the stereo

Hmm, maybe it should go... Anyone???

iCrap

It was one of those days today. I spent the morning busily processing photos, writing up a new pattern and blogging. Very productive. 

Yeah, right. You see, my computer the iCrash 1200 had other ideas. I don't think it's too much to ask of a computer that it can run for 30 minutes without overheating and closing down. This behaviour started around six months after I bought the iCrash. Ever-helpful-Dell (their actual trading name) told me that it was a known "feature" (their words) of the model I had (funny didn't see that anywhere in the product information). They advised me that I would need to buy a stand to lift the thing off the tabletop - thus ventilating the fan. Grrrr. 

The only "Apple" thing about this computer was the sticker...

Now, normally I would have stood my ground with Dell and got them to take the thing back. But I had a major paying project on at the time and was in desperate need of my computer. So I shelled out the $25 for a piece of recycled plant pot to act as a throne for the iCrash. And it did work for a while. But with the start of the "hot" weather, the laptop started daily crashes, twice daily crashes and encore performances.Today's repeated recalcitrance and phone syncing hystrionics were the last straw. Goodbye to much of the work I did this morning and goodbye to the iCrash - the thing crashed when I was backing up!!!!!!! It's over - finito - you're history!!!!!! 

Bahrain

Images of conflict in the Middle East have become so common over the last 40 years that it is easy to become desensitised to them. From Australia it seems worlds away and unreal. 

John and I were in Bahrain in September,October & December 2010. Blogging was blocked in while we were in Bahrain, but given recent events I thought it would be timely to load a few photos:

Al Fateh Grand Mosque; main mosque of Bahrain (Al Fateh = Conqueror)

Bahrain has been going through a construction boom, built on the labour of guest workers from Pakistan, Indian and poorer nations in the Middle East. There are signs of Western influence everwhere in architecture,consumer goods, cars and food. There is a MacDonalds on both sides of the causeway that connects Bahrain with Saudi Arabia and shopping malls are replacing traditional souks. An inevitable sameness with the rest of the world is creeping in.

On the Bahrani side of the King Fahd Causeway (linking Bahrain & Saudi Arabia)

Being a Muslim country, alcohol is banned, but Bahrain has one discrete retail outlet which sells wines and sprits to non Muslims. The car park was full of the cars driven by wealthy young Bahrani men; unable to buy for themselves, they would send their Indian and Phillipino servants in to shop for them.

With elections looming there were rumblings for change to the minority ruling elite, repression of the workers, lack of representation of women in government. The local media are officially pro monarchy -

Daily Tribune: September 30th 2010

but were also starting to publish other views: (Both pieces from the Daily Tribune, September 2010 - the national Bahrani newspaper)

Daily Tribune: September 30th 2010

There were no protests on the streets while we were in Bahrain; but there were many security guards and police, particularly around the major roads and near the King's palace. I was unable to get a photograph of the Pearl Monument Roundabout (centre of recent protests) - it was patrolled by armed guards every time we drove through. Possibly the most surreal sight of the trip came on a trip to the supermarket; there was a military exercise immediately across the road in the desert.

Tanks across the road from the Seef Mall Supermarket

I've put together a small video piece on our trip - soon to be loaded to YouTube.

Sunset at Qal`at al-Bahrain - World Heritage Fort

And here it is...