Beaches and Birthday

On Friday we went out to the Gold Coast for a belated birthday celebration for Blaine .  First we went for massages. When you are finished they serve you tea.

I got a foot massage which was wonderful.

Hunter wasn't too sure about drinking the tea!

Jill made a cake and everyone helped blow out the big 60 candle.

On Saturday we went out to Stanley with Kylie, Jocelyn and Rachel.

Heading out on the ferry to North Point which is on the island .  Then you can either take a bus out to Stanley, or take a taxi which is what we did.

At the ferry terminal at North Point is a fish market with everything.  Here's some octopus and they even had a sting ray.  l don't know if they are eaten or what.

This is at the start of the market.  I really like Stanley market because it has a little better quality of stuff than the Night Market.  I even bought a pair of Merrel sandals here.

This is along the board walk by the ocean.  It sort of feels like a European resort here.  There are a lot of x-pats here and it is a big tourist destination.

All along the beach are restaurants and English pubs. It was very good food. Stanley was taken over by the British in 1841 and was then won by the Japanese in the war.  

This is inside the market.  As you can see its very crowded and its not something you can rush through.

On the way home we took  a bus which was long and tiring but its always interesting  to see new areas and just riding on the winding narrow roads up and down the mountains is an adventure in itself.  We again took the ferry back to Kowloon.  This was a local fishing boat we saw.  We had a great Friday and Saturday relaxing with the kids.  I always love going to the beaches and riding the ferries.

Blaine's brother Dallas and cousin Colette arrived safe and tired!

 Most of their luggage was goodies for us.  Blaine has been craving puffed wheat squares and spinach dip is what l'm looking forward to!  When you can't get certain things, you can be sure that's what you crave.

Checking out how far down the ground is!  And so ends another week in Hong Kong.

Off to the Hair Salon

I took the plunge and finally after three months went for a color and cut.  One of the gals that retired from teaching this year took me to the salon she goes to.  It's hard to find someone here who is used to cutting and coloring western hair, unless you go to the island, which is considerably more expensive.   It's quit the production and took 4 hours in all!  You get your own little locker with key, at the station to put your purse etc. in. Then the stylist comes and sees what you want and  an apprentice takes you into a room with couches where you lay with your head over a sink and you get a shampoo.  The cut took a long time by a very pleasant young man who spoke very good English.  He said it takes 5 yrs here to become a stylist because you apprentice for so long while also taking classes. Then he  dried my hair, while we discussed what shade of color l wanted.  Then the color technician  comes and does his thing.

After the color you wait 1/2 hour and they bring tea, coffee, water,or whatever you want.

Then you sit under your space age looking heater which goes round and round!  After this you again go back on the couch for another shampoo and this time you also get a head massage for around 15 min.  Then its back to the stylist for the final blow dry etc.   What a production!!  It all turned out pretty good.  I more or less wanted the same style l had with some length taken off, and the color didn't turn green yet so l guess it'll all be fine!

The cost is a little more than at home but pretty comparable.  Looks much the same as home so at this point its a good thing!  Maybe next time l'll be more adventurous and get something new and wild!!  Yesterday l got a text message from Henry (stylist) wondering if the color was good and if it was laying the way l wanted!  Can't say that has happened before.  Good business on his part l suppose.  Wishing you a happy snow weekend!

A walk On the Wealthy Side

The Hong Kong Golf Club. It's quit the place!

Friday night all the school staff and families were invited to go to the Hong Kong Golf Club in Fanling, for an evening out. If you wanted to use the driving range and get professional help you could do that for an hour before supper.  Of course Blaine took advantage of the offer!!  Because it was raining we couldn't use the pools or sit outside, but it was still fun, and the food was unreal.  One of the board members (the same one who took us to Sai Kung for seafood) is a very wealthy man and is an ex president of the club so he has this supper and golf each year for the school staff.  In two weeks  the PGA tour will play the Hong Kong Open there so just imagine us sitting there looking down the first fairway and  pretending we belong in such a place!

One of the beautiful serving tables.

Visiting after dinner.  Not sure what Talia's doing on the right there!

                                                  
Saturday was a little different story.  Blaine and l decided to make a trip to the outlet mall to try and find him some new running shoes and practice getting around. It was pouring rain when we left.  Well we had a few problems getting off too early at one of the bus stops and trying a different way home by taking two trains and a bus.  The mall is about 5 stories tall and is full of outlet shops.  He did manage to find a pair of Addidas shoes for $40.  Can. so that was all right, and we had Subway for dinner!

We were waiting for the train to Tung Chung which is out by the airport.  I got talking to two little girls who belonged to the family in the picture. They were from Finland and were heading out to Disneyland  for the day.

The courtyard of the mall has a neat water fountain which couldn't really be appreciated in the rain!   Amazingly the Subway tasted just like home.  Yeah meatball marinara!

I think this is a restaurant on top.

The Nike outlet store.  There are a lot of Chinese tour buses that come here from Mainland China. The mall has K Swiss, Columbia, Adidas , Nike, Body Shop,  and a whole lot more.  Lee Anne you'd love it here!

There is a hotel at one end and it also has more upscale outlet stores here.

We tried another way home and went through the Hung Home station which is very large and has both an MTR and bus depot.

Bus 11K.  Our final ride home.  These buses can hold 135 people, and are sometimes filled to capacity or more!

I took this one this morning because it looked rather interesting with the three layers.   The sky was bright blue, with a layer of bright white clouds, and then the smog covering the buildings

This afternoon workers started working by the balcony right above us.   The scaffolding is made from bamboo poles tied together with  leather strips.  You can see his feet on the poles.

Here he is standing on the metal brace that is drilled into the outer wall, getting ready to tie another pole.   He tied that upright pole on while l was watching.  All l could see was his hands and that one foot.  Can you imagine standing on that little metal rod that far up?   Creepy to even watch.  I wish l'd seen them put the braces up because l don't know what supports them  or where they hang from to put that into the wall. They were working on the front balcony too and there was a heavy tether rope swinging in front of the bedroom window so maybe they just hang from it to drill in the brace.
Today is Friday and l am going with another lady to get a hair cut and color.  Apparently there are not many salons that can cut western hair decently so l am trusting Marg knows where she is going!!  It will be another stretching experience for me.  There seem to be so many here!!   May the Lord bless each of you abundantly in the coming week.

Dry Run to Airport

Kylie, Jocelyn, and Rachel arriving home from Philippines.

At the arrivals area of the airport

On Saturday Blaine wanted to go out to the airport partly to meet Kylie, Jocelyn, and Rachel, but also for a practice run.  Blaine's brother and a cousin are coming for a visit on Nov. 20th, so we wanted to see what was the best way to get to the airport to welcome them.  You've heard of a slow boat to China?  Well this trip was a slow bus to Lantau (island where the airport is)  If ever there was a milk run this was it!!  It wound through every back road possible to get there.  If you have lots of time it is rather interesting to see different areas and is much cheaper than the taxi, but make sure your bladder is empty and don't drink anything on the way!

Heading out for the airport in a double decker bus.  The picture below is of part of the container terminal on the way to the airport.  I'ts a huge place and this is only a small portion of it.  The cranes are so big and amazing to see.  It apparently is considered the busiest port in the world and puts  through around 243 million tonnes of cargo a year.

Coming into  Whampoa. Our church is not too far from here.  We meet in a Chinese Alliance school gym, and have around 200 people each Sunday.

This is the Whampoa mall.  This area is all built on reclaimed land.  The ship has a hotel and shopping mall in it. It's kind of interesting to see a ship in the middle of all the high rises.

Heading out of the congestion to the bridge that connects us to Lantau where the airport is.  I took a picture of the bridge, but it didn't turn out very clearly so we'll try again another day.  The bridges here are enormous and quite beautiful on a clear day or at night.

.We went to Ruby Tuesday's  to celebrate Blaine's birthday. Now this is a restaurant that we will go to again (unlike the Spaghetti House of  last week!)

Grandpa and Rachel playing a fun game.  Some week  l'll have to do a blog bragging up the grandkids.  They are the most amazing children around of course!  We are heading out to a fancy golf club tonight with the rest of the teachers.  A celebration that parent teacher interviews are done!!  Actually it just happened to fall on this day, but l think everyone is ready for some r n r.  Interviews went from 4 pm to 9 pm on Thursday after teaching all day, and all day today. Hope you all have a fun week!

PS.  Apparently the picture of the ship won't open in the blog.  You can try to right click on it and try opening it in another window.  Sometimes its here and sometimes not.  I'll try and get another one of it for next week.