Interfering insects

It's been a long time. Now that I've started working full-time again (for the first time in...well, quite a long time anyway) I've had to let the blog slide. I think I'm ready to restart it now, having got used to the new routine.

We've done quite a bit since the last post, including a trip across to Lamma island. It's a nice island with a very laid-back atmosphere. It's trafficless, as most of the outlying islands are, and quite rural once you're away from the main town and the ferry pier. A lot of people live an "alternative" lifestyle here (presumably returning to the standard lifestyle between 9 and 5 when they commute across to their international bank in Central!). As you walk around you occasionally come to almost abandoned villages, surrounded by disused banana plantations and fields. These villages have only a few elderly residents left, who potter around with dogs and incense. As we walked alongside some of those banana plantations we were unfortunate enough to see a huge black banana spider sitting in its web in the shade of a tree. No photo - I'm ashamed to admit that neither of us dared to get close enough to take one.

The island also has some pleasant beaches; the largest is nicknamed Powerstation Beach - as you sit there watching the sunset you in turn are watched over by the 3 chimneys of a huge, modern generating complex at one end of the bay. I was skeptical too, but it's really not as bad as it sounds!

We've done some other short walks on long-abandoned footpaths on the hillside near us too - one of these was cut short after encountering a mysterious swarm of hovering insects, some of which were beating their wings apparently in some kind of rhythm... We're still arguing about whether they were deadly hornets or just harmless hoverflies.

Thursday was (American) Thanksgiving, so we duly celebrated with a turkey dinner at California, one of the first restaurants to open in Lan Kwai Fong. Afterwards, we walked down to see the new Christmas village being set up in the centre of town, and the huge Christmas tree outside the Mandarin Oriental (pictures to come, I promise!). There was suddenly a huge downpour, but we managed to make it back up the escalator to a small branch of XTC, where we got some really good gelato, eaten sheltering under the awning outside.

I had a nice relaxing end to the week last night: there was live music on a small stage just outside my office, featuring Takeda Kazuo, a Japanese jazz guitarist of some note. Nice.

Not so small brother

We often chuckle about the amount of public service announcements here, as they seem to show the kind of problems common in Hong Kong - as well as the typical ones about speeding and drugs there are commercials exhorting people to use proper precautions when working in confined spaces, get flu shots, maintain windows, think before buying pets and even to respect and love their families more.

These advertisements on not just on TV. The MTR (subway) system is full of posters about keeping fit, helping the elderly and more. As I was walking into the subway last night, I suddenly felt I was in 1984... Imagine the scene: crowds of commuters, children, old people and helpers all trooping stolidly towards the ticket gates, over which hangs a large dot matrix sign, alternating between Chinese and English and reading in bright letters: "Stay healthy! Eat sensibly and take regular exercise!")

(Oh yes, one more thing - I hate to say this, cos it sounds too typically ex-patty - but it's around 22C and we're freezing here today. And the air-con is still going full-blast in all the shops. I don't know we used to survive in Hokkaido!)

To be a deckhand

Well, I'm now the proud owner of an employment visa, and ready to start work. Collecting it was easy - just a matter of a quick trip to Wanchai, locating the correct window while not being distracted by the Entry permits for mainland fisherman deckhands counter, and of course paying the fee.

Another quick trip to Macau today in order to reenter the country on the new visa, and I'm all sorted. I didn't have time to do much during the 3 hours I was there this time, but I did get to see a visiting African president and his wife, one of the scores that have been visiting China (in order to "cooperate") at the moment, as they were ushered around the Taipa House Museum. The ferry back seemed to take a longer route than usual, which was a little tedious but did provide good views of the airport and lots of huge container ships steaming inexorably into harbour, as they do every day.

Will it or won't it?

Cimaron, a late typhoon, has been edging closer to Hong Kong over the last few days; we've had signal number 1 in force for quite a while now. At first they predicted it would turn away and hurry westward to terrorize Vietnam well before it got near us, but it ignored the predictions and pushed on steadily straight for us. Last night it just stopped and now seems to be kicking its heels in the South China Sea wondering what to do next.
This is an image from the Hong Kong observatory web site (Hong Kong is the red star) - they still seem mighty confident that it will suddenly up and bolt west...but anything could happen.