Today is Wednesday, but not only is it the middle of the week, it is also National Day!
This is when we all pause and give thanks to mother China and all the poisoned milk products it produces.
If the video below does not work try clicking here
They also put on a really good fireworks show.
bx
The weekend has just finished and was full of stuff going on.
Saturday the company put on a junk boat trip for all the new employees. It was really fun with lots of sun, sea and island visiting. We were lucky with the weather as Hong Kong was due to get hit by another typhoon, but it just missed us and ended up going to Taiwan instead.
After dinner on Satruday we all went out to the bar and club district of Hong Kong. By mistake we wandered into the wrong lifts in a building and found ourselves in a club on a very high floor of a skyscraper that had the most amazing views across Hong Kong. This was where we spent the next four hours dancing like fools and drinking surprisingly little, because we were all dancing like fools.
Sunday I spent the afternoon at my new fave place to be lazy and relax, RED bar on the IFC rooftop.
The good thing about RED bar (other than the views above and all around) is the seating is for the general public, because the government makes all these big buildings provide public space. This means that you can bring cheap drinks and food from home and sit on the massive comfy chairs for free.
bx
I have just returned home from my Chinese lesson and thought it about time I updated the blog, as I have been neglecting it slightly this week.
After picking up little bits of Cantonese during my years in Hong Kong, I decided that it was high time I learnt the language of mainland China instead. This is because China is trying to connect all the various provinces that make up the country using one single language called Puthongua (also known as Chinese or Mandarin). Another interesting fact for you is that one reason Cantonese is so widely spoken in Hong Kong is because Britain enforced the language to differentiate between mainland China whilst under colonial rule.
My lessons are free because I provide an English tutorial to my tutor, then she teaches me Chinese. We both get something out of the two hour session and no money is exchanged. This exchange way of learning was something I came up with in the shower, but since then no other good ideas have crept up on me whilst cleansing. My overall plan is to make this method of learning Chinese available to all of the company employees sometime after Christmas, as we have connections to a University that has loads of Chinese mainland students.
Hong Kong weather has been pretty chaotic. One minute it is stunning, blue and sunny then the next minute it seems that someone has painted the sky black. Yesterday for example we had another day off due to a Typhoon edging towards Hong Kong. This is the 3rd time it has happened this season and now the excitement has worn off. I don't think a typhoon is ever going to impress me now because I want to see cars lifted into the air, pandas from the zoo zipping round in the sky above my head and fish sucked from the sea and raining down upon the streets. Apparently this is not what a typhoon does.
I went to the Bridge bar yesterday then to the races after work which was good fun. The racing season started a few weeks ago but I have not bothered to go till this week. It was good fun but I did not win anything :(
This Saturday I am going on a Junk Boat Trip with the new employees and then eating seafood at Sai Kung in the evening.
But apprently there is a typhoon coming again that could wreck those plans....
I leave you with a picture of all the ways in Hong Kong you are not allowed to catch fish.
bx
Two weeks ago an ex employee from 1999 contacted the office to say she was coming to Hong Kong for her honeymoon, and that her husband to be was a documentary film maker. This then led to an offer or creating a new promotional film for the organization which then led to loads and loads of work organizing all the shooting to take place in two really busy days.
I now feel I could work in a Hollywood movie studio.
Random News Item 1: Today i consumed a cake that contained the boiled down vomit of birds
Random News Item 2: In October I am swimming 2400 meters in the South China sea with 1000 others just for the hell of it
I will explain random news item 1 in more detail soon.
bx
