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Published: January 17th 2009
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greetings once more kind readers!!
i have returned to update you on the escapades of the last few days here in honky konky land. i do believe we left you after the fantasticness of big wave bay last wednesday. thursday not a huge amount happened - james and i had to learn some songs for singing in church so we spent most of the day panicking and making horrible noises, breaking glass etc. then went off with mim to do the singing and it went foine.
friday was far more interesting as we got up at the crack of dawn (9 oclock) to go to an outlying island called cheung chau (see map thing below). we got the mtr to central which is the main city area of HK, big finance district thing, and then got a ferry from central to cheung chau, which took about 30mins. cheung chau is dumbell shaped (u no those big two ended weights things that u lift above ur head) with 2 lumps of mountain joined by a flat narrow strip of land. you arrive on the flat bit in the middle, and wander through markets and local restaurants (dai pai dongs for
those of you who have read all our entries!) to the beach on the other side of the flat bit. the mountain lumps are mostly residential and have holiday houses for people wanting a weekend away from the bustle of hk as there are no cars on cheung chau, only golf-buggy type vehicles and lawn-mower-engine trailer things to carry stuff from one side to t'other. there are also loads of very old temples and shrines which are good cultural spots! the island is very fishing-orientated with loads of fishing boats in the harbour and baskets of fish drying by the side of the paths. cheung chau is also very famous for its annual bun festival, where they build a huge tower out of buns and 4 young lads race to the top. unfortunately a few years ago the tower collapsed and a young lad died, but they have recently restarted the tradition with reinforced towers and harnesses for the climbers - tis a very good sight to see! it wasnt on while we were there but the island had loads of the buns for sale and even as mim saw a cuddly toy bun tower 😊 i love hk!
chinese opera
they're all men with make up and very high singing voices. anyway enough of the guide book stuff. we got there, went to the beach for a kip and some serious enid blighton story tape listening to, then i had to run away to work leaving the two intrepid explorers to discover cheung chau for themselves. apparently they found a few temples and wandered through the market so seems they did quite well! i was a proud mummy. especially when they managed to get themselves all the way back to sai kung (a seaside town 15mins from where i live where we spend most of our time) by themselves 😊 good girls.
so we met in sai kung, james the girls and me back from work. james met the girls first and took them to the chinese opera that was being held in the centre of sai kung. its a national love, and its basically men in makeup singing in high pitched voices. theres a fair that goes with the opera, selling snacks and sweets, the coolest thing is a man with little dishes of molten sugar and colourings who makes shapes with the hot sugar and then colours them and sells them to you right there. tis awesome. then
we went to buy a dvd, eat dinner and watch the dvd in the church youth room which has a nice big projector and comfy sofas 😊 so thats what we did. the movie was hancock in case anyones interested and it was ok-la. completely knackered from the days adventures we staggered home, managing to get on the wrong bus and i was so absorbed in talking to my mother on the phone that i didnt realise til we'd gone 10mins in the wrong direction! still it gave mim time to work her magic and make friends with the lady she was sitting next to on the bus, and we taxi-ed home so no harm done. still what a silly lilly.
which leads us to today - hunky james and lovely sam the sailors were racing in the laser champs so us three girlies went to support. which basically meant a whole day of a free ride on a nice big boat, free lunch and drinks and plenty of sunbathing on deck occasionally glancing at the sailors. well thats not quite true alice actually got a bit addicted to the sailing and insisted on giving us a running commentary
topless sailors!
the second from left is lovely sam, and the last is hunky james. but we sorted that problem with ipods. anyway was a lovely hot sunny day, mim got terribly burnt but only on one side which is hilarious in the extreme, and we did some good topless-man spotting which was very fun. lovely sam the sailor won both his races and hunky james the sailor came 3rd in his (although he has been out of practise so we can forgive him for being outdone :P)
we then retired to james's for some hardcore tv slobbing, then alice and mim managed to get home by themselves yet again (i should really stop being surprised but haha can you blame me?!) as i had dinner in sai kung to say goodbye to my oldies (grandparents) who are leaving back to the UK tomorrow after a month with us. and now we are tired and blogging.
that may have been too much detail haha sorry! let me no n il make it shorter next time.
love you lots
Lilly xxxxxxxxxxxx
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Sam
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I miss u guys! The pics look amazing! I'm about to go back to uni, a week of exams awaiting me - wish i was with u lot being culturable and all! Love u xxxx Sam PS Mim remember my letter and pictures and and and postcards and and and maybe a pet panda too?