Finishing up April, Part 2 April 24 Tony’s day off, get a late start as usual. Up till 3am the night before - beer, burritos and a movie at home - hmmm, seems like a familiar activity - oh yeah, just like what we did in Milw & LA only the setting has changed. Want to hike but aren’t sure where, it is late and threatening to rain, a very gloomy day indeed. Head out about 3pm, but are still undecided as to whether to stay close to home or to go to the New Territories, so we stand on a [View Full Entry]

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OK - I know it's June, but even if it kills me I'm finally going to finish up April, Part 1 Foam We are seeking a simple piece of foam to lay on top of our rock hard bed so that I can avoid permanent damage to my skeletal structure. The Chinese think sleeping on a slab of stone they call a mattress is good and healthful. I don’t. This task doesn’t sound difficult as you should be able to go to the local fabric store and buy a rectangular piece of upholstery foam. But that’s not where they sell foam. [View Full Entry]

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Summing up April - Part 2 April 10 Big day off! What shall we do? I know, let’s kill Martha with an exceptionally fast hike in 85 degrees /100% humidity with cloud cover at 25 ft. Late start. What’s new. Figure out which bus to take to Aberdeen because that’s where we shall pick up the Hong Kong trail. Catch one on Queens Road & it turns out to be a rather a long bus ride taking us to the southern part of HK Island to a bus terminus on Aberdeen Main Rd & Aberdeen Reservoir Rd. The day is dreary [View Full Entry]

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Summing up April - Part 1 April 5 Finally got the Internet access up and running! Had the usual Language Barrier when it was installed the previous Saturday - I asked if my other connection via SBC needed to be removed, but that did not compute with the tech. The install tech didn’t know much about Macs, but then I don’t know much about Macs either. Signed off on his installation and it worked fine till he left, then kaput. I fiddled with it all weekend, then relented and called the un-helpdesk at PCCW. Very nice & polite, but clueless. They [View Full Entry]

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April 3 It’s Sunday and we’re going to Lamma Island today. The usual late start gets us to the ferry pier off of Man Kwong St in Central by the early afternoon. The piers are all clearly marked so there is not a problem getting to the right one. However, there is plenty of construction going on by the harbor that makes it hard to find your way sometimes. Construction is the biz to be in here - it’s unusual to see a street without something being repaired, renovated, or razed. [View Full Entry]

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March 29 More grocery shopping today. The fridge is so tiny that you have to shop nearly every day cuz there’s just no place to put large quantities of food. You couldn’t lug large quantities of anything up here anyway. Besides, it gives us a chance to wander about and get familiar with the city. Stopped at a new restaurant for lunch, one that we pass nearly every day heading towards the MTR or the trolley, block south of Des Voeux on Morrison. Harmony Restaurant is like many in HK, a medium sized family place with a menu offering the gamut [View Full Entry]

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March 28 Woo hoo! Tony has another day off! It’s Easter Monday here in HK. We get our normal late start, but what the heck, I’m retired. For the moment. Destination: Victoria Peak, 552m (let me get my calculator out - about 1820ft), highest point on HK Island. It’s a fabulous day, puffy clouds and blue sky above, warm with a pleasant breeze - first decent weather since I arrived. Walk towards Central and on to catch the Peak Tramway (est. 1888) off Garden Road next to Hong Kong Park. Woah! The li [View Full Entry]

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Ok, so I'm waaay behind on the journals... March 27 It’s Sunday and Tony finally has a day off - poor boy, he’s worked 13 days in a row. All that scrambling for a China visa for me, and we chuck the whole idea. We were up late. Drank wine. Watched silly television. Slept in. Besides I’m still under the weather. Speaking of the weather I realize I haven’t spoken of the weather yet. So far it’s been very gloomy, cool, windy and not at all tropical. I am disappointed because LA was gloomy, cool, windy and really rainy this past [View Full Entry]

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It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor, Would you be mine, could you be mine? Huh? I never got what Mr. Rogers was aiming at. Anyway, here’s a look at our neighborhood and our swell little apartment. As I mentioned before, we live in the Sheung Wan district, a mainly Chinese working class area. Our apartment building is owned by the same guy who owns the club Tony works at, who owns many restaurants and other businesses …which is why he is a millionaire. And a very nice guy. The building is small in comparison [View Full Entry]

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Rest of the first week here… March 22 Did some more walking around the neighborhood. Most of it went by in a blur as I became very disoriented (pun, ha) on my whereabouts. The streets are angled, and curve, so the direction I think is home is completely the opposite. Tony’s circuitous routes don’t help much. He travels in a "straight line" even if it takes you up 100 steps and down 50 and through an alley and back up. Much of our neighborhood, and of HK, is the same pattern, so when you think you have a landmark, it turns [View Full Entry]

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