MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Well we can’t all say that we’ve spent Christmas in Hong-Kong…but WE CAN!! He he! Although to be fair we could have been anywhere in the world and still made this a day to remember. It was a slow start to the day with our customary oats, yoghurt and fruit breakfast followed by some prancing around in our Christmas hats. Dave slept in a little longer and enjoyed the cosyness of the apartment. We got ourselves a little pack up so we could go to Victoria Park for a Christmas picnic. We were also downloading a Christmas film that we would watch later in the day; Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and strolled out with our Christmas hats still on.

The park is just around the corner from Causeway Bay and was packed full of the local overseas contingent mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines, we’re pretty sure they are mostly maids and restaurant workers and had read prior to going that it’s a very common sight to see them all to get together in public spaces, hanging out with each other on their days off. We assumed this was the case. We walked around and found the central open air swimming pool which is an Olympic-sized pool left empty in the park. Its really eerily located right at the foot of sky-rise apartments and office blocks and left us with a great photo-opportunity.

Moving on from this we continued to walk and found a nice quiet spot in the park where we would have our picnic. For Christmas brunch we opted for the much anticipated and longed for hummus and carrot, a good tomatoe relish, rivita crackers, posh crisps, dark chocolate and cider. Oh how we enjoyed this sipping cider with the local monks passing by and just simply enjoying our little moment.

After this satisfying and overpriced picnic we went back to the apartment via the shipping area, photographed more of the locals and went back to settle in for some Ferris Bueller action. This was Dave’s first time…Can you believe it?? It was enjoyed along with a bottle of white wine and dark chocolate…oh how the other half live!

After the film we got ready for our Christmas meal we had booked the previous day. Most restaurants offer a set menu from day to day and they tend to be good value for money. We had noticed a little pub underneath our guesthouse offering a Christmas menu that didn’t look to shabby at all and was at a relatively good price considering the cost of other things on offer. So we didn’t venture very far at all, we did get a few Christmas presents to enjoy with our meal of which you can see us modeling the best below! The meal started off okay, but it just went from bad to worse and by the end Helen felt like it was the toilet that was calling her rather than the local dessert. Hmmm! You can’t win them all!

So after a slightly disappointing meal (although the picnic did make up for this!!) and a good Skype call to the Roscoe’s we went off to Victoria Peak via the metro so we would take in the Hong-Kong skyline by night. It was a good little journey, packed with many other tourists waiting to go up to the Peak, and the tram ride up was fun. Once we were up there it was really cold, so it was a good job we’d put on some extra layers. We experimented with slow shutter work on the Leica which provided us with an alternative view take of the skyline. Helen’s dinner didn’t do her many favours so she was not a happy bunny but after a good hour or so we got the tram back down and made our way back to Causeway Bay.

You can walk down from the Peak and on a nice evening this would have been a good option and alternative to getting the tram. We didn’t buy tickets to the highest viewing platform and the main building contains a lot of shops which we more or less bypassed to get outside and photograph the views.

Back in Causeway Bay we walked around a little longer, took in some more neon and then went back to our little room to enjoy the rest of our Christmas evening together.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We didn’t do much today but we do have a nice little shot of our tea cups taken whilst finishing off some work at the Zone Cafe. Later on we were invited for a meal at Kim and Jenny Chan’s place who we’d met earlier in the month at an FC Club creative networking event at The Hilton Beijing. Pretty sweet!

Anyway we would like to thank them for their hospitality, fine red wine and food. We wish their daughter all the best for her hopes in finding an art school that meets her needs.

Tomorrow is Helen’s Birthday!

Xi’an and the Terracotta warriors have been on our to-do list before we even left the UK and we have decided on some dates for when we can pay them a visit. You can fly quite cheaply with CTRIP but we wanted to catch the over night train from Beijing so we could sleep and travel. This required us to purchase our first train ticket. Seat 61 is a great website for finding out information on trains in China, so armed with the information we headed to Beijing West train station. A massive building but nowhere the quality of Beijing South station, it was rammed to the rafters with people and luggage. With no English service desk in sight we picked a random window and tried our luck, no luck, however the next window along had an English speaking lady so we sorted the tickets out. We left as quickly as possible due to stress building rapidly from the shear quantity of people and lack of organisation in such public buildings. It isn’t linked in with a subway line at present but if you know the bus routes and the location of the nearest tube you can get there pretty easily.

The subway home, relax time with some editing of photos, diary writing followed by a walk to the nearby lake and internet cafe to upload our new updates. We knew of a vegetation restaurant at the top of the lake and it was only a short distance from where we had been editing away. The Lotus Leaf restaurant founded by Buddhist monks offers a broad selection of vegetarian food. The venue had a chill in the air however the food was very good with fake meat (tofu fashioned into meat textures and flavour) and spicy sauces. Beer is non-alcoholic here and tasted very malty but washed the spice down very well. All in all a good find.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)