AND STILL THE CELEBRATIONS CONTINUE!

It's just after 6.15 pm and the red wine HAS to be finished today, so we bought ourselves some Hong Kong cakes and are now enjoying the evening sunshine in our room and of course, continuing our Golden Wedding celebrations - well it would be rude to leave the wine after the hotel thoughtfully provided us with it!

When we woke this morning, we were delighted to see a beautiful sunrise - such a shame the sun didn't shine for us yesterday, but we enjoyed it nevertheless and we are thankful to see it today.

Today we went into the centre of Hong Kong to meet up with Amy and Garry, our friends from Church, who hail originally from Hong Kong and just happened to be on holiday whilst we were here.  The receptionist suggested that instead of going on the MTR, we take the hotel courtesy bus that would drop us outside the Peninsula Hotel, which we duly did.  Although it was sunny, there was still a cold wind, so we did need our fleeces earlier this morning.

We found Tsim Shat Shui Exit D1 and then decided to have a wander around.  Unless you are really into shopping, which I'm not, the shops are quite pleasant to walk around, but here in Hong Kong, much like Vietnam, many of the sizes are small, very small and even smaller.  They don't seem to make many clothes to fit "buxom English wenches" - so I just made do with looking - actually, I'm not sure I would ever wear some of the exquisite dresses shown on the models anyway, so Mr. HCB was pleased to put the credit card back in his wallet.

Whilst wandering, we saw lots of bamboo scaffolding, which has been blipped by SweetArt (our HK friend, Sandy) and as its name suggests, is made from bamboo, and it really does intrigue us.  I read that this type of scaffolding has been used in construction work for centuries, and I understand that the Great Wall of China was building using it.  The bamboo is so thick and strong and in Hong Kong, it is used as the primary method to build skyscrapers, which, when you look at the height of them, seems rather frightening.  Apparently, It takes only about a day to put up a 1,000 foot tall scaffold using bamboo and in Hong Kong about 5 million bamboo rods, each about 7 metres long, are used every year.

We duly met up with Garry and Amy - and they took us to a wonderful Chinese restaurant where Amy ordered lots of delicious food - various dim sums, which Garry told us translated as "close to your heart" because they taste so good - and you can see some of the dishes in the collage.  

The great thing about Chinese food is that just as you think you have eaten enough, the waitress comes along with three more dishes - so you start again - and so it goes on....and on....and on!  My favourite dish was the fried dim sums filled with pork, but Mr. HCB said he liked everything!  When we eventually finished all the dishes and the table had been cleared, the waitress then brought some desserts - I thought that one of them was a bowl full of melted chocolate - wrong!  It was red bean paste - which Mr. HCB ploughed through and I had a dish of sago.  Garry was impressed that I knew what it was, but I told him that when I was at school, we had this for our school lunch, and always called it "frog spawn".  

I have put in a photograph of the order that Amy completed - and you would be forgiven for thinking that it was some form of Chinese Bingo!  She circled the dishes and then when they were brought, the waitress stamped on the red form those we had and in that way the cashier knows what to charge.  

It was a wonderful lunch and we were delighted that we could meet up with Garry and Amy - they are flying back to the UK next Wednesday, so we hope to see them in Church on the 25th March, as we don't fly back until 18/19th March.

I asked Amy and Garry about changing some of my US Dollars into HK Dollars, and they said that it would be better to go into a bank and there was "one on every corner" - but when we asked what they charged, and they said 10 HK Dollars, Garry suggested we find another bank - and then saw a branch of his, so he did the business for us.  We had to wait over half an hour though and they work on a number system - so many people don't bother to wait and some even fall asleep whilst they are waiting!

We took our leave of Amy and Garry as Amy had a dental appointment but not before more hugs were exchanged - with grateful thanks from us for the wonderful meal they shared with us.  Mr. HCB explained that wherever we went in the world, we always liked to sample the local food, and HK is no exception.  

We had a wander around then on our own, with Mr. HCB getting rather irritated because we kept being accosted by people, mostly men, offering to make him a suit or a shirt.  I must say that it made us very wary of even going into a shop - and we stayed well away from the jewellers' shops!

By mid afternoon, the sun was shining well and it was quite hot, so we decided to go back to the Peninsula Hotel and catch the bus back to our hotel.  The Peninsula, which opened in 1928, is a very famous hotel, having been mentioned in books and featured in various films.  It is a beautiful building and is notable, apparently, although we didn't see any, for its large fleet of Rolls Royce cars, painted a distinctive "peninsular green".  I did notice, however, that fella with the hat in front of the fountains of the hotel - he seems to get everywhere!

On the way back to the hotel, we marvelled at the skill of the men cleaning the hotel windows - you wouldn't get me on one of those metal platforms for love nor money!  

Also on the way back, I noticed some beautiful little flowers - so have added them to the collage too.  Not sure what they are - they could be Hoyas, but perhaps someone knows.

We haven't actually had time to go swimming, but decided we ought to go and at least look at the pool and the view from the very top of the hotel on the 21st floor - the sign about not spitting in the pool amused me - but spitting seems to be the norm here, so maybe people do need to be reminded not to do it!

So here we are, eating our cakes, enjoying a glass of red wine and the views from our window in the evening light.  We have watched cruise ships coming in and all the other small boats in the harbour, including junks, police speed boats and passenger ferries, all the time thinking we need to do our packing ready to leave tomorrow to go and stay with our friends, Sandy and Martin.

Another lovely day but not quite as "full on" as the last few have been - we are looking forward to being with Sandy and Martin for the next three days, going to their Church with them on Sunday and perhaps having a more relaxing time - unless, of course, Sandy has something energetic planned for us.

Thank you for all your kind comments, stars and hearts - and I apologise for not commenting myself - but quite honestly, I don't know when I would have a chance to do it - unless of course, I stayed up all night!  M xx