I got into carpentry on my last few days off and made four bits of what can loosely be described as furniture.
The Hong Kong Trail is a walk through the hills and forests of the island. Total 50km, divided into 8 sections. We’ve done 5 sections so far in three outings. That’s where I met the crab, but no monkeys – there aren’t any on the island unfortunately.
There did use to be big cats here, especially on the mainland but not now. A tiger was shot by a policeman in 1942 on the island, though it’s rumoured it had escaped from a circus.
Still wonderful weather. On the beach and in the sea on Nov 12th.
The 8-hour difference causes problems when it comes to watching football. The last match I watched started at 1.30am, and it was a disaster for an LFC fan (Stoke).
I now know the names of 10 vegetables. The latest being Ke Ji (aubergine) and the woman at the fruit and veg shop now tests me when I go to buy stuff:
Her “Potato!” Me: “Shi Jai!” Her: “Tomato!” Me: “Fan Kei!”
I did have a setback with my vegetable-based Cantonese, though. At a dinner I tried out a few of the words but when I said “Shi Jai” they laughed and said “that means idiot!” It does, however, shed some light on the curious tee-shirt slogan in the last blog.
If you’re interested in seeing exactly where we live, zoom in and out a bit here
First day of teaching, walk into class and thirty 8-year-olds stand up and as one, bow and say “Good morning Mr. Simon!” I sense discipline will not be a problem...
There seem to be an extreme number of safety notices around. On the MTR escalators "Mind your toes" and "Always hold the hand rail! You can make it a safe journey!" "Watch out for flash floods" next to every little stream (probably fair enough this one, considering the rain we get here at times) "Beware, wet floor" in the showers at the beach seems a little unnecceseray. But my favourite so far is this one in the photo below: