Bella and the bird

Despite miserable cold (that's me) and the cold (the weather) Bella and I decided that being cooped up was not a good lifestyle choice so off to Westonbirt....which was a brilliant idea as the sun was shining and there was sufficient water on the ground to keep water dogs happy.

Managed to drag her away for a proper walk.................................the woods were stunning.

I was so cold I thought a cup of Earl Grey was needed......and this is where we saw the bird!

Mega-post from Hong Kong

Landed in Hong Kong yesterday and staved off sleep as long as possible, firstly by looking around the hotel - this the view of the atrium from the glass-sided lifts.

Then went for a walk along the harbourside - looking across to Hong Kong island 

An opportunity to refresh my collection of HK notices… 

I'm really doing my best to comply with this request… 

Public health initiative. 

Twinned with Glastonbury… 

Went out for a lovely meal with Prakash (with whom I'm teaching) and Bernadette (P's wife).

Spotted on the way back to the hotel. 

Then crashed out until about quarter to five this morning HK time - my body clock is going to take a while to settle down. At least I got to see what empty streets look like! 

This morning after breakfast went for a walk along the harbourside, past the famous Peninsula hotel. 

More signs found today - beware of the pedestrians! 

This is the Flying Frenchman… 

A fresh display of lanterns for Chinese New Year 

Accompanied by an inevitable sign… 

Looking across to Hong Kong island, clouds obscuring parts of the skyline. 

I was down there to catch the Star Ferry across to Hong Kong island - loved this combination of cloud and reflected sunlight as I looked back at Kowloon.

Got off the Star Ferry and went along to Pier 4 to catch a ferry to the island of Lamma. Whilr I waited, I was taken by this poster about running out of landfill.

The queue to get on the boat. 

After about half an hour, we docked at Yung Shue Wan on the north west of the island.

Lots of decorations still up from Chinese New Year. 

This was the major appeal of going to Lamma - no cars and not too many people once the ferry emptied out.

 Last pedestrain to?

A shrine by the side of the path to So Kwu Wan, where I headed for.

I love the way that everything gets catalogued in Hong Kong - even slopes have a unique identifier.

Convulvulus flowers (AKA purple bindweeed). 

Got to a beach and sat on the rocks in the sunshine - 22º according to the display I saw. It was lovely. 

More signs 

This was the downside of the beach, looking northwards. It was clean and very uncrowded, so that helped my enjoyment!

Yet another sign - don't worry, hardly ever any sharks seen (and they are much less dangerous than cars and other human phenomena)! 

A total prohibition zone… 

Hibiscus flowers. 

Mind the rock! 

Bougainvillea flowers.

Passed this plaque, which is hard to read, but basically it says that … 

…this is purported to be a "kamikaze cave" where Japanese troops in WWII were said to have hidden speedboats in case of an Allied invasion.

Several of these along the path. Don't know what Bella would make of these dog latrines…

A good example of bamboo used as a scaffolding material. 

More flowers - quite a contrast to each other! 

Even the trees are numbered! 

A sign asking cyclists to dismount and push on weekends and holidays! 

A temple at So Kwu Wan.

I'd spent a couple of hours getting there - missed the ferry back by a few minutes, so had to have a beer and lunch in one of the many seafood restaurants. After paying, I did a double take with the name of this skin whitening compound! 

Waiting for the next ferry back, looking across to the south of Hong Kong island.

Tomorrow, we start teaching - 10 out of the next 12 days, so not likely to be much more from me for a while, so it's back over to the lovely Su for blog duties.

Nothing but rain.....and cake

It's non-stop rain so indoor activities called for. My favourite one is cake-making and my favourite "food" is chocolate so guess what I made today?  Half of it is now in the freezer and the other half is cut into slices to stop me (in theory) eating it too quickly.

 

The other thing to keep one occupied throughout the winter months is education. I'm currently signed up with MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses), an American idea I believe, which offers "tasters" for free! I'm currently doing forensics as I like a good murder, another course about how our brains work and another about life under the oceans (to counteract the amount of time I spend looking at the surface when in Greece). It doesn't matter where in the world you live - all are welcome.

https://www.futurelearn.com/

And of course there's Bella.  Whoever said that a dog is good company has obviously never owned an old labrador who sleeps for 22 hours per day and spends the other two strolling around with owner(s) and eating.

Rumour has it the sun will shine tomorrow so Bella and I will go out and enjoy it somewhere.