Trio Beach

One of the glories of Hong Kong is its beaches, and the start of April marks the re-opening of the public beaches after the winter break.

I was keen to take advantage of a short patch of fine mild weather forecast for Saturday and try-out the nearest beaches.   We don't have a 'local' beach close-by so we decided to try Trio Beach which is one of the closest although it requires a 40min taxi-ride round MaOnShan to Sai Kung and Pak Sha Wan (aka 'Hebe Haven'), and then a short  Kaido (water taxi) ride.

Hebe Haven from the Kaido with Ma On Shan in the right back-ground.  Shatin Valley is on the other side of the hills.

Trio beach from the Kaido.  It is a small beach but has life-guards, shark nets, swim rafts and changing facilities and a pleasant shop where we hired an umbrella and bought ice creams.

BBQ pits with the inevitable group of Aunties.   They really know how to enjoy themselves on a budget.

Apart from the Aunties and the life-guards, the beach was virtually deserted.

But there was a lot of sailing going on out in the bay.

It was about 25 degrees and 20 in the water temperature which was perfect for me.  Hannah enjoyed playing in the sand and we enjoyed swimming in the sea out to the rafts moored off the beach.

Hannah wanted to take a large load of rocks home to paint.  We limited her to a dozen.

"Kai-do, kai-chariot, coming for to carry me home...."

Dinner at 'Thai Thai 2 'restaurant at the Hebe Haven pier.   The reviews on 'Openrice.com' warned of extremely slow service.   We arrived at 4:30pm when the restaurant was deserted, but they forgot our food-order and we eventually rolled-out at 8:00pm having drunk far too much wine!

A lovely day out, and good planning by Papa since Sunday was washed-out with more rain and fog.

Black Rainstorm

Mar 29-30 was Hong Kong Rugby Sevens weekend.   Of course I ignored it.  I had a life-time dose of rugby in NZ by the age of 17 and not even the Hong Kong connection could spark any interest.

Nevertheless this photo is a good illustration of the heavy rain that hit us on Sunday night which led to the first (All) 'Black Rainstorm' warning since 2010.  All Black Rainstorm warning means 'stay at home and lock-up your daughters & sheep'.

We enjoyed dramatic thunderstorms on Sunday night and Monday morning.   From our apartment in the clouds on the 47th floor we saw near-constant lightening flashes for several hours, although oddly not much thunder, and some hail and snow.    The HK observatory counted 2,000 lightening strikes and I think we had at least one direct hit on our complex.

Rain was very heavy in Kowloon with Kowloon Tong hit by giant hailstones and 70mm rain in under an hour.   This is flooding at Kowloon Tong station which I pass through on my way to work (see this SCMP link for more details).

The Festival Walk Mall at Kowloon Tong was flooded as the volume of water overwhelmed their storm-water drains and broke pipes, which shows that downpour was exceptional even by HK standards.

Social Climbing

On Sunday afternoon we went to TST for a family 'social climbing' event at the YMCA.

Hannah is very good at climbing even though she hasn't developed her skills much as she has excellent upper body strength.

Video:  Hannah climbing

Hannah Papa didn't do to badly either as he spent his youth climbing trees, and from recent swimming has regained just enough strength to hoist-up his beer-gut (but still needed  2 instructors on the other end of the rope).

Wu Shu Competition

On Sunday morning I went to Mong Kok in Kowloon to compete in a Wushu competition.

There were about 400 participants: 250 men, 150 women, and 3 gweilos.   The hall was a good size but there were few common areas to warm up in, so the corridors were filled with people practicing.  

There were 3 arenas each with judges at the front and corners.  The largest arena was for the weapons forms....

so they had enough room to swing a pole-cat.   There was an exotic variety of weapons, swords, double swords, short and long staffs,  nun-chucks, and spears, many accompanied by warlike cries and shrieks.

This is my classmate and 'coach' Tommy competing in the Yang? sword form.

The other 2 areas were for mens and women's tai-chi hand forms.  Competitors competed 4 at a time for up to 5 minutes...

..the judges would then confer...

... and results were then posted on an electronic board.    The level of competition was high and I thought I'd be lucky to repeat the feat from Bangkok of getting a silver medal - not least because there were more than 2 people in my group.

But I delivered an unsatisfying performance.   My skill level has improved over the last 4 months, and I got more small details right.   But this time I wasn't centered and I didn't express the fundamentals well.  I also made a number of basic errors - like poor balance - and could see the judges marking me down.  

This was partly because I'd chosen not to practice  in the morning and pervious night (to avoid getting too tired) and I was unable to practice or warm-up at the venue.  Also I hadn't started training early or frequently enough.

When the results were posted I was 3rd from bottom out of 17 competitors in my age-group for Chen tai chi with a score of 7.96.

Nevertheless this somehow earned a bronze medal.   For a while I wondered whether they had awarded the medals in reverse order this year.  But it seems that over 8.15 earned gold and 8.00-8.15 earned silver, with the others getting bronze.  Im not sure whether there is a lower limit for bronze medals.   Still Hannah was impressed by the medal.

So lessons for next time.  Start training early and frequently months before the competition, ease-off in the last 1/2 week and then practice lightly on the morning.  Don't rely on finding space at the venue.

Neco sampo

Hannah and Minimi at the playground

HK Museum of History

We good advantage of a cold wet weekend to go to the Hong Kong Museum of History at Tai Wai.

Actually I was a little disappointed, and didn't find it nearly as interesting as the excellent HK Heritage Museum in Kowloon.

But there was a good display on the development of New Towns and a model clearly showing how the Shatin had been developed from an empty estuary with only 4,000 inhabitants in 1950 to a city of 1 million today.

1950s

As you can see, almost all the flat land in the valley today was reclaimed from the estuary.   Royal Ascot and Fo Tan is just off the top of the model, and the Lung Wah hotel is on the left-hand-side opposite the island.

1970s.

2000

Art Class

Over the last few weekends we have had art classes at home with Chau laoshi, who I met at the JIS fair.

Since Hannah doesn't have a proper art class and Hannah likes art, i thought it might be fun for us all 3 or us to do some exercises improve our drawing and painting, and for Hannah to get an opportunity to see a real artist in action.

Rikas effort

Dads effort

I drew the chrysanthemum in yellow pastels -  and ended up with a rather nice picture of a daffodil.

Chau Laoshi's painting

Chau Laoshi did this pastel drawing of an apple

It turned out we already had a copy of one of the books that Chau Laoshi has illustrated

Illustration of the Discovery Bay playground we had visited on our first trip to Hong Kong.