Working Late

On Monday I had to work late.

I missed my 9 pm tai chi sword class for the 3rd week in a row.

But I had the consolation of being able to enjoy a wonderful sunset over Hong Kong harbour

and watch the lights come up on Hong Kong Island.

The Bear went over the Mountain

With Rika and Hannah away I have the opportunity to go hiking in the weekends.  But unfortunately the weather has been very wet due to the monsoon, and my back is painful.

So once the morning rains had cleared, I set out on a 'starter hike' to explore the hills behind our apartment block.

Clove Hill from our apartment

I took the foot-path from Royal Ascot to Kau To village on the right of the hill, and then up the valley for about 1km until the concrete path finished at the abandoned village of Cheong Lek Mei (actually just across the valley from a new tower-block development called Dragon's Range).

Cheong Lek Mei abandoned house

I then hiked up the hill through the forest, on a path which was very clearly marked on my map with a dotted red line, but almost invisible on the ground apart from a few red ribbons tied to trees every few yards.

Dragon Strange, Ma on Shan and Tolo Harbour

I went further and further into the empty forest, slipping on the moist ground and looking out for snakes, and wondered whether I was being adventurous or just stupid hiking on my own on a disused trail.

Cove Hill summit

But when I cleared the tree-line,  I ran into a family group of locals including granny and 2 kids, who seems to know where they were going.  So  I followed then through the log grass to the top of Clove Hill / Kau To Shan (399m)

Panorama from Clove Hill (click to enlarge) 

So, the bear went over the mountain to see what he could see.  He saw another mountain.  (Grassy Hill in fact).

Grassy Hill (647m) from Clove Hill 

And to the right of Grassy Hill, the towers of Shenzhen across the border.

Shenzhen from Cove Hill

I'd half planned to continue up to Grassy Hill but now I didn't fancy trying to continue uphill through the overgrown and very slippery path through the tall grass.

Forest Path

So I followed the family down the track through the trees on the other side of Clove Hill.

Royal Ascot from cove Hill

We stopped for a rest on a large rock outcrop overlooking the valley, which I can see from our apartment.

Royal Ascot panorama (click to enlarge)

 And them down the ridge through the trees back to Kau To village.  A nice 3 hour hike.

But next time I go hiking after rain I'll probably stick to proper paths.

Home Alone

Hannah and Rika headed off to Japan for a summer holiday with her family, leaving Daddy and Minimi home alone.

Minimi quickly got bored on his own and kept demanding that I play with him.

He also got a bit clingy and wanted to snuggle-up next to me even more than usual.

Minim also wants to hang-out with me when I'm working at my PC.

I was looking forward to having free time to work through a long list of jobs I need to do, including getting up-to-date with my blog, and doing more tai chi.  

But in fact I mainly caught-up on my sleep.   Perhaps Minimi is a bad influence!

Hannah's 8th Birthday

Hannahs last weekend in Hong Kong before her holiday in Japan was a 'birthday weekend'.

We let her open her presents a little early and she choose to have a quiet weekend at home playing with the new toys.   The main present from us was a large Lego Friends set of a stables, which she quickly made up.

On Saturday night, she chose to go to NichiGyu a Japanese style hotpot restaurant with an all-you-can eat desert buffet.

On Sunday we had a quiet birthday dinner at home, and a birthday cake.

Daddy cooked a Moroccan lamb tagine with almonds and prunes, white beans cooked in yougurt and mint (recipes from Claudia Roden's Middle Eastern Food), and cous cous.  

Rika also made a bean salad (perhaps to ensure there was something she could eat)

Tai Chi Exhibition

The annual tai chi charity exhibition at Queen Elizabeth Hall was held on Sunday 12th July.

Hannah and I went down to watch and show support for my classmates.    The event ran from about 9:30-2pm with 79 different demonstrations from many different schools.

Mainly tai chi hand forms of various styles,  but also internal martial arts like BaGua and XingYi,  and some weapons forms including a Japanese sword school.

My tai chi school had three demonstrations.   We arrived in time for the second,  a combined demonstration by the kung-fu kids group and the XingYi class (which Id attended briefly last year)

Last year Id participated in 2 demonstrations.  This year none of my classes were directly involved, although I new many of the participants from various classes.

The final demonstration from we saw was a combination of Yang? sword form and Combined-style 42-form with some XingYi or perhaps BaGua tai chi at the end

Video:

Hannah sat with me and watched patiently for two hours or so, although she wasn't particularly interested.  After an hour I honored my  promise to take her to the nearby playground.  But it was so hot she soon wanted to come back to the cool of the stadium.

Model

Across the road from Hannah's doctor in Yau Ma Tei is a plastic model shop called Continental Models.   For a former schoolboy (who never quite achieved his dream of building a large-size model of the Bismarck),  it is a great place to wait for Hannah and Rika.

On our last visit Hannah surprised me by wanting to visit the shop, and then by hunting for a model to build.    She ignored the Bismarck and eventially chose a model of an SUV car, and appropriate paints and brushes.    (All with zero encouragement from me by the way - I wanted to her to come hiking or play tennis).

She then decided that Hannah and Daddy would make-up the model over the weekend.   Which we duly did,  in two sessions.

The model was rated 'modeling skills helpful if under 14 years of age'.  But actually Hannah did a careful job of cutting-out and painting the pieces, and glueing them together.  

So I was actually quite impressed by the finished product.   And I have to admit Hannah was right - it was quite fun to build it together.

Kittens !

Hannah had been waiting impatiently for months but finally the big day arrived.   Time to choose her new kitten!

The kittens were now 2-3 months old, so we could now visit them at the cattery.  Glam-Rex (link), is actually not far from us, in Tai Po district in a village towards Plover Cove.   It was nice to see Chrissie and Ree again.

And lots of fun to play with a roomful of lovely cats and kittens.  

Over the last six months Hannah has earned enough credits ('smilies') to get one kitten.   And since we can only keep 'non allergy' cats, we had to get a Cornish Rex.

This is Jayden, who was offered to us at a very reduced price because his eyes had been slightly discolored by an eye infection, so he is unable to compete in cat competitions.   

I thought Jayden was a lovely kitten.  Even before he started to groom me.

And Jayden seemed to like us too.

Chrissie was concerned that Jayden might get lonely on his own, and we were soon looking for kitten #2.   She suggested Kura, who is apparently a show-quality pure-breed Cornish Rex.  (Although with that mustache I'd be cautious showing him in Germany or Israel).

Kura was another lovely kitten and we quickly warmed to him.    He needs another 6 weeks growing up with his mother before we can take him home.  So we arranged to pick up both cats in August after Rika and Hannah return from summer holidays

I hope Minimi will like his new nephews.