Duck

Weather in May was almost as gloomy as April.    Per HK Observatory "May 2013 was much wetter and gloomier than usual due to the prolonged rainy weather associated with troughs of low pressure and active southwesterly airstream over the South China coastal areas. The total bright sunshine duration in the month was 90.7 hours, only about 65 percent of the normal. The total rainfall of May 2013 was 509.3 millimetres, about 67 percent above normal".

Hong Kong really needed to be brightened up.  And it was, courtesy of a 16m giant rubber duck by artist Florentijn Hofman which visited 2-May to 9-June.  We went to see it at Ocean Terminal after ice skating.

The Duck from the Star Ferry

Links:

http://www.discoverhongkong.com/seasia/plan-your-trip/latest-promotion/hc-rubber-duck.jsp

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323716304578482032215544650.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/15/hong-kong-rubber-duck-deflates

And finally after a massive rain storm at the end of May we got some clear weather.   This is the view from my work

Ice Skating

So what do you do on a cloudy weekend when you can't go to the beach.   What about going to ICC and ice skating?

The popularity of ice skating and ice hockey in Hong Kong - there are 4 rinks - initially struck me as  odd.   However I found being on the ice very refreshing on a hot and humid day.  And then I realized that many HK chinese have family links to Canada going back to the 1990s when many families emigrated.   Anyway it is nice to see little chinese boys getting into their ice-hockey.

Hannah wanted to go ice skating so for about 6 weeks we took her for Sunday morning lessons.   This is Hannah with her coach Vincent.  I also had a couple of lessons and am working on skating backwards and doing cross-overs.

And a few weeks later

And one of a series of group lessons

Hannah and I made this 'how to' video about ice skating.   We are quite proud of it.

After skating we go for burger at the nearby 'Multiple Os by White Spot' - a Canadian legend since 1928!

The Moods of Bamboo

Although I am getting older I am still young and hip enough to be interested in new bands - especially if they play traditional music and/or have a shakuhachi.   So when I go to Queen Elizabeth Hall for my tai chi I always check the flyers looking for cool gigs.

So I was delighted to see a flyer for 'Moods of Bamboo', a series of concerts by the Windpipe Chinese Music Ensemble.  This was organized by the LCSD under the 2013 Community Cultural Ambassador scheme.    I think this means the chosen group is sponsored to share their music with the community through mini-concerts at all sorts of local venues around Hong Kong.

One of the concerts was on Sunday afternoon at the Kowloon Walled City Park,  one of my favorite spots in Hong Kong.  It is right next to the Carpenter Road cycle track, so we made a date with Hannah to go cycling and then enjoy the concert.

Hannah at he concert outside the Yamens house.  I guess the music is about the same vintage as the cannons.  But I don't know since the program was all in cantonese.

Hanna took this video.

And this one of the Xiao (Chinese Shakuhachi) piece.

Xiao player.

The concert was very casual and low key but I enjoyed it very much.

And by the end of the set all the young people in the house were on their feet dancing....

Notes

"The Windpipe Chinese Ensemble was founded with the mission of promoting the musical culture of China and Hong Kong. In addition to researching and studying traditional Chinese folk music, the ensemble dedicates itself to exploring the unique charms and styles of Chinese ensemble music. The ensemble holds regular music activities including concerts, workshops, music camps, master classes, talks and cultural gatherings. The group also hosts musical exhibitions, featuring various instruments performed by Chinese virtuosi and young musicians from Hong Kong, in a bid to introduce Chinese music's traditional and modern repertoire to the public, covering dizi music, Guangdong music culture and original compositions by local composers."

Article on listening to chinese music
http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum-development/kla/arts-edu/pdp-nss-mus/ListeningtoChinMusCh1to4n6.pdf

Golden Week Rice Planting

After the gloomy Hong Kong April it was a delight to travel to Japan for some proper spring weather over Golden Week.

We went to Baba's house for rice planting and the weather did not disappoint.  And it was great to catch up with Rika's family and also squeeze in a shakuhachi lesson with Christopher in Tokyo.

Hannah helping Papaojichan with the rice seedlings

Papaojichan planting rice

Enjoying the spring evening after work

April Showers

I'm still finding Hong Kong weather confusing, and still not sure what to expect from one month to the next.   I should have checked with Wiki which would have informed me that "April is warm with temperatures ranging from about 20-25 degrees...rainfall about 175mm...   Spring is the cloudiest time of the year, with March and April both averaging only around 100 hours of bright sunshine".

I expected spring would be changeable but warm, and I still wasn't expecting it to be so much cloudier than Japan.   So I was looking forward to taking Hannah to the beach on the odd weekend.

Alas it was not to be.  We endured day after day of cloudy weather, especially at Parkview which really lived up to its 'Gweilo's in the mist' reputation.   This is the view from our flat on a typical April day.

And the same view on a cloudy day

And the view looking East from the other side of our apartment

It wasn't just Parkview.   April 2013 was cloudier than normal over Hong Kong and officially "marked by gloomy and unstable weather" according to the Hong Kong Observatory.   

"The sun only shone for 53.6 hours in the month, about 53 percent of the normal total duration of bright sunshine.  The total rainfall in the month was 253.8 millimetres, 79.1 millimetres above the normal amount...   mean temperature of the month was 21.5 degrees, 1.1 degrees below normal".  This was apparently due to " the frequent interchange of the cooler northeast monsoon and the humid maritime airstream over the south China coast in the month. "

Typical April view from outside my work across Hong Kong Harbour to the IFC.

The same view at night with the bottom of the IFC visible under the cloud layer.

Carnival of Venice

The Venetian in Macau reminded Rika and I of our trip to the Carnival of Venice in Mar 2000.   Here are some of our holiday snaps from that trip

St Mark's Square and Basilica.

Outside the Doge's Palace

Piazzetta dei Leoncini looking across to San Giorgio Maggiore

Gondola around Rio de S Salvador?

Rialto Bridge from Grand Canal

Why all these snaps of the scary guy in the plague-doctor mask and Tricorne hat?  Well, as you've probably guessed, that is Hannah Papa in carnival costume.   We made a very sound decision to join the Carnival as participants.  I hired some ornate costumes in London and we bought masks in Venice.

Rika having lunch at a cafe on the Grand Canal.

We stayed in a famous old hotel and booked tickets for carnival events, including a masked ball at the Tiepolo Palace on the Grand Canal.

Rika on the Rialto Bridge

It was a strange but exhilarating experience being in Venice in costume.  Only a few % of the crowd were in costume - although that was still many hundreds - so we were photographed wherever we went.   On the other hand nobody could see our faces, which was liberating.   And of course as participants in an ancient tradition we 'belonged' in Venice a rather more than the tourists taking photos.

   

Rika in St Marks square after a ball.

One of my fondest memories is dancing waltzes with Rika in St Marks square to a live Venetian orchestra.  Also hanging-out afterwards in Caffe Florian.

Hannah papa in a different mask.

It was a bit of a creapy feeling but I found my bering instinctively adopted  the persona of the mask and costume.   Upright and slightly menacing in the plague doctor mask or effete and frivolous in the clown mask.  

The Venetian

In Macau we stayed at The Venetian resort and casino on the Cotai strip.    Granddad got us a special deal through his political connections with the owner and the John Birch society.

Granny and Granddad outside the Dodge's palace.

The Venetaian is a massive and surprisingly authentic recreation of Venice, Italy, with a few thoughtful improvements, most notably building it above sea-level.    And also dispensing with the cathedral and churches, and putting clean water in the canals, and putting the streets and canals inside  the 6th biggest building in the world, in a giant shopping mall.

Above:  the Rialto bridge over the main entrance rather than the Grand Canal

View from our hotel room over the Campamile towards the other casinos of the Cotai strip.  You can see the mini-gold course on the roof of the mall.   In the evening we went to the City of Dreams  casino to see the House of Dancing Water.  We had front-row seats for one of the most impressive and silliest shows I've ever seen.

The interior of the vast shopping mall with one of the 6 or so canals.

Canal with Gondola in the mall.   The buildings are amazingly accurate reproductions but you always know its not the real thing because the water in the canals is blue and doesn't smell of drains.

Gondolas, gondolas, gondolas....   The gondliers even sing in italian...

The roof of one of the atriums

 Granny and Grandad with Hannah

St Marks square in twilight.   But no St Marks cathedral.  

Hannah enjoying the kids club.  She chose this instead of the gondola ride.