Australia

In 4 weeks time I will have landed in Perth!! I've just finished booking all my flights and I've only got to find somewhere to stay in Sydney.

My itinerary looks something like this:

• Monday 21st July- fly to Perth via Singapore
• Friday 25th July- fly to Melbourne
• Saturday 2nd August- fly to Sydney
• Sunday 10th August- fly to Brisbane
• Thursday 14th August- fly back to Perth via Sydney
• Wednesday 20th August- fly back to Hong Kong

Hmm... that's a lot of flying haha. My carbon footprint this year will be huuuuuuge! I was going to go by train to Sydney but it takes 11 hours or something, whereas the flight is only an hour and a half.

I'm planning on going skydiving (Melbourne) and scubadiving (Brisbane), salsa dancing (everywhere), wine tasting (Perth), the Neighbours tour (Melbroune) and rock climbing (Perth? Need to check that out...) as well as doing all the sightseeing. I'm so excited!!

Videos

This first video is one of the men on the Sugar craft stand, at the carnival, trying to get the tennis balls into his hat!

This video is the professional clown they hired at the carnival. We had our own "Vine" clown too, Eric.

This is the acrobat. Here she's spinning things on her arms and legs, but before that she was squeezing herself into a tiny tube thing.

This guy is called the Masked Magician and his trick is magically changing his masks very quickly.

Lastly, is my favourite video- toboganing down from the Great Wall! It felt a lot faster than it looks on the video haha.

Enjoy!

Phew I'm home

Beijing Day 6 and the Sunday after

Finally! I've gotten round to writing about the last day!

We had to be up early again (but not quite as early as the day before), pack, go down for breakfast, and be on the coach for something like 9am. It might have been earlier because we wanted to see Tiananmen Square before being at the airport for 1pm. Not all of the group came- some had left the night before and some decided to have a lie-in or have some quiet time.

This was the first time we'd driven through the city centre and it was really exciting to see all the different buildings and stuff. I was hoping to be able to see the new Olympic Stadium but we didn't :(

Anyway, here we are in Tiananmen Square! It was very big and very busy. I felt quite unnerved too knowing that there were secret police everywhere. It wasn't particularly exciting just standing in a square... but I'm glad I've been. I didn't remember the Tiananmen Square Massacre until Sharron was talking about how she remembers seeing it on TV back in the 80's.

Whilst we were at the square Joe and Gretl, very quickly and discreetly, filmed the Vine News for the next week. It was great seeing it on Sunday morning! After Tiananmen Square we went back to the Centre, had a quick debriefing, packed our cases onto the coach and went to the airport. I finally arrived home at about 9:00pm.

On the Sunday after we arrived home Jo and me went to the 11:30am Sunday service, and as we arrived Pastor John caught me and asked me if I'd give a short testimony about the mission trip! I hate public speaking. I don't normally shy away from it, but he was asking me to get on stage at the 11:30 in front of hundreds of people. I agreed anyway...and spent the time during worship worrying and writing down what to say. Finally Pastor Tony called us (and someone from the Thai mission trip) out and I did get on stage, although at one point I nearly sat down, and it was terrifying. I don't really remember what I said except at one point I had to just stop and breathe because my voice was really, really shaking.

So that's my first ever mission trip. And hopefully not my last! We were very lucky that we got to stay in comfort, with good food, and hot showers, and nice regular toilets (at the Centre anyway) and we got to meet some fantastic people.

Beijing Day 5

We're getting there...only 2 more days to write about!

Day 5

We were up and on the coach again at 6:30am. We arrived around 11ish and went straight to lunch at a very local restaurant. We were sat in groups of 8 or so, and each table was in a different room, and the dishes were bought out one by one. There was chicken and corn soup, a green salad and then this big plate of shredded meat was set down. We all eyed it a bit suspiciously as Jacinta asked the waitress what it was. "Oh no guys...I don't know if I should tell you... let me go and double check what it was." We were in rural china, in a local restaurant, so I kinda guessed what it was. So before Jacina came back and confirmed it was what we though it was I took a piece and ate it. And it tasted good.

Dog

"Yeah guys...it's dog..." We had a big discussion about whether we should eat it or not (too late for me). Madeleine and her husband tried some, and so did Jacinta. Jo tried a bit too. I had a few more pieces. They also brought out a rabbit stew which wasn't too bad either.

We were back at the orphanage around 1ish. We were split into 2 teams again- one to knock down a wall and another to do other odd jobs for the orphanage and then play with the kids. I went to play with the kids, of course! First we had to wash the windows but that only took a few minutes with everyone helping. I was so excited to see the children again! I was immediately grabbed by this little girl and I was spinning her around and she was climbing all over me. I had to keep one of the cheeky boys from going in my bag- he worked out that was where i had sweets and balloons and stuff. I gave the little girl a rattle made from an empty water bottle with stoned in but not long after she gave it up to one of the boys it was dismantled. Those kids weren't stupid!

The girl got bored of me soon enough (perhaps because I was just sitting and letting her crawl over me, bottom in the air) so then I tried playing with the 10 year old boy. Like I said before, he is severely autistic, and I don't speak mandarin so I was wondering how I could engage... so I started singing to him. Just the ABC and Ring a ring of roses over and over but I think he liked it. I was holding his hands, and stroking his back, and he was smiling, and I just him to know that someone loved him. And through that I just had a revelation of how much God loves us. I really, really hope they can find homes for all those children and especially that boy. They all just need someone to love them.

While the children were napping we all helped to move the bricks from the broken down wall. It sounds boring but it was so much fun! We formed a human chain and passed all the bricks along. It took us no time at all!

On the coach on the way Esther helped us learn a song in Mandarin, about how we are special and unique to God, so after the children's nap we gathered them all round- and the staff- and sang to them. We also sang Every Knee Will Bow, Row, row, row your boat, and some more I don't remember. Even if the kids got bored we all enjoyed ourselves!

We left a bit later after feeding the kids snacks and drinks. For dinner we went to a very nice Argentinian restaurant with Robert Glover and other people from Care For Children. I ordered a really nice meal of Salmon. Some of the boys ordered sheeps testicles so I tried a bit of them too. I thought they were going to taste really bad so I was chewing really fast...but then I stopped and actually tasted them and they taste fine. Like kidney! So I don't think anyone can say I'm not adventerous with my food haha.

Beijing Day 4

We were up at 5:30am, on the coach by 6:00am and well on our way by 7:00am. We were on our first journey to the orphanage in Chengde. I don't know what to write here because we've been told not to put pictures of the orphanage up on the internet because they don't want to attract any negative attention- e.g. from foreign newspapers or something- but I really want to share with you what we did and what we saw.

We arrived at the orphanage at 11:00am- 4 and a half hours after we left the Centre! We were due to arrive at 9:30 so we'd lost an hour and a half. We were given a quick tour and got to see some of the children before lunch. The orphanage was part of a complex with a wing for children and a wing for adults and elderly people. There was also a wing that used to be used as a hotel to generate income. But since the orphanage teamed up with Care For Children they've been getting government grants and don't need to do that now. It was not in a bad condition- it was definitely not like the pictures I've seen of Romanian orphanages with bare rooms and children tied up in beds. The childrens bedrooms were quite nice with proper beds, duvets, and pillows. There were 6 beds in each room I think. There was a shower in one of the rooms. The nursery where the babies slept had loads of cots lined up next to each other. When I looked in the cots there were lots of babies with only cleft pallates. The room where they ate was basic- white walls and a table where they'd dish up food. Upstairs there was also a classroom with a colour TV. Downstairs there were 2 courtyards- one with a slide and childrens toys, the other empty. The babies were kept in a therapy room. They had special walkers and foam matts on the floor. Everything was basic, yes, but not awful conditions. And much better than I was expecting.

We walked to a local restaurant for lunch which the orphanage had booked for us. They ordered us so much food! And it was all lovely stuff- lots and lots of different dishes and everyone was so full and we ended up taking more than half of the food back with us to give to the orphanage.

Afterwards we were split into 2 groups- one group would leave at 1pm to go back to the Centre and halp serve at the Jackie Pullinger dinner, the others would stay until 3pm and meet the first group at the restaurant for dinner. I offered to stay until 3pm. We all helped do some digging for some plants and then we were taken to play with the children. There were about 15 children which I'd say were aged 3-10ish, and about 10 babies. There were also teenagers and young adults but I only saw 2 of them. Some of the children were mentally handicapped but I'd say most were in the orphanage because they were physically handicapped or deformed in some way. Even if it was only a cleft pallate- something which can be corrected with (as I understand) a fairly simple operation as a baby. It was heartbreaking.

Jo stayed in the therapy room while I went outside to play with the older kids. I think they loved the attention once they got used to all of us! It was a cold day but the kids were still wearing crotchless trousers, their bottoms must have been really cold hehe. I thought it was bad at first, but after visiting Tiananmen Square and seeing kids there, I realised that it's quite normal in China. Means they can just squat and do their business (in potties) without taking their trousers off. Someone had bought balloons so we were blowing them up and giving them out to the kids. There were red balloons everywhere and it was windy so they kept blowing over the walls. Someone (or the orphanage staff) had also bought stickers for the kids so they loved sticking them on their hands or faces, or giving them to us. Because I don't speak or understand any mandarin it meant I had to rely on facial expressions and body language to communicate but I didn't find it too hard since I'm used to it at school, and once I found one child I could play with for a bit it gives you more confidence to play with some of the others. I really enjoyed it!

I think we left around 3:30pm and must have arrived back at the Centre at 8:00pm to pick up the others. We then went to the same restaurant we'd been to before, not far from where we were staying, and had another good meal. I think we all slept well that night.

Beijing Day 3

This day was Sunday so we went to the BICF Next church. It's layout is very unusual- There are sofas at the front, then behind them are tables with chairs, and at the sides are rows of 3 chairs. It's almost like someones sitting room. Our own Vine Band lead the worship and Ps John did the talk.

After the service they served lunch- a buffet of Mediterranean type food- and held a quiz. This is where I met Anita. We had to get into teams so I plonked myself down on her table. We also had a girl who didn't speak much English (Anita was translating to Mandarin) and another nice girl. There was this crazy guy called Gabriel leading the quiz and he was so funny! There was a music intro round and he got a bit carried away singing heehee. I had to leave 3/4 of the way through the quiz to go back to the Care for Children centre, where we were staying.

When we got back me and Lauren spent the afternoon making an awesome costume for Bosco. Bosco was playing a tramp who turned into Jesus for a drama in the evening worship. As you can see it's made out of bin bags, canvas and a table cloth. We covered it in mud to make it look really tramp-ish. In the evening the Vine held a worship event for anyone who wanted to come. Loads of people from the BICF church came, and of course there was all 45 of the Vine people, and others from Care For Children. Ps John gave a talk again, there was worship lead by the Vine, and a drama too. Jo was in the drama playing a self-involved teenage girl.

The drama went like this: there is a beggar in the streets and people are ignoring him- a pastor, a mother and her son, a teenage girl, and a business man. The business man throws $10 at him but carries on. The beggar comes into church but still everyone is ignoring him even though they are Christians. They are too busy worshipping to notice him. But the child sees him. And the child wants to talk to him, but his mother keeps pulling him back. Eventually the child runs and hugs him, after that the beggar throws off his coat and he is Jesus, so everyone falls on their faces. It's really, really moving.

After everyone went and we were all done cleaning up, boxes full of McDonalds were delivered. Yay! We were all starving by then. You should have seen everyone dive in to them hehe. Not long after that (and after a cluster prayer meeting) we were tucked up in our sleeping bags ready for a very early morning.

Beijing Days 1-3

Day 1

We arrived in Beijing, without too much trouble, at 11:00pm. By the time we were in bed after a "brief" briefing it was 1:30am and we had to be up and at breakfast by 8:00am, argh! We did all manage it though. Most of us stayed in the actual Care For Children building in the different therapy rooms. Ours had a double sink, 4 camp beds and a heater. It was freezing the first night because we'd turned the heater off before we settled down. Lesson learnt though! My room mates were Jo, Lauren and Esther.

After breakfast we were taken to the Great Wall of China! And it was so amazing! It was a bit misty and very cold so the pictures look a bit grey but it was perfect weather for walking. We got the cable car to the top and then walked along the Wall. Ok stating the obvious but it's really long... Even just to walk to the place where you can go back down to the food and souvenir stalls. I think we walked for about 45 minutes. And then we got to tobogan down to the bottom! It was so much fun!! It wasn't just a quick 2 minute slide either- it went on for about 10 minutes and you went so fast on the corners. Someone at the front of our group kept going really slow though so it caused traffic jams at the flat bits. Grr!

In the evening the Care for Children centre hosted a "Friday Night Live" youth event aimed at non-Christian teens with a live band, food and a talk by a guy called Lennie and Mark Russell. It was really good. Well, I wasn't so into the music that night, but Mark's talk was awesome. He gave a brilliant illustration of how valuable we are to God- if we take a £20 note we can crumple it, stamp on it and spit on it, but it is still worth £20. So no matter how many times we sin we are still worth the same to Him. Cool, huh?!

Day 2

We had another early start because we were helping Care For Children hold a carnival for all the local children. There was an Easter egg hunt, clowns, an acrobat who squeezed herself into a tiny tube,an Egg bashing game, free photographs, free manicures and massages, a silent auction, face painting and lots of food including chips mmmm! Me and Lauren dressed up as Mickey and Minnie mouse and greeted the children by the entrance before the official start of the carnival. It was so strange wearing the costume- when people were taking my picture I was still smiling even though I had the "head" on, and it's so hard to see anything between the "eyes". A woman gave me her baby to hold and I couldn't actually see the child- talk about scary.

I manned the bouncy castle for a while, until it deflated haha. I think there was a power cut. After that I helped with the ball toss game. I watched the magical mask-changing man, the very bendy acrobat, and a cute clown juggle hats as well as got myself a caramel dragon made. It's amazing watching the guy do it- he takes a ball of caramel and blows it into whatever shape you want.

In the evening- before dinner at a nice restaurant- we went to a prayer meeting at the Beijing International Christian Fellowship church (BICF).

More videos to follow!

Yay!

More pictures from Cebu, taken by Greg and Derek the canadian guys we met at the hotel. See them here!

Here's some of my faves:

Spelling "help" on the city tour

A girl dancing while her blind grandad played guitarDancing at the Christmas party

John and Mel dancing

Movies

I'm bored tonight. Just watched Hairspray with Jo which was OK. We've been to the cinema a couple of times in the past week though- on Valentines Day we went to see PS I Love You which wasn't half bad apart from all the Irish clichés and Wedneday night we saw Enchanted which was brilliant! I wasn't expecting much from it so that's probably why I enjoyed it so much. James Marsden is great as the Prince. Patrick Dempsey looks as though he's about to cry all the way through though.

I've decided I am going to do the Beijing mission trip and I handed my deposit in yesterday. So that's something to look forward to at Easter. I'm also starting to look at the prices of flying to and around Australia...yay! I can get a return flight Hong Kong-Perth for around £500. Not too bad considering London to Perth is £1000.

Anyway TV to watch...

Day 9

The last full day with my parents. Well...with my sister. Today Katy and I went to Ocean Park with Jo and Theresa. Ocean Park is a theme park here with animals as well as various rides and activities like go-karting. We all caught a coach from the West Rail station which was very efficient (and included in the ticket price).

Once we got there we headed straight to see the pandas. They were all asleep when we saw them, and they looked so cute! There's more on flickr of the others.

We hit some rides next. This was definitely not on a par with Alton Towers or any of the theme parks in Britain, you wouldn't come here especially for the rides. They were really old. Some of them were OK. And they are building loads of new ones, so maybe in a couple of years it'll be worth another visit. After lunch we saw the seals. They were adorable. We saw them being fed, and we could have fed them ourselves but we had to buy tickets from somewhere. We watched them for quite a while and there was this one seal who went and laid right next to another seal, it looked like they were cuddling. And they kept fighting over whose tail went on top!

We worked our way round the park going on rides and seeing the various creatures.

We had to queue for an hour to get onto the cable cars to get back to the coach. The park is built on two sides of a hill/peak thing joined by cable cars and I guess there's always a queue back but because we were there just before it closed we caught the crowds. Still we got back about 7ish.

We met my parents in Tuen Mun and I loaded them up with stuff to take home. We went for our last proper meal together. I wasn't going to go out at first, just get a takeaway, but it was closed. Instead we went to the Federal restaurant at Ferry Pier. This us a favourite of mine and Jo's- they do the best sweet and sour shrimp. I'm so glad I got to take my family there because it's a proper local restaurant and I'm sure they don't get many Westerners. We ordered sweet and sour shrimp, chicken and vegetables, and prok ribs in orange sauce. Yum, yum, yum! And for desert we were brought sweet red bean soup with tapioca. I actually liked this one, normally I can't stand the texture. Mum had fun trying to use the chopsticks too!

So that's the holiday. I met them at the airport the next day and we said our goodbyes again...and there were more tears. At least the next time I see them I'll be back home in Britain. I'm sure my parents will fill most of you in with other bits I haven't managed to write down, and show you all of their pictures and videos.

Day 8

Ok before I tell you about Monday let me share a video with you:

It's Joey Yung and I can't believe that I actually like it. Ms Man told be today that I've been in Hong Kong too long if I start liking cheesy cantopop... it's just so catchy... Haha maybe I need to start listening to Radio One again.

So, on Monday we went to Macau by ferry. But we didn't sit in standard ferry seats- we had our own VIP room with TV and reclining seats. And we were brought a breakfast with muffins and fruit. Macau is another S.A.R of China but luckily we don't need visas to go. It's about an hour away from Hong Kong and used to be owned by the Portugese so all the signs are in Portugese as well as cantonese which is strange! We visited the "old town" first which has a lot of Portugese-style buildings and ruins. We first went to the town square with all the Chinese New Year decorations.

After that we visited the ruins of the old St Paul cathedral.

And then a more modern cathedral, and some more buildings. It's weird how it sort of felt like Rome (but freezing cold) with the architecture and all the scooters...but then you go around the corner and it's a totally different place with gawdy casinos everywhere.

We stopped at a couple of casinos- how can you not in Macau?!- the Grand Lisboa and the Venetian. The Venetian was a grand and as tacky as I thought it would be. The canal was pretty awesome though with gondolas and singers and loads of shops.

What else did we see? Oh! The Macau Tower. They do the world's highest bungee jump there so once I've got some money I'm going to go back and do it! It's so cool.

We had to take normal economy class seats on the way back to Hong Kong but the journey didn't take too long. Once we got back we went for some food at a small local restaurant called Relax For A While, the one I'd been to with Sam before, before heading home for some sleep.

Day 7

Sunday is meant to be a day of rest, but not for us lot here in Hong Kong. The day started with me getting up early to go down to Central for Church. I was a bit nervous about taking my parents and sister because obviously I wanted them to like it and agree with what they're teaching me. I needn't have worried because my parents both seemed to find it ok. Katy didn't like it much I don't think but I can understand her not liking a really cheesy American DVD. I didn't like that service much either.

Afterwards we went with our Plus group and Jo's family for dim sum! I don't think my parents had had a proper chinese meal before then so I was really glad the Plus group decided to go. We got to try a lot of the traditional dim sum dishes. Here's just a few of them:

We had shrimp balls, rice rolls, Custard buns, BBQ pork buns, prawn and pork balls, beef balls, spring rolls, rice cake, BBQ pork pastries, dumplings...all sorts of things. Yum yum yum. Mine and Jo's families sat together on a table with Marty, his wife plus new baby (she's so cute) and Liza and her two kids. The others had to go on another table somewhere. We had lots of fun chatting and eating.

In the afternoon I thought I'd take my parents to my flat again and give them some stuff I want taking home but when we got all the way up there I realised I'd left my keys on the ironing board and we couldn't get in. Nooo! It's so annoying when I do that! There's no spare keys anywhere either. And Jo wasn't going to be in until the evening. So instead we went back down to the hotel and spent the evening watching TV.

Day 6

Yay! Sunshine at last! Today we went to see the Buddha at Po Lin Monastery. It took us forever to get there- we decided to go by cable car via a newly built village called Ngong Ping. Unfortunately everyone else decided to go this way too! We queued for an hour to get on the cable cars, Jo and Theresa came later in the day and they queued for 2 and a half hours! The view from the cars was amazing though! And, amazingly Dad didn't panic one bit even though we could have been smashed to bits if the cable cars fell. Haha. I didn't tell him before we went on but the reason they closed before was because a car fell down- luckily with nobody inside!

It was a beautiful day- very sunny- but verrrry cold. I think they said it was about 3 degrees!! We got loads of good pictures. Which are up on flickr now. After we climbed to and from the Buddha we stopped for lunch. Nothing exciting today, just pasta from Euro Go Go. We also walked around some of the gift shops too, but they didn't have anything original.

I left Mum, Dad and Katy at the MTR station and decided to get a taxi back to the ferry pier. For some reason nobody understood where I wanted to go, even though Jo and me have done this several times. I finally got in a taxi and the driver said he knew where the ferry pier was. He starts driving and then gets me to speak to someone on the phone- he obviously didn't know where he was going so wanted someone to interpret- so I told them "Ferry to Tuen Mun. Ferry pier please" and they said OK and told that to the taxi driver. I'm sitting there perfectly happy when I notice he takes the wrong exit at the roundabout. Maybe he's going a different way? I wasn't concerned until he gets onto the motorway- the ferry pier is literally down the road not down the motorway. The meter is running of course and it's up to $45... I panic a bit now so I phone my friend Sam ("I don't know where he's going!! Help me!") and get him to speak to the taxi driver (in Cantonese). So now he knows where he is going. Apparently he thought I wanted to go to the ferry to Wan Chai! He turns around and I finally get to the ferry pier and he only goes and charges me $75 for what should have been a $20 journey and it wasn't even my fault! Grrr!!!

That evening I have dinner with Sam at a really cheap and cheerful place called "Relax For A While." I had very tasty roast pork and rice. Yum! I like having dinner with more local people cause they know all the good, cheap restaurants and stuff. And they can order and understand the waiters hehe. I took my parents to the same place yesterday and they liked it too! I did a bit of window shopping with Sam, then went home to bed. The End hehe.

More Videos

Some Chinese New Year lion and dragon dances in the Tuen Mun Town Plaza on Wednesday.

Parade Videos

A Lion:

and A Marching Band:

Day 5

Wow this week went quick! Got a bit of catching up to do now. Friday was a relaxed day. We had a late lunch on Lamma Island. This time we took the ferry to Yung Shue Wan rather than Sok Kwu Wan, and found that this side is much nicer. There's more restaurants here, more gift shops and it seems a bit more modern that Sok Kwu Wan. We had a really delicious lunch- Mum, Dad and me had lamb shank in red wine sauce and Katy had pork chops. Afterwards we bought some nice souvenirs i the gift shops and walked around the village.

In the evening we went to see the fireworks. Yay! Fireworks! We didn't get there until 7ish (show started at 8) but we still got a really good view. And they were amazing! They played music too which I couldn't hear but Jo and Theresa could. After they'd finished I was expecting it to be chaos, especially on the MTR, but it was really organised and everyone was being directed to specific MTR stations and there was no pushing or rushing. And when we got on the MTR it wasn't half as packed as I imagined. So, well done Hong Kong! Although I didn't expect anything less from you.

Day 4

Another busy day! It is of course new years day so sun nin fa lok! And kung hei fat choi! Or happy new year, and may you have a prosperous new year. Today we went to Sha Tin, and made our way up 400 steps to the famous 10'000 Buddhas Monastary.

I think we chose one of the busiest days to go. There were people everywhere with incense and we came back down stinking of the stuff. They had lion dancers up there too, walking around. The temple itself is pretty cool- I think there's over 12'000 little buddha statues lining the wall. There was some sort of big gold god statue in the middle, and people were shaking their fortune sticks and praying in front of it.

I thought we could visit the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, also in Sha Tin, whilst we were there but after the taxi had dropped us off we realised it was closed for the new year. Oh well. Next time hehe.

In the evening we went to watch the New Year's parade. It wasn't as packed as I thought it was going to be, but we didn't really get a good view either. Still we managed to see the floats and odd glimpses between people's heads. There was a nice atmosphere too. Everything was very well organised, so much better than if this was happening in the UK. I liked the marching bands best, and also the Disney float. I'll add some pictures later when Blogger lets me. There were various floats, and inbetween different groups of people. Like the army in their uniform, twirling their guns, people dressed as peacocks, a karate group, dragons, I think the people representing Hong Kong in the olympics, people "riding" pretend Emu's, marching bands. Loads of people! The photos are all up on flickr now too!

Days 2 and 3

This is going to be a looooong post! I was so tired yesterday I went straight to bed when I got home. I'm even more tired tonight but I've been told I've got to post otherwise Mitch will kill me hehe.

Yesterday we had planned to go to the Peak. It was another grey day but I thought maybe it would clear and we'd have at least a misty view. We took the tram up which made me nervous again- why does it have to stop on the steepest park of the track?! When we got to the top we could not see a thing! All there was was mist. But at least we didn't pay extra for the Sky Terrace that time. My parents and Katy stocked up on souvenirs at the gift shops there and then we had lunch at Bubba Gump's. I had some really nice ribs, Katy had a massive burger and my parents had a cheesy rice and fish dish. Mmmmmm! So, even though they didn't get the amazing view I did, we still got a great lunch.

In the afternoon we took the tram to Causeway Bay. At Victoria Park there was a New Year's Fair and I thought it would be nice to look around. I have never seen so many inflatable things in all my life! Rats, liquor bottles, Forero Roche, fish, balloons, batons, bottoms...! We walked along two of the rows following the one way sign, which everyone else seemed to be ignoring, before going for a coffee. Dad then decided he wanted to get a picture of a market we'd seen on the tram earlier so we went to find the tram stop back. Which was quite a walk away. And then it was PACKED. So we missed 2 of the trams because there was no way we could fit. And then he decides "oh, let's just get the MTR." Ok...so I wasn't in a good mood and I snapped- "NO! You cannot change your mind! We are getting the tram now we've waited for one!" And then I realised how frustrating it must be bringing up children.

So we got the tram back- eventually- to Central. I like Central, this is where I go to church, go out drinking, and I can find my way around. I took everyone to the IFC shopping centre. It is very posh here. They have a Valentino and Stella McCartney, Armani, D&G, and Versace. They also have more reasonably priced shops...but I can still only afford to shop in them on payday. At the little stage area they have, in the middle of the mall, there was a very good band playing classical chinese instruments. We watched them for a little while. I really enjoyed it.

In the evening, after a little nap again, we went to check out the Temple Street Night Markets. In the guide book they sound really exciting- bustling market stalls with everything you could ever imagine, and a whole road full of street food vendors. In reality it's much more disappointing... There wasn't much variety on the stalls- handbags, childrens clothing, more everyday stuff- and no street food vendors anywhere. Still, now I've been I don't need to make a special trip down. I felt a bit bad that both the big things of the day were a let down. But luckily, I think today made up for it!

We all had a nice long lie-in. I don't know why I'm so tired but my Mom said she didn't sleep much and I don't think Katy did either. They then came up to Tuen Mun to see my town. We had another really delicious lunch- this time at a Taiwanese restaurant. Oh- before lunch in the mall we arrived just in time to see some lion dancers! It was so great! One of the lion dancers was up on a pole dancing to the drums. Talk about brave. There was also a dragon too which everyone was trying to touch. So cool! I'm so glad we got to see that!

On the way to the flat we stopped off at Ferry Pier, so I could show them the nice sea view. It doesn't look so good when the sky is grey, and it's cold. But at least now they have some familiarality with the places I'm talking about.

I showed them the flat, and I think they liked it. It's a bit basic obviously but it has everything we need. I did a tour of the little shopping centre downstairs too and bought some stamps so Mom can send some postcards now! I was going to take Katy to get her haircut (my treat) but they couldn't fit her in until 8pm.

It's a good job we didn't go for that appointment because we decided to go to the Peak again, to see the night time view. We took the bus to Central, and then got a taxi which cost less than £1! Transport is so cheap here! This time at the top of the Peak we checked out a few more of the shops and ended up buying a few more souvenirs. Once it was properly dark we went up on to the Sky Terrace. Well, Katy, Mom and me did. Dad stayed at the bottom and did a bit more window shopping. He missed a really amazing view. I really do love the view of Hong Kong. We got some really great pictures (up on flickr now) before i started to rain. I would have stayed up there to see the laser light show but it was too cold and wet, and Katy only had a T-shirt and light hoodie on. We had to queue for ages to get on the tram back down but today (unlike yesterday) we got a seat. Going down whilst standing up wasn't the most enjoyable ride.

Alas, then it was time to go home whereupon I spent 2 hours writing this blog post. Argh! And not even any pictures yet. Oh- Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Yay!

Everyone has arrived safe and sound, if a little tired. They came on the best day- it was beautiful, sunny and warm relative to the past couple of weeks. I finally met them at 4pm (my time) after waiting around at the wrong gate hehe. Dad burst into tears, which set Mom off. Katy stood there laughing.

We then found our way to the hotel, which seems to be the chinese version of a travelodge, and dropped al the stuff off and exchanged gifts. I found a nice food court not far from the hotel and we ate at Spaghetti House for tea.

After that I took everyone to Langham Place shopping mall to have a look round. I think Langham place is my favourite mall out of all the big ones. There's about 12 floors and on the last 4 or so floors it's all independent little shops, which sell some great stuff, and Dad had a fit because he saw how high up he was and couldn't cope. He's going to have to get used to it- 12 floors is nothing here!

It was about 9pm by that time so I took them back to the hotel via the MTR. Tomorrow the plan is to explore a bit more of Mong Kok and do some shopping, yay!