7 weeks and counting!

It's nearly the end of the year! Nearly time to go to Australia! Everything is winding down now at school, or I am anyway. The K3's will be "graduating" at the end of the month and we get a 4 day weekend. Each year the school organise holidays for the staff- it was Taiwan, Thailand, and China. Except the Taiwan one got canclled so they've arranged for a 2 day trip to Disney with a stay in the hotel. I put my name down for the Disney trip because it's free. The Thailand trip would have cost me a couple of thousand dollars because you only get a $1500 voucher and you pay the rest. The china trip is free too but the visa to get in the China would have cost me $800! That's double what I paid before! So 2 days in Disneyland... I hope I don't have to stay with the other teachers all the time otherwise I'll be so bored.

Haven't been doing a great deal lately. Last weekend I went to salsa as normal at the Nooch bar, but the regular instructor was away and there were only 3 of us in the lesson. There was this other guy there who was a really good dancer and he took me to the Jubilee bar, near Lan Kwai Fong. Omg I saw soo many amazing dancers there! It was a bit intimidating at first, but i had a few dances and was fine. When you dance with the good people they don't mind telling you where you're going wrong- I spent one dance just doing the basic back and forward step because I couldn't get it right. Or the guy didn't think I could. I met Joel and Dan later on in LKF and we went to a few bars and clubs.

On Sunday Lauren and Marty arranged a junk boat trip. Lauren won the raffle at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce ball for the trip so she invited all the Vine people who helped out- me, Jo, and Lynette- as well as her brother and sister-in-law, Anthony and Esther from the Beijing mission trip, and Gabrielle, Skip and Kathryn. We all had a really good time. The driver (sailor?) took us to a small cove thing Lamma Island. We got to jump in and swim to the beach, where we explored the little rock pools and looked for pretty shells. The water was really clean and warm. I've put the pictures up on flickr now. Baby Zara came along (Lauren and Marty's little one) and Anthony took this adorable picture of us:

We all brought along some food so we had a feast on board, and the weather was fantastic. A great day methinks!

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.

Busy Busy

Wow what a weekend! We started the weekend off with a trip to the Ballet with Jules and Joel. We saw Cinderella which was good even if they did drag out the whole ballroom scene- everyone danced together, then the Ugly Sisters did a dance, then the Prince did a dance, then Cinderella alone, then Cinderella and the Prince danced together, then everyone together again...Just get on with it! The characters were great-the Ugly Sisters were really funny, and the little squirrels were so cute. I don't need to say they were all great at Ballet and it was a really good show.

Saturday was our trip to the Peak. We took a taxi from somewhere in the Mid-Levels to the Tram station (we were going to walk but it was baking hot and we got lost). It only cost $48 return (£3) and it included going upto the Sky Terrace where we got really great views. Also up the Peak is a Madam Tussaud's- we didn't go in because we wouldn't have known many of the "famous" waxworks. We had lunch in Bubba Gump's Shrimp Restaurant which was very, very yummy and quite reasonably priced too. We walked around all the souvenir shops and then caught the tram back down. The tram ride is a bit of an experience in itself especially on the way up! It goes up at a ridiculously steep angle but it's the stopping that really unnerves me. Going down wasn't too bad since the seats faced backwards and it didn't stop at all. When we got to the bottom about 5:3pm people were queuing round the block to go up!

Sunday was church day. We went to the 11:30am service and listened to a guy called David Wang do the talk. He worked for an organization called Asian Outreach which is Christian ministry in China. He's such a funny guy and he's got some great stories to tell. He co-wrote a book called Still Red about 3 persecuted Christians in China which me and Jo bought together. I not long ago finished Chasing The Dragon and I think Jo is half-way through reading it. Anyway, after the service we went along to a meal for newcomers with cell group leader Vinny, his wife and daughter and a couple of other regulars. Had a really nice time! We're going to try their cell group out on Thursday. After lunch Jo headed to H&M and I found my way to Mong Kok to meet Joel and Jules. I can't believe I did it by myself haha- I didn't pay attention to where we were walking on the way up so didn't think I'd be able to find my way back to the MTR station. Somehow I managed it :) I met J&J in a shopping Mall and we did a bit of shopping. There was some famous chinese singer up on the top level and the place was packed. It was a nightmare trying to get in and out the shops. After Mong Kok we went to a nice Thai place back in Yuen Long. Only cost us $60 for a good decent sized meal! We finished the night at New York's where I had the best Sex On The Beach I've ever had! The cocktail I mean :p The owner is really nice and used to have last year's gap group go too I think. They do really good food too but I haven't tried it yet.

Today was National Day...another bank holiday yay! We decided to go to Lamma Island and try the beaches there. Lamma is about half an hour away from Central and I think it is one of the biggest outlying islands. I could be wrong about that though! The ferry trip is very bumpy. I wouldn't recommend it if you get seasick however there is no other way of getting there. We landed in Sok Kwo Wan and had a meal on the pier there. Then we walked over to Lo So Shing beach. It's only small but it's got nice sand and the sea is clean. We took our swimsuits and had a swim in the lovely warm sea! We didn't spend too long on the beach though because it started to rain and we had to save our stuff. There were fireworks this evening in Central somewhere for National Day and they're meant to be really spectacular but it was half 6 when we got off the ferry (journey back was even worse than the one there) and they didn't start till 8ish so we went home. We've got school tomorrow so it wouldn't be a good idea to stay out late.

Speaking of school tomorrow- my lesson is meant to be about National Day and I have no idea what to do! Argh. 25 mins and all I've got is "I am English, you are Chinese- what are you? Chiiineeese!" Ohh I'll do the "Pizza Hut" song with them again, just so they don't forget it! I tried doing "Do your ears hang low..." with them but it didn't go down to well. I'll try again later in the year.

Bed time for me now methinks!