A New Beginning

After some considerable time I have finally worked out how to get back into this blog - so time for an update. The big news is that we have moved both in "real life" and also in the blogosphere. Having spent over 5 years in the Far East we are now located in the Middle East and a brand new blog recording our adventures (hopefully with a little more frequency than this one of recent times) can be found at http://www.alsafastories.blogspot.com/ (hopefully the link will work). Depending on time and my mood (and having finally found my way back into this blog) I may put some additional posts here to tie up loose ends in relation to our stay in the Big Lychee but for now please head on over for some tales of the Golden Date (or dusty sandpit depending on your preference).

Taxi!

Taxis in Hong Kong are two a penny and despite recent fare rises are considerably cheaper than pretty much anywhere else in the developed world. As a result I spend a fair amount of my time in a taxi - certainly more so than when I was in UK. Hong Kong taxi drivers are by and large usually OK - but given their numbers it is inevitable that some will be, shall I say, more proficient than others in plying their trade.

Most of mu journeys are short 5 - 10 minute hops around Central etc. and with the heavy traffic there is little opportunity for the more eccentric drivers to show their true colours. However on the longer journeys - say on the way home to Tai Tam Towers - there is plenty of scope for a taxi driver to demonstrate the full range of his driving abilities (it is almost invariably a him although very occasionally I see female drivers). Most of my journeys are thankfully incident-free. However, in the last 4 + years there have been occasions when I have had cause to question my own (in actually getting in the cab in the first place) and the driver's sanity. The drivers in these cases fall into a number of sub-groups of the genus cabbie cantonesia erraticus. In later posts, I will take a look at some of the others but for the time being I will focus on tonight's journey home where I was driven by a member of what is probably the largest sub-groups - the Lewis Hamilton appreciation society.

Before describing the distinguishing behavioural patterns of this sub-group it is perhaps worth setting out a little cultural background for non-Hong Kong based readers. In Hong Kong speed is the essence when it comes to getting from point A to point B - no one can get into a lift without frantically stabbing the 'door close' button before they have fully opened. Minibus drivers are renowned for their adrenaline fuelled, red-light jumping races to be first to the next potential customer. Most cab drivers are no different. However, there is a sizeable minority who take the challenge of reducing the journey time to the absolute minimum so as (presumably) to maximise their revenues by picking up the next customer a minute or so sooner thereby squeezing full value from their shift behind the wheel.

The key distinguishing features of this sub-group range from the sartorial - a pair of black (or very occasionally off-white) driving gloves - sometimes fingerless - a blue/black bomber jacket and sun-glasses (although rarely worn at night), through the physical - a hunched, intense driving posture with the head positioned so that the driver's nose is directly above and sometimes slightly forward of the top of the steering wheel, to the preferred choice of driving technique. In this regard, the cabbie's modus operandi will generally include one or more of the following characteristics; pulling away from the cab-stand before the customer has managed to close the door (and certainly before there has been any discussion of where the passenger wishes to go); a casual indifference to other road users when executing a swerving U-turn when the driver finally establishes the desired destination and realises that he is heading in the wrong direction; a keenly honed sense of spatial awareness as he changes lane to take advantage of microscopic gaps in the traffic or overtakes a slow moving vehicle; and a burning sense of injustice if any other road user (particularly another taxi) should in any way cause delay to his journey.

This last characteristic is for me the most worrying. The route to Tai Tam Towers includes a long stretch of narrow, winding road with intermittent steep drops at the side of the road and towards the end a particularly narrow bridge that carries you over the Tai Tam reservoir. This particular stretch does not afford much (or for sane drivers, any) scope for overtaking. I can always sense that the driver's patience is wearing thin and my journey might start taking an interesting turn when the already hunched posture of the driver stiffens and he starts muttering under his breath as the car in front carefully negotiates the next bend. If at night, the headlights are switched on and off at full beam to provide some encouragement to the car in front to go faster. If this does not work, the driver puts his foot down and moves as close as it is possible to get to the car in front without actually being in the boot. On the occasional straight stretch the driver will inch out into the middle of the road to explore the possibility of overtaking - it is at these moments that I start regretting my lack of Cantonese and in particular the ability to suggest that getting home in one piece is better than running into a minibus coming the other way.

In Hong Kong, there is very few experiences that can match for sheer nerve-jangling excitement of a journey home with a taxi driver who is intent on breaking the land speed record between Central and Tai Tam who regards all other road users - and particularly slow moving vehicles who happen to be travelling in the same direction - as a personal affront to his dignity. My abiding image of tonight's journey is of a snap shot of my taxi driver, bulging-eyes, hands clamped to the steering wheel and foot hard on the accelerator as he was caught in the glare of the headlights of an oncoming double-decker bus while he steered the cab to the middle of the road in a (wildly optimistic) attempt to overtake the car in front. I am not sure how a collision was averted as I then closed my eyes although there was a noticeable reduction of speed and some contemplative mumblings from the driver as the sound of the bus's horn gradually receded.

Next week, taxi driver's who achieve the "rocking-horse" effect by alternate use of the brake and accelerator.

New Year Review

Although slightly late for the calendar New Year and rather early for the Lunar New Year, nevertheless the time has finally come for a quick look back at how 2008 unfolded, and perhaps a peek into the Crystal Ball as to what may be in store for 2009. As followers of this blog will have gathered the early part of 2008 was sadly dominated by my Mother's passing away in February and her presence is still sorely missed. In retrospect, her ill-health over the preceeding 18 months threw into sharp contrast life in UK and in particular close proximity to family and friends, and life in HK where contact with family involves juggling a 7/8 hour time difference and where every late night/early morning ring of the phone heralded fears of bad news.

On a more positive note, 2008 brought promotion at work for me and significant opportunities to travel around South East Asia (albeit mainly on business). My Father also visited on two occassions which gave me (and him) the opportunity to indulge our love of sports (rugby 10s, rugby 7s, cricket 6s, Bledisloe Cup) without feeling too guilty about leaving the family at home.

We also managed holiday trips to Bali and Cebu (as well as a number of visits home to UK) and we have a ski holiday to Japan to look forward to after CNY.

As one might expect, we also saw massive changes in V. and A. V. - now 2 1/2 going on 14 - is presently going to pre-school 3 days a week and a small play-group twice a week and having had very little to say for herself (at least in English) in the first 6 months of the year, is now speaking in complete if somewhat abrupt sentences (maybe the Chinese influence?). As always, she leaves us all in no doubt as to her views on a whole range of issues ......

A. is now going to one of the International Schools having done two terms at the local ESF. He seems to be enjoying it although it is clear that he and his teacher do not see eye to eye on a number of issues. He has certainly being making big strides with his reading and writing (English) and still seems to be doing well with his Mandarin although given neither E. or I have any real idea about the language it is somethimes a little hard to tell. He can sing both the Chinese and Canadian national anthems - the English anthem needs more work. He has also learnt how to swim and enjoying his cricket at the junior gappers.

To the surprise of everybody including herself E. joined "boot camp" (running/stretching/exercising from 6:30am twice a week at the Cricket club) in October and is still going strong setting an example which I aspire to emulate - although so far all I have been able to manage is to slightly increase the frequency I play tennis (twice last weekend).

As for 2009, the purse strings will be severely tightened. Please.

A bit of a catch up

It has, I am afraid, been a long time since I updated this blog. In my defence I have been busy with work and family life but really there is no excuse and so I have bitten the bullet, dredged up the password from my memory, blown off the dust and ventured back into the world of the blogosphere.

Since 6 September (the date of my last post notwithstanding what the last post actually says) I have been busily adding stamps to my passport with business trips including a first-time trip to Korea (South) in September followed by a couple of trips to Singapore, a trip to KL and a first time trip to Japan (Tokyo) in October.

Korea was very interesting - very friendly people who have a ferocious commitment to their evening entertainment - I have never seen so many inebriated people so early in the evening - literally clutching hold of each other to stay upright as they staggered around the streets at 9pm. Apparently this is related to the culture of dining and drinking early and then heading home so that they can start early for work the next morning. Certainly the bars and restaurants we visited after 10pm were virtually deserted.

The economic crises is apparently having a major impact on the Korean economy. When I was there in mid-September there was little evidence of economic hardship - Seoul being more than a match for KL/HK/Singapore in outward signs of consumerism. It will be interesting to see whether more recent developments have brought changes when I visit next week.

Tokyo was also very interesting. We stayed at the Hilton which was very much a throwback (no doubt deliberately) to 70s chic - all shades of brown and toilets full of gadgets. The room dimensions were very much in keeping with an Asian rather than Western clientele (unsurprisingly) as I managed to bash my head on the door frame in to the bathroom with monotonous regularity.

KL was very much as I had left it - a seemingly never-ending traffic jam with extra spice added by some spectacular rainstorms.

September and October also brought my birthday and E. and A. birthdays. A's was probably the most fun with a pirate theme and a hoard of excited 6 year olds charging around the function room of Tai Tam Towers. A. also started a new term of Gappers cricket in September which he seems to be enjoying. He is also now at the Canadian School which he also seems to be enjoying albeit that he seems to have inherited his father's tendency (during his own school days I hasten to add - it is fortunately less of an issue these days!) to day dream through less interesting parts of the curriculum.

V. is also now at pre-school. Having celebrated her 2nd birthday in July she is continuing to take the world by storm although she is now starting to ask questions rather than simply shooting everybody first! She is also starting to use words in a more meaningful way. Unlike A. (who barely said a word until just after his 2nd birthday and then spoke in pretty much complete sentences), V. has been chattering away for a long while and has very decided views on a whole range of issues although it is only in the last few months that she has started to intersperse her sentences with a couple of words of English. She is also big for her age and towers over some of her older friends which unfortunately rather encourages her tendency to direct action rather than negotiation when things are not going her way.

My Father also visited us in October and November - coinciding with the Cricket 6s (excellent fun and definitely on the agenda for next year particularly if England can win in such exciting fashion again) and the Bledisloe Cup (less exciting but a spectacle nonetheless). We also managed a (spectacularly unsuccessful) trip to the Races and 4 days in Cebu back at the Mactan Shang.

Cebu was terrific and was rounded off with a trip on the glass-bottomed boat to a nearby reef. We were accompanied out to the reef by clear blue skies and a flying fish (an animal which I had never seen outside of nature documentaries). The water was clear and there was a remarkable variety of fish among the coral. Dad and I also managed a couple of trips to my favourite bar in the world -Cowrie (Sp?) Cove at the Shangri-la which combines cool decor and music with a wonderful location overlooking the water.

To bring us right upto date we went with some friends to see Kylie on Thursday night. I have never been a huge fan of her music but for a 40+ year old she certainly knows how to put on a show (and still knows how to wear a pair of hot pants!).

Next week off back to Seoul ands then returning to Blighty for Christmas although hopefully there will not be such a long gap before updating.

School daze

So we have just completed A.'s second week at the Canadian and V. has just started at Sunshine House. A. seems to be settling in OK but we will no doubt find out more when we go to Tuesday's curriculum night. V. also seems to be enjoying herself- never thought that I would be in favour of a 2 year old going to school when I arrived here but she seems to be taking it all in her stride.

Just completed our rent renewal at Tai Tam Towers. We have looked elsewhere particularly Pokfulam and South Bay but have found nowhere where we want to live that is cheap enough to give us a saving that would justify the hassle of moving everybody. A life of penury awaits and the car (13 years old and so far 3 1/2 years of faultless service) has started to display worrying signs of wear and tear - the guy at Stanley garage seems to think it might be the head gasket which is not good news (even to my completely unmechnical mind...). Never rains etc.

Went to a pleasant BBQ-cum-party for one of A's friends this afternoon and seeing some friends after lunch tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will hold (although they did close the pool because of a thunderstorm warning earlier today).

Off to South Korea for the first time next week so should be an interesting few days.

Back to School

A. has now started at the Canadian International School so we have been waiting with bated breath and fingers-crossed to see how he gets on. It will be his third school in 9 months having finished at his kindergarten in December and then spent a couple of terms at the local ESF. We attended a "parents orientation" breakfast last week and it was amazing to see how teaching seems to have changed since those long ago days when I donned my short trousers and deep navy jumper to attend primary school. Although billed as a breakfast event the presentations lasted until around 10:30 and we heard from everyone from the head teacher to the School nurse - all with powerpoint presentations and hyper-text links to the relevant part of the school website. Communication was a big theme with teachers and support staff all emphasising their roles, aims and how they could be contacted (mainly email). It was very impressive and generated a very positive buzz among the 100 + parents who attended. For a school with 1,600 + students it has managed to avoid the rather impersonal air that large learning institutions can sometimes develope and E. and I were suitably buoyed by the experience. Last weekend was spent preparing A. for his first swimming lesson today. The weather was excellent and as a result the pool water was like a warm bath - perfect for swimming. A. made a huge breakthrough in donning his swim-goggles and swimming underwater for the first time. Of course having cracked it he spent the next couple of hours hurling himself into the pool from ever greater heights and then his 2 year old sister decided to follow suit so I spent most of the time catching V. and reminding A. to keep his mouth closed as he jumped in. Great fun was had by all. His swimming lesson also appears to have been a success although as usual trying to get A. tell us about his school day was like trying to get blood out of the proverbial stone. One of the hand-outs at last week's orientation was an extract from a newspaper article about how to elicit information from students about what they did at school. I am glad that we are not the only ones who are forced to adopt a combination of the cross-examination technique of George Carmen QC and the persistence of the Spanish Inquisition to find out what we are spending our money on!

Summer Special

Back from our hols in UK. I was very lucky with the weather - in 2 1/2 weeks there was only one day that was a complete washout - according to Em the three weeks she and the kids spent back home before my arrival were similar to my one bad day. No doubt it will pour down on my next trip home. We had a number of celebrations for V.'s second birthday including a BBQ at my father's for the family and various friends with children including P & V with their two girls and R. & A with their boy and girl. Great fun was had by all and it was good to see everybody again. V. is very tall for her age - 3 feet high but is actually fairly well co-ordinated (although she sported a cracking black eye when I saw her at the end of July after having apparently fallen down the stairs at Grandma P and Grandad T's in Bristol). She still runs everywhere - Little Miss Runalot! Her favourite words still remain "mine" and "no" and 'sharing' is still more likely to end up in a punch-up than any actual sharing. Although she seems to understand a lot more than she is immediately prepared to let on her vocabulary is predominantly still in Verity-speak which she is quite happy to employ whenever she is addressing anybody (or anything - her dolls and inanimate objects that have caused her pain). Its fascinating to see how different V. is from A at the same age. A was (and remains) far more biddable - with V. if she doesn't want to do something or things are not just so then the whole world knows about it at top volume. She is also very much more robust in defending her corner (or grabbing something she wants) as her cousin J learnt on a number of occasions while we were on holiday. A and his cousin N are getting on a great deal better than before. There was a time up until and including last Summer's holiday that we thought that they would never be able to play together unsupervised without ending up fighting. Whilst it is still a risk leaving them unsupervised that they will get up to trouble at least they are not hitting each other any more. However, V and J are still at and age where there is likely to be trouble (usually instigated by V.).

We saw a good deal of my Sister M and her husband B which was great although M is still horrendously busy and stressed with work. We did however manage a really nice trip up to the London Aquariam (including travel by train which as quite challenging with 4 kids and one of the party on crutches) and visits to Broadstairs, my Mother's sister M in Balham as well as various parts of Kent. We also took Dad with us on a number of excursions including Camber Sands (the sea was at least 1/2 a mile form the shore which was quite a challenge when the kids wanted a paddle). My Father bore our presence stoically but I imagine he was pleased to have a bit of piece and quiet when we finally left.

Back in HK contemplating a move away from Tai Tam towers after a 40% rent hike. Will have to make a decision soon but still checking out other options on the South-side. In other news, we have also just experienced a T9 Storm signal so a day off for everybody on Friday - almost a direct hit (hence the T9 rather than the usual T8 for Typhoons). The TV pictures from Sai Kung and Kowloon-side showed some pretty powerful winds but here at T T Towers we seemed relatively unscathed.

Any way last day of the Olympics so fingers crossed for some more GB success. Em and I went to the show-jumping final at Shatin on Monday which was good fun - the radio commentary at the venue certainly helped us understand what was happening. Hopefully our next Olympic visit will be in London in 2012.

A bad spell of whether

It seems to have been raining for weeks. In fact, apart from a couple of honourable exceptions, it has been raining for weeks. E's parents came to see us in mid-June and apart from the first weekend and the last few days we had some pretty spectacular precipitation as well as a T8 signal (at least the T8 - only our second in HK and our first "proper" one as the other time the signal was raised just as we were just landing at Chep Lap Kok on our way back from UK - allowed me the chance of a lie in (usually this signal is raised just in time for the weekend....)). To be fair, on the days of their holiday when it was not raining, it was very clear, very sunny and extremely hot so A. had a chance to try out his new boogie board at Shek O beach (we thought we would leave Big Wave Bay for when he was a little more experienced).

From our eyrie in Tai Tam Towers we generally get a good view of whatever the day holds for us weather-wise. On particulaly clear days the existence of previously unseen islands out beyond Stanley peninisular can be discovered. Equally the squalls and thunderstorms sweeping in from the sea can be just as diverting. Last weekend was a case in point as I watched a rainstorm making its way into Tai Tam Bay. It was like watching a waterfall slowly advancing across the sea completely obscuring the islands, boats and windsurfers that lay in its path. I have never seen anything like it and only thought to get my camera when the rain was thundering against the window.

The rain on my way home last Friday night was also almost biblical in its intensity - the road leading up from Repulse Bay to the CMK turnoff was turned into a raging torrent as the taxi aquaplaned its way up the hill, lightening flashes lighting up the night sky like a Hollywood film set (think the brooding, rain-streaked opening scenes from Bladerunner). Even the taxi driver, who at the start of our trip from Central had enthusiastically embraced the challenge of beating the land speed record to Tai Tam Towers, slowed down as the windscreen wipers struggled to make any impression on the cascade of water obscuring his view of the road.

I should also add that last night's storm, whilst failing to match the torrential downpours of the weekend, at least managed to produce the loudest clap of thunder I think I have ever heard, waking up me and no doubt several residents in downtown Manila. Given that I am due to return to blighty for a holiday next week fingers crossed that things improve before the weekend.

A long absence

Apologies for the lengthy delays between posts. The main reason was simply a lack of any desire to say anything. I mentioned in my last post that my mother was very unwell and unfortunately she passsed away a few weeks after. I was lucky enough to be with her throughout the last weeks of her illness so was able to support her (as best I could) and the rest of the family during a very difficult period. Thank goodness for an understanding employer. E and I returned shortly afterwards for the funeral in the UK where I gave the Eulogy. Not the easiest piece of public speaking I have ever done but one that was a privilege to undertake particulaly given the huge number of family and friends who attended to bid her farewell. My Mother was a remarkable women and I am not sure that I could ever have done her proper justice but at least I had the opportunity to say how much I loved her and respected her achievements in public. My Father then came out to HK for some R & R which took in the Rugby 7s and 10s which I think he enjoyed (his stay was extended by a week due to Oasis going bust) and it was good to be able to spend some time with him. A longer post will follow to record other happenings over the last few months.