Festive Spirit

Christmas fast approaches and we are preparing ourselves for our annual pilgrimage back to blighty. This time slightly longer than usual - two weeks - due to a combination of creative and far-sighted holiday planning and very cheap BA air tickets.

Managed to knock most of the outstanding gift buying on the head this afternoon at Pacific Place and even had time for a meal at Grappa's before going back to entertain the kids. A strong contrast to my adrenalin fuelled Christmas Eve panic attacks when back in London trying to fit everything in during a two hour period on the afternoon before Christmas Day when the only places open were Hamleys and motorway service stations (toys, games and flowers used to feature large in my present giving regardless of the age or sex of the recipient...).

As always the period up to Christmas has been pretty frantic at work - even more so this time round with a trip to Singapore shoe-horned in to the last few days at work and various key internal documents to be completed before the holidays started. As always with Hong Kong it never really feels like Christmas even with the plethora of grottoes and Father Christmases in the shopping Malls and the extravagantly ostentatious Christmas trees and lighting/decorations in the lobbies and on the outside of the skyscrapers in Central. I think this is mainly due to the weather. We were at the St Anne's BBQ a couple of weeks ago which was very pleasant - warm and sunny - but poor old Santa Claus looked and no doubt felt extremely over-dressed given the temperature in his big red coat and white beard. We also spent a pleasant evening at the Black Sheep in Shek O (with W, K and B)followed by a drink in "Paradiso" (see earlier posts) overlooking the beach. Not exactly swimming weather but still warm enough to sit outside in the evening. UK is apparently shivering at the moment with suitably wintery weather (no snow as yet) so I am sure that we will get into the Christmas spirit very quickly.

Shortly after we are back from the UK in the New Year we are off to Bali for CNY (very early this year) so plenty to look forward to on our return.

Merry Christmas everybody.

Party Time

Just had S and T to stay for a holiday in HK. As E. said the tone for their stay was set on the their first day when we went for a quiet drink at Smugglers in Stanley and somehow ended up in Dusk to Dawn in Wanchai (on a Monday night). Trips to the Karaoke and various other notable Bars and restaurants in HK followed in the remainder of their trip (interspersed with more traditional holiday entertainment including a junk trip to Lamma and a trip to Shenzen). An excellent time was had by all and we even found a brand new bar - "Paradiso" in Shek O which I saw during our visit to Shek O beach on the Sunday afternoon was very pleasant. Not entirely sure what it is modelled on but has sand on the floor and lots of Balinese style wood fittings and a nice bar over-looking the beach. On the Sunday evening we went there was also a DJ playing some reasonably cool tunes.

Election Fever

Ran (almost literally) into Anson Chan during my lunch break last week canvassing in Wanchai during the current round of HK elections. Ms Chan's electioneering was reasonably traditional in style - kissing babies, shaking hands etc. (albeit with various TV crews and photographers in attendance). However, on the South side of the Island the favoured technique for winning hearts and minds appears to consist of candidates standing at the side of the road with a huge grin on their face waving manically at passing motorists (usually with a banner next to them with their picture on it to make sure there is no mistake as to who they are). Not sure how effective this technique can be in winning people over with the power of your personality, the eloquence of your advocacy or the persuasiveness of your policies but I suppose at least the electorate have a fair idea how good (and for how long) the candidates are at waving and smiling at the same time.....