After not much luck in local chains, I finally found an IKEA in Central. Its odd, lots of posh/ big places seem to have their stores UNDER posh hotels, as Ikea does.......no sign on the street, either! Despite not having the usual ware-house sized shop as in the UK, it was just as disorientating and still seemed huge. The local expats were all wrong, as it had 1 f flat white sheet (can't use white as I so often drip blood when I inject!) and everything else was fitted sheets as the rest of HK's bedding shops sell! I could cry - I usually hate sheets, but its all we can stand just now in this heat, as I have to be wrapped in something or I can't sleep. Bet by the time Mum/ Petes sis visit it will be duvet/ blanket weather so its not even worth getting them to ship me some out......oh well! But I did get a nice light mesh covered zip-up drawer unit (can carry it up that hill AND it will help keep geckos out but let air in so clothes don't go mouldier). Had lovely evening putting it together and sorting our clothes......Pete typically had stuffed all his gear, smart, casual, wetsuit/ sailing gear and all, in his suitcase when he moved and only really used the top layer. So everything I pulled out from under there was sandy AND mouldy - not that he hopefully put in wet wetsuits, but even his books/ passport went mouldy in the humidity! So another trip to the laundrettes is due, I think. Nice that you just drop it all off & collect it clean & dry (unlike most blokes I knew at Uni we actually washed ours ourselves rather than use the service wash option), but I swear they boil it all up, I have never seen clothes fade so fast before!
Rain has been making everything VERY damp - its great, like the big Belize storms sweeping in, but less nice to be out in. Apparently there are different colour-coded warnings (and for typhoons) - while I was safely holed up with the de-humidifer/ AC on this weekend, Pete was trapped in a classroom with 20 sulking kids as they weren't allowed to sail in a Red Rain warning- 50mm of rain/ hour. The Red rainstorm missed his Middle Island, but even the edge of it was enough.
Poor Pete had to try to get them interested in theory stuff for several hours, ick....and then had to try to get them to bail out their filled-up boats which took most half an hour! It is noisy enough to wake us up with a jump during the night when it starts, but the sudden thunder claps are worse! It started pouring as I left for the ferry on Monday, luckily I saw and took the (7-11 - classy!) golf brolly & big tough Teva sandals on, as I could see the torrent rushing down towards the flat on our gently sloping path. The actual 99 steps were submerged & I was getting paranoid, paddling down the invisible steps, as there are lots of nice government signs up about the risk of landslips there. Though really I was more concerned with the possibility of those giant evil path-side spiders getting washed loose and grabbing onto my ankles as they passed by. Thankfully the pot-bellied pig someone keeps half-way up the steps is set back a little so the tide of rain scouring out his smelly pen was heading down through the brush rather than the path.
One good thing was that getting soaked took all the creases out of my clothes as we don't have an iron......or an ironing board, although I have seen cute ones the size of a flattened fore-arm which is all most locals use! But I was cold all day, drawback of AC's. Wierdest was in the city/ shops - nearly all are marble or granite or tile floored, very slippery when wet. So lots of little astroturf rugs appeared, or shop people mopping madly behind every customer entering as if the wet shoes were an ice-curling competition being viewed in reverse. Lots of entrances had sprouted funny metal poles with curved tops like the ones you tie wire or plastic onto to pen in livestock or edge a showring, with plastic strips hung on the tips. I finally realised they were plastic brolly tube bags, to slip over your soggy umbrella so you don't drip in the elevators etc. They even do different sizes for folding, golf, kids ones......wow!
Trees in concrete landslide protection on pathway to Tung O Bay, Lamma Island, Hong Kong
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
I know I have been quite shocked by the lack of H& Safety in some areas, but we got a very educational film on the bus TV yesterday - how to fix and maintain a public lift properly - a nice little man in his white safety gear, with all this massive jaws-of-life type equipment to hold the doors open, properly placed signs to warn the public not to come in, how to access the control wires & everything. Without sound of course. Not the sort of thing you want shown in the UK, educating the vandals on how to do SERIOUS lift damage! Today they were showing a couple building some sort of computer to watch TV & music through. Lovely and simple - slow pan past a huge pile of computer electronic boards, casings, plugs etc, a swift shot of the bloke grinning with a huge handful of multi-coloured electronic wires, a smile from the vacant girl, mad activity as he slotted everything together, and VOILA, a showgirl 'look at what we have for you today' hand gesture from the adoring girl and another slow shot of the fantastic now working electronic thing. Either the locals are REALLY good at lip-reading and picking up new skills rapidly, or the buses at certain times are full of workers (in mufti obviously) in those industries.
The public mini buses have a big red electronic sign showing how fast the driver is going, that beeps & flashes if they go over the speed limit. Not sure if the double deckers do, I never sit near the front to notice. What I do notice from them is the "how many road accidents in HK this year" sign as we enter the Aberdeen tunnel that cuts through the mountains towards Central and the North coast of HK. I'm hoping it has an extra '0' in by mistake - last years total was 180006!!!! Petes already seen several sports cars crash whilst waiting for buses, and every time there is little sympathy from locals. There are noticeably NO old banger as in the UK - if its a private car, its either a huge shiny people mover (most now dwarf the minibuses) or a sports car. (Even taxis are fairly flash, and at certain times they all pile into garages to get cleaned up....... I also found they charge you extra for having suitcases in the boot, so if they fit, take them inside with you to cut costs!). My stop for my language school is just past all the posh car shops (all built in the ground floors of skyscrapers) - they even do kiddy sized working Porsches. Oh and for Gee/ Michelle - I nearly had my foot run over by a REALLY COOL car last week. Apologies (can hear you swearing) as I have no idea what it was, but get this, I DID notice it was totally made of carbon fibre! But not a convertible/ open like your old one, Gee.
Does anyone know if giant centipedes are VERY poisonous? I seem to remember they are, and at least cause swollen ankles/ legs. I finally saw a half-squashed one at the steps today, twitching at the rear as its squashed head was being eaten by ants. They are big, it looked like a 4 inch long hot dog with lots of crabs middle legs stuck in it. Pete saw one chopping apart a frog - totally dismembered it in a few minutes he said! The islanders squash them as soon as they see them which I take it means they are not friendly. The millipedes so far are smaller than Kate J's friends & the ones in Africa, but I don't know if they get bigger here. Talking of sausages, Pete got all excited as he found what he thought was german/ italian style garlic sausage and bought a load home. Sadly it seems it was made out of fish paste and squid, not quite as nice, so we have it mouldering in the fridge. But I LOVE seaweed snacks - basically flat bubbly green strips of the same stuff the shredded seaweed UK chinese takeaways give you - and they are quite healthy!
Pet shops here are a bit traumatic - lots of kittens/ puppies in tiny wire or plastic cages stacked on each other. I have no idea if they get let into bigger spaces to play or not - I hope so. But there are LOADS of stores with pet gear etc, their ownwers certainly spend enough once they have them! Fish pets are massively popular too, we had a great time gawping at and poking (we thought one of the terrapins was drowning - turned out it was just depressed) all sorts of sealife. Lots of funky bright fish, guppies and things a bit like green spotted cowfish/ box fish.....I hope to ID them, pretty!
But also EDIBLE fish from baby-fry size up, that you can rear yourself until you eat them - Petes dream of aquaponics may happen! (And the other way round too - saw a fishmongers with what I'm sure were parrot fish leaping out of their box into the lobster tank next door). Again I'm not sure if they were legally caught/ sold. Saw my first bloke taking his caged songbird for a walk today, happily gabbling at it as he wandered around. A lot of stall holders have their birds with them, and Pete got quite attched to the talking parrots (no idea what they were saying tho) in a bird shop...I was more impressed by the ultra fluffy, far cheaper and shorter-living funny coloured hamsters!
Love Trina/ Catx
PS . Urrgh worst nightmare nearly happened! Pete was late for work today as there was a yellow rain warning up ( I couldn't sleep all night, the rain was so loud) and he couldn't see to walk down in the rain so got a later ferry. By the time I was ready to go it said 'red warning' on the internet, meaning I should listen to local& TV radio for instructions. As I had tried several times to get Pete to explain what I should do & he forgot we don't have TV/ radio, I was a bit panicked, especially as he still hadn't reached his office so I presumed was holed up in a typhoon shelter or drowned or something. I was resigned to a day off school but then he rang & said I COULD still go. I dashed out in short rain-break, to spot a big curled twiggy looking thing shaped like one of those octopus head massagers (sort of a stiff octpus/ hand shape)in the middle of the steps near the top. Then it twitched & i saw the spots on it - it WAS a big half drowned spider!!!!!! Pegged it down the rest of the steps to find I was the only one waiting for the ferry, the other 20+ locals had stayed at home.......hmm. Not a great trip, the plastic boat sides were down to stop rain blowing in but the canvas roof leaked like mad and it was very rough. (Well, for me it was!). Freezing as no Lochie to gallantly attempt to keep me warm as in Mombasa boats! Called Pete at the other end to say I didn't like living on the island as i often start/ finish my days seasick, and I wasn't using the stairs during rainstorms again unless I was wearing waders. He says its all in my head. And that our ferry was the only one that kept going during red storms or higher as it didn't have insurance anyway!!!!!! And then a neighbour told me something went wrong with the spiders this year, there are usually 100s, everywhere, and this year they are really rare. Oh my gods.................
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