Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Letter 18 - Gold!!!!! Spending it & Coating in it....

Ok we have done/ are doing it!!!!! We have had an offer accepted on a 35 foot catamaran with everything on it you could possible need ever to go cruising around the world. (Not that I plan to but Pete might!). It's a bit more than I had hoped to spend so we have been having a total nightmare getting all our savings together and don't get me started about a loan. We have nearly all the money, but as we don't live in the UK full-time UK banks won't give us one (we tried lying but they want pay slips & recent UK bills!) and even though we are living in Hong Kong we aren't considered permanent residents so aren't allowed one here. Well, not without crippling interest for a very small fee. I got so fed up of talking to Indian call-centres I rang my ex-local branch in the UK and got all my savings moved into my account in 5 minutes, FINALLY, but have to wait another week to transfer it to Petes! So when we have it all together we send it to the broker in Australia & go to look at the boat. If its Ok & we like it, he sends it to the buyer and off we sail!

Slight problem is it's in Micronesia in a small island called Palau. Looks gorgeous & the current owner wants to take us on a trip round the islands (on the boat) for a few days, but due to irregular flights & my bookings, I maybe won't be able to go - gutted! (Not that I wanted the sail, I want to see the tropical paradise). The worst bit is that Pete has to get the thing back to HK, sailing 1200 miles with the Phillipines in the middle. Um. I am NOT going, he really wants to do it but I'd much rather just pay someone to deliver it (boat crews do that sort of thing). At the moment the only crew pete MIGHT have is his brother but maybe not in time!!!!! He can't sail it on his own you need a 24 lookout for shipping, the main danger at sea. Still, at the moment (the owner found Petes email on the web after receiving our contract and they are writing to each other) the owner is waiting for a few bits he ordered for the boat so it looks as if our mad rush is off a bit and we won't get it until after Christmas - but we can visit it before!


It has a double berth in the front of each hull and a single at each back point so come and visit! (thats also the really good thing about it, we can have a hull each after fights!). No real space indoors I reckon but we will put up some sort of shelter on the flat wooden bit that joins the 2 hulls. It has solar panels & a wind generator but I expect it will only run a light OR the laptop OR the mini fridge for my insulin.....still, hopefully we will be installed in it around Christmas. I'm planning to decorate the mast as a tree and Petes been wibbling on about how great it is to have kids on. Some idea that we could get one of those baby bouncer thingys and any sprog of ours could bounce off the yard-arm or whatever its called, naked, dropping 'stuff' down through the netting that makes up some of the decking, and so not need nappies! Oh nope he's correcting me, it will be hung over the side to poop into clear water. I'm sure teasing sharks is illegal....... He's also planning we become nomadic pirate types and home-school our entire family but I'm not convinced.

Pete took Sunday 'off' to do the round-Hong Kong race. Apparently he & his 2 novices (the blokes we sailed round with the other week) got a cracking start and passed loads of boats (about 200 in the race) then got becalmed for over 3 hours when they reached Middle Island where Pete works, and were actually doing 1 knot backwards with the tide! Then they got a small wind and managed to limp to the finish. He was miffed as his boss started earlier so didn't get becalmed and managed to finish 4 hours earlier, THEN Pete heard he had actually missed the starting flags so he had started even later than supposed! As only a few boats finished the race (just 2 in Petes class) they adjusted all the times to 'end' it before most people got becalmed and Pete thought he had only been about 15th. But after a phonecall from his boss & his crew late the other night, Petes super-happy as he won his class! Sadly as he didn't know that/ had flu we didn't go to the awards ceremony, think he won a glass or something. He says one ceremony he saw here the prize was a load of different cheeses - think I'd prefer that!

We both got a haircut last week. Not earthshattering/ amusing news but noticeable for the results. Nice salon, owner who did us spoke English but OMG the magazines he gave us were a laugh. They were in chinese script which runs in vertical lines, but also opened from the back of the magazine. I think Pete was meant to be choosing a style, there were 1000's of headshots of oriental men (some looked a bit suspiciously female tho) and every single one had a short spiked cut that basically looked either as if he'd just got out of bed, or that his stylist only cut 1/2 his head. Pete went for the traditional short english look shaved at the back which took a bit of explaining (ie gesturing) but looked fine. On my turn I asked for about an inch off the ends to tidy up, even demonstrated on my hair which reached a few inches down my upper arms. Took off glasses to let him get on with it so I couldn't see, at end discovered I had hair which no longer even reaches my shoulders. Not impressed! Shades of Emma's mad wedding hairdresser, must remember to wear contact lenses when I go into a salon.


Nearly got a bit embarressed this week - had on a pair of those Tibetan or whatever they are wrap trousers (the ones where you tie the front like an apron then pull the rest through & tie them). I got off the minibus and the ties on the front of then suddenly detached!!!! So I was waddling accross the road clutching them to keep my dignity with Pete squeaking as big buses bore down on me at speed. Luckily he had old shorts spare at work! He can't talk tho, his favourite pair of trousers have ripped up the back seam again and there is no way I can fix them this time - but he keeps wearing them around the house. It's like being outside a Soho bar, and I'm sure he will forget and wear them out at some point. I have a cunning plan to chuck them away but he keeps hiding them. Oh yes, Johnny, apologies but I have finally found why I couldn't find your blue trousers to post. Pete had them still, he loves them, sorry!


Did I say about the funny little street desks with vendors at them? They look like those victorian secretary/ clerk ones, like Bob Cratchett's, sort of skinny and tall with lots of drawers and nooks. Mainly very old men sit at them, ready to fix your watch or shoes. Mum's battery went flat, so when we passed one in Central we stopped and she gave the watch to the old boy. He unscrewed it, and cleaned the lid that came off. Then he took out the battery, cleaned the contacts & workings, put in a new battery; oiled and cleaned the insides again, screwed it together. THEN he cleaned the outside itself, including oiling the winder, set the time & date and cleaned the strap bits - all for the princely sum of £1!!!! Very impressive. Sadly I wear that limited edition Camel Trophy watch which needs special service as its for diving too...........

The other off thing that actually winds me up (cos I'd hate to have to do it) is GLOVES. They nearly all wear them in service jobs. Taxi drivers etc, fair enough, sweaty grip could be dangerous. Street cleaners, OK, makes sense but must be sweaty IN rubber gloves. But in shops & at tills they have little white cotton knitted gloves or rubber tipped ones. And they often look manky! Probably the rubber tips help pick up change etc, but........is it this hygiene obsession? And then why is spitting on the street not a problem (even though since the SARS outbreak you can get fined for that).

We had a good nose round one of the dried 'things' shops - not one of the stalls, which are far more authentic, but the high street version, called Ichiban, I think, which has the labels (mostly) in english too. Much of interest.....its like a pick-n-mix shop- kids/ adults buy a big bag and walk out munching. So on offer were; usual selection of jelly shapes, boiled sweets, large chocolate coins (all dutch!)& giant Quality Street chocs; asstd tiny round biscuits of almond, shortcake or seaweed origin; tiny rolled tubes of that shredded pork; plums (dried?) in asstd flavours (individually wrapped exactly like those white & pastel Italian biscotti); dried flattened fish, crabs, shrimp, prawns and squid, flavoured with sweet, spicey, chilli or 100's & thousands on them; interesting striped things looking like the black & white sandwich Liquorice Allsorts but turned out to be flattened rolled COD layered with black sesame seeds then chopped into squares! Then we got bizarre; the deep fried chicken knuckles I mentioned before; 1000 year old eggs (preserved/ pickled i herbs etc I think - not that old - just see a green slimey layer or brown liquid surrounding crazed shells); worst of all very sort of slimey-white oily juicy looking individually packaged feet (duck, pig or chicken), heads (asstd fowl) and necks. (George after your cheeky intro via email to your visiting friend, 1 of those is on is way to you - we want to see you eat it!). I have no idea (as most dried stuff here seems very sweet) whether this is actually healthier than UK kids pick-n-mix but I really don't fancy most of it!

Had a ball at my booking on Saturday - kids 5th birthday party, on the posh restaurant on the top of the tourist-trap 'Jumbo' chinese floating restaurants. I was placed outdoors under a huge pointed gazebo, lovely.
The decor in that place is 'amazing' if thats the word....if it can be it will be gilded, carved, mirrored, marbles and have sparkly lights in it too. The loos were beautiful with handpainted goldfish swimmin around the sinks. Nice chinese family, with American accents; kid hadn't had a party since his 1st so they had gone all out - electric kids size train, clown, balloon artists, and me.
I was a hit of course, (heh) they all seemed to think she had flown me in especially for it! Amazing view through the dull rain, as it overlooks the marina that both junks we looked at buying were in. The food was stunning - more like 5 star adult gourmet than for kids, with sushi, caviar and all the hot/ cold savouries possible, down to chips & sandwiches. I loved the profiteroles disguised as swans.


Sadly I was so busy (50 kids instead of 30 turned up, with adults - luckily there was enough going on I dodn't have to attempt to paint them all) I didn't have time to eat the platefulls their housekeeper tried to give me, though I did get a handful of the swans to take home! The hosts were a bit miffed as they had been told the place would provide containers to take home any spare food (there was LOADS left over), but discovered all they were offered was clingfilm which wasn't much use for anything except sandwiches! Each guest was also given a personal birthday cup-cake, decorated with personalised chocolate charcaters (Thomas the Tank Engine, Hello Kitty etc), which matched the prezzie-filled characters rucksack they got as goody bags.



Despite this being the dry, winter season, we have had rain most days since Mum left. Not as bad - mainly - as the typhoons, but heavier than Uk showers by miles. Best was coming back on the last ferry on Friday, after staying late at Petes office to argue with our banks over the internet. There was a big lightning storm going on, and the flashes lit up the whole sea, it was weird, pink or orangey! Going up the hill steps the sheets of light were bright enough to see what colours the flowers were - brighter than usual daylight here by far! Luckily no real damage, and the rain is quite opportune. The ancestor festival the other week is when most families visit/ clear graves, and light offerings or burn incense at them. As I mentioned, on the island graves are big ceramic pots grouped with a small curved wall behind them, randomly placed in the brush which up till now has been tinder dry after the end of typhoon weather. Apparantly EVERY YEAR careless people left things burning that set light to whole mountains on the island and kill loads of wildlife as well as damaging property, so there have been ranger police patrolling and huge banners up explaining how to clear around graves or only leave burning offerings in metal containers etc. the path keepers also had to strim & clear as many graves near paths as they could. So, the rain helped stop this, as far as I know nothing caught this year - but all the strips of white paper (maybe the 'hell' money? or prayers?) carefully arranged in fan shapes, held down by a stone, beside or on top of each grave pot, have been turned into mush and now look like white lichen!

I have been published again, but this time in a far better thing for my reputation in the 'industry' (sadly not my helpful for my career as its not available in newsagents!) as a face painter.
Its the new Face & Body art magazine, 'Illusion' - I never liked the old one which had been running for years from the USA, it seemed to be more a promo for the woman who ran it & her work/ internet sales, so a lot of the designs were a bit rubbish and not well presented. The new one is run by 2 ladies from the UK I really like personally & as artists, and is fab quality and very pro looking, love it. I had done 2 designs for them when asked this summer, on my mate Vicky (inspired by iris flowers in Granny Fins garden), and another after Gordy's UK wedding on wee cousin Steph (canadian 1).
Due to loads of the world's top painters agreeing to do articles, they only used 1 of my pics of Vicky (as an iris) in the 1st issue, still, I'm happy, mine is the biggest pic on the gallery! They have now asked to do either a feature on me or a step-by-step of one of my faces in the Spring issue. Panic - has to be new & unpublished work!
Thinking cap on & I really need a model. I was also asked to body-paint something for the new UK body-painters association (they did a calendar to launch it) but as Petes back was bad & I had no other model, I missed that, pants. But - woo hoo!

We are running out of geckos. First there was the sad demise of the entrance gecko, which I only realised when his flattened dessicated mummy fell out of the door hinge when Kate arrived (must have been slowly drying out & thinning after being squashed in the door till he slipped out).
Then taking the bin bag (we recycle shopping bags as ants go mad after a day or 2 of rubbish) to the bins, the tiny baby gecko suddenly appeared on the top of it, and leaped off Petes hand into the bushes! Petes getting good at crooning back to the burbly talkatve one behind the fridge but its the shyest 1, I miss the others. The 1 in the guest bedroom I think still lives in the AC and seems to spend most of its time pooing on the windowsill, also unseen. Hoping we can get ships cats; barring visits to Australia (some book Pete read the owners got told to kill their cats or leave the harbour/ country) and flid attacks (another round the world sailor realised that after its nightly mad turn their kitten must have leapt off the boat in the middle of the atlantic) they should be able to stay with us on board. After all the mast's just a giant scratching post, right? One sailor took a parrot but it decided the hatch cover was its home and tried to peck/ de-eye anyone wanting to climb in or out of the hull! Still missing my little cat, Gee says she is finally settling down a bit with them tho, poor thing.

Right, really odd booking for me! Aside from a few bits on backs/ shoulders/ chests at hot music fests etc, and the henna-inspired stuff I did on Sammy's back in Mombasa, I haven't really had a go at body painting; its a whole different ball game to faces and is a bit harder to find models for!
Anyway another entertainer I know, who has been using me for bookings he gets, rang on Thursday to ask if I could/ had ever body-painted models gold. He had even less of a clue than I did and thought it could be done in 30 minutes (takes an hour and a half just to paint them 1 colour, far longer for designs/ effects!) with eye-shadows or something. I have SEEN a lot of painted models - they were a regular fixture at the Natural History Museum when it was hired for corporate events; from stone effect to metal. I have also seen it being done at Face conventions (there is a bit of overlap), and heard the chat online so I knew the theory (and told him I had done some as a team!). But I knew (after comparison tests at one convention) the best gold body paint isn't available in HK, so hurriedly ordered some from the UK. As it was not guaranteed to be in time, I investigated the 2 tiny face & body art shops in HK and bought a 'local' brand which looked similar - you buy a special powder and mix it with a special bonding liquid. The problem is its not precise, mixture needed varies according to temperature, skin etc. My UK supplier was fab (the Bristol ones you know, mum), it arrived Monday night!

Tues morning (after not being able to sleep until the hour before my alarm- nerves & working out how/ which order to paint the models so they didn't have to stand the whole time ) I was a bit knackered! It was at the newly re-furbished Mandarin Oriental (reopened last week!) - beautiful!!!! They had taped a few tablecloths to the floor as asked, luckily I had still brought towels & a plastic tablecloth as the area wasn't big enough or waterproof - I was set up in a conference room round the corner from the Press Launch room. Sadly the agent mucked up & the 1st (male) model was an hour late so I was panicking I wouldn't finish in time. (The hotels PR agent dropped off the 'costumes' - and I spent the hour trying to 'soften them up' a bit. (She had spray painted tennis outfits with gold metal paint! You ever left washing drying on the line and its frozen? Was like that! Skirt & shorts stiff as a board! Socks & sweatbands I TRIED to stretch, not much success! The girls boob tube mini top was more like gold plate armour! Shoes looked great tho.)


Wilson was a lovely chinese guy - teaches & displays some sort of Japanese dance/ art/ movement/ karate thing, mainly. Luckily as the costume was all gold, he got dressed first so I didn't have to worry about drips showing on white tennis clothes (I had no idea what they would be wearing), or him ruining the paint as he dressed.
We gave up on the socks - even with 3 of us pulling them they were like razor-lined tubes trying to slice off the sides of his toes! (Normally body painters paint OVER costumes as they go so all matches/ is already fitted in place). Lovely body, very funny so we had a ball painting him. Zani, the entertainer/ organiser who booked me, turned up an hour after we had started & began sponging the female model (which he was quite enjoying surprisingly) but she was trouble from the start.
Despite me demonstrating that it all wiped off with soap & water, she wasn't keen on it on her face or really anywhere which was a bit off as thats what she'd been hired for! She was also so skinny she shivered even before she got painted - hotel would only raise the AC to a certain level so it wasn't warm. I had to do a second coat on her to get her shiny/ cover Zanis messy bits, but I don't think I mixed right as neither were as polished as I would have liked. But it was as well I spared the powder as the UK bottle only JUST covered both of them & the HK stuff was a totally different colour gold!


The PR Launch turned out to be huge, I had no idea. There were press & TV from all over Asia. It was for the Champions Challenge (sponsored by big brands like Canon, Cathay Pacific, San Miguel, Fila but mainly by Watsin Water), an annual tennis tournament, in Jan 2007.
They have most of the world's top 10 female tennis players including Sharipova (? even me the tennis hater recognised the names), as well as a few top locals (who I think won Wimbledon doubles this year), playing against each other. Big prizes, and the public who buy tickets (or even just the water brand that sponsors it) to go see it can win the giant 'golden ball' (see photos) hence the golden statues.
Positioned behind the big-wigs introducing the sponsors, rules and players, the models were 'allowed' to move slowly & occasionally after we pointed out how unreasonable/ impossible the PR woman was wanting them to hold 'lob' positions exactly for that length of time!!! Wilson was fab; the poor souls had to hold 'tennis' poses as long as possible for over 2 hours; but he somehow managed to keep the 'action' poses with his racket up for over 20 minutes at a time (didn't they use holding stuff up & out at arms length for long periods as a torture somewhere/ when??). The girl was too twitchy and also had no clue of tennis poses - I had shown her a sort of waiting for service position & backhand (about all I recall from mum trying to teach me) but her others were random.
Then as the golden ball was 'revealed' rising slowly up on a crystal podium, they had to pretend to be about to serve it - I was just waiting for one of the speech-makers to knock it off, as it was fairly hefty but not well attached & shook visibly. Sadly as the PR room was even colder they had been wrapped in my new fluffy towels which took the shine off the gold, but it still looked good on their legs. After the gourmet lunch (we got water from the sponsors & sandwiches out of sight!) they had to go back, and hand out thank you presents - think was gold gifts in them. While we were doing all that Zani got another request for a gold 'party' in China - if it happens & I can get a Chinese visa, he wants me to body paint Wilson again over there!
So, big learning curve but dead simple and far less hassle now I know than doing a painting party or whatever for the same money. Plus have just found lovely lady who helps organise her kids school's sailing with Pete who actually WANTS to be painted - all over or her face! New obsession coming I think....................

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