Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Letter 24 Mum & Ian Visit in March

I was a bit miffed to have missed all the Chinese New Year things, but luckily got 1 booking to decorate the models greeting people arriving at a corporate party - on the roof of the IFC mall where Mum, Pete and I found those amazing glass sculptures on her last visit. I was dying to stay and see the party as they had all sorts of traditional entertainments, from paper cut-outs to fortune telling and grasshopper making (she folded strips long leaf into realistic insects - amazing).


A woman that organises alternative markets two Sundays a month contacted me, as their usual face-painter has gone abroad for months and she had heard of me. Wierdly several random stallholders from her thing had contacted me the week before saying I should 'do' the markets! So I tried the Borrett Road school carpark location market the 2nd Sunday of March. We were told to be set up by 8.30 am so Pete piled my gear into Pingu and motored me around to the 'dock' (tiny & rotting) beside Deep Water Bay where the water-ski boat stays. Then I hauled my stuff up 1 short flight of stairs to the roadside layby and thankfully flagged down a taxi just before I started panicking about, being late. And it POURED - the market can provide tables but not shelters (typical when we can carry rolled up tables like mine but not gazebos!!!) so I was soaked. I gave up when all my paints were as wet as I was - pity as there were some people there despite the weather, and I had customers. It had a really nice atmosphere and interesting stalls - lots of organic foods, decent art & craft work, etc. I even met a Hindu lady (selling kits to teach Mandarin to babies!) who knew Ishi's family in Kenya! The market charge a small entrance fee which gets donated to a different charity every month, which is a nice touch, and we all get to put a wee advertising blurb on their website. Anyway, as usual it turns out the previous painter only did little piddly rubbish things on cheeks and hands (not in proper face-paint either I bet) so I was a revalation. Annoyingly even with a discount on the stall fee, I'm not going to make much profit doing those days - still it gets my cards out there!


Mum& Ian arrived on Mothering Sunday, while I was doing the opening day of the next 'new' market at Pokfulam's Cyberport shopping Mall. The other market has been running for 6 months (once a month), and has been so popular they want to run it at this location too. I prefer the new place - lovely open space with a water feature and trees, with grass steps making a sort of amphitheatre to a stage. AND with the mall and parking under it, people are far more likely to come! Plus it didn't rain! a big thrill was having my name 'up in lights;' as the huge LCD screen constantly displayed all the blurbs describing the stalls that are on the Markets website. Anyway, I was mad busy as I would normally hope to be and had to be evil to actually get a lunch/ loo break. Sadly as my queue started before I was even set up (before the market even opened!) I didn't get a chance to go and buy the lovely fresh Morroccan food or home-made cakes and cookies like at the last market. Their queues were too long by the time I was hungry enough to stop! I did feel sorry for the cleaners though, as the water feature behind me was a lovely rippling 'stream' lined with big pebbles. So most of the kids were busy chucking the pebbles into the water, despite their efforts to stop them, and by the end of the day, even where they put up barriers, the pebbles were ALL in the stream and had left the gridwork around the sides exposed!


Mum and Ian were here for 2 weeks but unfortunately I had been busy (and then got ill) so we didn't see them a lot! We 'did' Stanley Market and all the usual sights; the Maritime Museum there (transported brick by brick when the government wanted to build on its old site) was actually quite good. We upset the guides by not wanting to wait for the official English tour - quite glad we didn't as the man doing it (ex UK Navy I think and a lot to do with setting up the museum) was still only a few steps into the gallery by the time we had done the whole place! It only had 2 'halls', one all about historical boats and the other full of modern tankers with virtual reality tanker driving and morse code games, etc. The ancient replicas of a towering ornate catamaran, pirate artefacts and an enormous handpainted silk scroll (several 100 metres long it looked like) telling the tales of pirate-governemnt battles were stunning though.


Mum & Ian stayed in a room above The Bay, the overpriced cafe at Mo Tat beach where we used to get the ferry to HK. Sadly they were building a new floor above them so they didn't get much peace! Still, we had a couple of lovely evenings in the club at Middle Island or sat watching the sunset on the boat. lucky, as so far it has been the most miserable damp, grey spring - I don't think I have seen sky more than 4 times in 6 weeks!

On my last visit to the diabetic doctor they arranged I would help in medical trials, so Pete accompanied me to an office in Central to get a blood meter installed. After fainting at the last couple of injections (for Africa and after the last blood tests here) I made hm come as I don't know if its in my brain or what but I wanted company in case I did it again! Anyway, it wasn't too bad as it went in, she had a thing that sort of fired it into my stomach, then she taped it over and attached a little gadget to the plug sticking out of my skin. It was only when I started walking around I realised what a pain it was - its a bit bigger than a mobile phone but quite heavy, with a clip to fit into my pocket. After several scares with the crowds knocking into it in Central, I re-clipped it into the back of my knickers which felt a wee bit more secure but increased the likelihood of me dropping it down the loo! I was supposed to input when I ate, injected, exercised, felt hypo etc and it would take constant readings of my blood sugars, to help a company develop a new insulin I think. I hated sleeping as it kept catching/ I would lie on the machine or the stomach plug thing.

The 1st Saturday Mum & Ian were here, i had a party in Mid levels in the clubhouse of an aprtment skyscraper. Rather than the usual suite in the ground floor, this was a real colonial relic, with arched colonades, beautifully done inside. The parents I had met at another kids party and for once they had really made an effort - and I was the only 'hired' help. The whole place was decorated in a 'Princess & heroes' theme, and WOW, the dresses the wee tots had on were something else! Plus there was cake decorating, sun-glasses decorating, disney karaoke and games, ending with a pinata and cake. really nice and I actually got fed for once! The family friends said it was because the mum was Japanese and they had a strong culture of looking after their kids themselves - she did have a nanny but really joined in, in a cinderella maid costume herself!
It was truly pouring when I finished, so I met mum in IFC mall where she had stashed all the paints I had bought in the UK for YAF while she had been on a guided architectural tour. After a slight panic as Sarah hadn't texted me her workshop address, I managed to get onto the internet in a coffee shop (still in full fiary gear) and we then got a taxi to the YAF office. And waited as everyone was late.

In the end, as getting in and setting up took so long, I only really go to explain the paints (professional cake make-up, not nasty acrylic), and a few short-cuts/ effects (like roses & double dipped daisies) to the 10 or so who managed to get there. Mum was very kindly my model! They only had time to do 1 practice, at a butterfly, before I got out the glitter tattoo kits so they could play with them too. So that gave me moe to worry about - no examples of their work to print out to use as displays at the rugby, no real time to teach them anything new, and although several were really promising, a couple were fairly awful and NOT what I wanted to make an impression with!

I also decided, after a chat with Caroline (the lady living on a massive luxurious yacht who arranges & helps with her kids school visits to Pete for sailing) to get a cat NOW rather than when I get back from the UK in autumn. After all it will keep Pete comopany in the summer. We all dribble at the pedigrees in all the etshops but they all cost at least $3000 and are ALL Sottish Folds (short cured areas and protruding eyes). So Mum & I went to the SPCA which is actually 5 minutes walk from Peter's HQ. They had 6 black & white spotty kittens (some looked like dalmations, i was the spitting image of Snoopy) and we spent hours deciding which we would like. Then another age when they said we had to get 2. Then the man said we didn't have to get 2 so we ummed again. We eventually chose the little girl I had said looked too weird & sad because of the markings on her face. I think she must have been the runt, she was so tiny & skinny (but long legs & tail) compared to the rest of her family. Her mum hopped around on 3 legs. It all went well until they realised I had forgotten my purse, and downhill further when I didn't know the size of our living space in square feet. When they twigged we were on a boat they said I couldn't have one! Forgetting Caroline has several cats from them living happily with her, I went on about how we had always had cats onboard etc, and was told the boss would decide on Monday and ring me back! A quick look around the dog kennels as we left was shocking - many of the gorgeous animals in there were expensive pedigrees like retreivers! I can't beleive how people waste money - apparantly they import them at huge cost then decide they don't like them or whatever and basically just abandon them, the gits.

Luckily, as I was waiting to get my blood meter thing removed, the SPCA rang to say I could have a kitten. That was good as the woman expert who had inserted my needle wasn't there to take it out. The male receptionist rang her and got told to do it himself. After searching for 10 minutes he found plasters as he had been told to, sat down and had a look at the thing in me. Then asked me if he just yanked the machine out. I nervously replied that I thought he unplugged it 1st then did soemthing to get the needle & plug out. Another phonecall later he managed to unplug it. I got off the special sticky clear covering things and we both looked at the plug. Another 2 phonecalls later we were both sweating as he tried to pull it in various ways but it didn't budge. The 5th call we found we had to peel off a certain bit and the 6th call finally made sense as he managed to ease out the needle bit. It was a lot longer than I expected it to be! And I wish Pete had been there for the removal instead of just the 1st visit!!!!

So Mum & I went to collect her. I had to fill in many long forms wanting to know my experiences with cats....huh? Must be a lot of people here with no pets in their past! I had to pay about $1500 but that also covers her being neutered and her first course of jabs etc, which is great and all done at the same centre. Then we kitted her up from their pet-shop - love the new style cat-carruiers which are more like gym bags with mesh sides - easier to cary and to store! The kitten screamed the whole way back int he taxi and down the 200 steps to the ferryboat.
But the second we let her out of the bag onboard, she purred, cuddled up to us and settled down. Most confident wee kitten i have seen! She has 7 spots on her back so I wanted to call her Cookie (as in Choc Chip as she looks a bit like one) or Perdita out of 101 Dalmations. Pete likes Domino which doesn't roll off the tongue and just makes me think of old James Bond films!


Pete had an interview for a promotion on Wednesday, as his immediate boss (who started just before him) is leaving to go into finance. The only other candidate is the man Markus that Pete job-shares with, so it was a bit awkward either way. They said they wanted someone to stay at least 5 years, and I half thought that Markus, having been an SI here a year longer than pete, would automatically get it. Pete thought a he wasn't a cantonese speaker, Markus would get it, but we agreed we didn't mind too much if Pete did OR didn't get it, either was good. he thought he had mucked up on the interview, as the overall sailing boss kept having to say stuff Pete had mentioned in a pre-interview to him, or prod Pete a bit to say the right thing!


The kitten is doing well, very purry when she's sleepy but already good at avoiding Pete when he is asleep as he then tends to throw small furry annoying things accross the room. She won't come out of the hatch and howls when we carry her form the kitchen side to the bed side at night. She's very vocal and haven't quite worked out what all her yowls mean, apart from the 'why did you wake me/ i need the loo!' ones when shes half asleep.

On Thursday I had a party booked way out in the New Territories. Pete thought it would take an hour or so in a Taxi to get me there, as buses won't let me on with all my gear, and changing trains etc even if Mum came to help would be a pain. As he had a day off he decided he would sail us all there instead and faithfully promised we would be on time. I started getting queasy about as soon as we passed Tai O (where I threw up when we sailed it in the small boat last year) even though it was flat calm. I lay down inside and comfort Domino who as howling her head off whenever she spotted one of us.
Half way there, Petes boss phoned to say he had the job!!!!! Pete was grinning like mad, there is a lot more officey type stuff and he will be based at Kellet in Central (noisy and smelly but the HQ so bigger and posh) but I think the prestige & bonus's he gets if he hits his targets will help! Now its only the Markus thing that may be a bit awkward - he's older, local, and has a family here.


Typically we arrived at Po Toi O when I was meant to be at the party, and I had a mad scramble to try and get all my gear together and into the boat and force myself to eat something. Luckily it turned out the houses where just above the fishing village we sailed into, so I was hardly late at all! Lovely family & party but as I was painting in the garden, my legs got eaten by mosquitoes and small black biting things that made me jump - yuk!!!
We sailed back (me & the cat dozing squeamishly in the dark) to Central so that Mum & Ian could watch the light show from our deck, and then docked at the RHKYC HQ on Kellet 'Island'. Mum & Ian scrambled for a taxi and we settled for out first night in that marina. It STINKS as I have mentioned - more like an open sewer - and there is so much light pollution I could read in bed with our lights off! Not as noisy as I had thought apart from a taxi sampan buzzing around.

With the hours I worked at the Rugby I didn't get to see Mum & Ian again before they left. Shockingly Mum left with the only shopping she had done being 3 table runners for the cat sitter & her friends!
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