Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Letter 25 - Hong Kong Rugby Sevens

Wow what a week!

As well as going out with Mum & Ian, and party bookings and training YAF painters, I did lots of running around getting the last few bits needed for painting at the Hong Kong Rugby 7s. Then to further panic me, a bloke called Jiten started texting me asking if I could bodypaint him and his friends with rugby shirts on the Saturday morning of the event. I have never done this but wanted to (the 'easy' 1 colour gold bodies being me only body work so far), especially as I was dreading having to paint boring flags for 3 solid days! As I was already working for YAF, I asked Sarah, and she said yes, fine if it didn't take too long and was good for publicity. I thought it would take around an hour (at least!) per body but would be faster with the girls help, so said 45 mins for each of the 4 men to Jiten, starting at 8am on Saturday before the crowds really arrived. He'd been trying to send me/ get Kukri (who make all the rugby kit/ gear & are sponsoring this little project) to send me a photo of the kit so I could get the right colours and make stencils for lettering. Which still hadn't arrived by Thursday!

I was quite glad we were parked in Central, as Friday morning I had to dash off to Kowloon, to the only make-up supplier, to try to get blue body paint for Jiten's bunch. His emails finally worked and the cartoon photo they sent is of the HOME Hong Kong rugby strip in navy - I had got red as he had mentioned that colour and I had seen the away strip! Plus he texted to say now NINE wanted to do it!Panic as the shop kept typical HK hours and didn't open until 11 am! I could only get bright blue so I bought her out of that and dashed back to the club. Pete was in the middle of a radio-commnication exam, and as he finished, Sarah called to say the Rugby wanted us there at 1 p.m not 3 p.m., so I had to rush off and load all my gear off the catamaran, into the dinghy, up the steps (10 small ones to the dock here thank gods) and into a taxi. I then hung around talking to a Welsh-Carribbean bloke whowas trying to buy 30 tickets for all his mates out here on a stag do who wnated to get into the Rugby. He had still not found any an hour later when a YAF lady turned up with security passes for me & the rest.



It turns out that aside from a few stalls selling official programmes/ newspapers (run by the South China Morning Post - other official sponsor) and Kukri rugby shirts, we were the ONLY stalls allowed apart from all the food and beer concessions! We had 1 small raised floor gazebo at the main (north) gate, 1 at the south stand and another just to the west of the north gate. As Friday was mainly the kids matches and a few warm-up adult games, there was just LOADS of kids wanting (sigh!) flags on their cheeks. I was told to set up my table in front of the main north gazebo (outside it! - so no shade shelter!)as I was 'on show'.
We also opened the west stall, but kept the south stand stall shut as that was mainly for the weekend when the south stand is THE party place for anyone over 18 and has 4 hour queues just to get in to it. The rugby had provided chinese 'helpers' who took peoples money (which went straight into clear 'charity box' containers, as YAF although a charity itself had been hired in this case to raise funds for the Rugby's charitable scholarship programme). They gave the customers a ticket with how much they had paid written on it, who then queued for the next available painter (at least 4 of us per stall). Annoyingly we inherited the price structure the team who have been doing the painting for the last 10 years used, which was $50 for a cheek flag (more than I normally charge for an elaborate full face!!!), $75 for a half face and $100 or more for full faces, be it flag or whatever.

Typically (this had not been well designed), small cheek flags take the longest but being cheapest and not having had many photos printed out (except for the team flags & logos), for people to choose from, was the most popular - urrrrrgh. It was very hot & sweaty and wearing the black YAF T-shirts didn't help. Luckily the organisers dropped off a crate of water (Watsons Water who sponsored the god tennis bodypainting I did last year!) but we had run half through that before the end of Friday!

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Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.



The main stall had a fantastic view over the rugby pitch, from the middle of the North end as I said, just behind the last of the first tiers of seating. Perfect view - shame we hardly ever got to look up! I also only had time to take a few photos of the better/ more unusual faces, until near 7 p.m. when it got far quieter as the kids games were over and people were leaving. Once again I am SO impresses with HK police - the system they had for getting taxis and 1000s of people safely away were great. I made it back home before 8, to get take-away rice for the Club restaraunt and have a mush needed shower. I spent the evening trying to trace off the sponsors logos from the small photo of the rugby kit I had been sent, and fending off the kittens 'help' as I cut them into stencils. Pete had finished his radio exam and bumped into his colleague Markus but not said anything as he didn't know if he had been told who had got the job yet.

I couldn't sleep for the light/ noise/ smell/ worry so I was up and away a 6.30 a.m. (Pete had to row me the short distance to the club dock as the sampan started at 8!). The club has a phone-line straight to a taxi so brilliantly I was at the stadium again by 7a.m.. And the queues were already huge even though gates opened after 8.30!! I felt extremely lucky to sneak round to the underground staff entrance. The security seemed a bit lame -bag search just looked in the top of your bag, and the sniffer dogs were on the other side of the vast road in. The crowds were chanting & screaming to be let in, and when the gates opened I was nearly mown down by several hundred sprinting to bag seats in the South 'party' over 18s only stand! Weird - wigs, blow-up sumo suits, historical/ fancy dress outfits...dressing up is a huge thing, and many have had shirts and costumes specially made to stand out as a group. I felt really sorry for the Coca Cola girls (walk-around vending drinks, or handing out stickers, temporary tattoos and banners etc) as they were in red & white PVS minidress suits. By comparison the Heinekin girls, in green glitter wigs with heavy trays of jugs carried like an old fashioned ice-cream/ ciggarette girl got off lightly!



Still, I was set up and turning away annoyed parents by 8 (how did they get in? ) as again, kids matches were on before the real rugby started. By 8.30 I was worried (and starving as we hadn't passed any food or bakery shops in the taxi & the concessions inside weren't opening till 10) as my first 'body' hadn't arrived. Then Jiten rang, and my first poor nervous soul turned up with a huge hangover and very reluctantly, stripped. I kept having to stop passers by who were wearing replica Hong Kong kit, as the photo I had was rubbish and didn't show what happened at the sides. He got a lot of stick as it was the 'wrong' blue, more like France than Hong Komg. so was very happy when I put on the logos which made it more recogniseable. It took nearly 1 1/2 hours (oops) but if I say so myself, looked great! He really liked it, and by that time the next 2 blokes had turned up.
The wee angel I had first painted had noticed me swear at the un-opened shops and got his mates to bring me breakfast rolls (which were also my lunch!) which was really sweet of them. We were all fed up of explaining that face-painting wouldn't be available till the girls arrived (I thought at 8.30 for 9 but they had been told 10.30!!!) and also as there were no girls I had no help on the bodies! I took under an hour for the 2nd body, and by the 3rd had waiting 'bodies' filling in the big blue areas I marked out so I could get on with the fiddlier bits to speed us up. They were worried as 1 of their mates was guarding seats in the fiercely contested south stand for them, and the announcements were saying the stand was now full.


I got my technique down - fill in the main blue bit using the huge (expensive but worth it) body chisel brush, start the stripes on the sleeves while that dries. I had them stand the whole time so i could move around them and the lines were straight, unlike when I did the gold people when the models could sit a lot. Then sponge in white up the sides/ underarms (I didn't bother doing armpits - yuk - or underside of arms after realising that smudged immediately).
This caused much giggling as their arms quickly tired of being held up, so I had most f them rest their arms on my head as I painted (luckily they weren't yet smelly). Most of them suddenl;y felt much braver when their chests (nipples & belly at any rate!) were covered which was odd! Then time to do a 2nd coat of blue if needed, add the red outlines and side stripes. If dry enough, stencil on the logos, then do the collar etc which really made it work. By the last few I WISH I'd had a photographer handy as 4 of them were in a circle, each painting the next while I stencilled logos onto who-ever was driest! Thats a thing I now know - hairy bodies WON'T let the paint dry - I blued Jiten first of the last 4 bodies, but painted and finished the other 3 before his hairy chest even dried!
I had warned them that shaving was good as it looked better on painted skin, etc, but only 1 of the hairier had 'trimmed' a bit. The different skin types were interesting - 1 bloke took about 4 coats of paint to get it to stick/ cover him as he was so naturally oily, I suppose, the paint just sort of drew itself off like it was being put onto plastic or something. People kept stopping to watch me work on them, but never noticed the 'finished' shirts until they were pointed out, which I suppose is a compliment! After a quick photo and a kiss from each of them, they hared off to get their seats. With random mainly chinese/ japanese people begging to have their photos taken with them every few steps! Jiten later texted that until some paint rubbed off on people around them, no-one realised the shirts weren't real and had been teasing them that their tops were a bit tight!!! Typically the South China Daily Post who had got wind of it all through Kukri (the clothes/ kit makers - think they are from the UK - who were paying for 4 of the bodies as 1 lad worked with them/ for PR) (the boys split the rest so it was cheap for them) never turned up or rang! Only 7 of them wanted to be done in the end(thank goodness) but at east that made sense, being the Rugby 7s!


I had a small breather & joined the girls in trying to reduce the huge queues we had. Then a lad arrived wanting to be body-painted - he had seen me do Jitens team and as all his mates were in real HK tops and wigs, he wanted to be painted to match them & join in the fun. His name was WIll and he was visiting from a UK school. I timed myself and painted him totally un-helped, in 30 minutes!!!!
Pretty good, eh? All the time people kept coming up & saying hi as they knew me from parties or markets etc I had one, mad! Shame we were so busy as occasionally i actually noticed the commentators c words as he cheered on teams, and the roars when tries were scored shook the ground. The main songs to hyper up the crowd were things like 'Hey Baby' ", "Who Let the Dogs Out' and 'We Will Rock You' which got pretty annoying. Especially as the Kukri advert which often ran on the massive screens between games was 'He wears she wear Kukri' to the same Queen tune - sacrilige!

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Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.



An hour later the YAF boss Linz turned up, WITH the press, and wanted me to bodypaint someone for them (for free, not charging $600 for the charity as we did to WIll etc). I said to search for a reasonably young, tight, preferably not hairy body that wasn't too big in the crowds around us (aside form the queue/ hordes of professional/ amateur photographers around us, many crowded around & in front of out booth as we had such a good view - mainly as they were drinking & beer etc were banned from the upper tiers). She turned round and grabbed a gorgeous slightly Fiji- looking man, and started bullying him into taking his clothes off. The press woman & I were stunned, as she really laid into him when he didn't want to! It was only after she actually pulled his top off and held his hand we realised she knew him - he was one of the big corporate sponsors who do a lot with YAF on its other projects!!!!
Anyway he had such an amazing body we drew the biggest crowd yet, and I got painting at super-speed. Even men were stopping to shout compliments (not all to me - mainly to the bloke about his biceps!) and egg us on. The photographer snapped away, Linz talked & explained and I tried to answer with vague intelligence. The bloke was quite sweet but quite embarressed and worried that his job would suffer if he did this - not sure why, maybe he was promoting them or something in his original top? He made them promise to put in that he only did it for Linz and her charity. The crowd were great, and he kept asking total strangers for a drink (most were carrying around jugs of beer and plastic mugs as that was cheaper than buying by the pint) and being given free pints! Anyway, I finished, we all posed for photos and his girlfriend turned up looking not impressed!
And I got back to painting flags on faces (yik!). I did keep trying to persuade women/ girls to at least get the flag made into a butterfly, but as there were no photos of this it didn't always work. Next year I am DEFINITELY getting stencils for the small cheek flags so they are QUICK and we can make more money on those cheaper choices.


In the middle of the afternoon a big older man appeared and was thrust at me by the girls, asking for 'the manager'. As I was allegedly in charge that day, Sarah & Linz being there with their families and not really helping, I braced myself (Natural History Museum Customer Care courses to the front), and asked how I could help. We had had a few complainers, as thequeue was so long, but as I continually shouted, we had 6 girls on this stall and 2 more stalls taking the same tickets. He then said it was the best painting the HK 7's had ever had, and the best he had ever seen, and well done. Etc!! I said thanks and mumbled on about it being for charity and gave him my card saying it was as we used proper paints (and me!), and he went off. At which point a customer grabbed him and started babbling about how she wanted to meet him. When he escaped I asked her who it was - turns out it was the MD of the whole event! So I texted Sarah & Linz - think that means we have a more than decent chance of getting it again!!!!


Around 7 it was finally getting quieter for us, as the 'big' matches had progressed t the quarter finals I think, and most people were watching and many kids had left. So I got to see a few minutes here & there. The last few punters we painted weren't exactly sober, but all the drunks were nice the whole weekend and I didn't see a single fight anywhere.
Typically as we packed up (we decided to risk lacing the gazebo sides shut and leaving all our gear in there overnight - generally Hong Kong has very little crime and there would be security there) I got a call from Jiten's team. They had lost a lot of paint and could they please get a touch-up before they went home? As Wales were playing an amazing game, I ended up hanging around furtively by the tent until people started leaving at then end, when the boys turned up. Again, differing skin types showed up - a couple of them were still in perfect condition, while one lad was almost completely naked again. One bloke had had so many people tweak his nipples (mainly girls so he suffered with pride) that they were totally bare. And he winced when he made me repaint them, aww! They invited me out to their hockey club after-party - tempted as I was with the offer of FOOD and free booze, I had been standing & working for 14 hours. So I left. To find that 40,000 others were leaving too. It was amazing, like a cross between Hogmany in Edinburgh and a street carnival. There were PVC nurses and flight crews, teams on tour, wigged and winged people walking off as far as the eye could see. No chance of a taxi, the streets were too full of people! Again the HK police were fab, well drilled responses to coded whistles had long tapes stretched between officers stop traffic to let hordes cross then close off the hordes again.
It was a GREAT atmosphere, as the whole thing had been, with total strangers (even sober) hugging and chatting. One group supporting Kenya, mainly black guys, just stopped outside the Ferrarri shop and started some beautiful African singing. I really wanted to stay and listen with their crowd, but my feet hurt! After 20 minutes or so I reached a bit of Hong Kong I knew and headed back to the boat, still surrounded by super hero costumes, with bemused non-rugby locals now mixed in.


When I got back, I sat out on deck telling Pete about it all and Domino actually got brave enough to come out too. We kept a careful eye as she charged around us, mainly leaping for the ropes hanging from the mast. I was as knackered as she was by midnight, and had the best sleep in ages!


Sunday morning I was back at 7 a.m.again. I'm afraid after 2 days of long days of sweating, none of us were in our YAF Tshirts - Sarah was fuming as she had ordered YAF rugby shirts too but the supplier failed to deliver in time! So we were all a bit scruffy and I was painting in my own 'company' Tshirt. After all the hassle I got from parents etc starting early yesterday morning, Sarah had asked some of the girls to come in earlier and then leave earlier, and so they were set up by 9, and we had the biggest queue ever. To my horror there was an article about us (well, YAF & me) on the back page of the Rugby 7s pull-out in the main paper.
I was totally misquoted as saying I had body-painted South Africans (wot? when?) and then it went on about how much I charged rather than WHY (for charity). I had been so busy i hadn't noticed I had sweated off most of my own face paint so all that was left of my scottish butterfly was freaky white stripes which didn't photograph well. Worst, instead of the nice finished pics, she ran one of me with him half painted - it looks rubbish without the collar done, grrrrr. So I had even more people coming up & congratulating me - strangers this time!

The south stand stall had been fairly quiet; beer is allowed there and the seats are so sought after that once you re in most only leave if they have to buy more or visit the loo, so we left 1 girl on that and put the rest with me on the main stall. Plus that south stand was where MOST of the fancy dress people were anyway - they had their faces/ masks/ costumes worked out! Will turned up and wanted body painting again, and came back at regular interval to be touched up and eat the tortilla chips I had bought for lunch (the sign said chips and as they were also selling hot dogs, burgers and chicken nuggets it seemed logical - a lot of disappointed Europeans there!).
I had just finished Will, and started on the queue again when a man was directed to me by the helpers, asking if I could come and bodypaint his dancers who had to be on show on 20 minutes. I was then whisked off, clutching bottles of red paint and my big brush, to the bowels of the stadium where several dozen young ladies in minimal cheer-leader style bra tops and hot-pants were waiting. For some reason there was a very large concentration of security guards, St Johns Ambulance, cleaners, men moving trolleys of beer and supplies, and even warming up (not very fast!!!) Rygby teams in their immediate vicinity. I was to paint " Thankyou!" on their fronts, and "Hong Kong" on their backs, in the style of the writing Kukri uses. As they were the Kukri girls - they travel worldwide appearing all over the cities hosting events like this and dancing/ signing autographs etc. They kept milling around so several times I lost concentration (can you imagine if I had been a bloke???) and painted the wrong letter on a nice flat tummy or tanned back. And had to wipe it off with my shirt, explaining why I had a red bra when I got home!

Anyway I did try to get a few photos, but it was dark underground, and the entire all-male audience was lined up waiting to pose with the girls, so I made my escape. Their manager gave me a nice donation for the charity. I did stop painting when the girls were announced in the parade after the semi-finals, though, and took a few pics.
They would walk/ cartwheel along, and stop every now & then to do the 'reveal' in sequence of their tummys or backs, with the girl at the end who had an exclamation point on each side doing constant ballerina spins. In rugby boots! I was miffed I kept missing the teams I wanted to see, like Scotland (mum knows someone playing on it too), but I DID hear the April Fools one announcer pulled. He spun some story about it being the anniversary of the man who invented picking up and unning wih balls, and asked the crowd to stand for a minutes silence. They did but it wasn't until the howls greeting his confession that most of us realised it was a joke!


Anyway, we painted till the final match, when I did get to see a few tries. It was pretty gripping, with Fiji and Samoa scoring against each other. Then the fireworks and dragon dances started, and singing, and people slowly left. At the end I left my gear with the YAF stuff to be picked up the next day, as there was again a huge mass exodus and no chance of a taxi home.
I kept getting people congratulating me on my work or the news article as the crowds shuffled off. and met Will still in his bodypaint with his new friends as we headed home. Crossing the busy street in front of Sogo (huge department store) I heard a triumphant roar, and a man in a pink kilt , welsh shirt and viking helmet raced past me holding a huge double sided banner advertising underwear on it (with life-size photo of a rather shapely bra model). About 5 minutes after he disappeared an elderly cantonese lady puffed after it - he must have stolen her sign - they hold them up above the heads of crowds as sandwich board people would be obscured by the crush, here! I am so tired and my duff left wrist feels like I have sprained it, but I loved it.
It was more like a great rock festival than a sports event, I can't believe how friendly everyone was. Football fans could learn a lot - no major fights or accidents and 1000s of kids enjoyed it too - why do rugby players get such a bad name at things like universities when they are really like this? Sarah says to put it in my diary for next year, she doesn't think we have any competition from the previous face-paint team - not only did we paint better, it was all for charity and not just lining the previous woman's pockets! ( I have yet to meet this woman but have not heard good things about her or her team - bet she hates me!).
The girls really did well - I had no time to see how fast they painted (although that will hopefuly improve - think I did 3 to their 1 face at least), but some of the faces they did do could almost have been my work. I'm hoping I can nick some of the girls for any other big non-YAF events I get- they all do it in their spare time, and Sarah doesn't mind! Next I take over the world!


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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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