Friday, July 13, 2007

Troon Taxis and Freeing Inner Fairies

I spent most of June visiting/ hosting friends & family when I wasn’t looking after Granny (had to put Auntie Dorothy back in a home as she reached the violent stage of her Alzheimers).
My mate Emma hasn’t changed, we had a great weeknd just blathering.
And I finally got the whole story of how my brother Graeme proposed to Vicky (his romantic plans scuppered by her not realising he wanted her alone!).


Lorna, the best painter in Scotland, rang me up to see if I could do some painting jobs for her (not really – away/ busy already!) and invited me to volunteer for the Glasgow taxi-drivers Day Out at Troon.
I can recall this from primary school – it started after the war, when 3 taxis took sick kids from hospital to the beach for a day, and has grown to a huge charity event. I drove down (3 hours in torrential rain – only lightened by the guy controlling the road-works traffic lights on Loch Lomond being dressed in a fake Tam O Shanter & wig) to find blazing sunshine by 11 am! We set up (Lorna, her young daughter, balloon-twisting husband, another pro painter and a few ‘beginners’), and then went to watch the parade.
I think there were about 300 taxis, mini buses, etc, ALL decorated form Bat-mobiles to kids artworks, with the taxi drivers all in fancy dress too. It was making me quite weepy – all these sick, disabled or underprivileged kids were amazed, as their entire hour long trip, people lined the streets to wave, school kids had made banners, the taxis beeped and the towns were covered in balloons…..As well as us, there was a stilt-walker/ juggler, Clyde radio running competitions, a huge disco in the town hall (kids unsure whether to stare at the lights or the karaoke machine, etc) and all sorts of things – free sweets etc! We painted all day, paid with a rather unhealthy lunch (sandwich, asstd sweet things), and Lorna brought us all fish & chips that evening. I refused crates of sweets and crisps but did take a box of bottled water…..just lovely to know people can do nice things for kids, like that whole day!

I was invited to help a lady called Bibi (1 of the UKs best face painters & owner of the online shop/ magazine I but kit form and write for) in her entry to the World Body Painting Championships. http://www.bodypainting-festival.com/english/festival_2007_en.php
I was delighted – I have always wanted to go, it looks amazing, around a lake in the mountainous region of Seeboden in Austria. For the last several years the champions have been a Welsh couple, but Raph has decided not to enter this year. As tickets on RyanAir started at under 1 pound, why not??? We are also promoting Da Vinci brushes (best Bibi has found for face painting) so I think they subsidise her a bit. Anyway, you have to register to see if you are good enough to take part, then paint a body to their theme for the first round. If you make that cut you are into the finals to paint a different body for another theme. In front of 20,000 odd people – it’s huge! I registered and then paid for tickets for the outrageous ‘Body Ball’ held on the 1st Wednesday of the weeklong event. The local castle hosts 1000’s of body painted (etc) revellers and if you don’t try to match the creative dress code, you don’t get in! Anyway, next day I had a call from the Austrian organiser asking if I would also enter their World Face Painter competition too. I was so scared I couldn’t sleep, at even the THOUGHT of doing that, but he rang again and I said yes. Eeeeeeeeeeeeek. Worst is the GODS of the industry, like the Wolfe Brothers, have entered. AND you have to go onstage with your model, (also dressed & accessorised by you) explain it after she puts on a ‘show’ for the judges, audience, film crews, giant screens……..

I headed back to Norwich for a week to start sorting our stuff piled in the farm, and getting ‘things’ done for a couple of days, including a mad night out clubbing with Michelle which started with a bunch of RAF graduates in full schoolgirl outfits (matching underwear & handbags – RAF obviously makes blokes pay attention to detail!) and ended up with a bunch of (short) firemen. REALLY good music, 1st time we tried a 90’s nigh, definitely will go again. In comfier shoes….. Next night was Tim & Heathers birthday BBQ at Brian’s which was great as a few of their friends turned up & were really keen on being face-painted/ glitter tattooed. And Sammy drove up for the weekend to!

Again I stayed a night with Mum. After a drink with George I had my usual accidental tour of the scary council estate somewhere in North Bristol, and got in a few hours later after eventually ringing him to try and work out where I was – I couldn’t see my landmark phone towers in the dark & had left the Tom-tom safely at home!

Friday afternoon I arrived at the much-awaited ‘Free Your Inner Fairy’ course. I met the Fairylove crew at Latitude last year, though I first saw Shelley’s website years ago when she was making amazing wings in a stunning wood cabin in the Australian rainforest! She & Jason have moved to an isolated 14th century house near Leominster, with workshops and other families living into the converted barns around it. I found Shelley in the herb garden (the whole house is surrounded by lawns, topiary and wonderfully neglected flower beds) with Freya (who makes Fairy dolls) and Ben & Emma,

a young couple who do live role playing (a bit like the Middle earth Tolkien stuff Jake & I used to do), run kids clubs and want to start a fairy group. Inside, the house was amazing – right up my street! Most of the rooms were plain white with wooden beams and stone or wood floors, but made wonderfully colourful by the objects & decorated furniture. Wherever she could she had glued on bright marabou fluff or feather boas, or coated them in holographic glitter! The corridor linking all the bedroom upstairs had a range of fairy wings lining its walls, and ended in several room full f dressing up clothes. Gorgeous stuff – a lot of it I would wear or even buy if I could! The idea was to have a weekend of ‘self-expression, creativity, fun, relaxation, magic, and all things fairy’. I was mainly interested in the wing-making though..



Anyway, I was put in a room with 3 bright single beds (even chocs on the towels!) and went to get my 1st outfit on – surprised myself for going for pink (must be the red & pink mini kilt I have) not green! As Sammy was stuck in traffic driving her van from London, I started trying my new Jagua tattoo kits on Ben & Emma. It’s a ‘new’ plant based dye, used by the Amazonian Indians, and has none of the horrible side effects henna can cause AND you don’t have to keep it in a fridge. The one I did on Sammy’s foot (a design she & cousin Steph Crawford made as kids) was still strong & dark indigo blue form when I did it the day after Tim & Heathers party the weeks before. We eventually went on with the singing lesson – Fairy Kate had been preparing food but is actually a voice coach. This was in the wood-panelled room, the oldest (and warmest – log fire!) in the house. It had a funny door in 1 corner that was a cupboard where the ancient owners used to keep their wigs to pop in before answering the door! I was really nervous, its not anything I have tried before, standing in a circle and singing at other strangers, but she taught us a bunch of English, African, Gaelic and Yiddish songs that were sung in rounds or with several harmonies, and it sounded AMAZING! Annoyingly I can only now recall one of the English ones and most of the Yiddish one. I loved her beanbags - filled with small 1/2 blown up balloons, very comfy & don't pop!

Tea was gorgeous veggie stuff, and Sammy arrived around then (it was late to eat – 10pm?), stuffed down tea, got dressed up and then we were finally allowed to go and choose the blank wings we wanted to make. Shelley hand dyes white tights and makes the wire frames to start with. Then we had to start the first coat of glitter on the first side.
I decided that as I have their green pair in HK and many black/silver/ purple pairs I made myself in Norfolk I would, again, go pink to match my kilt. Sammy went peacock (green is our favourite colour), Ben was doing foresty

Fairy Ben glittering wings
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.

and the 2 girls were bright colours. So we piped on glue, sprinkled on the amazing colours of glitter (she imports them – I have never seen such fab tones!), and put the wings in yet another room to dry.

Sammy and I crashed into bed well after midnight but got up early to another sunny day.

Faiy breakfast table
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.

And chose different wings and outfits. Fairy Shelley brought the wings I had ordered & designed over from her workshop – rainbow – STUNNING!

A huge fry-up went down well, and then we did a second (outlining) layer of glitter and put the wings in the sun to dry.

Fairy Freya blowing kisses
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.

A yoga lesson followed – I tried this once before but the woman didn’t do things slowly enough & I had no clue – this was far better. But I had no balance at all. I swear someone was snoring in the relaxation bit at the end. Quite random doing it all staring up at the giant mirror ball Shelley’s partner had bought for their annual Glastonbury festival stall!
After that we sat out in the sun gluing ‘gems’ onto the first side of the wings, then had lunch outside in the courtyard garden. Even the salad had edible glitter in it!

After lunch I changed to try out my Sammy taught the others who wanted to how to do somersaults on the giant trampoline, the Ben tried to teach us how to twirl pois. He had a few including ‘winged’ ones which were rather funky.

Ben demo-ing pois with wings
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.





Shelly who is a fab photographer, did a photo shoot with us, and then decided we need some bubbly.

Fairy me & artichokes
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.


I quickly painted faces (annoyingly they were all up for everything like that but I didn’t have tome!) and we went on a ‘Fairy Raid’ to Leominster for supplies.



Followed by a random walkabout amongst stunned locals. Fairy Shelley apparently always dresses up and is expected to be handing out wishes at the Sunday car boot, but with Sammy in full cheeky-fairy panto mode and the rest of us singing he songs we had learned I think we were a bit more - inconspicuous? After 1 man asked us to pop into his local, it turned into a pub-crawl. So, bubbly in the veg patch, the first glitter layer on the second wing side, and tea.

After tea, Ben did a glow-in-the-dark phase changing UV poi show outside (we stayed in the warm) which looked like mad souped up fireflies whizzing round. Then we had a good boogie and Sammy went mad with costume changes….wee hours before bed again!



Didn’t make it to the car boot – too tired/ busy! More glitter and gems, learning how to wrap our antennae, glue on feathers & flowers……….etc! Also a stint in their shop and then photos with our own self-made wings.

Amazing wings Fairy Sammy made
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.



After teary goodbyes, Sammy & I drove to meet her Dad & Liz in a pretty wood-beamed town. So there we are in tutus and wings striding past 4000 people queuing in their raincoats for open-air theatre in the castle! The pub we ate in were surprised to, when I went for drink the one local who could shut his jaw and speak said’ We don’t get many o’ your sort in ‘ere’. Then I drove off to see Rowenna, the Welsh fairy who hand fasted Peter & I.
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June in UK - Naked or Not?

Well, VERY Glad to be back in the UK! Bus trip up from Heathrow at 5 am wasn’t too bad actually (SUN!), but it was very disturbing actually being able to understand conversations going on between other passengers around me. Then hitting civilisation (Norwich) I also hit a hitch. I’d arranged to meet Michelle for lunch and wanted to do a quick shop before I met her, having 2 hours to spare. But Norwich, a city, may I add, has NO left luggage, anywhere. As I was lugging a massive suitcase AND a normal sized one, I was Mmst unimpressed! Luckily I was able to leave them at Brian’s office and go off. After seeing Mich (and shopping!!!) he dropped me off at the train and Sue met me at the other end. Queue 1st proper bed since March – yay!


One of the first things I did in the UK was a class with master bodypainter Emma Cammack, at her home near Hungerford. She is famed for her amazing painted clothes, and flies all over the world, painting and teaching. Often she matches taped-on draped bits around the waist so closely you cant see what IS real and what isn’t. She also does fab abstract stuff. Anyway, I stayed overnight at Mums and using my new Tomtom car navigator, easily found her tiny village. 2 other ladies who I know from the internet face painters chat were also there.


Emma has converted her garage into a workshop, so the 1st day she mainly showed us ideas and techniques, and we had a few tries at things on our own arms etc. Lunch was amusing – her daughters paddling pool looked like there had been a chainsaw massacre! She uses old shop window clothes dummies to plan/ practice ideas on, and the pool was full of a half washed dismembered model. Which had obviously been mainly painted red! She has to re-spray them for white base between uses, but they do work- but we had a go painting motor bike leathers onto one.


That evening Emma showed me the local hotel/ pub, and I got a sweet room that had just been Ikea’d. Gorgeous area – real chocolate box village! I ended up having a long chat with the lady in 1 rose filled cottage - she used to live in Hong Kong! Back at the hotel, I stuffed on homemade sausages and mash – yum!


The second day of the course we each got given a ‘live’ model. I was lucky enough to get Lois, a lady who again I know from internet chats, as she often poses for body painters. Her husband, a human cannonball (cool job title!) from Mexico, was being painted in a football strip by 1 of the other ladies. As I have ‘done’ sports strips (just a bit - !) I decided to try jeans, lace and lacings, 3 techniques Emma had shown us. I did the corset top first.


Lois wore ‘pasties’, latex round domed bits which are glued over the nipples. It was a bit annoying as it showed up a lot – took the paint differently to skin –but some jobs you have to use them for legal or child-friendly reasons. I didn’t quite get the hang of denim fabric, but was pleased with the lacings (although I can’t get the hang of Emmas fast double-dipped brush thing).
I LOVE the lace I did, it really worked! I added shadows/ whites with powder, definitely getting that as it won’t pick up the layers below like trying to paint in highlights would. Think I scared Emma with the amount of dark I used but I always did like black in my art/ photos! That had taken until after lunch, and the others had done a top AND bottoms by then. So I went on to do shorts REALLY fast. Lois had on a white G-string, and I managed to use it as some of the seams.

Again I didn’t quite get the shadows/ wrinkle right – hopefully if I ever get a ‘real’ job like this I will have reference photos which will make it even more realistic.





Emmas husband is a professional photographer (or will be when he quits the USAF) so he took a load of shots which I hope will be better than mine! Lois actually put her jeans back on but just a cardi on her top for the drive home! She would get away with it I think – a bit cowboy/ Brittney but passable!

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May/ June Hospital Misery - Short pyjamas and ladies in nappies

I wasn’t very happy in the A&E ward as they were waking me up hourly to do blood sugar tests. Unlike in the UK, where 1 nurse did temperature, sugars & pulse, here 3 different nurses did it. At different time, so I was lucky to be uninterrupted for 20 mins the whole 24 hours I was there! Most frustrating was the cart with the BP machine on it – it squealed - surely a drop of oil would have been possible! When Pete turned up the 2nd day, as well as being even more knackered with pulled back & stomach from retching, I had a new IV in my right hand. And fumed when I felt well enough, as I wasn’t allowed to leave the bed to go to the toilets towing 2 drips. I’m pretty sure I could have, the will was there – I would NOT use the pan, wasn’t even sure how to! Worst was whenever the gods (AKA the doctors) were due, the nurses went mad tidying. I was forced back under my covers and tucked in – considering I was sweating so much I soaked through my pyjamas even without added blankets, I was NOT impressed. But every time I was uncovered to be prodded & inspected, nurses would tut at my exposed shins and pull my trouser legs down to cover them. Being taller than their average and the trousers being elasticated, this pulled them off my waist and exposed my tummy and knickers. So a shocked nurse would pull them back UP, uncovering my legs again. This would be repeated several times each visit. I would also like to know why all the doctors were so young, pretty/ handsome and had perfect English….and wore those awful rubber croc shoes.



The 3rd day I was transferred to the hospital my diabetic doctor works in., shifted onto the ambulance’s travel bed. I was too wide for it and they had to fold my arms over me, take out the hand drip and tilt me on my side. Then there was the covering-me-with-a-blanket game, just like the pyjamas saga….after much yelling and bringing in a passing orderly, they found a second blanket. I only realised I was too long for the bed when they tried to put all the sides up and had to poke my feet out through the bottom bars (so the 2nd blanket still didn’t really cover them!). I spent a very trippy trip talking to things, scaring the old cantonese lady sharing the ride. We dropped her off at a hospital on the way. Funnily enough I was supposed to be painting at a doctors party there that afternoon…so I sort of was there for it in passing! I woke up being wheeled through the next hospital and couldn’t work out why the guy pulling my bed was laughing while the one pushing from the feet end was swearing (I think). Then I realised that as my feet stuck out, if the bed stopped or he tried to push too hard he was getting his bits crushed by them. Oops!


In the new ward, instead of sliding me from 1 bed to another, they asked me to walk. I did (nearly) and giggled my head off when I realised all 3 nurses who rushed to grab me before I landed on the floor/ my neighbour only just reached my armpits. On reflection, I don’t think they knew what ‘timber!’ meant and definitely didn’t know the Lumberjack Song. The new pyjamas were a nightmare – white (who thought that was a good idea? With sick people leaking asstd fluids and not having the strength to eat tidily?), with a weird drawstring arrangement – a continuous loop so you couldn’t tie a bow in it. And MASSIVE – they obviously though their biggest size would be long enough for me. They weren’t, and with the drip in each arm I couldn’t tie a bow – but then Pete couldn’t either that evening, so whenever I moved I had to hold them up or expose my knickers.



The nurses went into panic about my high temperature - “skwemely hi fevah, missy, why they no cold you?” and FINALLY gave me icepacks which were heaven. Just when I was nearly asleep, they stuck my hand drip back, and a catheter in me (not as nasty as I expected) and rolled me off to an isolation ward. (As I could be infectious – still no idea why I was ill). It was a less crowded, glaringly lit ward full of tiny mad old ladies. With me against a window furthest from the door, behind a big purple screen, scary signs and a “wear a robe & gloves, discard & wash hands” sign separating me from the rest. When Pete tracked me down (luckily they had rung him to say I’d changed hospitals) I thought I was seeing things again. Blonde scruffy hair, big purple paper gospel singer hospital robe, latex gloves, the patio parasol umbrella I got to shade my stall, dirty bright red surfer shorts, and purple and pink sparkly flipflops. My own fault really – he was knackered & stressed by the new job without me getting ill and him having to leave early to visit me all the time…so he lost his brolly and his new pair of flip-flops blew overboard. He’d been wandering barefoot around Wan Chai (mega busy dirty city highrise area) trying to find any shoes his size and had to settle for ladies! He didn’t endear himself by telling me what me new interesting colour I was (I had been ranging from purple/ pink with fever to green and grey, apparently). And had a go at brushing my manky hair for me (drips meant I couldn’t move my arms). I nearly cried 1st as he needs practice at basic hairdressing, and secondly as he didn’t tie it tight enough so it all fell out of the ponytail the moment he left.


Highlights of the week; mad old lady trying to show me the contents of her nappies (she also kept trying to get into bed with a sick young woman on the other side of the ward). Realising you have top provide EVERYTHING even loo roll yourself – only boiled water in a jug provided. Being called Ann (middle name) as no-one understood any of my other names. Managing to eat 1 spoonful of sweet runny porridgy stuff then falling asleep on the table-tray. Actually feeling hungry and taking a huge gulp of what I though was the same porridge the next day, only to realise it was mashed gloppy fish saucey rice. That and what looked like catsick at lunch put me off food until I left! The racket made at night – anything that in the UK nurses would do quietly, switching on a light over the patient, here needed a gaggle of nurses and the entire ward lights switched on (by the time I was feeling better and actually thinking I could sleep, I was so wound up by this 1 of them apologised as she could see me twitching at each cackle). Nice night nurse who taught me the Cantonese for toes (sounds like deentsy tongue) as my fingers were so over-bled they moved to getting samples from my toes. Passing out when the dietician came to talk to me – think it was sitting up after a week! Luckily she thought it was funny and was boasting she’d scared me. What else – oh how the mobile phone switch off was ignored – and with the usual screamingly loud volumes of ringtone/ ‘talking’ I was close to stabbing other patients with my drips.


Anyway I kept being told I could go ‘soon’ then being kept in another day. As I really couldn’t face the food, Pete & I were both desperate to get me out and I cried a lot each time they kept me in (tough or what). Finally they said I could go if my sugars were ok (yes) and I could walk (no). But I’d made it to the loo a few times the day before, with Pete, so he stood behind me hanging on to the back of my clothes which kept me reasonably straight – so they said yes. We were out of there like a shot – didn’t even wait for all the pills! Pete nicked a wheelchair as soon as we were out of sight and had to help me have a shower, but wow, GREAT!

Had a couple of weeks recovering – not as skinny as I’d have hoped after all the no food/ being sick, but still! Don’t know what it was – 1 lot said raw fish (nope, had none), another said eggs (was 1/4s in the salad all 3 of us shared but Pete & sue were fine). And if it was the food why isolate me? Then I realised if it was food doesn’t it usually start a few hours after you eat it, not 12 hours on? If I can find things I like on the new Chinese diet method of helping to manage my sugars I think it will be sensible – you KNOW the carb value of each meal in advance so can inject suitable insulin………


Too hot on the boat, we woke up around 5 am most days, sweating as the sun arrived, even with no sheets on top of us AND the fans on. The cat & I were panting all day praying for a breeze. SO I was quite glad to be able to rebook my flight and head off to the UK!

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Tuesday, July 10, 2007

May 2007 - Ocean Park and Inside HK Hospitals

OK so its been a while since I did this for assorted reasons!



Um, I dyed my hair all over for the 1st time. Mainly as Mr Tact Wilkins my so called husband has made several comments since I came to HK about how much grey/ white I have. This from the guy who doesn’t notice new glasses, coloured contact lenses, multi-coloured hair dye stripes, etc, on me…… As usual the colours I fancied I can’t get as I’m too dark haired. And there was no way I could explain to the poor girl In Aberdeen what colour slices were (the 3 hidden stripes I used to have) and her English speaking manager was really worried when she called him over in a panic. GREAT head & neck massage when she washed it though! So know I have to watch it as I tend to leak a bit of henna-pink-purple onto white head towels and our pillows are changing colour…..

Pete & Domino onboard. Awww
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.



We had Petes mum Sue for a week or so on her way back to the UK from NZ, and we continued to have the amazingly clear skies and hot weather I had been sweating through for the last few weeks. (As she left last month the storm that kept us awake stayed for a day, and Pete was upset to spot a tiny duckling being swept past his sailing class by the wind – he couldn’t spot it so we think it had it, as it was heading alone out to sea….). I had been complaining about the engine on Pingu – its been getting so stiff I could hardly steer it, and was only clamped on at one side. Anyway, after dinner & a shower at Middle Island, Pete was steering us back to the boat when there was a sudden loud ‘clunk’. We couldn’t see anything broken or something we had hit, so continued on. We usually ‘dock’ between the 2 back ends of the hull, so Pete slows down as he steers in and I grab the back edge of the deck to stop us completely so we can tie on. BUT as we approached & I reached up, Pete suddenly seemed to rev the engine and we roared towards the deck at high speed. Sure I’d break my arms I ducked and covered and so did Sue, praying the joists and wires under the decking wouldn’t decapitate us. Luckily Pete caught a rope and the metal dinghy hoist and managed to stop us JUST in time. It turned out the clunk was the steering/ speed ‘arm’ that juts out of the outboard engine snapping off – it had stayed in place until Pete twisted it to stop! So that’s the end of that I think.


I wasn’t around with Sue that much – typically it was the 1st busy week in ages for me! First of all I had a booking at the HK Country Club, an exclusive place at the edge of Deep Water Bay. Great, I thought – no need for a taxi, Pete can drop me off by boat as we moor opposite it! So, as our dinghy Pingu was engineless, he stuffed Sue & I into life jackets and whizzed me and my kit over from Middle Island (where I had changed into a fairy) on one of the big safety boats.

Luckily he had phoned ahead and a gardener came down to unlock the gate for us. But he didn’t help me lug my gear up all the stairs to the garden! Pete couldn’t stay as there were recorded warnings about his boat being on their jetty blaring out from Ocean Park. The party was great, I stayed inside as my paints would have melted in the heat & humidity where the kids were playing. I had to include the photo of the last wee girl I painted. As usual, ALL the others wanted to be butterflies, fairies and princess’s. This one insisted on a dinosaur, despite her mums wishes. Her expression when she saw the mirror was a classic – she did smile afterwards but it made me laugh my backside off when I downloaded the camera! To my surprise, instead of collecting me in Pingu (Pete & his mum went to get a new outboard engine while I was working), I suddenly spotted Pete bringing the entire catamaran over the bay. And he was sailing it not using the engine! So we had a nice relaxing sail back, with the cat either going scatty trying to hide/ stalk the black kites circling above us (depending on how far away they were) or snuggling on laps.





I had an interview with the heads (Linz has an OBE I see from her card!) of the HK Youth Arts Foundation, the charity/ company who used me to win the Rugby 7s Face Painting bid. It was really odd – I had no idea what they wanted to see – they just said ‘show us what you can do’! So I put together a short selection of photos on my laptop – from jobs I have had, hobbies, courses I did, etc. Everything I showed them they were saying, yes, we can sell this!

They help huge companies do their corporate social responsibility ‘aren’t –we nice- and good for the community’ thing, by bringing drama & art to locals, as its an area seriously lacking in schools and HK as a whole. (This saves the companies spending a fortune with a PR firm, as YAF also do massive adverts, brochures, etc). This can be by just sponsoring projects (with up to 800,000 young people a year!). For 1 project they used the companies budget to bus school kids out to Kadoorie Farm (a big nature reserve/ education centre I want to see) and flew out a UK artist who trained with Andrew Goldsworthy (my favourite artist – takes natural objects to make gorgeous photos of ephemeral art) to join them. A professional photographer captured the work in HUGE photos, a proper exhibition, the corporate calendar and postcards, as well as then being kept at the company HQ. A bit of a step up from the Wild Art Days I used to run on or nature reserve or in schools gardens/ car-parks for the Suffolk Wildlife Trust!!!

They also do ‘Art in the Office’. Companies say what they want to decorate their walls, or a park or a calendar, or things can be suggested to them. They decide how much they want to spend, if they want to also be involved, if they want young children or special needs to make it, and YAF organises it all. Again it gives chances for fun and new skills to local kids. Sponsors can join ‘Art Angels’ too, staff volunteering to help special needs and underprivileged kids at one off or regular events.

Anyway, I left YAF with instructions to come up with projects that could be offered to companies, that ran for 1 day, several time a year, or several time a year over 3 years – they have a waiting list of people wanting to give them money I think!!!! Basically I was asked how busy I wanted to be…. I got home to find an email waiting from the director, asking if I knew how to make dream-catchers. I replied, yes, and sent a photo of the intricate ones I make as christening gifts, and the simple ones we made with kids on a Native American Activity Day at my old reserve. Wendy immediately replied – could I write a teacher information pack on them, source materials for them in Sham Shui Po (where all those 1000s of fabric/ bead/ metal/ ribbon sample shops are) and then head a project helping 20,000 kids make them? Ulp. I was overjoyed if we got funding for a project with 2000 kids at S. W. Trust! Anyway we met again a few days later; its for the Charity Orbis (help treat/ prevent eye disease in poor nations) – I forget which company is funding it, but for the last 4 years, they send out these packs to all HK schools. The end result of the pack is always an eye-themed object; 1 year it was decorated eye shaped Perspex shapes, another year they all did spin paintings on paper plates that looked a bit like iris’s. Every kid that joins in pays a token amount to the charity fund; the company provides most of the materials (even paying YAF to build plate-spinning machines!) as well as the training etc. And at the end a professional event artist or whatever you call them sets up a display in the middle of one of HKs top MASSIVE posh shopping cntres. All with ‘sponsored by’ on it of course. Anyway this year it will be me teaching the teachers and all that……..! I’m really hoping I can come up with projects they fancy, as they are all lovely. And the office fridge had chocolates in it!



I painted at the 1st Fair Trade fair in HK, in church hall near St Johns Catherdal. Lovley, I spent more on Fair Trade jewellery than I made. Good to see its all getting started here though, not seen a lot and recycling is a joke!

Wednesday we finally gave in and went to Ocean Park – our main view on the catamaran is of its cable car and hot air ballon ride! I ended up buying a season ticket as it’s the same as 2 visits – an I love jellyfish so thought I’d be back!
We skirted the themed stalls (Disney style tat and games) and got in a tiny round cable car which soared up over the edge of deep water bay and along the side of the mountain. Hot but pretty, if hazy – and we could see our boat!
The jellyfish displays were stunning – not as scientific as UK Sea Life Centres, or as informative, but WOW. As I always dreamt of after seeing the jellyfish breeding tanks in Weymouth, they turned all their displays into living lava lamps.

Coloured lights or UV shone into each tank, making the creatures look even weirder than ever. Some had shifts in colour and mirrors reflecting them so it was like being in a freaky blizzard. Stunning!
Funnily the posh ‘café’ we had lunch in (getting a discount with my season pass!) offered jelly fish on the menu – imported to the park, culls ot yesterdays casualties?



The shark tunnel was fairly cool, and that whole exhibit actually had a few bits of educational information, but the baby dogfish embryos, dissected out of their egg ‘purses’ and happily developing in artificial see-through egg sacs were amazing! The much vaunted reef display was a bit of a disappointment but probably only as I have sent he real thing so often, in Belize, etc. The main tank is 3 STORIES deep, and surrounded by smaller tanks set into the walls. So you have a massive circular deep round tank in front of you, with 100s of species of smaller reef fish (separated form the really big predators by a barrier with holes in it) and the rarer stuff at your back. I finally saw a live (if captive) sea dragon, and the garden eels were just too comical and odd to be real! But the main reef tank….they were all oohing and ahhing at the amazing coral.
Which was blatently cast in concrete and spray painted in neon colours. As were the anemones – though the small wall tanks had some real ones. Its such a shame, the rest was stunning – being down on the bottom storey watching an 80 year old grouper the size of a small boat circle 3 floors above you was freaky!


We then went on a wander and tried the log flume, and found the spot where the photo of Pete and his siblings as kids on their way to/ from living In Papua New Guinea was taken on his 1st visit about 22 years ago!
Then we walked miles in scorchingly hot sun to the oddly American-themed sea lion feeding display, then squeezed onto the back of the last row of seats in the dolphin amphitheatre. Not something I agree with but it was shaded and allegedly entertainment! Usual stuff, jumping, pushing their trainer through the water, etc.
We headed home totally exhausted having onl seen a tiny segment of the park – no ideas where the birds & butterflies displays are! We ate at the main club so Sue could leave her cases at the baggage claim.

Friday morning IU dropped Pete & Sue off onshore about 5am so she could catch her plane. Back on the boat I started feeling really odd, and lay down in the shade until I started throwing up. I spent the rest of the day with 1 end glued to the loo and the other t a bucket, with the cat being very annoyed as she was having to keep me company INSIDE the hot boat instead of on the marginally cooler and far more interesting deck. Pete slept on the other hull that night, but as I was still unable to keep even water down/ in, and my sugars were going mad, I agreed to go to A&E around 10 the next day. We reasoned that even if we could find a doctor they probably send me to a diabetic specialist at the hospital anyway, and frankly I couldn’t stay away from a bathroom for the time it would take to register with a doctor! I felt so crap when we got to A&E they gave me a wheelchair, but after a while I asked for a bed, as I just wanted to lie on the floor. And they kept giving me thick clear plastic bags to throw up in which was odd and a bit messy. By the time they put my 1st drip into my left elbow I was a bit out of it, and typically totally forgot to mention Pete was with me as they whisked me off to an acute care ward just after he left looking for his lunch! Later I kept mumbling “Sin saang….” (Mr/ husband) to the nurses who just ignored me. By the time he caught up I had been put into a pair of checked pyjamas that only reached my knees much to the nurses horror. They chucked him out and he came back at visiting time to find me still throwing up but being put on the old ‘nil by mouth’ regime. In Cantonese. At this point I realised I probably wasn’t going to get out in a day and had Pete cancel all my facepaint bookings.
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