EcoLog02 - The move from NZ to Hong Kong

Hi to you all

Our little valley here in Hong Kong is all that we imagined. From 6.30am all the birdies are twittering away. Jenny (whose home we are living in) has very kindly given up her room for us. We can look out of the window at the trees surrounding the house and foggy hill tops. It is all very green with splashes of red from the bougainvillea and hibiscus flowers with many colourful butterflies flittering by. Mr Magpie has already woken and is hassling pussy cat that sleeps on the balcony. They play a game where cat gets fed, magpie stalks food. Magpie seems to have the upper hand. He wouldn’t if it was Mr Bo and Humphrey (our fluffy monsters in New Zealand) were out there defending there food!

We now have our very own transport. Yes our own mountain bikes! In the first couple of days here we did a bicycle tour of Mui Wo. It is a nice little village of about 4000 people, which has its focus at the ferry/bus terminal where there is a massive bike park for all the locals whose only form of transport is pedal power, as the road across Lantau Island ends at Mui Wo. Have checked out the local supermarket, bar and café are – all the important places. Looped around the market and discovered the flower shop and a fantastic book shop. Cycling up the valley is a bit of a workout. The homeward journey is not too steep but has three distinct “ups” that you need to negotiate. No need to frequent the gym. All the cycling and walking exercise is going to keep us fit.

Jenny has 5 dogs that all spend most of their day sleeping in the yard. They are various sizes with Belle the little pug the most lovable. Charlie the pig has a wonderful new house. Since moving into the kid’s pink dolls house he has become a very lazy pig – not keen at all to say hello now that he has no need to move from his salubrious accommodation except at meal times!

Jenny has two teenage children who live at home along with Nancy and Ron, Jenny’s Filipino helpers who do all the cooking, cleaning and home maintenance. Our day generally starts with business activities that can be attended to from our “home office” then in the afternoon it may be time to go into HK Central to catch up with people at our own XL networking events or spend time at other organizations’ networking events. Today we also worked with Jenny on an environmental project where Year 2 school kids came into the valley to learn about organic farming. Yes it is a pretty idyllic life style!

Yesterday we had a good poke around our little house at the top of the valley. It is a very cool place and we are looking forward to having real fun decorating and setting it up.