EcoLog05 - From Summer to Winter

Kung Hei Fat Choi – Happy Chinese New Year

It has taken a little longer than expected to launch into this next issue of our travels in Asia. And actually, I originally started typing this in November. At that time I commented that after months of very hot weather with many Hong Kongers heading to cooler climes the weather had finally cooled off. The temperature decrease seemed gradual. I couldn’t quite put my finger on when temperatures did drop to the early to mid 20’s. Sometime in October I think. Those balmy autumn temperatures are now long gone and we are now experiencing our first Hong Kong winter!

But now to step back a bit to fill the gaps between the present and the last update!

We have made a wee bit of progress in our house in the valley. Not as much as I would have liked but some progress is always better than none! This took the form of a major rubbish clean up, tree pruning and gardening exercise back in August/September. We engaged a couple of Chinese people to clear out years of appliances including fans, washing machines, old tubs etc that had been dumped in a water tank that we had discovered buried in the undergrowth. They also chopped and cleared the trees around the house in order to give us more light and destroy the mosquito habitats in the damp bush around us. They moved into the shack above us and spent two weeks clearing and hauling. They worked really hard and the result was a much lighter brighter home with the wilds of our garden cleared back so that you can actually see what is growing rather than all the plants being smothered by a carpet of invasive vines.

Daily life in our traditional Chinese agricultural house does continue to have its challenges. The task of doing the washing is not as easy as putting the clothes in to our electric washing machine (yes we have one) and turning on a switch. The problem is that the water comes directly from the stream. If the washing machine is left to fill with unfiltered stream water then the washing machine filter soon clogs and water slows to a trickle. Alternatively if we fill using an external filter the water also slows to a trickle. So, picture one, filling 3-4 buckets of water from the tap and lugging them to tip into the washing machine for each cycle. As you can imagine it takes a wee bit of time to get through a few loads of washing. I do however have a retractable clothesline ….of sorts! I have a rope that is tied to a post on one side that I roll out and hook over one of the trees that received a pruning, making whirring noises as I unravel it! Ha, ha, I think this Island living is driving me mad.

We also had the misfortune to have the little green fridge that we had inherited from the previous owner break down on us. Jenny very kindly loaned us her tiny bar fridge but low and behold this broke down too! This was just before we set off to Bali in late September so we didn’t bother buying a new one until we came back. That was a drama in itself…not only being without a fridge in tropical Hong Kong but the grand expedition of buying it on Hong Kong side and getting it home! It took me basically a whole day to catch the slow (freight) ferry with the trolley, wait for delivery of the fridge to the Central ferry terminal then wait around for the next slow ferry back to Mui Wo. Then of course one had to push the fridge up the valley and finally carry it up our 90 odd steps. Luckily Jenny’s helper Ron was able to help carry it up the path as there was no way that Louise and I were capable of helping to carry a 70kg fridge up to our house!

The valley still has its charms though. September is dragonfly season or so it seemed to me. Hundreds of them, flying around the house and alongside you as you cycle up the path! Dragonfly season has to be better than spider season. Cycling down the path in spider season (during hot summer weather) sees one peeling ropey webs from face and hair as you fly down the valley. None too pleasant!

Speaking of flying down the valley on bicycle. Louise must be getting better at staying on the bike as she has not had too many mishaps recently. The only one of note was when we were cycling up the valley early one morning – i.e. 12.30am ish after a particularly busy time of organizing a few late night and early morning XL events. She literally fell asleep on the bike…gently rolled off into the long grass on the side of the path! When I came upon her she was picking myself up saying “I’m ok”…which I had guessed as there were not the loud expletives that usually follow her tumbles from the bike.

Of course there has to be at least one snake story to relay. Coming home late one night I noticed a snakes head poking out onto the path that I was about to walk up. We stopped and it wasn’t until we took a picture and saw that its body was in fact in the shadow of the railing along side the path. We then realized that even though we were standing at least 4 metres down the path we were in fact standing along side it. It was a rather large Burmese python probably out looking for cat for dinner at our neighbours place. The Chinese lady next door to us has quite a few cats living with her. Very delicious for a pythons to munch on!

We have taken the opportunity to get out and about when we can. We took a day trip to Peng Chau, a small island between Mui Wo and Discovery Bay. Walked around the island and sat up at the pagoda on the top passing the time of day watching a group of locals on a day out dancing the tango and cackling in Cantonese. One balmy evening we jumped on the local inter-island ferry and went to the neighboring island of Cheung Chau. We had a lovely walk around the island and then dinner at a local Indian restaurant before catching the ferry home. Have also walked part of the Lantau Trail around the headland to Pui O, the village closest to Mui Wo. One day Louise and her Kiwi friend Kate caught the bus to Tai O, a traditional fishing village on the north western tip of Lantau Island. For HK$20 (NZ$4) you can go on a motor boat tour of the fishing village. All the houses are built on stilts over the water so it is a really interesting little tour. You can also, if you are lucky enough see the endangered Pink Dolphins. They were fortunate enough to see two on this trip, which was really cool. We also took a bus with some other friends to the Big Buddha at Po Lin Monastery. Louise had been there way back in 1991 on her first trip to Hong Kong but the huge bronze Buddha that sits atop the hillside was not open at that time. Had a good look around the Buddha then had a very good lunch at the vegetarian restaurant! Another great find was a quaint tea shop in Central. We discovered Mr Lee in his shop and spent an entertaining hour learning the art of drinking Chinese tea surrounded by an array of absolutely exquisite Chinese tea pots and sets.

During the later part of last year, I, in a rash moment, decided to attend a stand up comedy workshop and in an even rasher moment decided to compete in the Hong Kong Comedy Festival. I went off to the Take Out Comedy store on various occasions to practice in front of an audience but unfortunately was unable to compete in the Comedy Festival as I had to be a Hong Kong resident. It certainly has been good to give me a better understanding of timing when presenting information.

At the end of September we volunteered along with about 15 other Kiwi’s to help at a function for the NZ Special Olympics team. This was held at the Consular General’s home on The Peak. It was a great afternoon. Enjoyed chatting to the team members and their coaches in the lovely apartment that Julian and Joanna live in with the most spectacular views over downtown Hong Kong and Victoria Harbour! The boys in the team performed an enthusiastic haka which was appreciated by all.

The day after helping with the Special Olympics team we set off to Bali to once again attend the XL Entrepreneurs Business School and the XL Leaders Meeting. Bali is a very cool place to visit and EBS is always an enlightening course to be a part of either as a participant or as crew, as we both were this time. The weather in Bali was fantastic and Louise was lucky enough to enjoy her birthday hanging out by the pool as it fell after EBS and before the XL Leaders meeting.

The last few months of the year proved to be a very busy and stressful time for us with regard to organizing XL events for the many speakers who were passing through Hong Kong. It certainly became clear that we need an on the ground team to help us move the business to the next level. It was also during this time that our business partner and great friend Matthew Faid passed away at the young age of 47. Although Matthew lived in NZ he was a great source of strength to us both as a business partner and friend in terms of providing creative ideas for the business and support in general as a mentor. His death really knocked us. We had been planning to catch up with Matthew and his family at their holiday home in Otematata during our holiday in NZ. While in NZ at Xmas we decided to head south in any case and catch up with his wife Catheryn and their five children. We spent three great days with the family and it was really lovely to see how they all supported one another and just got on with life…which is exactly the way that Matthew would want it.

We seem to have made a name for ourselves as house/dog sitters. Which is cool!! We had a lovely luxurious “holiday” on The Peak in a spacious art deco apartment for two weeks in November. It was great to be living in a large apartment with an ensuite bathroom…complete of course with a shower! (We still do not have a shower installed in little house although not for want of trying). We were tasked with looking after Max the dog but also had Amy, the helper there to look after us!

Early November also saw me take on the role MC of at the NZ Society of Hong Kong 50th anniversary Ball. The ball was great fun as was the Wanchai bar we went on to in the wee hours with a crowd of fellow Kiwi revelers after it!

Late in November I had my first trip to China with a day trip to Shenzhen with Louise and Kate. Most expats go to Lu Wo Commercial Centre and spend the day there. This is a five story mall full of small shops selling copy handbags, clothing, watches etc, etc. A great place to go for bargains (as long as you haggle hard) but also very full on with store owners following you about and trying to entice “missy, missy” into their shops! We spent most of the day there with Kate and then Louise and I walked into downtown Shenzhen. Checked out a more ‘local’ shopping area and had dinner at a small and very reasonable restaurant before negotiating our way back to the border on the metro and catching the train back to Hong Kong.

Just prior to going to NZ, on 14th Dec we welcomed Louise’s god daughter Anna and her daughter Ariya and friends Oriwia, Star and Nicole to our home for a couple of nights. They arrived for a whirlwind week long visit to Hong Kong. It was great to have some Kiwi visitors at our little abode and to also show them around some of the sights of Hong Kong.

We arrived home in Wellington on 21st Dec just in time to enjoy a night of gourmet wine and food with our wine group on 22nd Dec. Although we had a month in NZ the time seemed to go very fast. It was great to catch up with Louise’s family for Christmas in Wellington and then spend time with my family in Whakatane over New Year. We also managed to catch up with quite a few of our friends while we were in various parts of the country which was great too. And of course it was fantastic to see our boys Humphrey and Bogart (cats) who are being very well looked after by Nana Norma. Little Humph recognized us straight away and was very pleased to see us. I think Bo was pleased to see us too but he is such an independent spirit that it was hard to tell. He just went about his normal routine of coming in and demanding food and then buggering off again.

It was sad to say good bye to everyone once again on 21st Jan and we certainly have come back to some more challenges here in Hong Kong both with changes to our XL business and with the weather here which is extremely cold (midday high of 12 degrees and overnight lows of 7, especially after coming from a NZ summer of mid twenties)! Watch this space for these stories in my next installment!