Home Sweet Home

Since I have horrific jetlag and I have been awake since 3:30am, I thought that updating the blog would be more productive than lying in bed staring at the ceiling, listening to lucky Darren snoring away in dreamland.

I just got back on Tuesday from Hong Kong....luckily my flight wasn't cancelled due this freak dump of snow! I can't even believe how fast my time there went by. Sarah & Suds were AWESOME tour guides and had us very busy the whole time I was there! I really loved it there.....it was so much different than what I had pictured in my head and I'm so glad I got the chance to go before they left for Cape Town.

My first night there was a fun one! Sarah & Suds met me at the airport with flowers (so cool!) and we hopped on the airport express and headed for their place. After a celebration with champagne, wine & cheese and home-baked shortbread cookies a la Tiffany we headed out to this Russian cooler bar for some chocolate chili vodka shots in some sweet pimp jackets.
That was the beginning of our pub crawl through Lan Kwai Fong (the bar district near where they live). It was really cool cause almost every bar we went to had a live band and they were all fantastic.


Our journey through the nightlife there, saw us dancing (with our hands above our heads, no less) at various clubs until we stumbled outside and realized it was daylight already.

As you can see, the photography just got better as the evening progressed!


Yes, it was 8am and time for us to stumble home as NORMAL people were taking their children to school.

With the time change I had been up for somewhere around 32 hours and it was time for bed!!! Well, the couch anyway:) But not without a stop for some yummy fresh baked egg tarts for breakfast! They were so delicious....and I gave Darren a hard time for eating apple pie for breakfast..lol.

Off to the Market....

The next day we woke up around noon and headed out to check out this temple down the street from their place and some of the wet markets.


It's probably not the best thing to do when you have a hangover but we managed to power through.


The markets there are very different from home!

In Hong Kong, it seems that it's not "fresh" unless it's still alive.....so you would see everything from live chickens to turtles.



It definitely made for some interesting visuals. In this picture in front of the orange tub were some poor little turtle lke creatures in a net that I wanted to rescue.




These are wrapped up crabs.....sadly they are still alive. You can check out a video on Sarah's blog to see how they are wrapped up here: http://sudsandsarah.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_sudsandsarah_archive.html
Just look for the October 3rd post....I'm not sure how to make it a direct link.

More markets & Happy Valley

Before

After






Later that night we went to check out the horse races at Happy Valley Racecourse with a couple of Suds' buddies from Cathay Pacific.. It was really fun, but sadly we did not win a cent.

This is one of Suds' good friends there, Dane.




Doesn't it look cool with all of the enormous buildings in the background?!

Will post more soon.....

The Giant Buddha

Sarah & I took a 5.7 km cable car ride to go visit the Giant Buddha at the Po Lin Monastery at Ngong Ping on Lantau Island.

The view was amazing and it was really cool until it stopped all of a sudden over the ocean for about 5 minutes. I don't think I've been that nervous in quite a long time! Sarah & Suds said that when it opened it broke down for a couple of hours with people in it....I don't know what I would have done if that had happened!! Fortunately I had enough adavan and sleeping pills in my purse to sedate everyone in the car for at least a few hours....lol.


At the top of the cable car there was a cute little "authentic" Chinese village....complete with a Starbucks!



The Buddha was quite something as you can see from the pics! It is 34 metres high and weighs 220 tonnes.

GO LIONS GO!!!

Karen's baby, Trevor, helped cheer the Lions on to a 25-14 Grey Cup victory! Woo hoo!

Leaving on a Jet Plane....

So I made a pretty spur of the moment decision yesterday and booked a ticket to Hong Kong! I leave on Monday to go visit Sarah & Suds and will be back on the 28th. It will be a short trip, but a fun one I'm sure. Sarah is going to be such an awesome tour guide! She has already sent me a list of lots of the fun things that we can do while I'm there.....

One day in Macau - it's a one hour ferry to get there, tour around all day, ferry back.

Shopping in Shenzhen....the knock off capital!

Stanley market....about 30 minute bus trip. Lunch and wine on waterfront. More shopping. There is a beach there and one or two on the way we can stop at and check out. Amazing scenery on bus trip with killer cliffs and crazy drivers.




Visit my downtown...check out my gym, fave restaurants, Li Yuen alleys for shopping, check out the masses of people! Maybe Times Square area as well.

Happy Valley horse races and night out to Lan Kwai Fong to get pissed. Eat Falafel at obscene hour of night and wake up next morning burping garlic. yum (this will be the highlight of the trip I am sure!)

Other things we could do....The Peak tram and view. The Big Buddah Cable Car. Ocean Park amusement park. Disneyland. More beaches. More shopping. Facials at spa. Star ferry accross the waterfront. Nighttime booze cruise to watch fireworks

I am soooo excited!! Only 2 more sleeps! I am just trying to dig out my summer clothes cause it is around 25 degrees there right now. I didn't think I'd have to show these gams again for quite a while.....good thing I had time to go for a quick tan and a wax today!

Email me your address if you want me to send you a postcard...even though I will probably get here before it does!

Winter's in the Air

Here are a couple of shots that Mom sent from our trip to Whistler last weekend.



Mom cooked up lots of yummy feasts while we were there including this awesome prime rib dinner.


Who knew fondue could be so funny??


Here's Joel daydreaming about making snow angels and eating yellow snow.


This seasons must-have fashion accessory: an abnormally large hood!


Nothing like being in the hot tub when it's snowing out.....assuming that Joel and Kevin aren't getting ready to attack with snowballs!

Whistler Is Calling!

We are heading up to Whistler again this weekend for a nice relaxing visit with the fam! I am so psyched.





Here are a couple of photos of the place we're staying at. Pull out your magnifying glass...ha ha. Sorry they're so tiny, but I just pulled them off some website.




Apparently 8 inches of snow fell there last night. Too bad I'm such a crappy skier! Oh well, I'm pretty sure I will have more fun curled up by the fire sipping on a Baileys coffee watching my family play charades anyway. Alcohol + Cranium = good times!