Friday, October 28, 2005

heatwave

Yesterday was the hottest 28th of October on record apparently,temperatures reached 20c in most places.It was a nice day, but I didn't feel the urge to go to the beach! The clocks go back tomorrow night, and then it will start to get dark at 5pm! It already feels like the middle of the night here at 7pm.The streets are deserted, even the town centre(Birkenhead).Liverpool is marginally more busy, but not much.
I miss the evenings in Hong Kong.Going down to the waterfront at midnight and still having millions of people to watch.I haven't been to a pub since July, they just don't interest me.The licensing hours change in less than a month, with the possibility of 24 hour drinking.The reality appears to be that most will open till 12 or 1am, with some in the cities open till 3 or 4. The ability to leave home at midnight and have a few pints in your local is still a dream here. No Sunday morning drinking and dancing.
This week has been half term for the kids and also for myself.I did manage to use my Cantonese at my local chippy though.They were quite astounded, especially the kids .I still don't know how to order fish,chips and gravy in Cantonese though.Can anyone help?

Monday, October 24, 2005

The tale of Pedro

Well, it has done nothing but rain now for 2/3 days, and doesn't look like stopping.This is the real England.A guy (with a filipino wife)dropping off his son at school the other day said to me" I bet you wish you hadn't come back now" Of course at times like that I have to agree. He went on to say that the perceived notion of back home- long summer days, having a pint in a beer garden, walking through the countryside-is a load of bollocks- this is the reality he said cold, grey miserable mornings, with one nice day a year. This may sound quite depressing to you, but actually made me feel happy. It was nice to be dropping off my son at school, moaning about the weather to a big fat bloke with a filipino wife. In Hong Kong everyone is too busy to stop and chat in the morning. Over the last few weeks I have learnt that this guy is 58, on the dole, just waiting for retirement.He has been to the Philippines a couple of times and will go again next year.His wife was his'penpal' before he met her, and they would like to go back and live in the Philippines.
The big news here this morning is how Pedro(I gave him this name) the South American parrot caught Bird Flu whilst in quarantine here in the UK! This was quite puzzling as bird flu had not been found here or in South America. It was later discovered that Pedro had been kept in quarantine with a couple of Taiwanese birds, let's call them Kitty and Pussy. Anyway it seems that pedro caught the highly infectious bird flu from his Chinese friends. This story has a strangely familiar ring to it.Latino catches fatal disease after spending night with Taiwanese twins.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Nei Hou!

This week I managed to call just about everybody in Hong Kong, as all calls were free when using a post office phonecard-and will be this Saturday and the next Saturday. It was great to catch up with everyone, but of course it made me feel homesick. If you want me to give you a call, email me your phone number, as I definitely don't have it unless I called last week. As ever I spend half of my time fiddling around with mobiles. I cannot charge up my HK 3G phone as the universal charger that I bought in ShamShuiPo broke(or was broken by kids).This has pissed me off as I have photos and videos on it which I haven't been able to transfer to a computer yet,as I don't have a computer.I always use the public library to access the internet, although my home phone can now access the net on a screen, but is limited in it's capabilities.I can also access email on my TV, but not Yahoo, and not attachments of any great size or complexity.
I had my Mandarin class last night, which I am really enjoying.Unlike my Cantonese class it is quite challenging, but I always walk away with a greater understanding than when I arrived.I took the bus home with a young BBC(British Born Chinese) girl. Her grandfather comes from Shanghai, but had largely forgotten Mandarin until she has started to remind him.This girl also tried Cantonese but felt the students were not as serious, so opted for Mandarin. She said she likes the Mandarin class better because I and a couple of others seem to ask the teacher the right questions and so then he explains it clearly.In the Cantonese class I find myself spending a lot of time helping the teacher to explain things to the students or giving the teacher shorter phrases rather than the more long winded ones he often gives us.A good example of this is 'How do you spell....?' to me it is '....Dim Chuen?' but the teacher gave a much longer version which I can't remember.To give him his due-because he is a good teacher , he does often agree with me and tells the students that they can also use my example.What he is thinking at that time is anyone's guess.

Friday, October 14, 2005

It's f****ing cold!

Joseph complained that his face and hands were cold on the way to school, there was a definite chill to the air, as there still is now at 3.30pm.The house feels cold and it's time to start putting on the fire.
One of my favourite programmes on Tv in Hong Kong was the World Live that used to come on after the news or weather on TVB or ATV.I used to enjoy watching it with Joseph, who would say "Have you been there Daddy"? I often had, as it was quite often showing live pictures from various parts of Germany, where I lived for 8 years as a boy. I used to enjoy seeing Europe-live, being so far away in Asia. I switched on the Sky travel tv channel today and my heart nearly skipped a beat when I saw Hong-Kong-live.It would have been about 9pm on Friday night, and I imagined the multitudes of people in TST and all of the Gweilos in Lan Kwai Fong and the people I know in the Old China.I could see ferries on the harbour-were you on a ferry at 9pm on Friday?, if you were I was watching you!
I am pretty sure they don't have one trained on the Mersey, but I was in Travalgar square in the summer-Did you see me?
As in Hong Kong 'World Live' is only shown on the hour for a few minutes, shame really as I think I could quite happily watch a channel with just that on it all the time.
Well, it has now been pretty much 3 months since I was last in a pub.My parents are moving back to the UK next week and will be living in Southport.I am looking forward to visiting them and going to the pub, as there is no way that I will go to any around here on the Wirral.
I applied for a job in the jobcentre this week, I'll let you know how I get on.
Chinese lessons are going well, it is actually not as difficult as I thought it would be to read and write.
I am hoping that the price of chicken starts to plummet as bird flu panic spreads .It doesn't matter if something is safe to eat or not, people are just paranoid about food. They keep on mentioning the fact that 140 people have died from HN51 , what they don't say is that all of those people handled live birds, and that is over a 7 year period.I seem to remember that Bird Flu first appeared in Hong Kong in 1997/98, or maybe a bit later. I bet you 140 people have died from eating bananas since 1997.

picture


picture
Originally uploaded by cmercer.

i'd hate to be a chicken

The biggest news here at the moment is the arrival of bird flu-HN51 to be exact. Of course panic seems to be the order of the day.Strange really,considering that the sight of a live chicken around here would promt the same reaction as seeing ET.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

squirrel

Well it is that time of year here where winter clothes need to be bought, heating bills go up and the nights are rapidly drawing in.
We went to China town last week and bought enough rice for the winter. I bought a new jacket, as my teacher's suit jacket was not doing the job anymore.
I also got cable TV installed , if we have to stay inside we may as well have 150 channels of shit to watch rather than 4. The first frost is due tonight, we don't have central heating, but i'm sure it wont be that bad.