STANLEY MARKETS ON A SUNDAY

It,s hard to believe that it is a week since I've written anything up. Life has become very busy for us, we are now working at the three schools on a different days of course, Friday is our busiest day of all as we have 32 students each to listen to, its a very slow process but ever so rewarding. I have a new respect for teachers just listening to the same couple of paragraphs for 6 hours.

On the social side of things we have been very busy also, this week being the Anniversary of the Oblates it was a big day for them. So on Friday night we were invited to join them at the main parish house for dinner. It was a lovely evening. First we had the Oblate Foundation Prayers,which was very inspiring!!   Then there were the compusary drinks and cheese etc, followed by a delicious 3 course meal and chocholates, but, saying all this we were still home by 7.30pm which as you all know suits me right down to the ground. There are two retired Chinese priests here and the young priests here really look after them.  Presently we have Fr David Ulright over here from Mainland China, he is from Texas, but he is a lovely man and has a great sense of humour .
After dinner Fr Slavic goes out and feeds the homeless, I've not done that yet but maybe before I leave here I'll go out with him.

Saturday the lift was being serviced and as we are on the 6th floor we decided we'd have a sleep in and do our few chores. This I did, and then I  did a bit on my quilt work and had a very restful day. We went to the priests house for dinner ( lift back in action) and joined them for evening prayer and then stayed and had a Baileys and a chat. Again we were home by 8pm.u

Sunday Morning in Kowloon

Sunday we decided on a Ferry ride to HK and as you will see by the photo how much smog was around, we thought we might go to the Peak but decided we wouldn't see anything so instead we went   to the Stanley Markets.
When we got there it was full of foreigners and yuppies we felt quite out of place, so we did a walk around and then we walked around the grounds it was like visiting any city in Europe on a Sunday, the side walk cafe's  and a large square full of people with very well dressed kids,ther was abeautiful promenade so we just did a walk and had an Icecream (no coffee today as our budget doesn't extend that far)  by this time the smog had cleared and the sun was shining, it was fantastic seeing the sailing boats and yachts in the harbour 

We passed through Aberdeen and this is where all the rich and famous people live, the houses set in  the side of the mountain beautiful gardens, and at least 2 cars ie BMW'S' MERC'S and even AUDI'S

There were people actually swimming in the sea, they must have no feelings as it was darn cold. I will add a few photos of the week



Some of these are a bit mixed up
The church ones are
 St Alfred's Church this church was donated by the people of Essen in Germany.
It really is magnificent inside

If Noela or Bill see this we caught up with Fr Pascal and he misses the Bay very much and asked to be remembered to you

sorry the photography is not so good

OCEAN PARK SUNDAY

Today is beautiful and I believe it is 15degs,but when you are  out of the wind it is really lovely.

We decided to go to Hong Kong Island today and visit Ocean Park, I suppose the nearest thing at home is Sea World or Dreamworld on the coast.
We managed to catch two buses without incident, and then on the special bus to the park. As we are seniors and have our Hong Kong Identity passes and are seniors to boot, everything is half price so normally it cost $35aud to get into the park (as s.c we got in for free) I love Hong Kong.

The park has everything there including Panda Bears, Aligators, Birds and everything in between. The Aquariam was fantastic.
We took the cable car to the top of the mountain,where the amusement park is located but refrained from getting on any of the rides

The Rainforest was amazing so many plants and flowers.
From there we took the Ocean Express down from the mountain and it gave the effect that you were travelling on a submarine, great sound effects! and you could see the fish swimming above you.

We then strolled around until we found the coffee shop, (our Sunday morning treat)
We had a fantastic time,but as we have  Mass this arvo we decided we should make our way home and hope to make the right connections as some of the buses do not return the same route, but we got home without a hitch.It really is so cheap travelling on public transport here.



Here are some of the photos I took today

This afternoon we are invited to the fillopino's Mass and there is a special  evening do afterwards, which we are invited to  if there is anything more to add I'll do it tomorrow

AHH SATURDAY!!

Our day off, after a week of work, feels like old times, after a week of pretend work, we now have two days off.

Yesterday Tony and I went to St Eugene's primary school and we did have a very full day, we both had 32 kids each for reading and comprehension, and that was hard going, the kids are all very polite and it was such a pleasure to be there, the children who have recently come over from the mainland find it paticularly hard to cope. There maybe a whole class of chinese kids with an Irish accent, trying to get them to say "cake and bake" istead of "kike and bike" could be very interesting.

After mass and breakfast we did our weekly shopping, and then I did all our washing, and cleaning our unit, and ironing. We then had a very quiet afternoon.
 I did some surfing on the web for air fares and hotels for Xian, but I'm finding it very difficult as some give them in us$ and some in au$ some in Hong Kong$ and then others in Yuens so by the time I work them out I had wasted most of the afternoon.

When we went shopping this am I found Australian wines on the shelf and good old Tony found the Muscato  and we are sitting here enyoying as I'm writing up my blog and him reading a book, sipping a glass or two!!

Met a priest tonight who went to school with FR Bill and his father and Uncle Joe were best mates, how about that for a small world.

No 1  For Judith's Quilts for Ethiopia

This one looks a bit wobly but its quite nice actually

No2

Markets at Night close to us Fruit and vegies of all kinds

The beef just hangs out on the footpath

Street signs

AND ITS OFF TO WORK WE GO

Today we started in earnest.
The three old foogies were at Notre Dame College today,and we had our first group conversation class,with the students I think they are grade 9.  (To make things easier for the the students to comprehend, Fr Swavic suggested to me and Tony to say we had 13 children and not to elaborate)  Of course that was one of the questions they asked us, how many sisters and brothers I had, and they nearly fainted when I told them how many sisters and brothers I had, then when I said I had 13 children I almost had to pick them up off the floor. And twenty grandchildren,my goodness one boy said pointing around the room more than a whole class room, I could see the awe in their faces, unbelieveable!!!  (I think some of the boys thought Tony was a bit of  a stud,) well yeh they are very impressionable!  poor kids, he lapped it up of course, and all the young girls thought he was gorgeous, blue eyes and silver hair, almost swooning they were, but there is no accounting for peoples taste is there now?.
    We had great fun with them the students are delightful and soooo shy I'm amazed.

We were then invited to the hall where there was a festival day affair on, and as you can see these things hanging across the room, with questions and numbers on them, there were 15 in English,made especially for us, kind of trivia questions ( now you all know how much I enjoy trivia) so that turned me on no end, but I did get into the swing of it and got 7 out of 15 correct. Which was a amazing  for me as it's not my forte at the best of times,    the picture below gives an idea of how it was arranged, hundreds of them, I couldn't get a good idea of them.

This is a lantern made by the students, as you can see its on its side, I forgot to turn  it upright and I don't know how to delete it from the blog

These are really beautiful and made out of paper

Then we were invited up on the stage and each given a skewer with a ribbon on it and invited to burst all the balloons  this gave great mirth to the students to see the principal, deputy and us bursting all the balloons

This next photo is a girl called Christina and she asked if I would be her friend

The weather has become very cold here again, and all the windows in the schools are kept open but all the teachers run around in fur coats and scarves. I had to buy another jacket I explained to Tony I needed to look the part!!

Tomorrow Tony and myself are off to St Eugene Primary School and we know our work load there is much more structered and busier, so looking forward to that.

The photos are a bit scarce but once we get going I'll try and get a few every day.

Every night there is singing coming up from the playground courts  it starts at 7pm and goes on until 11pm and honestly it's the most awful stuff you ever heard, but we have got used to it and can even sleep through it.