IMMIGRATION DAY

Today we have an appointment at immigration for 9.30am, so after attending Mass and a hearty we set of with great haste one taxi one bus and one train, and eventually got there and with Slavic not too sure where to go twas a miracle that we got there at all. But one thing I'm sure about is that no matter what country public servants all work at the same pace.(slow).  When you get to the desk you get an number and then you wait and wait, 10.30 we got called to the office and had our thumb print, and photo and other questions and get through there, and then told to have a seat and wait for your number again, this time the immigration officer checks that the first bloke got all the details correct and he checks the thumb print and looks at the ugly passport photo and then you get a tempory visa, and tells you to come back in two weeks to pick up the real mccoy.

Then its the train and bus again to come back home, what a saga

We then met the principle of the school, Monica and she is lovely she has invited us to prayers and lunch on Friday. She will give us our schedule then and we will be ready to start next Monday please god.

All we seem to be doing so far is praying and eating and a little walking, 

On our way home tonight with Fr Ronni he showed me where to have massage and acupuncture, so tomorrow it will be foot Reflexology, looking forward to that.

will try and put on a few photos, all a bit hazy here though

 Ferry to the city

 some kind of dredging going on we think

 view from our window

 grotto in playground of our school

 another view from our room

 where the phillipino mass is held

 again from our room

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

THE JOYS WE FIND AS WE WALK WITH GOD

HURRY US ALONG THE ROAD

TO GREATER LOVE

INCREASED FAITH

AND A CLOSER RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM

SUNDAY MARKETS IN KOWLOON

Well I was wrong the cold weather is not quite gone, it is bleak and cold again, but we decided to go to the markets, they were amazing,  fresh fruit, vegies, fish, meat, and flowers and everything else in between,
We did buy a few more creature comforts ie a TEAPOT, a DOONA COVER to use as a top sheet, as they dont exist here,

We bought a few more things and we are almost fitted out and settled in. We walked around the markets and did a little more exploring trouble is all the streets look the same so it will take a little time to get used to all of them.

We went to Mass at Notre Dame where the fillipino choir sang it was in english and we felt quite at home. Fr Slavic invited us to a party after wards but we only stayed a very short time as it got extremely cold so we came home early.

I seem to be unable to put in my thoughts for today so will keep practicing

FIRST SATURDAY IN HONG KONG 28/01/2012

We woke this am to a very pleasant surprise, it was not as cold I think they said it was 14degs and after last week it was almost a heat-wave. We walked over to Notre Dame school/Church for mass and breakie.
By the time we got back here after exploring a few more streets and visited the fruit and vegie market it was well after 11am. We then tidied up the room and did some washing etc had some lunch and then Tony went for a sleep so I decided I'd do a little exploring of my own I went for a stroll along the Bay (not quite as clean as our Bay) but the day was warm and the sun came out and it was very pleasant.
where we are is definately off the tourist track, the people around here are very poor and a lot of them are homeless, its the other face of Hong Kong.

I then decided to do a bit of my embrodery and had a very nice quiet time on my own.
4 pm we walked back to Notre Dame and joined Fr Slavic and Ronnie for Oblate prayers and then dinner with them, Fr Slavic introduced the Chivers but I declined as he had no ginger ale, so I had a Baileys,

8pm we walked back home and I managed to put the photos on the computer so I'll try and add some onto this

MACAU

Today started in our usual way, we arose at 5am and walked to Notre Dame for mass and breakfast and as I didn't have my passport we had to rush back here for it, so that we could go to Macau for our Visa's
We took off around 9am and caught a bus to the Ferry Terminal to Macau, all was going great at this time but Fr Slavic decided to give us a treat and go Super Class(I think that equates to our First Class)
Got all the Royal treatment that comes with that, the trip takes just over an hour, and then I got on the Ferry and of course I was only on the Ferry 5minutes when the motion set in and all the usual things that go with that. Then they came around with a tray of food and the look of that really set me off, Tony spent the full hour fanny me, I didn't even have the energy to do that. But thankfully after the hr we got there and it took me almost an other hr to come around, so we did coffee and wonderful coffee did the trick.

When we got off the bus we went to the "Venitian Casino" what opulance the ceiling would make the Cistene Chapel look ordinary, we enquired to stay the night and were told it was totally booked out all 2000 rooms and for one night there was $1000. Aussie dollars, so although we had never of staying there, we decided to keep going.
Our next stop was the ruins of St Paul's Cathedral, there are 7 parishes in Macau and at least one hundred churches, with the total population of a quarter of a million people, but only 20 are Catholics
St Paul's is now just ruins but there was a crypt there with a lot of bones of dead priests from a couple of centuries ago.
We then visited St Domimic's and it meant a lot to me as I attended a Domican school in Dundalk
Then the  Cathedral it was beautiful but by then we were a bit Churched out and decided we would have lunch at a Portugese Restaurent, but they had just finished the lunch session, so we ended up having Chinese, which was very nice, but it would have been nice to do the other one.

I then spotted a chemist and bought sea-sickness tablets for the home trip

We walked and walked and walked and then some, we saw some lovely parks St Francis's garden was beautiful and so many others I can't remember them all. but I think I have some photos of them when I manage to get them on the computer.

Then it was time to come home and instead of one tablet I took two and slept all the way back, and Tony told me it was quite rough, so in love with my tablets!!

We got our working visa's so now we are ready to start work some time after the 5th I think.

We then took the metro train from the terminal and boy oh boy do they squash the people in them.

Monday we will go to the immigration office and we will then become permanent residents for the next 6 months.

We went and had a cuppa with Fr Slavic and Tony almost fell into bed but I thought I'd do my blog before I forget how we spent our day.
 Tomorrow I think is free.

THE ALARM CLOCK SAGA

Another free day for us.

We bought an alarm that looked like it was luminous (really can't imagine us not waking up in time) I set it for 6am and all good, of course I looked at it every hour or so (and of course it wasn't lumimous!) so when I looked and saw 5.30 I thought might as well get up, so up I get have a shower wash my hair make a cuppa and toast, when Tony said you know it's still only 5am, (what a dill am I) so I twiddled my thumbs for an hour and a half, so no more clocks

We walked over to the priests house and went to mass at 7am and then had breakfast with them, we then we looking for some warm winter clothes and found the shops don't open until 11am.

We came back home and the technician came up and set up my blog so as I can write in English 
wopi do !!

We went back to Notre Dame for lunch and then we went shopping and I bought a very warm tracksuit very cosy.

I have a couple of photos I took this am I'll try and put them on later

HONG KONG HERE WE COME

Joseph took us to the airport fairly early in the evening and we booked in and waited in the Qantas lounge, it was great there, they served us coctails and yummy finger food and a meal is we had wished.
When we got on the plane at midnight, it was well past my bedtime and the plane had hardly got off the ground when I put my bed down and slept for several hours. We had breakfast served at 5.30am and landed at 6am. Fr Slavic picked us up and took us back to his house and then proceeded to feed us again.  We had a very full day finding out what was expedted of us and what we would be doing etc,
We then went and bought a few provisions and on our way back we stopped in and had an early dinner.
It was exceptionally cold for us and so we came back to our home and put on the heater had a very hot bath and we were in bed by 7pm, mind you I was awake again at 4.30am but I did get back to sleep and we both slept on until 7.30 but we were quite refreshed, we had a free day so we went exploring and mostly walked along the bay, it is very nice where we are, but with the cold we only go out when we have to.
In the afternoon we went on the bus to see Fr Slavic and he had a couple of visitors over from Canada, he wanted us to go to lunch with them but we declined and let them have their own time.

We got back home around 5pm and it was sooo cold, Tony made us some Tuna rissoles and we ate them in front of the heater watched a bit of telly and I started on my embrodery squares.

And so ends the end of our first two days

Start of Adventure

I have been very remiss these last three months and I will endevour to fill in the all the events that has happened during this time when I get the time.
But for now I will start at where we are now,  We arrived at Tullermarine on Saturday and Joseph and Rebecca were there waiting for us, Joseph as per usual took the wrong turn home and it took maybe 20minutes longer but it didn't bother us at all as we didn't have a clue where we were.

Joseph and Suzannes house is a lovely modern house, all on the one level.
We had a great welcome from Hunter who is a most delightful child, he is so friendly and gorgeous.

Saturday night Joseph cooked up a lovely meal and then of course the cards were on a few glasses of wine and we were all in great form.
Sunday we took Rebecca and Hunter to Mass and again we were pleasently surprised with Hunter, he was so good in Mass it was a pleasure to take him there.

Joseph took us to Williamstown for lunch at the Customs House and it was a great meal, and a drive and walk around the area,  It's a little over-rated and over priced for what I saw of it, but it is very close to the city.

Martin got into Melbourne and him Joseph and Suzanne went out to dinner, Sally came over in the am and picked up Rebecca, she seems to be very happy and is looking very well.

Monday we are on baby sitting duties and went to the local shopping centre and walked the feet off the poor child, we had coffee and toasted fruit loaf at the Coffee Club and didn't young Hunter love that.

We bought some provisions for lunch and came home and he managed to tuck in again, then off to bed and all is quiet again
Joseph and Suzanne are both at work,and should be home around 5pm and then Joe will take us to Airport to start the next part of our adventure.
I will put in some more photos and add my thought for the day when I get to a computer that doesn't jump around all the time