Kung Hei Fat Choy and Anal Glands

Kung Hei, Kung Hei - a very Happy New Year to one and all and best wishes for this exciting Year of the Tiger.



Poor Loo has a bad tummy and an infected anal gland so poor Steve had to take him to the vet as I'm at work and he was off today. I think he has had his eyes opened a little further (though nothing like poor Loo's eyes were as the vet's finger went up his little bot-bot) as to the responsibility and joy of being a dog's human! It's chicken and rice tonight - for Loo that is :)

(No picture, you'll be glad to hear!)

Waves

I received an email today, from a friend, sharing some awesome photos with me. They are so beautiful, I'd like to share them with you. This is the amazing work of Clark Little.

Musical Interlude(s)

We're nothing if not a little eclectic with our musical tastes.

This Saturday we're off to catch Muse on tour.


And then on the 24th of March it's Sir Tom Jones. How good of him to come all this way to entertain us on our second anniversary ;)


But one thing I can assure you, this gal won't be throwing her big panties on stage!

Doggie DNA

I've always wondered what the beautiful Lupo's parentage was, so I had a doggie DNA test done. Well, to my surprise he is:

German Shepherd - Level 1

Level 1: Over 75% of the DNA found in your dog is from the breed listed.

Actually no surprise with that one, I always knew he had a whacking great dollop of GS in him.

Irish Setter - Level 4

Level 4: Each breed listed represents between 10-19% of your dog's DNA

Huh? Really? Well yes OK he does have a very rounded head, moreso than a GS and the beautiful soft eyes of a setter.

Rottweiler - Level 5

Level 5: Each breed listed represents less than 10% of your dog's DNA

Oh my goodness! Well yes, now I know where that barrel chest comes from!

And there I was thinking he was a GS/Husky mix. Whatever his parentage, and now I see it fitting in, he is my boofle (beautiful) boy :)

A Late Thanksgiving

I hope all my American friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving, we have so very much to be thankful for not just yesterday or today, but every day.

This year, Steve and I will be celebrating Thanksgiving on Saturday as we don't get that as a holiday here in Hong Kong. Last night, for our Thanksgiving Day dinner, we had Japanese ramen at one of our favourite places, and the best damn ramen joint in town (the owner has a thing about racing cars and soccer jerseys)!


Tonight, when I get home, our bird, which has been defrosting nicely in the fridge over the past three days, will be dunked into the brining liquid. Then late morning tomorrow, out he'll come (or maybe it was a she - can one tell?) and into the oven. I pushed the boat out and bought an organic turkey, from a small farm in Pennsylvania. I think I might even have an Amish bird in my fridge - which of course is a very non-Amish place for it to be.

We're planning a late lunch/early dinner prior to an evening of karaoke in celebration of a friend's 40th birthday! Then on Sunday it's up bright and early to take Lupo on his first ferry ride over to Hong Kong island and a taxi ride up to the Peak, for the annual Hong Kong Dog Rescue Peak to Fong Fundraising Walk, along with hundreds of other dogs. I think all three of us will be walking off a big Saturday meal.


I'll get Steve to take photos and hopefully post a photo log next week.

John Williams - Awesome!

Steve and I went to see him in concert yesterday evening. What an incredible two hours it was!

He captivated us with each piece he played in a wide-ranging programme:

Vivaldi (Arr. by John Williams) - Concerto in D, Op. 3, No. 9, RV230
Scarlatti (Arr. by John Williams) - Sonata in F-sharp Minor, K448, Sonata in A Minor, K175
Granados (Arr. by John Williams) - Valses Poeticos, H147
Albéniz (Arr. by John Williams) - Torre Bermeja from 12 Piezas Caracteristics, Op. 92
John Williams - Notes in the Margin
Mangoré - La Catedral
Sculthorpe - Djilile
J. T. Williams (Arr. by John Williams) - Theme from The Schindler's List
Morricone (Arr. by John Williams) - Theme from Cinema Paradiso
Myers (Arr. by John Williams) - Cavatina from The Deer Hunter
John Williams - Prelude to a Song, Open End, Song without Words, Hello Francis
Traditional Irish Tunes (Arr. by John Williams) - Carolan’s Concerto, The Little and Great Mountain, The Bottom of the Punchbowl, Jackson’s Morning Brush

Cavatina was one of my Dad's all-time favourite pieces of music.

When one man, sitting with a guitar on the vast expanse of a concert stage, can enthrall the way he did, that is an incredible gift.

Bravo, Mr. Williams!

Beautiful and Moving

The Story Behind Our Photo of Grieving Chimps
Posted Oct 29,2009

The November issue of National Geographic magazine features a moving photograph of chimpanzees watching as one of their own is wheeled to her burial. Since it was published, the picture and story have gone viral, turning up on websites and TV shows and in newspapers around the world. For readers who’d like to know more, here’s what I learned when I interviewed the photographer, Monica Szczupider.

On September 23, 2008, Dorothy, a female chimpanzee in her late 40s, died of congestive heart failure. A maternal and beloved figure, Dorothy had spent eight years at Cameroon’s Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center, which houses and rehabilitates chimps victimized by habitat loss and the illegal African bushmeat trade.

After a hunter killed her mother, Dorothy was sold as a “mascot” to an amusement park in Cameroon. For the next 25 years she was tethered to the ground by a chain around her neck, taunted, teased, and taught to drink beer and smoke cigarettes for sport. In May 2000 Dorothy—obese from poor diet and lack of exercise—was rescued and relocated along with ten other primates. As her health improved, her deep kindness surfaced. She mothered an orphaned chimp named Bouboule and became a close friend to many others, including Jacky, the group’s alpha male, and Nama, another amusement-park refugee.

Szczupider, who had been a volunteer at the center, told me: “Her presence, and loss, was palpable, and resonated throughout the group. The management at Sanaga-Yong opted to let Dorothy's chimpanzee family witness her burial, so that perhaps they would understand, in their own capacity, that Dorothy would not return. Some chimps displayed aggression while others barked in frustration. But perhaps the most stunning reaction was a recurring, almost tangible silence. If one knows chimpanzees, then one knows that [they] are not [usually] silent creatures."

Sanaga-Yong was founded in 1999 by veterinarian Sheri Speede (pictured at right, cradling Dorothy’s head; at left is center employee Assou Felix). Operated by IDA-Africa, an NGO, it’s home to 62 chimps who reside in spacious, forested enclosures.

Szczupider submitted the photograph to Your Shot, a magazine feature that encourages readers to send in pictures they've taken. The best are published on the website and in the magazine.

—Jeremy Berlin

Closure.....and Closure

We scattered my mother's ashes yesterday, in the same place we scattered my father's ashes, almost four years earlier. It's hard to believe so much time has passed. And time it was, as my mum had been sitting in my closet for almost two years.

The reverend read from Corinthians, focusing on the love between my parents, followed by a short prayer and then he read the same poem that I'd read at my dad's service (not sure if that was a coincidence or he'd taken note of it as I remember him asking me for a copy on the day I read it). We closed with the traditional hymn for those connected with the sea, "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" (aka "For Those in Peril on the Sea") and a short silence for personal 'prayer'.

Ashes, that is all that remains. I like to think that scattering these in the same place we scattered my father's ashes, has reunited them.

It was a carbon copy of my dad's service, same reverend, same people (less two or three out of town) and the same loving feeling of celebrating a revered person now lost from our lives. It is always interesting to me how people saw my parents, with so much of the warmth seeming to come from my father while my mother is more usually described as humorous. Which is, in reflection, pretty much how it was for their children.

The rose I cast forth was crossed by the rose my sister then cast forth - not sure about the significance, other than read on.....

Well, that was the first closure. On this trip, Rhona has ceased to be anything to me. She has once again dissolved into the most ridiculous intoxicated drama queen, has lashed out at me repeatedly and stepped way over any line I can ever tolerate. Some highlights of Saturday evening, where she turned up for dinner with her drunk hat on:

First there was the fact that she 'killed' my notebook by dropping it on the floor the night before - and made it my fault for mentioning it to her. Oh and also claimed she hadn't broken it.

Then there were histrionics about 'burying my mother tomorrow'. This from the woman who couldn't be bothered to go and spend Christmas with her mother even knowing it would be her last (and was only 5 hours away).

I was also to blame for not inviting our brother to the service the next day, even though she had agreed to take care of inviting people the week before. Not that he could come anyway, but I should have contacted him because she's not close to him. I'm not.

Apparently I had forced her to do things she wasn't good at, like making some of the arrangements for the service. Oh excuse me, I never realised I was so skilled at funeral arrangements.

Oh and let's not forget the "fucking vicar" she had to contact. Ummmm and agreed to when we discussed everything. (Please remember all this was being said/shouted in a restaurant and the F word was being used very liberally).

She hates the power I have over her. Well if there is any power, she has self-appointed it and plays into it. For example she hasn't bothered to open her own bank account where she can put her inheritance money so it's still in my account. Which means that every time she needs money, she has to ask me. And I transfer it to her with no question. She has given me that power (which I neither use nor abuse) and now resents me for having it.

There was much more, so much more, such as the favour she had done for me in keeping the business running/running it into the ground, whichever way you want to look at it. And that I hadn't ever bothered with the 'accounts' she sent me - hardly relevant as accounts when they failed to record any of the substantial amounts of cash I continued to inject into the business.

The pièce de résistance, however, was the fact that I am not looking after Lupo properly (in her book) because, apparently, I'm a "fucking fat lazy cow". Nice one don't you think? This is after I get up at 5:30am to walk him, make sure he has two long walks a day and also that he has a couple of evening walks and always one just before bed. But because I don't personally take him on every single walk (pretty hard to do when one is working, I have engaged the services of a dogwalker) I am a "fucking fat lazy cow".

At that point I got up, went and paid the bill and left with Steve and Lupo. We haven't spoken two words to each other since, not even at, or after, the service yesterday. She returns to Tenerife tomorrow, to fix up my apartment and remove herself and her asswipe boyfriend from it and a legacy of nine years of free rent. Finally, though she has some other business to take care of over there and I reminded her of that.

As the saying goes: Stick a fork in me, I'm done.

Untitled Visuals

My Boys

Update 5 October:

The vet gave me some appetite stimulants for Lupo yesterday and he ate, and enjoyed, his first complete meal since he arrived. Note to self: Wash fingers after handling those tablets if they can do what they did for Lupo in the space of a couple of hours!!

The boys arrived in fairly good form a week ago.

Toffee has settled in to what must seem like heaven - love, food, attention, love, food, attention.

Lupo, my darling, beautiful, amazing boy, however, isn't doing very well. He hasn't eaten a proper meal since arriving, subsisting on some hand-fed food, some treats and not too much more. I'm taking him to the vet on Sunday (am back at work today and yesterday and tomorrow are holidays here so no vet).

He's happy when at the beach and swimming, running or the ever-popular frisbee-catching, good when resting at home (yes, I let him on our bed and sofa), but morose the rest of the time.

Thank goodness he's still drinking lots of water.

Rhona and I differ on our approach to this lost appetite. I favour finding things he WILL eat and if necessary hand-feeding him. She shouts at him when he doesn't eat from his dish and orders him around. She is using this very slow adjustment to his new life to chastise him for not eating and then telling Steve (she wouldn't dare say this to me) that she will take him back with her.

The climate is not what he's used to, I now find out that she's back with the asshole boyfriend who has a dog which is Lupo's buddy, he's in all new surroundings. It will take time for him to settle into his new life without his regular buddy and which cannot include three-hour outings every day - as I explained to her, noone can sustain that and have a job. I had to bite my tongue so as not to say "and have their rent paid for them for almost nine years".

Steve adores him, he adores Steve. They even went for an after-dinner walk/run yesterday which was so good for them both to be together like that. Of course Rhona had to use it against me as being yet more proof I'm not looking after Lupo. I slapped her down with just one sentence - a reminder that only under her care, had the poor dog pooped in his own home, a source of awful embarrassment for one of the cleanest dogs I've ever known. And the reason for that embarrassment? She slept through his crying to be taken out with a sore tummy. No doubt a wine-induced slumber.

Fingers crossed we can sort out his eating. I will sit on the floor and hand-feed him every kind of meat he loves, to get him over this. I hope the vet can help, too. It saddens me more than I can say, to see him like this.

Yipppppppppppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

My boys are arriving on Thursday. THIS Thursday evening!

Bowls and mats, beds, litter box and litter, dry and wet food, brushes, poop bags, litter scooper, all purchased. And I have a very nice piece of rump steak in the freezer for Lupo's first dinner.

We're ready for them!

Oh, and my sister is arriving the same day (on an earlier flight). I've found a nice little studio apartment for her for a month and I'll meet her off an early flight in the morning. Settle her in, then we'll have Korean BBQ for lunch. A short familiarisation trip around Discovery Bay.

And I'm hoping and praying the boys survive their long travel in good health and no stress on their mental state.

I can't wait to have them back in my life! And Steve is looking forward to having them in his life. He and Lupo already get on so incredibly well :)

We're hoping my sister behaves while she's here.

Another milestone - Steve celebrated one year of living in Hong Kong, with me, yesterday. We got sozzled on a jug of very strong sangria at a little place overlooking the bay, then gorged on HUGE burgers at another restaurant, thankfully inside in the air-con - it is still UNBEARABLY hot here. We then went home with hangovers - I do not recommend copious amounts of sangria consumed in the extreme heat!

Weeping Glacier

From the UK online newspaper website MailOnline.

At first glimpse it looks like any other glacier you might find in the freezing Arctic wastes of Norway.

But on closer inspection an eerie face is depicted in the melting ice wall that appears to be crying a river of tears.

The forlorn-looking 'Mother Nature' figure appeared to locals during a thaw, with the melting ice and snow falling towards the sea below.

The striking image of the Austfonna ice cap, located on Nordaustlandet in the Svalbard archipelago, would seem certain to be heavily used by environmentalists protesting against climate change.

Read more

My World As I Know It, Ends Today

After resisting company 'policy' for a couple of years, I have given in, folded, acquiesced. Today I will be issued with a new 'device' to replace my little buddy, the cell phone.

Now, while I do understand these things help us keep in touch and up to date, sometimes I feel I don't need to keep in touch or be quite so up to date. I kind of liked the reasoning that I didn't answer your email out of office hours quite simply because I didn't read it until returning to work the next day. I liked the fact that quite honestly if it was life or death urgent, you could press some numbers on YOUR BB and speak to me on MY CELL PHONE about it.

But, alas and alack, I am about to become one of the legion of BB owners who can't seem to go to a meeting, sit and have a coffee, stop and smell the roses, without scrolling and jabbing at these things. Personally I find it exceptionally rude to be in a meeting and not quite BE in a meeting because of distractions like this and I will NOT be taking mine into meetings. I do still plan to sit and sip on a delicious, soothing latte and I will not stop smelling roses - and preferably freesias and white ginger flowers.

Whatever the good of this upgrade may be, I am all too aware that the expectation of what I do in my free time (limited though it is) has quite definitely changed forever.

R I P

A New Outlook

Finally, a couple of photos of the view from our new apartment (click to enlarge):

This photo shows the view over the bay with the beach to the middle-left. The monstrosity appearing just in front of the beautiful mountains is a new 5-star hotel, left half-built since last year. In front of the curved building are some lovely bay-side restaurants and on the right of it is the ferry pier.

A slightly hazy day but you can see in the distance, the business centre of Hong Kong, with Hong Kong Island on the right and the Kowloon peninsula on the left and the harbour flowing between. The first island to the right is Peng Chau, originally a little fishing village but now it's a little commuter island (with some very good local restaurants I've heard).

It's a far cry from the view we left behind:

Quickie

Hello to those who haven't given up dropping by, after all there's really not much to see around these parts at the moment. Sorry about that but life just seems so full right now. So onto the update:

1. Boys came, boys saw, boys conquered. We all had a great time, especially them. They loved Thailand! It was great getting to know them and I was particularly taken by the older boy who was just so hungry for the experience and got so much out of this trip.

2. Found a new apartment. Stunning, and I mean STUNNING views. A balcony for Lupo and I've been arranging furniture in my head for two weeks! We move in on the 28th. It will mean a 30-minute ferry ride to and from where I work but it's worth it, to be with Lupo again.

3. Lupo and Toffee are now slated to travel end of August - Rhona again threw a spanner in the works by not getting Lupo's rabies jab done in time for an end of July travel date.

4. Bought a new bed. Super duper bed. Individual pocketed springs. And added memory foam Tempur Millenium pillows to the package. Wish I could afford a memory foam mattress but those babies are expensive!!! Heck the pillows were US$150 each but my goodness they feel incredible!

5. Survived a direct hit from a typhoon over the weekend. Bit of an odd one as some places reported nothing more than a spot of wind and rain, while other places had trees down and property damage. For us, up on the 35th floor in Mid-Levels, it sounded like the air-conditioner was going to be blown on top of us. Howling, screaming wind for about three hours during the night.

6. Will try and get a bit better with my posting - and with pics. Must show you all our new view once we're settled.

Hope all is well in everyone's universe, I do try to keep up with you and post on your blogs when I can.

The Adventure Begins....Truly

UPDATE 2:30pm 18 June - they're all here, finally.

A volcanic island in the north Pacific is causing air travellers consternation as a massive plume of volcanic ash clouds the skies thousands of feet above the volcano, making air travel impossible.

Northern Pacific flights bound for Japan, Shanghai and Korea are being cancelled or rerouted due to volcanic ash spewing from the Russian volcano, Sarychev Peak.

Well, the boys are having their first adventure and they haven't even arrived yet.

Due to Sarychev Peak on Matua Island in the Russian Kuril Islands blowing its top, flights to Asia on the northerly route (as in Detroit to Tokyo) are being diverted. The boys ended up in San Francisco after leaving Detroit, to make another connection onto Tokyo. This, unfortunately, means missing their Tokyo connection to Hong Kong later today. We had checked that the boys were safely on the Detroit to Tokyo flight and only found out early this morning from a call they made to their mother upon arrival in San Francisco.

So it was all battlestations and trying to find out what was going on as Northwest had done nothing to contact us to alert us as to the issue. They gave me one option - they would book them into a hotel in Tokyo on arrival, with the airline continuing to be responsible for them, and make sure they're on the next flight out. That next flight out, however, is tomorrow at the same time, meaning they'd be stranded in Tokyo for about 22 hours. On their first trip out of country.

Well, as you can imagine I wasn't impressed by any of this so put my points forward in a rational, measured way. A few calls later, they finally patched me through to a Manager. I must say he was very helpful and only raised my hackles once, by saying that the airline felt this was an acceptable solution. I said, with all due respect, that wasn't the airline's decision as to what is acceptable for my husband's children, without any sort of consultation. I was willing to meet them more than half-way, by taking care of Steve's flights to and from Tokyo, the overnight accommodation, and only asking that they make sure all three are on the flight back to Hong Kong tomorrow. Due to overbooking (they are taking all missed connections onto that flight), they could not give him a seat on the same plane as the boys. After some negotiation, they put the boys on a Japan Airlines flight tomorrow (not bad considering they are flying on mileage points and airlines don't like inter-line transfers for that type of ticket) which I was able to match with Steve's ticketing arrangements.

Result - Steve is now on his way to Tokyo to meet the boys off the plane (he'll get there about an hour before they do), take them into his care and spend the night with them. The earliest connection is on Japan Airlines tomorrow at 9:55am so they are all booked on that.

Another expense in an expensive month, but it was the only acceptable solution. Poor Steve was pretty upset about all this but several phone calls to Northwest, some magic from my wonderful travel agent and a quick trip to the bank for some Yen, all is solved.

As I said to him, for the boys this will be another adventure for them to talk about when they get home!

Countdown - One Week

In exactly one week, Steve's boys will arrive for their three-week summer break with us. We'll be doing loads of touristy and non-touristy things here, chomping through food both known and as yet unknown to the boys, traipsing around malls and outlets and markets.

As part of their holiday we're spending six days in Phuket, at the Banyan Tree. That will be a little different from our honeymoon trip, with an 11 year-old and a days-shy-of-15 year-old. There will be no skinny dipping in the pool, for one thing.

I'm excited and just a little trepidacious. While we've talked on the phone and web-cammed a little, we've never been in the same room together. My fervent wish is that, by the time they leave, they will think of me as their friend. And I shall have gained two more.

Steve, needless to say, is counting the minutes!

Eye Eye

Isn't it amazing, the fun you can have with a half-filled water bottle!

Deb Is Gone

Debby Greer-Costello

Deb was an incredible person and everyone who knew her was blessed by having her in their lives. She is gone too soon but put up an incredible fight against leukemia, and showed more courage, dignity and humour, than I've ever witnessed. She leaves behind her parents, brothers and sisters, and a beautiful nine year-old daughter, Zoe.

When I first 'found' Deb's blog, she was full of vim and vigour, a strong, enabled, lovable kinda gal who wasn't shy about sharing her ups and downs in navigating her world. In 2005 she shared with us, her leukemia diagnosis and we followed through her initial treatments, the good times when she seemed to have this thing beaten, and then sadly how it reached deep into her and grabbed her back. She fought it, my god but she fought it.

Your fight was long and hard, Deb, and you gave everything you had, even in the last days. I'm grateful to your sister Jenna who so kindly, despite her own pain at seeing her sister suffer, shared with us how things were going, to keep us in your life, when you no longer could communicate to us all through your blog.

Deb, you will be missed. And never forgotten.

As We Look Back Over Time

As we look back over time

We find ourselves wondering .....

Did we remember to thank you enough

For all you have done for us?

For all the times you were by our sides

To help and support us .....

To celebrate our successes

To understand our problems

And accept our defeats?

Or for teaching us by your example,

The value of hard work, good judgement,

Courage and integrity?

We wonder if we ever thanked you

For the sacrifices you made.

To let us have the very best?

And for the simple things

Like laughter, smiles and times we shared?

If we have forgotten to show our

Gratitude enough for all the things you did,

We're thanking you now.

And we are hoping you knew all along,

How much you meant to us.

~ Clare Jones ~

Food Glorious Food

Someone wrote on my fridge - "I miss your food posts, have you eaten lately?" I wonder who that might be!

Actually yes, I've definitely eaten lately but it all comes down to Steve loading the pics onto Flickr so that I can post them here. Problem is, he's a perfectionist when it comes to his photos and wants to crop and brighten and contrast them some, before he's happy with revealing them.

Let's see. We have pics of an incredible Valentine's Day Dinner at The Verandah, we have pics of tapas and sangria at Mija's by the bay (two or three visits), we have multiple pics of many dim sum meals, we have pics of roast goose at Lippo Chiu Chow, we have pics of dinner at Chang's, we have pics of a magnificent anniversary meal at Spring Moon, we have pics of birthday dinner (both of our birthdays) Wagyu beef at Felix's, we have pics of afternoon tea in The Lobby. I think we might even have a pic of me eating deep fried pig intestines at the flower market during Chinese New Year. And more I can't even remember right now!

So, yes, I've definitely eaten. Now I need to figure out how to get Steve to give me access to his pics. I'm cooking Sausage, Onions and Peppers with Linguine tonight so that will help. Then there's my special Tortolini and Eight Vegetable Soup tomorrow. Maybe a Boeuf Bourguignon on Saturday, or perhaps another visit to Mija's this weekend. Now THAT should give me some bartering power ;)

All I have to share right now is our last dim sum lunch with friends and new babies, at the City Hall (pics untouched and released only because of pressure from those who attended and couldn't wait for the edited versions) . . . . . .

This is Steve's No. 1 Dim Sum Auntie, she' totally besotted with him and runs around getting him whatever he wants, even before he wants it! Here she is with his 'mongo poodeen' (mango pudding). She wants to take him to a mountain on the island she comes from - I'm still working out what that might be code for, in her Guangdong Hakka dialect.

And here we have No. 1 Dim Sum Auntie and No. 2 Dim Sum Auntie, driving their carts - fried items to the left and steamed items to the right.

And at the end of the meal, all 12 of us were sated. But I think Steve managed to finish the Yeung Chau Chow Faan anyway :) That's a little chicken foot in the foreground, which would have been in front of Anuja!