Christmas in Hong Kong

Without the snow, cold and early nightfall, it doesn't really feel like Christmas. I'm on summer vacation with the rest of the Aussie teachers! Coming home to our families will bring on the Christmas spirit, no doubt. So the 25th felt much like any other day . . . except we, as Damo liked to put it, participated in a pagan ritual.

Hong Kong's dominate religions, in this country (city?) of almost 7 million, are Buddhism and Taoism, followed by Christainity (536, 000), then Muslim (70,000), Hindu (15,000) and Sikh (8000), according to my trusty Lonely Planet guide.

Our first stop was one of 600 odd temples, monasteries and shrines in the territory, the Chuk Lam Sim (Bamboo Forest) Monastery, to see some large golden Buddhas. This was followed by a trip to the Lam Tsuen Wishing Tree, a banyan tree upon which you throw a paper with your written wishes enscribed, in hopes that your paper catches a branch and your wish will then be granted. Unfortunately, the tree was dying under the weight of all the wishes so we hung ours on a wooden rack instead.

After our tour (in which we also took a boo over the border at the new mainland
China industrial city of Shenzhen and the old walled city of Kat Wing Hai), we went out for our Xmas dinner. Both of us passed up the turkey option for steak. Yum yum.

Christmas Eve in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, Christmas is a holiday but the sort of holiday where you take your family shopping and out to eat. On Christmas Eve, the streets of downtown Kowloon and probably across the harbour on Hong Kong Island, had to be closed off to vehicles since there were so many people out to watch the fireworks and laser show, plus take advantage of the shops' extended hours to 10 pm. We're right by the Golden Mile, a street of neon signs, aggressive salesmen, and dodgy electronic and watch stores selling goods without price tags. Since we're also at the primo harbour edge and near the hoity toity hotels like the Peninsula, we're right by the all the high end fashion house stores like Dior, Fendi, Prada and Chanel. Sigh . . . to be wealthy . . .

The Police of Penrith Australia

On the December 2nd weekend I flew solo to Sydney to visit Darren, Kelly, Aussie Dave, and Angela and left Nicole to her marking. They live in Penrith, close to Sydney.

The second day involved numerous beverages that the Aussies call 'beeh'. I didnt want to be rude by rejecting their hospitality, so I imbibed every one offered. Before I knew it, the world was swimming and normally silly ideas like riding a shopping cart home became strokes of genius

I don't remember much of what happened afterwards but Darren and Dave were nice enough to give me these photos of the events later that day to jog my memory.

From what I remember, the police were quite nice and helpful and sent me on my way once I had sufficiently recovered my cognitive and walking skills.

Camping in The Grampians

Press play on the player above and listen while viewing the photo of our personal slice of ultimate solitude at our campsite in the Grampians Victoria.






So what's that horrific racket that nearly ruptures the eardrums? Nope, not the corellas (although 100 or so of them do make quite the racket,) but apparently the little fella to the left, a cicada. One cicada, no problem. 1000 horny cicadas and you have a sex infused concert that threatens to rupture your eardrums.

Victoria is Burning

We live at the red dot (Geelong, Victoria.) That cloud is not a cloud, but a veil of smoke.

There are fires burning to the north east of us. They are worried that all the isolated fires will link up and create a massive "SUPER FIRE" the likes of which have never been seen.

New Zealander firefighters have been called in and John Howard will deploy defense forces.

Scary! More on this in the near future...we actually drove about 20 kms away from some of the larger fires today - two towns we visisted were so drenched in smoke we couldnt see beyond 100 meters (Glenrowan & Beechworth - both are near Benalla on the map below.)

Take a look at this map from the Statewide Fire Situation Map to get a better idea of how pervasive these fires are!




Then go visit this link to see which fires in Victoria are 'contained' and which are 'going' (in other words still out of control.)

Before and After

BEFORE

AFTER


In other news, Darren now has a blog!

70 Meter High Fire Lookouts in Giant Tingle Tree Forrests

I have the weirdest phobia, a fear of heights. Whenever I get on an open cliff face, a high balcony with only a rail to separate me from a fall, or similar heights where there is a risk that I could jump off, I get a giddy feeling in the pit of my stomach and have to grip onto the railing for dear life. It's odd, too, because it's also almost a pleasing feeling, kind of like being 'high', if that makes any sense.

In any photo of me in such places, you will always see me gripping onto something (usually with both hands) with either a giddy look or a look of concentration. It's a fact.

Yet, despite this phobia, I've managed to abseil and sky dive. I get the wickedest high when I do things like this and usually laugh like a maniac all the way down. It's a wonderful feeling.

Unfortunately, it's also stopped from doing things I would have liked to have done. Namely, in the south part of Western Australia, there are still giant Tingle Trees left that reach heights of almost 100 meters. They're the second or third largest trees in the world - simply enormous. Until just recently these giants were used as fire lookouts. These are now open to the public - anyone can climb up to the fire lookout on the bicentennial tree (the highest fire lookout of them all) at a whopping 70 meters up. Nicole and I made it to the first platform at 25 meters. At that height I found myself gripping the railing and quite unwilling to go any higher.

Give me a harness, a parachute, a bungee cord, something, anything mechanical, as a support system and, dammit, I would have made it!

For shame.

pobrecita nicolita

How did we spend our last 'free' Australian weekend? Not out to lunch with a colleague nor off to Ned Kelly country for a day, as planned. Instead, I was tied to the toilet and the bed battling a virus. yucky. Damo fed me soup, gatorade and made me take pills. I'm still not well but not feverous anymore. Oh well, we have a week of time off to travel so we might have to modify our trip to go west into Kelly country.

Birds Pt 2 - Katie Holmes & Tom Cruise Wedding

As Nico mentioned in the previous post we hit the Jerrihlinga wildlife reserve on the weekend where we met the talking birds included in this video.



Their repertoire also included "How's it going?" and a cat's meow...funny stuff.

our surrogate child, Basil

goodness gracious, and we thought wombats and huntman spiders were cute! look at our new, but alas temporary, pet: baby orphaned hopping mouse Basil. We found him yesterday night huddled, alone and a bit battered on a busy footpath in St. Kilda (part of the Melbourne), near a parking lot. We took him home to our hotel after some debate and then off to Jerrihlinga, a wildlife sanctuary, today. He just wanted to be held, cuddled and fed--he had no fear of us giant humans. We didn't do very well at the feeding part although we rigged up a q-tip nipple to feed him watered down milk until he could get to his new home and a proper diet of special rodent milk. We learned that he's a rodent, not a marsupial, and he and his relatives arrived in Australia around 5 million years ago.

Perth at Night

MMMmmm pretty.

Introducing Our New Pet

Samina has a cat, Wray and Colleen have cats and a dog, Miko and Shan have a dog, etc, etc. Frankly, we've had it up to here with the never ending stories and updates about their four legged friends. So, if you can't beat'em, join'em...we will no longer be ostracized for not being part of this exclusive club.

How did we join? Well, we are the proud owner of Bo Spangles. We just bought him a brand new plastic home and he seems happy hanging upside down on his lid.

I'll describe him for you. He has eight legs, two chelicera ending in two large fangs, his body is about 3/4 of an inch long and his legs span about 3 inches across his body. He has eight eyes in two rows of four. He's cute but not very cuddly and eats crickets.

By the way, we know he's a he, he has big bulbous palps making him a male huntsman. Here he is in his new home cleaning his fangs before an early evening meal on a cricket:

Wombat Hunting

The Birds, part I

What’s camping without your friends? Every mealtime, our neighbours arrived:




Harriet the Seagull, Crimson Rosella, Magpie (aka Computer Bird), Honeyeater, and hey, what's a picnic without ants . . . bull ants, that is.

Wilsons Promontory

Our last long weekend was spent escaping the city to camp in beautiful and pristine Wilsons Promontory, the most southernly point of mainland Australia. Several trails and back country campsites were closed due to bush fires and we wimped out of the 22 k hike to the lighthouse on the tip of the Prom but, goodness gracious, there were enough spectacular hikes and sights near the Tidal River campsite.

The wind was biting and it rained yet fires were not allowed--in January this part of the park was consumed by fire. The campsite was saved but much of the nearby forest and bushland was burnt. However, the fire created its own beauty. It exposed the granite peaks of Mount Oberon and this spring brought regeneration: little fragile wildflowers, spiky cones growing out of grass tufts which only appear after fire, and leaves covering the blackened eucalypt trunks like moss.


If you hold your mouse over the pictures, we've tagged them all with labels.

Duality of Human Nature

Last post we showed you the Good Sammy. This post shows the Evil Sammy. And so, with these two posts, I intend to show the classic nature of human behaviour. That is, we all exhibit Christlike goodness yet, at the same time, are capable of the greatest evils.

Sammy was there to persecute Jesus:

A new look at the Zupruder Film reveals the truth about JFK:


Sammy collaborated with Vader to take Obi Wan down,
bringing tears to millions of children:


Sammy claims she respects all wildlife, yet this image
shows her bloodthirsty side on a Japanese Whaling boat

Apparently her appetite for ultimate evil was not
satiated by taking down Obi Wan...she now
turns her attention to forwarding Sauron's cause
by slaying the noble Boromir: