EASTER

I have so been looking forward to this Bank Holiday weekend.  4 whole days off work, it has been a long time since Christmas.  I know that I have been on holiday, but that is not the same as having time at home.  Time to cook, time to catch up on jobs, time in the garden and at the allotment.  

 

Started the weekend off with decorating this corner of my home.  

 

Hung my owls and paper eggs on the twigs.  Added a jug of daffodils and these hyacinth candles.

Easter Bunny!  A quick crochet project that I found over at Attic 24
The pattern comes from Janette at the Greendragon fly Thank you so much for such an easy to follow tutorial and pattern.

 

 Yesterday I got stuck into some cooking

A batch of granary rolls, to go with 

 Carrot and orange soup, which apparently "as far as your soup goes this one isn't too bad"!!!!!!!!!!!!  

After a comment like that I wonder if I should have cooked him a ham.  This went down well, unlike the baking tray which the glaze welded itself to and I had to tackle it with a paint scraper!!

Hot cross buns, toasted with butter mmmmmmmmmmm...  Made without peel, as someone is not keen!
Also managed to get lots of seeds planted in the greenhouse this morning and some more kitchen cupboard doors painted and we are only half way through the weekend.
 

 

 

HONG KONG BEACH TIME

 One day we visited this beautiful beach, just a few miles drive from Stanley.

It was very quiet.  The tannoy announced that it was not safe to swim as there was no lifeguard, it being WINTER!

 It didn't feel much like winter to me, especially the winter I had left behind and had to return to.

 I had to have a quick paddle, it was pretty cold, but not like Clacton this time of year!

 I sat in the shade of these trees for a while.

We then strolled past the shops, buckets and spades and lilos, just like any other beach that I have ever visited to this cafe, it looks a bit run down?

 And here we had lunch, I had green tea to drink

 vegetable noodles it said on the menu, but what were these chewy fishy things I found? Oh, just a few prawns!!  Euugh, I flicked them over to my sister who was enjoying her prawn wraps and something else fishy, was it squid or calamari, I can't remember, but she said it tasted good.

 It was quite different here to the other places I visited in Hong Kong.  No expensive shops, no towers and no Starbucks!

BAMBOO AND CLIPBOARDS

My lasting memory of Hong Kong is one of Clipboards and Bamboo.

Scaffolding is built from bamboo poles, unlike in the UK where we use metal poles and clips.

 The platforms are constructed from bamboo poles, not scaffold planks.  It is all secured with black tape.

I put my water bottle next to these ones to show the size of the poles

One last bamboo picture (I promise!)  this one was half a bridge!!

And as for clipboards, they have an absolute passion for them, especially for anyone important, mainly car park attendants.  Our departure and return from the apartment was recorded whether driving or even on foot.  Why? At one car park our arrival was recorded and then the attendant checked his clipboard as we left and told us what was owed (no ticket machine there) We were ticked on a clip board when we went to the Big Buddha and the one pictured above was used to order our lunch

 

Hong Kong...............continued

One thing I was looking forward to very much on my trip to Hong Kong was visiting button street.  My sister had sent me photos.
One day we took the underground out of town to an area which I can't remember what it was called, but it was not built up like Central, I thought it more Chinese.  We walked along and found some shops and they were all selling beads, hundreds and thousands of different beads and jewellery findings.  There were lots of shops, mostly very small and crammed with drawers with beads in, unfortunately I did not need any beads as I have a good stock at home.

 We walked a little further and found button street - again lots of tiny shops stocked to the brim with buttons, all different types and sizes.  The shops had those little plastic drawers fitted from floor to ceiling, each one containing a different button.  I was given a small basket and spent some time choosing a wonderful selection of buttons.

We stopped here for a moment to feed the baby and then.....

Ribbon street!  yes more tiny shops with reels and reels of every type and every colour and every width of ribbon you could imagine.  It was sooooo hard to choose, but I bought some green and grey gross grain ribbons and some Christmas ones.

These are some pictures of the streets and people -it was busy

 I noticed in Hong Kong that all shops of the same type are grouped together, not only here on button street, but in other streets and Malls.  I noticed this the first day we drove into town and there were lots and lots of picture framing shops in one street, all next door to each other.  In the Malls all the make-up shops are next to each other.  Strange - at home they tend to spread them out, it is unusual to see two shops selling the same thing right next to each other.

And finally hot and exhausted from so much excitement we popped into

The same the world over, quite reassuring sometimes!
 

 

A GOOD WEEKEND

What a lovely weekend! I have at last recovered from my jetlag- it is so much fun waking up at 3 am and making porridge, because I was sooo hungry!

On Friday my son posted this clip on Youtube that he had made for Red Nose Day.
It's very funny and hope that he can get a few more likes and shares?
Find   Awkward Moments  here.

Friday evening we went to a St Patricks Day event at our local Theatre, The Manifest Theatre Group in Manningtree, which I have written about Here
This was a bit different to the normal sort of plays which they put on.  Firstly some dancers from The Debbie Millar School of Dance performed an Irish Dance -  I love a bit of tap!
This was followed by Guy Singleton singing some Irish Ballard's with his guitar.
During the interval they served Barmbrack and Irish Scones and then the one act play:
The Donahue Sisters -  a very funny and yet quite creepy in places.  Three sisters meet up and talk about their lives and then do a ritual enactment of violent incident from their childhood - much better than watching telly!!

Saturday evening was party night, one of my old ( in time and age!!) celebrated her 50th birthday.  A party held at the local village hall took me back a few years, even the music came from the late 70's and 80's when we used to go there for discos as teenagers!!  It was good to catch up with friends, have a little dance and a couple of glasses of Prosecco (it was bring your own drinks!)

This morning was spent at the allotment, very cold, but ok to have a bit of a dig and pick some veges.  Came home with sprouting bbroccoli, cabbages, potatoes and leeks.  Spent the afternoon turning these into leek and potatoe soup.  Also made some vege rissoles and a quiche -  all stocked up for the week ahead.

Forgot to take any photos all weekend, so thought that I would just pop a lovely summer allotment picture in!

Amazing adventure continued

One afternoon we went for a walk at The Peak.  This is a mountain, or very high hill above the city.  There is a circular footpath all around the hill.  A lovely gentle stroll with the baby in the pushchair.  From up there the views are amazing, although it was a little misty.

All you can see a skyscrapers and the sea.

There are some houses up there, very expensive houses, hidden behind some very ornate gates with barbed wire on top.  Apparently this is the most expensive place to live in Hong Kong.  A 4 bedroom apartment costs 4 million pounds, however much would these be worth?

I also saw this beautiful flower, it looks spikey, but was quite soft.

And a dog loo, but how do they know?

We finished our walk with an ice cream in a cornet, sorbet for my sister and coconut for me mmmmmmm....


 

An amazing adventure

I have been away for a few days..............

To Hong Kong

To visit my youngest sister, her husband and their beautiful baby boy!

Just over a week ago I packed my suitcase and headed off to Heathrow airport, all on my own for the longest, furthest away place I had ever been.  I had a bit of leg room  -this was not Easyjet!

Dinner was served pasta followed by the vege option of more pasta  - it was very nice.  Then the lights were turned off so that everyone could sleep, so couldn't see to knit!!  Couldn't sleep either so watched the telly! Until........

Breakfast was served.

This taxi took me to my sisters apartment

And this was the view that I saw the next morning - beautiful.

More exciting adventures to follow...............