Happy Hollo Ween

My team finished 3rd out of 7 at the quiz night in Mui Wo, we did pretty well on a few things and totally bombed others, but that's how it goes.

Thursday night I found out I and most of the other T.I. staff had a surprise day off Friday. Meg and I planned to do a hike on the Lantau Trail. The hike was about 7.5 km and brought us around the south western part of Lantau Island. We were supposed to start at 8 am yesterday but didn't end up leaving until after 11:30, which was still fine. The hike was a little steep at first, but then was a beautiful ridge hike that wasn't too difficult.

Here's a bunch of pictures from my phone taken over the last week and a half:

Super Mario Brother

Real quick post before I run and get my laundry and then down to Mui Wo for quiz night.

This week was 4 consecutive days in the gorge, rigging it monday and tuesday and then guiding kids up Wednesday and Thursday. It was a very nice week, great weather, no rain, lower to mid 80s.

Our bathroom faucet has been leaking the last few weeks and we've had to use the mains shut off to control our sink, so monday I decided to take it apart and find out what it was. I couldn't get it all apart until i borrowed some vice grips and a crescent wrench, ahhh the destruction that you can do with that combo.... Ends up underneath the knobs it was corroded and cracked, so I took the faucet in and showed it to Dave who promptly showed Tracy. When I came back from the gorge this afternoon a brand new faucet was waiting. Here it is installed:

Friday!

Finally home after an exhausting week, but very good. The kids went home at around 1:00 after 5 days and 4 nights and me sleeping over in a tent Monday night and Thursday night. The nights are getting more comfortable, i actually have to cover up when sleeping outside now. My fleece coat also wasn't enough so I ended up putting my legs inside my Osprey pack to keep a little warmer and it worked pretty well actually...

This week consisted of beach games Monday, with me leading "the water tube" which is a 5" pvc pipe with holes drilled in it and the kids need to fill it up by running into the sea and bringing back water while the other members of the group plug the holes. It's crazyness and it's pretty funny watching the kids that don't want to get wet or sandy get drenched when they or someone near them accidentally lets go of a hole.

Tuesday was 6 hours of kayaking, ugghh, i'm a little bit done with kayaking for a bit, 11 sessions in 7 days wore me out...

Wednesday was the Cheung Chau "Expedition" aka day trip to the island and walk back, it's hard to even call it a "hike" but the kids tend to think it's the hardest thing in the world at the time

Thursday was gorge setup and running a group through in the morning, eating lunch and running back up again in the afternoon. We encountered almost 200 screaming Chinese students and instructors participating in some sort of boot camp thing as we tried to get our groups up, they would push our kids out of the way and monopolize the entire track up. It was an unbelievable experience seeing the lack of safety they were employing. No helmets, stringing ropes of trees and roots (not the bolts in the rock that we use), using students to hold ropes while others traverse across a pool on a rope upside down, 2 helmets in the entire group, and the mass of about 25 people at the top of the waterfall and another 25 pushing people up the corner that you see Bryan climb up in my video clips a couple posts ago. It was such a recipe for disaster I couldn't even watch it, good thing our kids were really good and just hung out until the ridiculousness passed.

Today was the final tug of war, beach cleanup, and reading in the Pui O school, then they left.

Each day was at least from 7am to 9pm without any real breaks, so I'm ready for my 2 days off this weekend, then rigging the gorge next monday which i really enjoy doing so that's good.

I also learned how to run an espresso machine this week, i can make a latte, an americano, a macchiato, and a good ol' espresso, steam up some milk pour the frothy goodness on whatever you like and it's pure caffeine euphoria the rest of the day.

This weekend i think Katy and Jen and I will head out to Lamma a place we haven't been since we recorded "Lapsap Live on Lamma"

Also James (or American James) is coming back this Monday for 2 days before heading back to the motherland.

New Zealand

Learn to speak kiwi!

Say this,
"Teen is much bitter"
You've just said,
"Ten is much better"

Say this,
"Sweet as...I'll have a lemonade"
You've just said,
"Cool, I'll have a sprite"

Say this,
"I'll have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich"
You've just said,
"I'll have a peanut butter and Jello sandwich"

Say this,
"I sew two tears"
You've just said,
"I saw two towers"


Now here's some randomness....

Here's my dinner tonight, taken with my iPhone and uploaded with my new Dropbox app

****UPDATED****New pictures from my week in Pak Lap

Here's the slide show of pictures, I'll type a description of each day tomorrow....maybe




*****************
The week in Pak Lap consisted of:
Arriving on Sunday in a junk boat (large boat that sometimes people have parties on) filled with all of our stuff, it took us 2.5 hours to get there and I slept the entire way on the couches inside.

When we arrived we had to unload all the kayaks (about 10), the paddles and pfd, 18 thirteen liter jugs of water, all of our gear, all the ropes and harnesses and climbing helmets. It was a lot of stuff to say the least.

We got it all in to shore after most of us were dumped by the large and quickly crashing waves right before the steep slanted beach, we got situated and I set up my hammock and tied my tarp on and slid it down to the end for maximum airflow.

Albert was the man that owned the building and the kitchen near the beach and he provided us with 3 meals a day until Thursday.

After a Chinese dinner and a overview of our crazy week and impossible timing for the group movement we went to bed.

I had difficulty sleeping in the hammock this week, I was actually cold enough to need to wear a fleece and cover up with my blue ALE shirt, but then I was comfortable.

The kids arrived on special buses that could enter the park around 9:30 and were on the beach and going to their first activity by 10:30 or so. Our first activity was the abseil (aka rappeling for us 'mericans) we ended up going about an hour over our time, the kids were slow and inexperienced, but it's not their fault, what we were doing was a little over their heads and we changed it for the next 3 days, instead of dropping them straight down a 40 foot rock they walked backwards down a 40 foot rocky slope and it got the same effect and everyone was able to go and it fit in the time slot.

The kids left by 3pm and we were free to do whatever for the rest of the night, which was pretty awesome. I did a bunch of things each night, played guitar, bowdrilled, made a rocksling, learned how to ascend and rappel using a single rope technique, did some slackline balancing, swam, ate, hand drilled, plus many other things it was a really great week.

The Hong Kong outward bound students showed up on our last night and I was doing some bowdrilling just as 2 or 3 were nearby and they instantly came over to watch as I busted a coal. Then they left and I played some guitar until they came back with 10 others, haha, all trying to figure out the english to ask me to do it again. So I obliged and busted 2 more coals for them and they were thoroughly impressed... They also played some guitar, but just did little riffs and things, they were ok, but it was a different guitar style, they enjoyed my pick strumming songs.

Thursday night we packed up the junk again by paddling everything back out into the sea and riding 2.5 hours back to Mui Wo to load a truck then unload it back at Pui O and wash and put away everything, it was a long day, but at least I got to sleep in my bed that night. Although, it wasn't for very long since at 6am the next morning we were back out to Wan Tsai in Sai Kung for our final pirates day event.

Long story short, one of the teachers forgot to book the busses for that day and the kids were 1.5 hours late and we had to scrap almost everything but feeding the kids and all of our pirate themed quests were useless...

That's about it (and i'm sick of typing....)


Anyway, this weekend in short has involved recovery from the last week by resting and eating good food, Katy and I bought a quilt and duvet to complete my bed setup so it actually looks and feels like an actual bed now, we went to El Taco Loco last night and had some decent Hong Kong Mexican food, then today we head out to Ma On Shan for Church and brunch with Katy's family and then caught a bus back, had pizza at the airport and then the 3M back to Pui O...This coming week will be day camps Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I'll be kayaking with Bryan and Yvonne all 3 days it should be pretty good, although it's supposed to rain all week...