Twitter messages, if you've missed them (and so i can have a record of them on this blog)

Language is PG-13 for anyone that is faint of heart...

These are all from my @NOLScgp twitter

Feb 21

This is a real Mr.MooMoo http://bit.ly/eFekN9 

This is a fake Mr.MooMoo http://bit.ly/fr0Z3Z 

It's like real Steve Jobs and Fake Steve Jobs

 

Feb 22

#Mrμμ is back!! No tail and all, he's not dead

#Mrμμ is currently crushing the shit out of some plastic planters while acquiring food, I'm sure he could avoid them if he wanted to

 

Damn, #Mrμμ just went out of his way to eat and stomp on that planter

#Mrμμ ain't got time for your shit, he does have time to take a shit,in your walkway,on the dark tiles,so you can't see it & then step on it at night

 

Now #Mrμμ taunting all the local dogs looking out the window at him, he just has a blank stare towards them while chewing his cud

 

#Mrμμ just disappeared, off to mess up more people's shit. Time for him to dig himself a mud pit in the center of someone's garden

 

#Mrμμ's to do list: 

chill out in the street & get honked at

look sickly & get free food from locals

act like I can't walk up or down stairs

#Mrμμ 's to do list: 

set off some car alarms & act like I didn't know any better

sit in same spot for 8 hours and plan next move

Sun Wai Dragon Dance

Chinese New Year Fireworks

New Nepal Post and fort pictures

Day 11 in Nepal



Last Thursday I met Katy in Tung Chung for Lunch and after our Thai meal we went and explored an old nearby fort.
I forgot to upload the photos before, but I finally got to it now.

More Pictures and our route map for our New Year's Day Hike

Sunset Peak - Tung Chung Hike

Walk on the Beach

Annual New Year's Day Hike

More Pictures from the Pui O Tai Long Wan Hike

Pui O - Tai Long Wan - Lo Yan Shan Hike

Pui O - Tai Long Wan - Lo Yan Shan Hike

Quick post

This day turned into a longer day than I was expecting, I also lack the energy to make a great post so here's a list of the day from what I remember.

13,000 bolts of lightning hit Hong Kong last night, it was the craziest lightning storm I've experienced in Hong Kong, probably in the top 5 ever...

One of the bolts knocked out our electricity, I'm so glad I used my intuition and unplugged the TV and the Computer from the wall

However, our DSL modem and router weren't so lucky, I think the surge came in through the phone line and blew the modem and then the router, luckily it was diminished enough after that that the computer was unharmed, at least from what I could tell.

I had to go visit the YWCA to check out the place that i'm going to be coordinating a camp at next Monday and Tuesday.  I also called China Light and Power (CLP) and reported that we were dead in the water.

They ended up stopping by the flat when I was gone, but luckily the lady we have clean our flat once a week was here and let them in and by the time I ran back up the hill they had everything going but the air conditioners.

Long story short everything seems to be fine as far as the breakers go except for the damn, "Ground Leakage Breaker" I wasn't able to be home to let in an electrician the landlord sent over this evening, they never called to let me know until they were here at the doorstep and I was neck deep in camp coordinating down at the beach.

It's been almost 3 hours with no incidents...

Tomorrow is more planning, then Saturday off, then Sunday is half day prep, then Monday and Tuesday is camp time!

I also just confirmed to work with a camp in Sai Kung on the second week of October coaching a dragon boat team....

Oh Hong Hong...

This place never ceases to amaze me...

I'm writing this on the ferry back to Mui Wo.

Mobile Blogging from here.

I went into the city today as Katy brought Jonathan to his Saturday lessons. I started on a wild Chinese goose chase to locate the newly relocated Apple service center to fix my iPood :).....again...

Ultimately, I found out where a bus I often take terminates, an amazingly beautiful and massive park in the middle of causeway bay (victoria park), and I partook in wandering and wandering and sweating and sweating in the 90 degree heat.  Luckinly,  I wasn't on a time schedule and I was so surprised at all the cool new places I found.

I located the building, only to walk around it multiple times.  However, I was able to reconnect to my long lost pal, good ol' pccw hotspot. He's never too far away. I loaded up apple's webpage and got a page with the address in English and Chinese and showed it to the doorman of the building, after almost 3 hours of traveling and searching I found the place on the 36th floor and took a number.

After a short talk with an attendant, she assured me that Steve Jobs would personally fly my replacement iPod in from Singapore and drop it off at the house in his iMobile powered completely off the cumulative energy of Apple owners self-righteousness. She also said that he'd throw in an upgrade to the 160gb model and an iPhone 4. You know, since we are old pals and all...

I then proceeded to walk to Wan Chai looking for a place to exchange my 'merica bux$

I ended up finding a surprising store in my travels; a hardware store in the middle of the city. It had so much more useful stuff than any other place I've been to in Hong Kong. I dare say it is my favorite store in the big HK. I was able to pick up a bunch of knick-knacks that have been frustrating me because I couldn't find them. These include a screw driver, dish towels, putty knife, blu-tac, cotton twine, balloon animals, thermos' plus much much more. I definitely need to go back.

I stumbled into a computer center investigating reports of my digital camera being there, but after scouring the entire place someone told me it "just left." After a little "persuasion" they said it actually went to the other computer center in Wan Chai. Thus, I was compelled to give chase. I scrambled to and through everything in the other store trying keep my mind from exploding with sheer awesomeness at the sights seen within. However, my camera continued to elude me, remaining free for this day...

I found an exchange place with a good rate and then took the tram to central and found an HSBC cash machine to eat my newly acquired pink bill$. then I scrambled to the pier and got a bowl of beef brisket soup and boiled lettuce to go on the ferry with. Now I'm writing the post high on MSG, salt, soy, and noodles. Looks like the ferry has arrived, time to meet Khem at his new place in Pui O...

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Settling in

I'm settling in well here back in HK, I had a pretty smooth trip over.

The flight from Burlington to JFK was uneventful, they let me carry my banjo onto the plane and it fit in the overhead compartment. The security people were really nice, they were singing Dueling Banjos and one officer at the front of the conveyor asked the one at the end to catch the instrument as it went through.

Once in JFK I collected my bags and sat for a while using JetBlue's free wifi. Then I waddled my way to find terminal 3, the Delta terminal. I pushed my 50lb bag in front of me and pulled my 20lb mini case with my banjo in my hand and thumb wrenched underneath to keep the stack together. I was able to check in my bags at the Delta terminal and then went through security, it was about 9:30 and I had about a 4 hour wait so I went to Burger King and then broke down an purchased wifi since there isn't any provided for free in the terminal, which is one of the greatest crimes known to man...

As I boarded the plane to Japan a flight attendant grabbed my banjo and stored it up front which was great, since I didn't have to deal with it. I slept about half of the 12 hour flight or dozed at least, it was an older airplane and didn't have the personal video screens like the new ones. I never felt like it was that long though, getting into Japan was fine, however my flight from there to Hong Kong was delayed three hours, luckily the wifi pass I bought in JFK was still valid and I bought some McDonald's :( and recharged my iPhone.

The 3 hour and 30 minute flight was uneventful, mostly because I was sleeping the entire time, except when I was woken up to eat dinner..err..breakfast..err...dinner, whatever... Turbulence had caused the final meal on the way in to Japan to not be served so I was one behind anyway, pukey McDonalds or not.

They also gave me a $100 voucher for a future flight with Delta since I think they might have been nervous that the people might protest and refuse to get off the plane like these people did two weeks ago

I arrived in Hong Kong at about 1:30 i think, honestly I had no concept of time at this point, met Katy and caught a taxi back to our flat in Pui O.

It was a weird night and I didn't get a lot of sleep, but that's as expected.  Yesterday Katy and I did a bunch of moving and unpacking around the flat, I got all my stuff taken care of except for a few things.  We moved a bunch of stuff out of the other bedroom, which had our wardrobe and refrigerator in it, so Jonathan could have a place to sleep and call his own.  We went in to Mui Wo last night and had some Chinese food and then I came back and passed out, I slept pretty well, but have been up since 5:30.

Hope everyone back in the States is doing well!

Lapsap Stringband Pictures

Goat Party Cancelled

All week we were planning on getting a whole goat to cook up on the roof of our flat.  I was collecting money 100 HKD from each person and last night Khem and I were going to go get it and bring it back.  However, after Chinese New Year the slaughterhouse was out of them I guess so we tried to make other plans.  It's frustrating, we had at least 15 confirm to come and I had collected money from almost half. Oh well, next time

Last night we were trying to get together a plan for acquiring some momos and fresh chicken.  Again this plan fell through, Khem is working today, but everyone else is off, so there is no one to buy any of the stuff for us.  We'll have to do it after everyone gets off work tomorrow, it should be fine.  We only have a half day tomorrow, I'm hoping Khem can get the food and stuff without any help because no one will be able to go into Jordan to get any of the Nepalese food and help him bring it back.

In other news Jer and Snowy are getting married

Himalayan Trip

I met with Khem yesterday about our trip to Nepal in February. I have the itinerary, I'll post some details about it soon.

Other than that, it's been a pretty slow. After the meeting I went to up to my (abandoned) T.I. flat to find it was left in a less than ideal state by a few of my former co-workers... So I cleaned that up a bit and then returned to the good flat to hibernate....

Today I woke up and finished watching a BBC special on Nepal and the Himalayas then I returned to bed for a three hour nap.

I had to go back and fix the Internet at the other flat because someone.....messed it up... and couldn't fix it without a login that only one person at T.I. knows....and this one person was not the party that did the messing...

I took an exceptionally hot bath and felt much much better after.

Tomorrow looks like bowling and possibly a movie with Katy, Sarah, and Jonathan if I'm up to it.

Don't call my name out your window when you're leavin'

We had our T.I Christmas party today, which was preceded by a grueling adventure race that took 3+ hours to complete.


I didn't take part in the adventure race, I just made my way down to watch everyone cross the finish line. I also worked on making my "secret santa" gifts, which were an alcohol stove made from two Nescafe cans and two olive oil candles each with their own fuel and a lighter.

I ended up falling asleep on the bean bags in the restaurant for a few minutes before waking up and grabbing some samosas and a spring roll before going home to rest some more.

We all returned to the beach at 5 for appetizers, there were easels set up for paining and a Mahjong table, I learned how to play real Mahjong, not that tile matching game on the computer, it's more like rummy but with tiles.

We exchanged presents at 6:30 or so, I ended getting a pen holder had crafted from bamboo, it was pretty nice. Then the food was brought out and I was only really in the mood for the ribs and chicken wings, so that's what I ate. And some chocolate fondue afterward. Then I got a ride home in the van. Tomorrow is payday and maybe Chinese doctor time to see if I can shake this sickness with a little bit of powdered cobra tongue and powdered rat tail...

All over but the leavin'

This last week marked our final camp at T.I. a brief overview of the week:

Monday-Half day of work, part of it was spent preparing the Hong Kong Great Race for another corporate group on Thursday then some pack down an putting a bunch of stuff away for the season

Tuesday-Half day, preparing our program for Wednesday through Friday

Wednesday-Met the school at the Mui Wo ferry pier, 23 kids with myself and fellow PSU alumni/co-leader Onnalea. I lead half of them in an hour long "Sandy Shores" lesson followed by an hour of beach cleanup. Then an hour of gardening, then finishing with an hour lesson on "Wetlands Ecology" it all went pretty well.

Thursday-We all went to Tai O in North West of Lantau to take part in Shaolin martial arts training with the kids, I thought it was really fun, but the kids didn't thinks so, they're lazy so all the stretching and strength and balance activities didn't go over too well with them.

We had a vegetarian lunch there and then we started our guided tour of Tai O, the tour was about 2.5 hours and I learned quite a bit about one of the 4 remaining Hong Kong fishing villages
After getting back to Pui O the kids had free time on the beach and then we went to the public campsite for our BBQ, then it was night time activities and then bed

Friday-Have the kids pack up then an "Adventure Challenge" on the beach which they all loved, except when the teachers jumped in and messed things up... Before I knew it the kids were on the bus back to catch the 12:50 ferry and that was the end of my Fall season at T.I.

We had lunch and finished the little bit of packdown left, then I came home and met Katy and we went back down to the beach for our usual Friday Beer and Burgers.

Saturday-Another half day spent setting up an iMac and getting 126GB of music imported into iTunes and playlists synced with the iPod, however my sickness set in the night before and I'm still trying to recover from this, It's probably a virus, I almost thought it was from the burger I had on Friday, but probably not.

Sunday-Not doing a whole lot today except drinking tea and being a couch potato, occasionally interrupted by being a toilet potato... Looks like i'll be a significant potato tomorrow recovering as well, the staff adventure race is out of the question for me right now, unfortunately.

Hong Kong Thanksgiving

Yesterday was "Hong Kong Thanksgiving" here on Lantau since next Thursday we have program (actually 3 simultaneous programs) so we had it yesterday at 2pm.

I prepared my dish the night before and let it sit overnight to let all the tastes melt together as per the directions. I went to Jacky's house in Mui Wo to use her oven. It's crazy how only one person in my circle of acquaintances actually has an oven in Hong Kong. I arrived there shortly before noon and put my two 13x9" pans in her gas oven to cook for an hour at 350.

Onnalea showed up and I helped her cut up stuff for her squash,apple,onion, and curry soup that turned out to be incredible.

After the baking was done I loaded up the pans in my fleece lined New Balance shopping bag and walked to get a taxi straight to Pui O (Saataan) Beach. We had snacks and appetisers for a few minutes while waiting for the rest of the people to show up and then dug in to the feast.

There was all the usual stuff, just cooked differently. The two turkeys were boiled, maybe brined? Gravy and cranberry sauce, stuffing that looked like jello pudding with raisins (but tasted really good), squash, green bean casserole, my cheesy potatoes, salad, and a bunch of other stuff I'm forgetting.












































We gorged ourselves with food and after emerging from a food induced coma Katy and I went for a walk on the beach. When we came back everyone was running out on the beach dressed in PFDs and holding paddles getting ready for a game of Hurley.

I jumped into the game and Katy was taking some pictures with my phone. After less than 5 minutes into the game, Craig and I went for the ball at full speed (illustrated on the left) and somehow we ended up both face first into the sand. Except my face was aided by Craig's knee in the back of my head as he flew over me. That was it for me, I'm still feeling a little of the effects and still removing the sand from my nostrils...















I met with Megan this morning to go over my schedule for next week and see what I'm doing as the co-coordinator. It's a 2.5 day/2 night camp with ~140 5th graders.... 15-17 per group, it should be.....interesting..... Is it December yet?

Anyway it's in upper 50s and lower 60s again today, this is frigid for Hong Kong, looks like it might be a cold winter.

Sunset Peak et al.

Yesterday the training group went up Sunset Peak we were supposed to take the 8am #2 bus up to Ngong Ping, but the bus drove right past us at the stop so we ended up having to do the trek in reverse.

I brought 5.5 liters of water and drank all of it by the time we got back at around 5. I drank almost 8 liters by the end of the day...It was probably in the mid 90's plus humidity so it probably felt like it was 105.

We made it up and over Sunset and back down where we decided that everyone didn't have enough water to make the push over Lantau Peak (the tallest on Lantau and second in HK at over 900m or 3000+ feet) which is pretty much an Adirondack sized peak besides the fact that we actually start at sea level...

My task given by Dave yesterday was to lead 4 debriefs on 4 different "generations of facilitation" that we learned from our seminar a couple weekends ago. I thought they went really well. I "frontloaded/framed the experience in one" "Spoke for the experience" "Used metaphor to debrief the experience" and the good ol' "What? So What? Now What?" Dave seemed pretty impressed, it felt good to do some ALE style fly-by-intuition and to be able to use all my tools that have become rusty since arriving here...

The next couple of weeks will be training combined with some short camps until we hit October where it will be "full on" and we'll have hundreds of kids coming for multiple nights each week.

I just booked a week long trip back to Cebu starting September 20th, now if i can just finish typing the journal from the last time I was there...

Hope all's well in 'Merica land, until next time....

Busy, Busy, Busy....

This last week was a very busy one. All the senior leaders had a surf camp group this week and we were also on pickup. This meant that all of us had to catch the van at 6:40 every morning this last week to take the 7:10 fast ferry into the city to pick up the kids and take the 8:30 slow ferry back to Lantau.

It was a good week for me, nice to get back into the swing of things working with the kids again. I had "Black Team" which is the oldest of the attendees so ages 10-13. I had from 11 to 14 kids throughout the week. A few of the days were really challenging, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were all mostly inside because of lightning procedure. It was all organized really well, but was frustrating for me and the kids not being able to surf.

One highlight of the week was drinking coffee with Irish Cream and buying amazingly awesome egg tarts at the ferry pier. They are so delicious, it reminds me of eating french toast. For whatever reason they don't keep many of them in stock so every morning I'd buy the last one or two of them, I'd also pickup a coconut roll, pinapple roll, coconut and creme, or pinapple and butter depending on what was in stock. They were inexpensive too, i'd get a filling breakfast for less than 14 HKD (so less than $2 US)

Today it's a laptop party at the flat, haha, not planning on doing much for the rest of the day, I think i'll look up campsites for an overnight Katy and I might go on next weekend, I'll also do some more research on the iPod Touch.

I've been fixing or trying to fix Meaghan's laptop for the last week. The Doc's prognosis is acute hard drive failure. The procedure to extract the faulty hardware will commence shortly, I expect it to take no more than 15 minutes, although the computer will need to remain on life support until a suitable replacement is found. I put her on the donor list, but it's not looking good... Looks like a return to "Nerd's Mecca" (aka Golden Computer Center in Sham Shui Po) is imminent. Now if you'll excuse me I have to prep for surgery