Today is 16th March.
Today I also heard some bad news about the health of one of my close relatives. When I spoke to him this evening he was calm and said that he was at peace. I was a bit nervous calling, but he put me at ease.
Today is also the first anniversary mum's death, and I had a cup of tea and a cake to remember her. Together with my brother and sisters, we recently spread mum and dads ashes at the spot where we first settled in Australia.
Today we visited the Buddhist Monastery of 10000 statues at Tin Sha, and while we were there some people were depositing their relatives ashes in the columbarium. Everywhere was gold leaf, gold paint, or red paint. Even the ladder used to put the ashes casket in the wall was painted gold. And the body of the monk that started the monastry was buried for 8 months, then disinterred and coated with gold leaf. Not the way that I choose to remember those close to me, but it was significant for them.
In walking around Tin Sha we also came across an old walled village (nothing human in Hong Kong is really old - this was from about 1860). The village is still occupied, but we were allowed into the hall of the ancestors, with a series of photos (of Chinese characters) and accompanying Chinese characters;). This is how they remember their loved ones.
Jump back now to earlier this morning when we went to pick up our laundry. We were early so we wandered into the nearby park. There in amazement I saw my first Hong Kong jogger. As I watched I saw that he was not in a maze as much as running around the outside of the maze. There were a couple of ladies in the maze doing Tai Chi.
Further around the park we came across some bird cages with magnificent birds, and of particular note was the Rhinoceros Hornbill - a very weird looking bird from Malaysia. It is the sort of animal that confounds my understanding of "survival of the fittest". We then spent about half an hour working out how to manually focus Sues new camera so that we didn't just get a photo of the netting. I think we sorted it. Then we came across a flock of flamingoes. Beautiful looking birds - but weird.
That's about when we caught the train to Tin Sha. We had hoped to see (rather than hear) some Chinese Opera here, but the building was being remodelled. Never mind - maybe in mainland China?
The rest of Tin Sha had a large number of 30 storey residences. We walked through one and found a lot of older men playing a game that seemed a cross between draughts and chess. The high rises are inevitable given the population. We experienced some of that population pressure in that we couldn't get a seat in Starbucks. Tin Sha is apparently another popular spot for mainland tourists.
For dinner we found a table at what was obviously a popular restaurant, then had to share our table with a couple of young chinese guys. Food wasn't as good as the previous nights, but still tasty and fresh. Bought a couple of choux pastries to eat back at the hotel with a cup of tea (see my earlier comments re mum.)
On the way home we went looking for a cap for the cruise and ended up buying two new watches but that story is for another time.
Tomorrow we board the cruise, so I am not sure if I can update my blog.
