I decided to leave Hong Kong well enough alone this weeked. The SAR already has enough "visitors" (aka detainees) for awhile. My tickets for mum and my trip to NZ are awaiting a pick up on my part but there just wasn't any logical reason that I needed to go traipsing around HK Island when South Korean farmers, Greenpeace and anyone else with anguished protesting dreams that include jumping into Hong Kong harbour, were creating problems for the police and the WTO Conference. I suppose this meeting as compared to ones in Cancun or Seattle, has been relatively mellow. However, border patrol between the Mainland and HK was seriously stepped up and many parts of the city were shut to pedestrians. Perhaps next week I will go and see Tammy! who is going to be staying there for 5 days.
This weekend ended perfectly and started quite well, but was frustratingly dissapointing in the middle. On Friday Jenny and I went down to the train station market to visit our neighborhood tailor, Molly. Jenny wanted a suit made and I was just along for the ride, or so I thought. Jenny picked out great fabric and on our way out, in the usual quite unplanned fashion, my eye was caught by a blue and yellow stripe broadcloth fabric. I decided quite impulsively that I could spare 80 kuai and could get a new button-down shirt with proper LONG sleeves. Well once Jenny and I become excited about the fabric, Molly and I inquire for the price of 1.3 meters of fabric. I have to admit that I wasnt' doing a whole lot of paying attn at this point b/c Mr. fabric-selling man had this mole with 4 extremely long hairs coming out of it and it was honestly difficult not to do just a little staring. It was determined that fabric man would not sell me 1.3 meters, b/c it was the end of the bolt and there were only 2.5 meters left and no one would want the 1.2 meters that would be left. Grrr. I wanted that shirt. Well, Molly, being a good tailor negotiated with the man, and for 5 kuai more she got the man to agree to sell me all 2.5 meters. I took the deal. Then, Molly spent the next 45 minutes trying to convince me that in addition to the long sleeve button-down shirt that I wanted made, that now there was enough fabric to make a matching pair of long stripy shorts....with a draw string - apparently that was a key part. Ha ha. I finally convinced her that I just wanted a shirt. The extra fabric could be returned to me. I'm hoping this shirt is awesome....I just want something with honest to goodness long enough sleeves.
Jenny and I then most amazingly happened upon the most perfect present for a certain soon to arrive houseguest and that totally made my day, b/c lets face it, men are impossible to shop for. We then headed to Dongmen for some great noodles for dinner and found an awesome hole in the wall store that honestly must have had 100,000+ scarves and an equal number of hats. For 50 kuai I got a wonderful pink scarf and a crazy blue plaid one. Before you ask to see them, let me save you the trouble.....I no longer have them. See, I think my poor luck in the city had yet to wear off. The lady put my scarves in a bag and I carried it in one hand along with my other bag with Christmas presents. Somewhere between the time I left Jenny to head home on the bus and my house, the scarves went missing. At first I was furious at home; I assumed i'd once again been robbed by someone slashing my bag, but no, this time I am forced to blame the bag. It was a nice thick plastic bag with a heat-sealed seam on the bottom, only on this bag the seam came undone somewhere and my scarves got left behind. After I was done being mad, I realized that in US$ it was only 8 dollars, but still, it's the principle of it. From now on, I'll BYOB....Bring your own Bag. My canvas bag won't get a magic hole in the bottom.
I had planned my entire weekend around a birthday party for Barbara's husband Andy. I slept in Saturday morning, did some cleaning, went for a run and then......at 4pm i get a call from a very ill sounding Barbara, informing me that the party was cancelled due to food poisoning. I felt terrible, being ill is never fun, but also frustrated at the same time. I am tired of feeling like a marionette puppet here, always at the mercy of someone else. Im not sure anyone who doesn't live here can understand fully just how often plans fall through. Once or twice is fine, but when I waste an entire Saturday or a weekend that I could have travelled for that matter, it's annoying. Another example, the education bureau is hosting a HUGE banquet for us for Xmas, but it's a week until Xmas and we still don't have a date for it, and on that weekend I also have three other things that people would like me to do: A dinner hosted by my headmaster, visit Tammy in HK and Christmas with my good friends Qingling and Xiaosha. Well, seeing as the Bureau is the most important thing in my life....they pay me, I cant do anything until the dinner date is set, but that also means I'm leaving three other parties in limbo. GRRR.
But......
Sunday made up for all of my weekend frustrations. Jenny and I decided to go in search of Deng - Deng Xiaoping that is. He is often awarded the title of founder of the city of Shenzhen, as it was his idea to create this city from a wasteland of a fishing village 25 years ago. His memory is etched in stone on top of Lianhua mountain in Lianhua park. So Jenny and I went....and came away with so much more than just a gandering at Deng. The park is easily the most amazing thing I've seen in Shenzhen. Now I'm a sucker for parks, but seriously Lianhua is wonderful. There were thousands of HAPPY people roaming around. There were fields filled with people flying hundreds of beautiful kites, children blowing bubbles, an old man doing cartwheels. It was surreal. This scene doesn't happen on any normal Shenzhen road. It made me happy seeing and watching others be happy. Fields were filled with kite-flying families, where else in the world does that happen? I now make it my mission to return there on a regular basis for it is an oasis of happiness in a city ostensibly driven solely by money.
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