Ba Na Na Na Naaaah
Where did I leave off? Let's see... ah yes, Western Peace, the coldest place on the itinerary this (or, in the interests of chronology, last) year; thankfully the itinerary didn't include any places with snow.
Let me see... what happened next? I don't really remember... wait, ah yes, now I do remember. We flew back on the plane, collected our luggage from the appropriate conveyor belt, and went back to the little flat where we searched in vain for Oreo, who was at that moment in the driver's house--a certain amount of miscommunication and the driver's daughter's fondness for Oreo were the cause of that, and it was a few phone calls before we got it cleared up; in the interim, speculations involved everything from dognappers to Oreo having wandered off to find the pet shop to her having committed suicide by leaping from the balcony (we live on the fourth storey). Oreo was restored to the flat the next morning, however.
The next few days were relatively eventless, because they were the days leading up to Christmas and there wasn't anything much to be done other than prepare for a couple dinners and clean the house, and cure Oreo of her abandonment complex; the poor thing was low-spirited for almost four days, hardly running even after her favourite toy. As a side note, it's odd how the most enjoyable toys aren't always the most expensive ones; Oreo's favourite toy is a short length of heavy rope that thuds audibly whenever we toss it about, while the more expensive little orange ball is pretty much ignored most of the time. I spent those days finishing off the last DVD of Doctor Who in the house, the Empress spent it shopping for more things to bring back (and her luggage ended up more than 3kg overweight), and the rest of the family pursued their regular activities.
In any case the next big event occurred on Chrismas Eve, when we had a quite nice dinner for ourselves; it was mostly cooked by the kids, and so we had rice (by me; I wanted to dice up sweet potatoes and add them to the rice to cook, but ended up actually reheating leftovers instead), apple crumble (by the Empress), emperor's-wine chicken (by the Gobbler), and some vegetables (from mom). We also opened up a bottle of red wine and shared it out; unfortunately we've only got 6 wine glasses so the kid brother got a champagne glass instead. By the way I've lost my taste for red wine, curiously; every time I drink it I get this horrible sour taste, whereas I hardly noticed it before. Maybe I'm just not used to alcohol, or maybe the wine really is that bad, or maybe my sweet tooth has just gotten worse. It's a pity since red wine is so freely available in China and if I liked it, I'd not mind drinking it more... then again, I haven't lost my taste for other alcohols so I can still take shandy and beer and brandy (to just name three)!
We cleaned up, then sat around while my dad gave a mini sermon on the meaning of Christmas, then played a bit of Monopoly until midnight when we opened up presents (only the Empress got everybody something) and took photos of ourselves and the presents--I got a bottle of cologne--after which we all went to sleep.
Christmas Day is little more than a commercial event in China, so we stayed home and made more food for the dinner we'd planned that night; again, out came another bottle of red wine, and the glasses (both the wine glasses and the champagne ones): we had guests that night, though our family was still very much the majority. It wasn't too bad, since they were quite convivial, and it all ended at a decent hour.
The day after Christmas, we began packing bags again for more travelling, cleaned up the place, and poor Oreo was left to prepare for another extended period of loneliness. We took a plane to Shenzhen from Fifth Hun, where a little 8-seater took us to the Crowne Plaza overlooking the Windows of the World and we went around marvelling at the hotel's Christmas trappings, the rooms, the view, and the large bowls of apples around the lobby area; we munched on a lot of apples while we were in Shenzhen. (It was also warm enough for us to wear only two layers of clothing outdoors.)
All told, we spent three days and two nights there; the first day was spent getting there and strolling about and looking at the nearby area and swimming and basking in the sauna and Turkish bath, the second day was spent strolling around the Windows of the World and taking a lot of photos and doing a lot of walking--so much in fact that I got friction burns and walking became rather awkward for me for awhile--but it was pretty good scenery, and the third day was spent packing up everything and looting the rooms for anything small, portable, easiliy replaceable, and free to be stuffed into bags and taken with us to Hongkong where we spent the remainder of the trip there.
Hongkong was even warmer than Shenzhen, and we went about mostly in two layers or one; I went around in two but the outer layer (my hoodie) wasn't zipped up so I didn't sweat too terribly. We lived with my second maternal aunt's husband's mother, whose three-storey house was the only one available on short notice that had enough space to house all 7 of us, with luggage; the last time I went to Hongkong, it was with only the kid siblings, and so we lived in the aunt's own apartment... which was admittedly a tight fit, even for only three of us.
We went around the usual sights of Hongkong: the buildings' light show at night, the ferry ride, the Star Walk, the shops of famous food, and suchlike. We also spent New Year's Eve in Ocean Park while the parents went shopping, and enjoyed it immensely although the last ride was somewhat nausea-inducing (three of us were somewhat off-balanced for the next few days) and I got separated from the main group twice. I unfortunately also somehow lost count both times we went on the Abyss (remember it? the 56.25m-tall one), and so once I went "five-four-three-two-UWAAAAAAA" and once I went "two-one-minus one-minus two-minus FWAAAAAAAA", but both times the AAAA tailed off into HAHAHA... I think I tend to laugh when I get nervous, and at least now I'm pretty sure I share the fear of falling with my kid brother because the cable car ride got him visibly jittery.
We departed from Hongkong on the 2nd of January; I and the Gobbler took a series of flights, with a stopover in the LCCT (where renovations have occurred and the wireless internet receptivity is horrendous now) before getting back.
So here I am now, at the end of the first day of classes of the new semester; about half the cohort skipped the first lecture, but I didn't. Yay me. I also attended the Translation elective lecture, where it turns out the module is taught in Chinese and we have to write a 2,500-word essay sometime... I'm also one of six males in a class of 36--it's quite an unbalanced ratio and I don't know any of the other people there. Maybe we'll do introductions during the tutorials or something.
...there's a lot of food I should be eating...
Let me see... what happened next? I don't really remember... wait, ah yes, now I do remember. We flew back on the plane, collected our luggage from the appropriate conveyor belt, and went back to the little flat where we searched in vain for Oreo, who was at that moment in the driver's house--a certain amount of miscommunication and the driver's daughter's fondness for Oreo were the cause of that, and it was a few phone calls before we got it cleared up; in the interim, speculations involved everything from dognappers to Oreo having wandered off to find the pet shop to her having committed suicide by leaping from the balcony (we live on the fourth storey). Oreo was restored to the flat the next morning, however.
The next few days were relatively eventless, because they were the days leading up to Christmas and there wasn't anything much to be done other than prepare for a couple dinners and clean the house, and cure Oreo of her abandonment complex; the poor thing was low-spirited for almost four days, hardly running even after her favourite toy. As a side note, it's odd how the most enjoyable toys aren't always the most expensive ones; Oreo's favourite toy is a short length of heavy rope that thuds audibly whenever we toss it about, while the more expensive little orange ball is pretty much ignored most of the time. I spent those days finishing off the last DVD of Doctor Who in the house, the Empress spent it shopping for more things to bring back (and her luggage ended up more than 3kg overweight), and the rest of the family pursued their regular activities.
In any case the next big event occurred on Chrismas Eve, when we had a quite nice dinner for ourselves; it was mostly cooked by the kids, and so we had rice (by me; I wanted to dice up sweet potatoes and add them to the rice to cook, but ended up actually reheating leftovers instead), apple crumble (by the Empress), emperor's-wine chicken (by the Gobbler), and some vegetables (from mom). We also opened up a bottle of red wine and shared it out; unfortunately we've only got 6 wine glasses so the kid brother got a champagne glass instead. By the way I've lost my taste for red wine, curiously; every time I drink it I get this horrible sour taste, whereas I hardly noticed it before. Maybe I'm just not used to alcohol, or maybe the wine really is that bad, or maybe my sweet tooth has just gotten worse. It's a pity since red wine is so freely available in China and if I liked it, I'd not mind drinking it more... then again, I haven't lost my taste for other alcohols so I can still take shandy and beer and brandy (to just name three)!
We cleaned up, then sat around while my dad gave a mini sermon on the meaning of Christmas, then played a bit of Monopoly until midnight when we opened up presents (only the Empress got everybody something) and took photos of ourselves and the presents--I got a bottle of cologne--after which we all went to sleep.
Christmas Day is little more than a commercial event in China, so we stayed home and made more food for the dinner we'd planned that night; again, out came another bottle of red wine, and the glasses (both the wine glasses and the champagne ones): we had guests that night, though our family was still very much the majority. It wasn't too bad, since they were quite convivial, and it all ended at a decent hour.
The day after Christmas, we began packing bags again for more travelling, cleaned up the place, and poor Oreo was left to prepare for another extended period of loneliness. We took a plane to Shenzhen from Fifth Hun, where a little 8-seater took us to the Crowne Plaza overlooking the Windows of the World and we went around marvelling at the hotel's Christmas trappings, the rooms, the view, and the large bowls of apples around the lobby area; we munched on a lot of apples while we were in Shenzhen. (It was also warm enough for us to wear only two layers of clothing outdoors.)
All told, we spent three days and two nights there; the first day was spent getting there and strolling about and looking at the nearby area and swimming and basking in the sauna and Turkish bath, the second day was spent strolling around the Windows of the World and taking a lot of photos and doing a lot of walking--so much in fact that I got friction burns and walking became rather awkward for me for awhile--but it was pretty good scenery, and the third day was spent packing up everything and looting the rooms for anything small, portable, easiliy replaceable, and free to be stuffed into bags and taken with us to Hongkong where we spent the remainder of the trip there.
Hongkong was even warmer than Shenzhen, and we went about mostly in two layers or one; I went around in two but the outer layer (my hoodie) wasn't zipped up so I didn't sweat too terribly. We lived with my second maternal aunt's husband's mother, whose three-storey house was the only one available on short notice that had enough space to house all 7 of us, with luggage; the last time I went to Hongkong, it was with only the kid siblings, and so we lived in the aunt's own apartment... which was admittedly a tight fit, even for only three of us.
We went around the usual sights of Hongkong: the buildings' light show at night, the ferry ride, the Star Walk, the shops of famous food, and suchlike. We also spent New Year's Eve in Ocean Park while the parents went shopping, and enjoyed it immensely although the last ride was somewhat nausea-inducing (three of us were somewhat off-balanced for the next few days) and I got separated from the main group twice. I unfortunately also somehow lost count both times we went on the Abyss (remember it? the 56.25m-tall one), and so once I went "five-four-three-two-UWAAAAAAA" and once I went "two-one-minus one-minus two-minus FWAAAAAAAA", but both times the AAAA tailed off into HAHAHA... I think I tend to laugh when I get nervous, and at least now I'm pretty sure I share the fear of falling with my kid brother because the cable car ride got him visibly jittery.
We departed from Hongkong on the 2nd of January; I and the Gobbler took a series of flights, with a stopover in the LCCT (where renovations have occurred and the wireless internet receptivity is horrendous now) before getting back.
So here I am now, at the end of the first day of classes of the new semester; about half the cohort skipped the first lecture, but I didn't. Yay me. I also attended the Translation elective lecture, where it turns out the module is taught in Chinese and we have to write a 2,500-word essay sometime... I'm also one of six males in a class of 36--it's quite an unbalanced ratio and I don't know any of the other people there. Maybe we'll do introductions during the tutorials or something.
...there's a lot of food I should be eating...
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