Happy Birthday to me..... :-). I love when it is my birthday...in fact sometimes my birthday lasts for weeks...even months. My friends might even tell you that in 2010 (10-10-10 was my special golden birthday) my birthday lasted all year! LOL
All kidding aside, this birthday was another special one and being able to spend it on an adventure with good friends made it all that much more special.
Today was much different than yesterday weather wise! Today we experienced torrential rains and cooler temperatures whereas yesterday was absolutely gorgeous. We kicked off our day with a lazy morning where all four of us piled into Lynda’s and my room for coffee in our p.j.’s. For lunch we’d decided to check out the “famous” restaurant across the street from our hotel for Dim Sum. Believe it or not but this would be my first experience with dim sum and what better place to do it than in Hong Kong on your birthday.
We entered the front door of the building and could see what looked like a restaurant in the back but it appeared to be closed. Luckily it was at that moment that Pauline appeared in our lives. She was on her way upstairs to the Dim Sum restaurant - the one that we were headed for but that we didn’t know how to access. Well, Pauline was like our own little angel. She is a retired English teacher (age 72) who obviously still enjoys “teaching” and today we were to be her pupils. It is also obvious that Pauline is a regular at this restaurant as in no time she had us seated at table number 1 and was speaking with the manager about what we’d like to have and that she would be helping us place our order before she retreated to her own table where her friend was waiting for her.
Even though the ordering process was a little chaotic it didn’t take long till Pauline had a whole bunch of food coming our way. We were the only non Chinese people in the entire place and interestingly this was the first time that we’d really heard much in the way of people talking since our arrival. Yesterday, we’d actually discussed how surprised we were that everywhere seemed so quiet. Well, lunchtime in this restaurant today was anything but quiet! We could see that mealtime is a social time and everyone was busy socializing simultaneously!
Our meal was delicious and we decided to finish it off with a shared dessert of coconut pudding with red bean which was also DELICIOUS! Then as a surprise (and for my birthday) Pauline had ordered a special Chinese steamed cake made with red sugar. It was as light as air and also absolutely delicious! We were stuffed and happy and then the icing on the cake was when Pauline invited us all over to her apartment (about a 10 minute walk away) so we could see what a real Hong Kong apartment looks like on the inside.
The rain was coming down in buckets but we were all game (and we had umbrellas) so we set off on the trek to her building. It took a little longer than the estimated 10 minutes as we had to step carefully on the very wet sidewalks but eventually we made it. Her apartment is on the 14th floor and her friend Helen (the friend Pauline met for lunch) lives on the 20th floor. The building has just four apartments on each floor so it is tall and skinny! Pauline’s apartment is basic but very comfortable and larger than I thought it might have been. It is about 750 square feet. She’s lived there for more than 40 years. When she bought it she paid $100,000 HKD. Today it is worth well over a million! She has two bedrooms, a tiny room for mahjong, a kitchen, and a combination living room/dining room. I was disappointed to see that she didn’t have one of the laundry hangers outside her window as I am dying to see just how they hang those clothes out. It looks to me like they must have to hang themselves out the window in order to reach down far enough to put their clothes on the line. Pauline assured me that it is easy but honestly....I still can’t quite picture it. Pauline is not very tall and the window ledge is not too low and the laundry hanger is well below the window so the thought of someone hanging out their window makes me wonder if they have to have someone else hold their legs from inside the room! Maybe tomorrow morning I’ll get to see someone actually doing it as I look out from our hotel window before we head back to the airport.
By the time we left Pauline’s the rain had let up to a sprinkle and so our walk back to the hotel was a little easier than the walk to her place had been! Seriously, that rain on the walk down was crazy! It was bouncing back up off the sidewalk almost as hard as it was coming down.
On our walk back we spied a little bakery where the pastries looked too good to pass up. Of course we had to stop and get a couple to have with coffee back at the room. Sadly, some of them didn’t taste as good as they looked. Sweets here are typically not that sweet and this was one of those times. However, I did find a tiny bag of tiny cookies that smelled amazing (and that cost $25 HKD or about $5 CAD). Those cookies taste as amazing as they smelled baking! They are some of the best shortbread I’ve ever had!
The rest of our afternoon was pretty uneventful until we headed back out for dinner tonight. The only good thing I can say about that meal is that they have drawers in each table where the cutlery is kept. What a great idea! We never would have found it if not for a guy at the table next to us who got his own cutlery out. One other thing that we’ve noticed in the restaurants here is that when only one person is seated at a table it is common for another single person to sit at the same table. They don’t acknowledge one another at all....just sit at the same table for their meal.
It’s been another big day and I’m ready for bed. The rest of my crew has already called it a night so now it is my turn too. Tomorrow Vincent (our driver) will pick us up in the hotel lobby at 10:30. That will get us to the airport by 12:30 at latest which is perfect for our 2:30 flight to Hanoi, Vietnam.
Till then.....
Darlorlynga. Or perhaps I should say Darlorlyngai. Darlene’s daughter Cheryl noticed that Gail only has her name represented with 2 letters while the rest of us all have 3 so seeing as we are in Asia where words often end in “ai” we decided to change our name to Darlorlyngai for this adventure. :-)
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