Exciting Week B

Well another week had began, but this wasn't just any old week ... this was 'Week B' .  The two week timetable structure at school means that I was facing new, unseen classes.  Some like 1A were lovely, while others such as 2C kind of reminded me of the naughty scumbags of Christmas past.  The week passed in a blur of classes, planning and meetings.  It's strange teaching in a job when some days I have been meetings then classes.

Friday was a little different though, Friday was a curriculum day.  The late start meant I was able to wave Naomi away and still have a relaxed hour to read over a couple of coffees.  Arriving at school at 8.30 I found that I was still the last one there despite my sleep in, for a staff who insist on staying to six or seven every evening these guys don't seem to like working in the mornings.  The first item for the day was an riveting three and a half hour meeting in Cantonese.  While the important parts were translated by those sitting around, by far the highlight was trying to pass the time by writing left handed, while receiving thousands of pictures of a colleague's dog on my shinny new phone.  Lunch was long awaited and took place at a local Yum Cha joint.  I was amazed by the appetite of my female fellow staff members who sucked down a near  never-ending  stream of tasty titbits, yeah OK most them are filled with prawns, but still eating .  The second half of the day was a direct contrast to the administrative and formal morning session.  The afternoon's topics consisted of "sharing' and "prayer".  Sharing was a chance for staff to express their feelings in a nonjudgemental setting and everyone really got into it.  In a society were 'face' (read appearances ... ) is so important the chance to say how you really feel is truly cutting edge.  Built up stress was released and somebody went back to their desk for a bigger box of tissues after the tenth person broke down in tears.  Our curriculum  day finished with the principal asking for five volunteers to lead us in prayer, with all of them going for five minutes plus, I sort of snuck a little snooze, after all it was all in Cantonese. 

After a strangely abstract day, Friday night was a relaxed but enjoyable affair a local Thai place, Coconut Island (see review).  The HK $10 beers went down a treat and the accompaning meal was tasty, fresh and excellent value.  Saturday started with 'jobs'.  Next in the never ending line of 'things we still have to do in HK' was picking up our Hong Kong ID Cards.  Poor Naomi had to go all the way to Hong Kong Island to line up for over an hour to get her card from the Immigration Tower, while had applied for mine locally at Yueng Long.  I was their and back in less then an hour and the proud new owner of a Hong Kong Identity Card (which must be carried upon my person and all times and produced when requested to do so by the relevant authorities).  The afternoon was spent exploring the local town of Tuen Muen were a friend and fellow NET teacher has moved.  His apartment was great, lunch was OK and the mandatory shopping centre was big and busy.  The day was washed down with a couple of beers with Chris and Jacki at the hotel.

Sunday morning we sucked down the usual tasty treats at Yum Cha and battled the local supermarket before the crowds got to intense.  Naomi was feeling a little sick and the day had half disappeared under newspapers and coffees when it was decided "we really better do something".  We packed books, maps and wallets and headed to Mong Kok.  Earlier I'd been worried about our local Park N' Shop supermarket being crowded, but we were heading to the most densely populated place on Earth.  Mong Kok is always busy, but on a Sunday afternoon it's literally bursting with hoards of frantic, pushing, shoving shoppers.  We stuck our heads in a couple of clothes shops ... I purchased a rather dashing lime green Quicksilver Tshirt with a gorgeous velvet tiger roaring from the front - at half price no less. 

As good as clothes is (and many people would argue clothes really isn't that good anyway, what's wrong with being in the buff ...), it was time for serious shopping, time to buy fishing tackle.  Having found the shop on the internet I wasn't disappointed with ............  Looking at lines of shinning rods and racks of sparkling lures is always an invigorating experience, no matter what country you are in.  Chatting with the blokes behind the counter doesn't require a shared language, there was lots of pointing at maps, mutterings of "freshwater", "saltwater", "made in Japan", "GT", "carp" and a few other shared English words, as well as lots of that famous fisherman's hand gesture - used universally to signify that 'it really was this big'.  Going up to pay for my new purchases I was particularly impressed by the buy three lures, get thirty percent off deal ... a true recipe for spending money.  Like they say "lures catch fisherman, not fish".  

With new rod and tackle under arm are next step was a stroll down the famous 'Goldfish St'.  Walking through a street filled with aquarium after aquarium is always amusing when holding a fish rod.  Graceful koi and glistening, long-finned siamese fighting fish fill tanks and bags, leafy green plants are displayed in rows and delightful baby turtles snap from aquariums.  Despite the crowds, 'Goldfish St' is an inspiration for an old aquarium lover.  Next on the Mong Kok tourist trail were the delights of 'Flower Market St'.  Bunches of chrysanthemums, flowering orchids and every sort of greenery was for sale.  Limiting temptation to a couple of African Violets (which actually seem to go really well in the air-conditioned, fluro lit rooms of Hong Kong) we headed home, exhausted from a shopping trip to the most populated place on Earth.