Bright Lights, Birthdays and Barbecues.

Lantern Festival Aldrich Bay Park.

We arrived back from Macau on Friday thirteenth October. I was heading for a girls' night out in Tai Koo Shing. I decided to leave a bit earlier than necessary to get there, so I could combine this with a visit to the Lantern Festival in Aldrich Bay Park.

To get to the park, I took the MTR to Sai Wan Ho Station and exited through Exit A. I headed right, crossed a road and was quickly at the entrance to the park. My friend, Yang, lives near here and mentioned that they have lanterns here every year. I only recently discovered this.

Aldrich Bay Park is located on land that used to be used as a bus station. When that closed down, it became a small golf course and then it was turned into a park.

The park has a fishing village theme. It has a central pool with an old fishing vessel and two sampans. Apparently there are also some scent gardens here, but I didn't have time to visit these. The park connects to a waterfront walkway and it's possible to walk to Shau Kei Wan along this. I must revisit the park in daylight and go for a stroll along this at some point. The display was for Mid-Autumn Festival and for Chinese National Day.

Fishing boat and sampan.

Chinese and Hong Kong flags for National Day.

The lanterns themselves were wonderful. Among other things, there were animal ones, figures from Chinese mythology and even a Hong Kong tram. I thought it was beautiful.

Pandas of all shapes and sizes were on display here. Some had special outfits on. Personally, I especially liked the ones with flowers.

Panda holding a full moon.

Reclining panda with flowers.

Panda in head dress.

I think this is also secretly a panda.

Caped Panda.

Standing panda with flowers.

Happy Panda.

There were also lots and lots of rabbits on display.

Rabbit with a guitar.

Rabbits and stars.

There was a display which was clearly connected to the legend of Chang'e, the lady who floated up to the moon after drinking a magic potion which made her immortal.

Chang'e before she floated up to the sky.

Chang'e and the full moon.

Chang'e holding her white rabbit and about to drink the potion.

A lady passing by offered to take my photo.

Other legends were on display, too, but I'm afraid I am not sure what they are.

I had no idea what this was but Yang tells me this beautiful display shows Li Bai, an Ancient Chinese poet who wrote several famous poems about the moon.

It looked lovely from this angle, too.

This figure is from another old story, I guess.

There were some figures that from their costumes looked as if they were characters in a Chinese opera.

These figures look n they should be on stage during a Chinese opera.

These figures look n they should be on stage during a Chinese opera.

A couple of the characters on display were playing musical instruments.

Figures playing music.

Figures playing music.

Other displays may well have been connected to Chinese legends too but they looked rather South or Central American to me.

This lantern display makes me think of the Aztecs for some reason.

This lantern display makes me think of the Aztecs for some reason.

So did this one.

Some displays were connected to different kinds of local transport.

Chinese Junk.

Hong Kong Tram.

Hong Kong Tram.

Near the fishing boat there was a walk way with lots of traditional lanterns hanging overhead. It was fun to stand under them and look up at a sea of colours.

A sky of lanterns.

A sky of lanterns.

I really enjoyed my visit here. I arrived just as it was getting dark and left when it was totally dark. The lanterns looked different in the different levels of light.

I suddenly realised it was nearly time for dinner and I had to get back to Tai Koo Shing, so I raced back to the MTR and went to Tai Koo Station, Exit E1. This took me straight into City Plaza Shopping Mall. I don't know what it is about shopping malls, but put me in one and I am instantly lost. This occasion proved to be no exception to that rule. I wandered around for a while, then saw a Chinese restaurant. I rushed over, handed them my phone and pointed to the booking details. Eventually they worked out that I was in the wrong place, but very kindly sent me off in the right direction and I got there in the end. Phew!!

Six of us were having dinner out to celebrate Yang's birthday, all be it a bit belatedly. We were going to the Peking Garden Restaurant. This is a chain of restaurants found all over Hong Kong, with a reputation for excellent Chinese food and particularly noted for their Peking duck. Linda had organised the booking and selected a set menu for us all to share.

Yang is the only person I know who takes even more photos than me. All the pictures of this meal were taken by her. I get to enjoy a photographic rest when she's around, plus I suspect her camera is a lot better than mine.

Yang wasted no time and snapped a picture of everyone as they entered the restaurant. It was like being a film star and having the paparazzi leap out on you.

Sporty looking Sarah was first I believe.

Closely followed by Linda who is always calm and smiling.

Next was Lai, always bubbling over with energy.

Then Maggie looking cool, calm and collected.

And finally because I got lost - me.

Sarah and the birthday girl herself, Yang.

It was great to catch up, as we hadn't seen each other for quite a long time. In fact, the last time we all got together was just before the school summer holidays in July. Of course we had lots of news, lots of gossip, lots to share and it was all lots of fun.

Me, Maggie and Sarah.

Sarah, Linda and Lai

Lai and me.

Linda and Lai.

All of us.

All of us.

The food was fantastic and by the end of the meal I was stuffed senseless. Can you believe I actually had the menu right in front of me but forgot to take a photo of it, so I am guessing what some of the dishes were!!!

We started with dumplings, cold meats and a noodle dish. The dumplings had soup inside them so you had to lift them carefully to stop it spilling out. I don't know what the noodle dish was called. It contained cold noodles, slices of chicken, shredded vegetables and a satay sauce.

Cold meat.

Dumplings.

Cold noodle dish.

One of my favourite dishes was the prawn with courgette. The prawns were enormous.

Prawn and courgette.

We each got a bowl of imitation shark's fin soup. I didn't eat mine in case there was scallop in it. I'm allergic to this and felt being hospitalized may have put a dampener on the evening.

Imitation shark fin soup.

Then there was a dish of bitter greens with Chinese mushrooms. I loved the greens and ate loads of them.

Mushrooms and greens.

There was a fish dish served on, what I think was, a bed of puffed rice. I'm quietly confident I'll be corrected if I get any of the food descriptions wrong.

Fish on puffed rice.

Then, of course, there was the piece de la resistance - the crispy Peking duck. I absolutely love this. I've only had it a small number of times, but each time have found it totally delicious.

Crispy Peking duck.

Our table.

I think I can safely say we were all getting very very full by this stage, but there was more to come. First there was a Chinese dessert which everyone said was cooked in Chinese wine. By looking at pictures online I think it may have been Tong Yuan Dumplings in Osmanthus Scented Soup, but I'm not certain. It was certainly interesting anyway.

This is a dessert flavoured with Chinese wine.

And finally just when we all felt we could eat no more, we had a beautiful fruit covered birthday cake. Of course, we all sang happy birthday and Yang extinguished her candle with a covid-friendly hand clap , then made the longest birthday wish in recorded history, which Sarah filmed her doing. Haha.

Yang with her birthday cake.

Yang making a birthday wish. It was a long one.

It had been a wonderful evening, so lovely to see everyone again. Let's hope we have many more like it.

Finally, because it was a very busy weekend, on Sunday, Peter and I were invited to a barbecue by an Australian man also called Peter that we often chat to down the swimming pool. The barbecue was for Peter's (down the pool Peter, not my husband) sister who was doing a stopover in Hong Kong on her way back to Australia. Her stay just happened to coincide with her birthday.

Again it was a lovely day out. This time though, I was stunned by the house we were invited to. Just about everyone in Hong Kong lives in a tiny highrise flat with scarcely enough space to swing a cat, as they say. Peter had a proper house with up and down stairs. In fact that's not true, he owned two proper houses with up and down stairs, that had been joined together and converted into one huge five bedroom house with a lovely garden!!!

No-one in Hong Kong has a garden. Peter had a garden with a big lawn and, wait for it, the feature that left me totally gobsmacked, he even had his own waterfall and fishpond. Imagine owning your own waterfall!! Isn't that amazing!! I had to go and look at it several times to make sure it was still there and I hadn't just imagined it.

There were a lot of guests at the barbecue including a woman called Stephanie who was a concert pianist and her nine year old son, who is gifted and plays the piano and violin. They gave a recital.

Then a German woman whose name I have forgotten also got up and sang.

Plus two members of the Welsh Male Voice Choir sang. They had decided to sing 'Delilah' because they were annoyed about it being banned by the Welsh Rugby Union. They asked Stephanie to play it for them on the piano. She had never heard of it and asked them how to spell it. She then googled it, listened to it once on her phone, then walked over to her piano and played it perfectly. How the hell did she do that?? Gobsmacked again.

It was a very fun day. I just hope I never have to show Peter where we live. Haha!!! I can assure you it's certainly nothing like his home. I will add some photos, but not of the people as I don't know them well enough to know whether they would mind me posting pictures of them or not.

Peter's house.

I feel I can put up this picture of Foster as you can't really see him.

Someone had brought their dog along. It was gorgeous.

It told me it didn't mind having it's photo online.

Peter's lawn.

Garden seating area.

Statues in the garden.

Statues in the garden.

And finally Peter's very own waterfall. Gobsmacked!