Lots of Outs and Abouts.

Sunset over the harbour.

We've had a few lovely meet ups with people recently. We started by meeting up with our friend Michael in Figo's where we had a delicious set lunch and a great catch up. Michael is Canadian Chinese, but like my husband is an ardent Walsall F.C. supporter. As always the food in Figo's was delicious. Peter and I had chicken parmigiana and Michael had ribs.

Figo's does a great set lunch.

The three of us at lunch.

My chicken parmigiana.

Michael's pork ribs.

Then we lured Michael to The Chippy with talk of its famous balti pies, which are apparently standard fare at Walsall F.C. matches. Michael wanted to take some home and heat them up. Naturally this led to us having to have a quick drink there, too.

Peter loves The Chippy because they do balti pie and cider.

On Sunday we headed out to the Bounty Bar as it was the last day of our favourite waitress, Ava. She has always been so friendly and kind to us, but her commute to and from work is really long and she has a little girl that she understandably wants to spend more time with. I think she is making the correct choice in putting her family first and wish her well. She had made a vodka limoncello at home and gave us free shots of it. Cue sore head in the morning. I really need to give up alcohol. I really do! We went home via the North Plaza which already had some Christmas decorations on display.

Saying goodbye to Ava.

Saying goodbye to Ava.

Decorations in the North Plaza.

On Monday we braved the rather chilly Residents Club swimming pool. This remains open until Sunday. We always moan about them closing the pool, but I must admit we couldn't swim as long as we usually do, we were turning into ice.

The Residents Club Pool.

After the swim, we went up to D'Cafe Restaurant as I had birthday vouchers which could get us a discount on the meal. We had a pleasant meal, but were sitting shivering as it was quite cold and neither of us seemed able to heat up following the swim. I had a Thai green curry with chicken and Peter had a burger.

I started off with free birthday coffee and cake.

Peter stuck to his more usual beverage.

On Tuesday we met up with our friends Jason and Sheena. We decided to go to Arcadia rooftop bar in Causewaybay. This has outdoor seating with great harbour views but unusually for Hong Kong has very reasonably priced alcohol. I found the restaurant very hard to find and had to leave Peter on a step while setting off to look for it. He was getting annoyed with me for not being able to follow a map.

Anyway as it turned out, we bumped into Jason and Sheena as they made their way there. Arcadia is crazily decorated and has good views. We had snacks and drinks and it was very pleasant, except there was loud Christmas music playing the whole time we were there.

Us in Arcadia.

Us in Arcadia. Why do I always close my eyes in photos?

Enjoying the decor in Arcadia.

Leaving Arcadia.

View from Arcadia.

On the way to meet up with Sheena and Jason we passed through Central Station which is currently displaying a work of art by Mr Doodle. I had never heard of Mr Doodle, but apparently he was in Hong Kong at the weekend doodling live in the MTR.

Mr Doodle is a British artist whose real name is Sam Cox. His artwork consists of lots of interlocking designs. He calls his art style graffiti spaghetti. Sam Cox has got fully into the Mr Doodle persona, wearing clothes with his doodles on them and making up adventures for his arty persona. In the MTR he decorated a spaceship so he and Mrs Doodle could use it to escape from his evil brother, Dr Scribble.

Mr Doodle in space.

Mr Doodle in space.

Mr Doodle in space.

Mr Doodle in space.

Mr Doodle in space.

Wednesday was a day spent mainly queuing in a bank and shopping. Both things I hate.

On Thursday we had another cold swim, but went earlier so that the sun was out at least.

The pool before the sun went down.

Peter insisted in stopping off in Figo's for a beer before we went home and I cooked.

Happy with his beer.

I took a quick stroll around the seafront and the plaza to photograph Christmas decorations.

Angels and beaches.

Angels and beaches.

Christmas by the beach.

In the plaza.

Then on Friday I was taken out for a wonderful birthday treat by my friends: Linda, Maggie, Yang, Lai, Sarah and Elizabeth. We went to a Thai restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui called Cambo.

I went along a bit earlier to wander around taking a few pictures of the Christmas decorations in Tsim Sha Tsui. I started in the Peninsula Hotel which was elegantly decorated everywhere with white baubles and silver tinsel. Actually the decorations were the same as last year, very traditional and very elegant. It was harder to photograph this year as it was much busier.

Peninsula Hotel Restaurant.

Peninsula Hotel Lobby.

Then I went on to Heritage 1881. Again I couldn't help noticing everything was much much busier than last year and it was much harder to take photos due to the crowds.

1881 Heritage.

1881 Heritage.

Poinsettia.

Flowers.

As I headed towards Harbour City and Ocean Terminal I saw there was a wonderful sunset over the harbour so I stopped to photograph it, too. The colours were really beautiful.

Sunset over the harbour.

Sunset over the harbour.

Harbour City had a space theme this year - Merry Spacemas. I'm not entirely sure why, as space and Christmas don't really go together as far as I am concerned. It's always busy here. People just love taking selfies with the displays. I found some of the displays quite psychedelic, like something from the seventies.

Merry Spacemas, Harbour City.

Party Spacemas.

Let's party.

Spacemas displays.

Spacemas displays.

Spacemas displays.

Psychedelic displays.

Psychedelic displays.

Psychedelic displays.

Psychedelic displays.

Psychedelic displays.

I had a quick look at the displays inside too which were based on Astro Boy. He's obviously some cartoon character though personally I have never heard of him.

Astro Boy.

Astro Boy.

Astro Boy.

Then I wandered into the Marco Polo Hotel. I remembered from last year that they do lovely traditional Christmas displays. They had some beautiful displays with bears and deer and several Christmas stalls, so far this year this has been my favourite Christmas display.

Christmas deer.

Christmas deer.

Christmas bear.

Christmas bear.

Christmas tree.

Christmas stall.

They also have a statue in this hotel which I like. I don't know why but I quite like statues of people that have spaces where parts of the body should be.

Statue.

Statue.

Finally, I had a look at I-Square. Its displays were based on 'The Snowman.' Again it was difficult to get a good photo because there were just so many people.

The Snowman.

The Snowman.

The Snowman.

The Snowman.

The Snowman.

I passed by Kowloon Mosque which was nicely lit up at night. There were quite a few Christmas lights twinkling away at the side of Kowloon Park.

Kowloon Mosque.

Christmas decorations.

Next I headed into a building called The One at 100 Nathan Road. The Cambo Thai restaurant is on the fourth floor and it feels like you are going up on escalators forever, because you start from level lower ground two or three and by the time you get to the restaurant you have been going round and round so much, you are really quite dizzy.

I bumped into Elizabeth first and a few moments later Lai arrived. Everyone was very happy. Elizabeth because she has just got a new job and Lai because she has just come back from holiday in India.

Sarah, Linda, Maggie and Yang soon arrived. We haven't all got together since we celebrated Yang's birthday, so we had a lot of catching up to do. Much has changed in our lives since then. Everyone was in a 'Friday evening, yeah! It's the weekend', good mood.

All of us.

Our table.

Our table.

Our table.

The food was absolutely delicious. We had tom yam soup which was lovely and spicy and creamy, soft shelled crab in green curry sauce with baguette, pad Thai, green leafy vegetables, mixed Thai starters and fish. Yang and Sarah took all of the food photos.

Thai starters.

Green leafy vegetables.

Tom Yam Soup.

Pad Thai.

Soft shelled crab...

and the green curry sauce to go with it

It was all delicious but my favourite thing was the fish which I thought was especially yummy.

I thought the tastiest dish was this fish.

I got a wonderful present and a fantastic Napoleon cake. It was so beautiful with its berries, layers of pastry and cream. Everyone sang happy birthday to me and I made my secret wish.

The beautiful cake.

Then I had to cut the cake. Oh dear!! The pastry was difficult to cut and any pressure on the cake made the cream spurt out and the knife was too blunt, so I had to press hard. I made such a mess of it. Everyone tried to help, but we all kind of made a mess of it, or maybe I had just already destroyed it. Anyway the cake caused lots and lots of laughter and still tasted fantastic even if it had been rather flattened.

Me with my cake before we killed it.

The cake after we killed it. Look that's Sarah doing it, not me. I'm innocent.

It was a lovely evening and we were all in very high spirits. At one point someone ( I'm looking at you, Yang) even came up with the idea of trying to fit seven of us into a photo booth and she hadn't even been drinking. Fortunately the voice of reason prevailed before we all got stuck in there for the rest of the evening. Haha!!!

We survived the photo booth temptation.

Time to go home.

Elizabeth, Linda, Lai, Yang

Anyway it was a lovely fun evening spent with wonderful friends. I have not laughed so much for a long time. In fact it's been a fantastic friend filled week. Thank you so much, everyone.

Happy birthday to me.

Sunday was the last swim of the season in the Residents Club. We bumped into Jing, too. Then we are in D'Cafe. I had baked pork chop and Peter had club sandwich.

Peter in the pool.

Peter in the pool.

Peter in the pool.

Me by the pool.

Baked pork chop rice.

I took a couple of Christmas decoration pictures before we went home.

Christmas in Discovery Bay Plaza.

Christmas in Discovery Bay Plaza.

Christmas in Discovery Bay Plaza.