Walla-Wallas and Afternoon Tea.

This week started reasonably well with Peter and I enjoying a cold, but refreshing swim at our sports club on Monday. I wanted to go walking on Tuesday, but the typhoon number three signal was raised. It would have been ok to walk in this, but the observatory mentioned the possibility of raising the signal to a number eight. That means the weather conditions are dangerous, transport goes off and everywhere closes down. In the end the eight signal was not raised until Wednesday and then it stayed up for more than twenty hours, so that day was a bit of a write off. I spent it trying to work out how to do the Guardian Cryptic Crossword and reading crime novels. By Thursday there were signs that life was returning to normal, but it was still windy, cold and wet. I made it as far as the local supermarket as we had run out of bread and milk and breakfast cereal.

On Friday, I finally managed to do something. I had arranged to meet up with three friends from my former school for afternoon tea. They were coming to the restaurant from school, but could get out a bit earlier, as it was an in service training day. I decided I would go out a couple of hours too early for our meet up to enjoy a bit of a walk on Hong Kong Island.

I decided to head to Causeway Bay and make my way to the Typhoon Shelter which has recently been done up. I've been here before the renovation, so I was able to compare then and now. Basically there is now seating provided on the steps at the water's edge. This is a pleasant place to sit with beautiful views out over Victoria Harbour. In this area it is possible to see the structure that is nicknamed Dubai in Hong Kong. This is actually in Fortress Hill and is located in the newly built park there. I visited this area during Mid-Autumn Festival.

The Typhoon Shelter.

The Typhoon Shelter.

The Typhoon Shelter.

Paddling a boat.

Seating area along the front in the typhoon shelter.

Enjoying sitting at the water's edge in the typhoon shelter.

There are also several places to take a photo either with a rickshaw or a cartoon rabbit, which I think is popular here. I am not sure of its name.

Rickshaws.

Rickshaw.

Rickshaw.

Pose with a rabbit.

There is also a place where you can go on a small boat called a walla-walla for a tour of the typhoon shelter.

Tables, chairs and Walla-walla.

Walla-wallas are small motorboats. The words walla walla apparently refer to the sound of the boats' engines. Long ago, unless you had your own boat, these were the only way to travel between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. Even when the Star Ferry began to operate, there were still Walla-wallas, too. However, when the cross harbour tunnels were built and it was possible to travel underneath the harbour by train, bus or car, the Walla-wallas largely died out. The ones that have appeared in Causeway Bay are mainly for fun. It's possible to pay for a trip around the typhoon shelter to see all the boats close up and even have a look at the floating Tin Hau Temple. On a dull weather week day noone seemed to be out on the Walla-wallas. I hope they catch on, as it's a nice bit of history.

Floating Tin Hau Temple.

One of the pleasant things about wandering around this area was the chance to observe the lovely seabirds. I saw a heron and an elegant egret.

Heron.

Heron.

Egret.

After taking a very pleasant stroll around the typhoon shelter, I headed along the front towards Wan Chai. On the way I walked past the noon day gun, made famous by the Noel Coward song 'Mad Dogs and English Men'. The line referring to this gun is - 'In Hong Kong, they strike a gong, and fire off a noonday gun.' I have been to watch the gun being fired at noon once, but on this walk, the gun was covered over. It was well past noon. I also passed some artwork designed to beautify some rather nondescript buildings on the waterfront. I'm all in favour of making eyesores beautiful.

Noon Day Gun.

Artwork on the way from Causeway Bay to Wan Chai.

Street art by the waterfront.

Near this area I saw Duckling the red sailed junk that does harbour tours, only its sails were down.

Duckling, the tourist junk without its red sails raised.

I left the waterfront and headed further inland. I was walking to the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts to collect a ticket I have bought myself for an outing next Tuesday. I had already tried to pick this up after doing my Snoopy Rock and Devil's Claw walk, but I forgot to bring the credit card I had bought my ticket with, so they wouldn't give it to me. It is not so easy getting into the HKAPA now. They don't want casual passers by because of COVID. You must do your leave home safe app and scan your vaccination certificate and have a valid reason for getting in. The main entrance is closed down and there's only one open door round the back to enter by. Anyway, despite all of this, I finally got my ticket. I took a photo of the tai chi statue outside the HKAPA. There seem to be rather a lot of these here. I also noticed a beautiful bauhinia tree. These are starting to come into flower again. They are quite lovely.

On the way to the HKAPA.

Tai Chi Statue outside the HKAPA.

Bauhinia.

Bauhinia.

Next stop was Great Supermarket in Pacific Place as they sell imported British sliced bread. We miss British loaves, so treat ourselves to one every now and again. The ones sold here are from Wales. A lot of the local bread in Hong Kong is actually rather sweet, though Garden Bakery is all right.

Fully breaded up, I headed to the restaurant. It is called Simply Life, Western Bakery and is located in the Admiralty Centre, just a pedestrian walkway away from Pacific Place. I have walked past this place lots of times and never really noticed it, but Yang had said we should meet here as it was really good. I was the first to arrive and got us a table. I then started to panic that the other three might already be there. I say that because the restaurant is quite dark and there are hidden away booths. I was relieved to see the others arriving and know I didn't need to search the whole restaurant for them.

It was lovely to see Yang, Linda and Jason again, and to my surprise, they had all remembered that it is my birthday on Sunday, so they had brought me a beautiful card, a lovely bottle of wine and some very fancy chocolates. So sweet! They had also brought me a gorgeous scarf from Sheena, who unfortunately wasn't able to come.

Me with my present.

Now I mentioned afternoon tea in my title. This restaurant does an excellent afternoon tea set. It's very reasonably priced and the food is really good quality. I had a chicken burger, smothered in Gouda cheese and served with spicy fries. This was washed down with a very fruity tasting iced tea. Jason had a beefburger, Linda had chicken quesadillas and Yang had sour dough with tomatoes, chorizo and guacamole. Together we had a very pleasant time catching up on all the gossip. The time flew past and, because of my birthday, I wasn't allowed to pay. Haha, I should get older more often.

All of us.

Linda and I.

Me, Linda and Yang.

Me with my chicken burger.

Me and Jason being silly. What's new?

After all the stormy stuck in days this week, this turned out to be a lovely day out.