A Touch of the Domestics.

Ah, life's hard, what can you do?

For a week or so, most of our free time has either gone into swimming or into sorting out domestic issues.

Let's start with the swimming. We are trying to build Peter up a bit and swimming helps, but getting the right weather, i.e. no rain signal, no typhoon signal, no thunderstorm warning, doesn't always happen. Nonetheless, we have had a few lovely swims and have even enjoyed a few breathtaking sunsets. In fact I sent pictures of these to some Hong Kong friends who are currently holidaying overseas and they all thought we had headed off to a tropical resort somewhere. We had in fact made it about fifteen minutes down the road from our house to the club swimming-pool.

Peter is happy in the pool.

The beginnings of sunset.

The beginnings of sunset.

The pool area starts to darken.

The pool area starts to darken.

Bliss.

We frequently eat or drink out after a swim and Peter also really enjoys this. Our usual haunts are in Sienna Club House or in the Bounty Bar, as these are closest to the pool.

Looking relaxed.

And happy with an Estrella.

Then there have been the domestics. The first of these domestic issues was that my washing machine suddenly and unexpectedly died. Naturally, it did it on a house cleaning day when I change the bedding and towels. When I think about it, I seem to have gone through an inordinate amount of washing-machines since I came to Hong Kong. Peter says I overuse them, but I'm not sure that that's true. I'm sure families with kids must do a lot more washing than I do. I think it is poor quality machines. Whatever the reason, we are constantly buying new models.

There isn't a laundry nearby that I know of, so I ended up temporarily washing by hand and by foot. This was starting to take over huge quantities of my time and really made me realise why our ancestors probably didn't have a lot of free time on their hands.

Peter and I are terrible for putting off getting new stuff for as long as we can. Maybe we are just mean, but I think a lot of it has to do with a shared hatred of shopping and a shared hatred of hassle. However, I could not, repeat could not, live without a washing machine, so we had to search online, measure the old one, decide on a new model, order it, wait in for it to be delivered and then wait in for it to be installed. All in all, this also took up huge quantities of time.

Near the delivery date of the new machine, we received a communication telling us the deliverers would not take away our old machine unless we had detached it from the water mains. I tried to do this manually, but the hoses were on really, really tight. Peter said: "Just leave it. They will detach it." Being a natural worrier, I couldn't sleep for worrying about getting rid of the broken machine, and I literally mean I couldn't sleep. I got up at about two in the morning, hunted for our pliers, then to my great relief, detached the old machine. I don't suppose I did it quietly; our neighbours must really hate us.

Next, I remembered how hard it had been to manoeuvre the now broken machine into the kitchen in the first place and couldn't sleep for fear of not being able to get it out. I was up again at about six trying to manoeuvre the old machine out without damaging the pipe for the gas cooker. I also managed this. The delivery man took away the old machine. Yippee! He left the new one in our hallway for the installer. The next communication we received said: "Do not open the box." Now I fully understood what Pandora went through.

That night I couldn't sleep for fear the new machine would not fit in. Then Peter mentioned his fear that we may have ordered a machine with a low drainage pump when we should have got a high drainage one. I hadn't thought of that and when he mentioned it, I was utterly hysterical.

To cut an overly long story short, the installer was a cheerful friendly man who had no bother fitting in the new machine and attached it to the pump with no problem. Phew!!! You would think I would just give up while we were ahead, but this event inspired me. I said to Peter: "We really need a new mattress". I have in fact been saying this for about the last three or four years. Peter sarcastically said: "I am married to a woman whose life's work is to get a new mattress." Well, that was a red rag to the bull and I thought: "Laugh at me as much as you like, I am finally going to do it.

We searched for mattresses online, but the difficulty was arranging for removal of the old one. I finally decided I would have to go to the shop to sort this out. The shop I was going to was in Tsing Yi, but I also needed some groceries from Tung Chung, so I went there first. I decided since I was there, I might as well go to Tung Chung Battery. I had intended to go there the previous week, but had missed the steps up. This time I found the steps without problem. It was a terrible day. We were supposed to get hit by a typhoon, but it had veered off at the last minute. However, it still affected the weather. The heat was soooo much more intense than usual. There was absolutely no breeze and the pollution levels had hit the 'it is safer not to even try and breathe level.' I shouldn't whine since the same typhoon has now hit Beijing and more than twenty people have died due to it. I climbed up the steps I had found. There must have been around a hundred and fifty of them. I was covered in a weird cold sweat and felt I was about to die. I got to the top and discovered the battery is sealed off behind a tall fence that surrounds a building site. It cannot currently be visited. I took a couple of shots of the view just to make myself feel there had been some sort of point in coming here. It was very much like the view from our room when we stayed in the Silveri Hotel. Then disappointed, I clambered back down.

View from next to the elusive Tung Chung Battery.

View from next to the elusive Tung Chung Battery.

Hello Kitty looming over the main square in Tung Chung.

After completing my tasks in Tung Chung, I headed to Maritime Square Shopping Centre in Tsing Yi. There, using a lot of mime, as my salesperson spoke little English and I don't speak Cantonese, I eventually arranged a mattress. They can't deliver until about two weeks' time, so I have plenty of time to get frantic about this too.

I had other shopping to do as well and I took a look at the Maritime Square exhibition. These change frequently. This one was recycling plastic to create models of sea creatures.

Looking down on the display.

Whale.

Penguins.

Stingray.

Sea turtle.

The next domestic problem was the light in the bathroom. It only needed new bulbs so it shouldn't have been an issue, but, and we know this from experience, almost noone in Hong Kong sells this kind of bulb. With the help of friends, I managed to track it down to one place near my school years ago and I have never managed to find anywhere else that stocks them. Thus, I had to travel all the way to North Point for lightbulbs. To make it worth my while I thought I would combine this with a visit to The Museum of Coastal Defence. My original plan was to go to the museum then the shop, but for some reason I switched it round. Not a good idea; shops stay open late here, but they don't open early. I had to faff around North Point for two hours waiting for this shop to open. I bumped into some dinosaur exhibits I had seen here before but in a different location. There was nothing much else of interest and it had started to rain.

Dinosaur.

Dinosaur.

Thank you God when the shop finally opened it had the bulbs I wanted. It was now time to head to the museum, but the thunderstorm warning had gone up and the outside exhibits at the museum close when this happens, so there was no longer any point in going.

I decided spontaneously to do another journey to the end of an MTR line. In fact, it's probably my last until they extend the lines more. I headed off to South Horizons. There were some colourful paintings on the walls of the MTR Station.

Boats.

Ships.

Sampans.

Sampans.

Fish Stall.

South Horizons is on the island of Ap Lei Chau just off the coast from Aberdeen. It's brilliant here near Lei Tung Station with its temples and boat filled harbour, but South Horizons is supposed to be just residential. Nonetheless, I had never been so thought I might as well take a look.

South Horizons is a private housing estate consisting of thirty-four high-rise blocks, which range from twenty-five to forty-two stories high. It was built between 1993 and 1995.

South Horizons.

Typical highrise buildings and pedestrian bridge.

There is a pleasant waterfront promenade here which has great views out towards Lamma Island on one side. This is a busy shipping lane with lots of huge cargo laden ships passing by.

The seafront promenade.

Looking towards Lamma Island.

Looking towards Lamma Island.

Kind of this pigeon to pose for me.

Huge cargo laden ship.

On the other side the waterfront promenade overlooks the busy boat-filled Aberdeen Harbour.

Aberdeen Harbour.

Aberdeen Harbour.

Aberdeen Harbour.

Aberdeen Harbour.

Aberdeen Harbour.

There are lots of flowers and flowering trees along the waterfront promenade.

Camelia.

Crape myrtle.

Chinese ixora.

There are swimming pools and a club house for residents, which as a non-resident I could not access. There's an amphitheatre, a fountain plaza and a pedestrian bridge.

Amphitheatre.

Amphitheatre.

Fountain Plaza.

I had a wander around the shopping centre which has a cinema, supermarket and wet market.

Shopping centre.

Then I decided to treat myself to a pineapple bun since I passed a bakery with them in its window display. These are listed as part of Hong Kong's intangible cultural heritage and I have been thinking about them recently as I want to go to Sharp Island which has bumpy round volcanic rocks that are nicknamed pineapple buns.

Pineapple buns were brought to Hong Kong in 1946 by the Ng family, who had just returned to Hong Kong after living in Mexico for many years. These buns are influenced by Mexican baked goods.

The pineapple bun contains no pineapple. It takes its name from its rough surface that looks like the skin of a pineapple. Pineapple buns are soft and fluffy but they have a sweet crisp crust. They are made from flour, oil, sugar and eggs. Actually I found my pineapple surprisingly tasty. I ate it in the amphitheatre looking out over the sea.

Pineapple bun.

Then I went home to fix my light. At Sunny Bay Bus Station I stopped to photograph a beautiful flame tree.

Flame tree.

Flame tree.