Hibbets' Happenings

I'm sorry I'm behind on posts and pictures. I'm trying to catch up tonight. Yesterday was Wednesday. I worked in the morning and around lunch time I was at a stopping point that we could get out for a while. We decided to go to "The Peak." This is the major look-out point where you get an awesome view of the harbor and all the skyscrapers. It would be hard to come to Hong Kong and not have gone to The Peak. We guessed -- and ended up being right -- that the view from the Peak may not mean quite as much to us as most visitors, since we get the luxury of enjoying this gorgeous view from our apartment every day. But still, I wanted to check it out, and I'm glad we did. Our plan was to take Bus 25 from Braemar Hill to Causeway Bay and then catch 15B to The Peak. We got online, researched the bus route, saw the stop we wanted, and headed out. Well, we knew we were in Causeway Bay, we saw a bus stop that had 15B on the sign, but from the information we read online we expected another stop a little later in the route that also interchanged with 15B. So we stayed on the bus. The bus was supposed to turn on to Hennessey Rd and then onto another road (I'm forgetting now the name of it), and then it would be our stop. Well, the bus did turn onto Hennessey Rd, and then did turn onto another road -- but it was not the road we were expecting! We ended up riding 25 all the way to the end of the route and then riding it back into town into Causeway Bay. I think we ended up getting off at the stop we saw originally. I'm still confused as to how we managed to mess up, but oh well. We did get to see some new things and I took some pictures -- which I'll post soon, I promise! So now we're off the bus and we're hungry. This trip has taken much longer than we anticipated. It was already almost lunchtime when we left the apartment, and the Frommer's book had described one particular restaurant at The Peak that sounded good and a good fit for us, so we were going to eat lunch there. There happened to be a bakery near the bus stop, so you know what we did. Let's see, we got a chicken pizza (a little larger around than a bagel), a tuna roll, a chicken danish, a Japanese cheese stick (it was spicy), a pineapple roll, and two egg custards. Then we walked back to the bus stop to wait on the 15B. Except that when we read the sign, we saw that the 15B only runs on Sundays and holidays! Now what?! We figured we'd just take a taxi. It took a few minutes to catch one; there seemed to be more traffic going the other way than our way. But eventually we signaled one, and it turned out to be the nicest driver who spoke pretty good English -- a blessing! The taxi ride to the Peak ended up costing us almost $10 (US). But I guess that's not terrible. One thing that's nice is that the taxis charge only by distance, not by time. That's a really nice fact when you're sitting in traffic in Central. But it's a pretty good ride up the mountain to The Peak. The way most people get to the Peak is to ride the "Peak Tram," a neat tram/train-type thing that goes up the mountain. But we were pretty sure that it couldn't accomodate us with the wheelchair. So we were going to take the bus -- and you know what happened there. Well, eventually, we got up to The Peak. We went up to the viewing area first. It was a sunny, fairly clear day (about as clear as they get here) and we got to really take in the view and take some pictures. The wind was a little cool, but it was nice. We even asked someone to take our picture and got our first family picture in Hong Kong. I hope it turned out well. I haven't even looked at it yet. Then we went back down into the other floors of the Peak Tower, where there are shops and restaurants. We walked around just to see what was there, mostly, and then walked next door to the Peak Galleria -- more shops and restaurants. We looked in the shoe stores and the book store, but mostly just window-shopped. Then we decided to get something to eat. The bread had really tied us over for a while. We checked out all the restaurants; first we went back to the Peak Tower to look at the menu at the Chinese restaurant, but there weren't many choices for us (lots of pork and shrimp). The Japanese restaurant right across from the Chinese restaurant didn't look much better. We ended up back at the Peak Galleria at a Thai restaurant called L16. I have to admit, it was delicious. And they also had a high chair for Jayden, which was nice -- she was contained much more than she's been at several restaurants! But I also have to admit we've now had our most expensive meal in Hong Kong. To be fair, it wasn't entirely our fault; we knew it was not going to be cheap, because the things at The Peak are pretty classy. But we thoroughly checked out the menu, both before we decided to eat there and then while deciding what to order. We selected two items: a beef dish with basil and peppers which was marked as spicy (3 chili peppers!) and a half chicken grilled "Thai-style" with vegetables. The problem came when he asked us -- and keep in mind, broken English, we're having to interpret here -- if we wanted rice or noodles. We assume that rice or noodles comes with the main dish (you know about assuming!) and say we'll try one of each. Then we think he's asking us which with which -- and we're not sure how to answer. In fact, he's asking us what meat we want in the rice and noodles. We order Chinese tea to go with our meal, and they bring that first. Then they bring out the beef dish. Since we're hungry and we're waiting, we go ahead and try some. It's not THAT spicy, and it really is good. But we're wanting to wait on our rice to really dig in. Then they bring out a second dish, which we assume is our chicken, but it's nothing like we thought it would be. It turns out that this is the noodles. They were really good. It also turns out that there was pork in them -- we discovered this when David read the bill at the end of the meal. Oh well, we didn't do it intentionally. That was part of that miscommunication. The noodles were more like fettuccini noodles than spaghetti noodles like they serve at the Chinese restaurants at home. And they weren't nearly as greasy as those noodles. They were really good. If only they hadn't been pork! Then they bring out a huge bowl of fried rice. It was also very good. There was chicken in the rice. It was not greasy, either, like the fried rice on the Chinese buffets tend to be. It was whiter, too; it was fried rice but seemed more like steamed rice than what we have at home. It could be a meal in and of itself, especially if you like rice. THEN they brought out something else -- our half chicken! It was crispy -- we thought it was going to be grilled, but I'm not sure it wasn't deep-fried. Well, we enjoyed it and ate every bite (Jayden liked it, too; Joshua slept during supper). Then we got the bill; it was a whopping $519! (HK, not US, but still, that's expensive.) I couldn't figure out why it was so much. Well, where we went wrong (and you've probably guessed) is with the rice and noodles. They charged for the tea, too, whereas most of the restaurants we've eaten at included the tea. Plus they charged a 10% service charge; but that's pretty standard. In hindsight, we definitely wouldn't have ordered the half-chicken, and we would not have ordered the noodles with pork. Probably if I had to do it over again, I would have ordered the beef, the rice, and the noodles. That would have been plenty of food. So, for everyone who will be coming to Hong Kong: I do recommend the L16. It was delicious. But the rice and noodles aren't included, so expect to pay for them -- and they're about as much as the main dishes. Also, they offered several "set" choices (I need to explain that more in a bit) which were a very good deal, but the only choice which wasn't pork or shellfish was spaghetti! And I didn't want spaghetti, especially not at a Thai restaurant. I hated that, but I wasn't willing to eat pork (but I guess I ended up doing that anyway!). Okay, about the sets: this was something that I couldn't figure out at first. Almost all the restaurants advertise a "lunch set" and a "tea set." It seems that a set is like a combo deal. Maybe it will include a main dish, a soup, some noodles or bread or maybe even dessert, and coffee or tea -- something like that (of course it's different at every restaurant). These are almost always a good deal, and sometimes an extremely good deal compared with their regular menu prices. Even Pizza Hut has "sets." So I don't know if that's a British thing or just what. You'll have to fill me in if you know. Then we were ready to head home. We bought some Italian ice cream at the stand there -- I might as well tell on myself -- and it was also good, but expensive. So, note to self, the Peak is expensive! We were able to catch the 15 Bus (the 15, not the 15B) back to town. It took us to Central to the ferry piers. It wasn't a bad ride; we got off the bus and easily found the sign for the Bus 25. Well, we waited and waited; after about 15 minutes we saw a Bus 25 coming. It had been warm during the day, but it was pretty chilly! And we were dressed for the warm sunshine, not for the cool night. So we were glad to see the bus coming. Well, one thing that was confusing it there were TWO Bus 25 signs, not very far apart from each other, and we weren't sure which one to stand by. We chose one; other people were standing there too (although we weren't sure they were there for Bus 25). So Bus 25 pulls up and keeps going to the second bus stop sign, the one we're not standing by; so we start walking that direction to catch the bus. Only the "on" doors never open; only the exit doors open, and everyone gets off; first I'm thinking the driver just needs to be sure everyone gets off before letting anyone on. But then he closes the exit doors and drives off! David and I just look at each other and shrug. So we head back to the sign where we were before. We wait a few more minutes; David decides to walk further down the bus exchange to see if there's another Bus 25 sign. We're not entirely sure what to do, but we figure if nothing else, we'll catch a taxi home; there are plenty of them coming through this area. Well, as David's walking back after looking for another sign, here comes a Bus 25. And this time it does stop at the sign we're standing by, and does let us on. Hooray! So the rest of the trip goes off without a hitch. (Finally!) We get home and I'm pretty wiped out. I sit with Jayden for her to go to sleep but I end up falling asleep too and going to bed. I needed to work; but sleep was nice, too. I ended up staying in bed until 9:30 this morning. Except for our next adventure -- Around 3:00 this morning I was awakened by an alarm. I had no idea what it was. David didn't hear it, so I woke him up. He wasn't too concerned, but I needed to know what it was. He was willing to go check it out. It turns out it was the fire alarm; there were emergency rescue vehicles here and firemen in the building. But apparently, no fire (good news!). So I'm not sure what happened, but it was a little scary there for a little bit. Then I was worried that I would have trouble going back to sleep, but I was tired enough that I didn't. In fact, I chided myself all during the night about spending all that money on a meal. There have been several suits I've passed up for even less than $500 (HK), and here I spent that money on a meal. Imagine that logic! But, then I reminded myself -- several times -- first, it's in the past; you can't change it now; second, it wasn't intentional. We would not have chosen to eat there if we thought it was going to be that much. So, you just have to chalk it up to a mistake and a misunderstanding, and keep going. And focus on the good -- it was a very tasty meal. Today I worked all day. David and Jayden went to town around lunch time and stayed gone probably about 2 hours. David did a little shoe shopping, bought us some peanuts in the market in North Point and some bread at a bakery (including a whole wheat walnut roll of some kind that I especially enjoyed) and some groceries. Then, it was almost supper time. I had in mind to make us a pot of chicken soup, but David had pizza on the brain, and since we've talked about ordering Pizza Hut since we've been here, we decided to do that. But first we had to figure out what in the world we would order! We went to the website -- you can check it out, too -- www.pizzahut.com.hk and the choices were a little overwhelming. It's a good thing I had looked at a brochure before to get an introduction to all the things they offer -- it's very different! You'll have to go check it out. One thing that's interesting is that they offer two different sauce choices, regular tomato sauce and a thousand island dressing sauce. Weird! Since we don't eat thousand island dressing, we didn't try that one; we stuck with tomato sauce. If it weren't for health reasons, we probably would try it; our adventurous spirit is always up for trying new things. We ended up choosing the Countryside pizza without the pork -- so chicken, mushrooms, and corn (the students thought it was strange tonight when I told them we don't eat corn on our pizza in America -- speaking of, be sure to check out the "American Adventure" pizza choice), the Portuguese chicken rice (it was good; it was yellow curry and a tad spicy, but not so much that Jayden wouldn't eat it), and pumpkin soup, also very good. I told the students tonight there was nothing like Portuguese chicken rice or pumpkin soup at our Pizza Huts. It was delivered right to our door, and quickly too. It was $171, so what is that -- $22. That's probably about like at home. We have 3 pieces of pizza left and most of my pumpkin soup; we finished off the rice. Then the four of us ran down to the Park n Shop to try to get the rest of our groceries and to let Joshua and I enjoy at least a few minutes of sunshine. Besides, Joshua is our water carrier; it's very easy to put two big jugs on the bars of the wheelchair; it's not so easy to buy water without Joshua. We were able to get everything except vanilla extract, corn syrup (for my peanut brittle) and limes. So Jayden and David will have to go hunt those things down for us tomorrow. I may go or I may stay here and work on cooking and class and just let them go. When we got back from the Park n Shop it was almost 6:00 so time to finish up getting ready and head to class. Tonight we had two topics: Managing Meetings and Personal and Corporate Ethics. We ended up finishing a little early, which was nice. We don't have many chapters left. At the end of the term they have assignments to complete but not new material to cover. It is a very hectic pace. Everyone was still up when I got out of class, and Jayden and I got to play a little bit. She likes to play Ring Around the Rosie; she says, "down!" But she wasn't "falling" tonight. And Joshua just laughs and laughs at us. I also got her on video saying most of the words she says now. Oh, and she prays -- it is so adorable. If you ask her to pray or tell her it's time to pray (like at mealtime), she bows her head and starts talking. She does say Amen, and it's clearer now than it used to be, but she usually doesn't say it until after we do. She and David were ready to go to bed before too long; Joshua did his now-usual protesting. So now he's asleep in his chair in the living room; for some reason that's what he wants these days. I'll move him to his bed when I go to bed later. While I've been up tonight I've made my fruitcake and meatballs for the party; my cheeseball is softening so I can stir it up and make it into a ball; my chicken for my chicken salad sandwiches is cooked; my eggs are boiled (devilled eggs) -- and I guess that's all. I'll get a few more things done tonight and probably finish up everything I can tomorrow. We're expecting two boxes, one from each Mom; hopefully they'll arrive today or tomorrow. If not, we'll still get them, just not before Christmas. I know both Moms will be disappointed if that happens. But when it's not under your control you just go with whatever happens. We received a Christmas card today from friends in Alabama; it was postmarked Dec 9! Hopefully the boxes will arrive quicker than the card did. So today will probably be a "home" day, at least for the most part; there is much to do to get ready for Saturday, and not much time on Saturday to do any of the preparation. We are getting out tonight, though, to see The Nativity Story. I'm really looking forward to that. This will kind of begin our Christmas celebrations. We will have something "Christmas" every day between tonight and Tuesday night. I think this will be a great way to focus on Christ this Season. Then tomorrow is the Shue Yan Christmas party at 12:30; class from 3:00-7:00, and our Christmas party from 7:00-9:00. Sunday morning we'll head to church in Kowloon for the 10:30 service; then we plan on spending the day in Kowloon finding the bird market, the goldfish market, and the flower market (sounds interesting!). Then depending on how things are going, we may go back to the church for the 5pm candles & carols service. Monday morning we'll get up and read the Christmas story in our pjs, fix a nice big breakfast, and head to Disneyland! Very cool. We've been told it may be crowded, but I think we're going to take our chances. We've also been told they're very good at crowd control here. I think it will be special to spend Christmas Day at Disney. Tuesday will be a "home day," except we've been invited to go to the home group Christmas party Tuesday night. Rachel has to email me though with the details, or we won't be able to go! There's still time for that, though. So that's our upcoming plans. I've been looking forward to this weekend for a while. It's been close to 70 degrees during the day and dips down into the 50s at night. It's funny, though; the people here are bundled up like it's freezing. We see people in coats and boots and scarves -- everyone, it seems. (I haven't seen gloves or mittens, though.) The students have asked me several times if I'm cold because I don't dress all bundled up like they do. I did wear my coat to class tonight, though; my new $10 coat I bought at Stanley Market. The classroom is not heated or air conditioned, so it's pretty much the same as the outside temperature. I ended up keeping my coat on the whole time. I think I'll go work on pictures now. Aleecia