Two weeks later

Well, over two weeks have passed since we returned from our trip and now we are acticly working with the builders to obtain completion as soon as possible. There are lots of little things to be done but on the whoole all of it could be completed within three weeks. Lets see what happens.
The glass link building was finally finished last Friday and they have started with the plaster board etc. We hope to see the electrician and some others tomorrow to get the ball rolling and with a view for us to regain out house from the building site.
The front driveway is now virtually complete and together with the new paving and decking at the back of the house its beginning to look like home again.
On wednesday the 23rd the turf will be laid in the back garden and we are waiting for the new top soil in the front garden to find its own leve before we put more turf on.
Using turf is cheating a bit and a lot more expensive but it is an instant fix.
Photos will be added when all is finished.

We are home and back in to the fray

The flight from Hong Kong was twelve and a half hours long, but this was only after we had an aborted take off. Low pressure in the tyres was blamed.
We arrived back to the cold and saw Piplin House for the first time in almost 10 weeks.
The building development had moved forward but not as much as we had hoped for. The framework for the link building was up but we are still waiting for the glass to be fitted which should be very soon.
We soon got in to the swing of cleaning the place.but at least now we can start to see the end, perhaps another 8 weeks max.
This week the weather has been very kind to us and will enable the development to continue.
I am not planning to take any more photographs of the house until it is finished.
We both keep looking back at the photos we have taken during our NZ and OZ trip and watch them with a tear in our eye.

It’s time to go home

A model being photographed in the mall

Well this is our last day in Hong Kong and we leave tonight at about 1130 pm. The weather today was still grey but it only started to rain when we were looking for a taxi to take us to the Airport train station.

In the morning we roamed the streets and shopping malls which were quite interesting. In the Pacific Place Mall, there is one complete floor with more of the major Fashion Brands than you can wave a stick at, from the Chanel Shop to Armani to Salvatore Ferragarmo to shops and designers so famous that I have not heard of them.

The walk through Central at lunchtime was very busy. Most people in Hong Kong go for lunch and the eating places are full. We came across a fantastic food emporium called grEAT which had the most amazing selection of fish, meat, cheese, wine and a group of chefs making Sushi and Sashimi for lunch take-away. The prices were very high but so was the quality. There was nothing like this when we first arrived in Hong Kong.

We packed our bags and left the room around mid afternoon and then went for dinner at Dan Ryan’s Chicago Grill & Bar, where we enjoyed great steaks and a nice bottle of Californian wine.

Getting a cab was difficult for reasons of rain, but we caught the free bus and arrived at the Train Station for check in. During the check in process the girl looked surprised at the computer and then called somebody and we both thought, Oh No not offload. Anyway it was because she was concerned that our seats were not together and so she rang to check the change was possible for what looks like a full flight.

This Blog is being written whilst sitting in the Virgin Clubhouse in Hong Kong and we hope to leave on time.

Well this is the last BLOG from us on this amazing trip that we have had and we have both enjoyed it so much but now it is time to go home and assist in the final stages of the house development. Incidentally a mate of mine in Austin (Texas, USA) started his new house 6 weeks after we started and theirs is now finished. A mere 4500 sq ft house with 5 bathrooms, 6 bedrooms etc etc, where did we go wrong. Never, Never trust your builder.

Our day around Hong Kong

After breakfast we headed by MTR to Wanchai Computer Store to buy a new battery for our notebook. The current battery will last about 20 minutes before it needs power and so we decided to get one here as it would be cheaper.

We were successful and then left to catch the bus to Stanley Market to do a bit of shopping. The weather at the moment is wet, and very dark with grey skies and not particularly pleasant.

The double-decker bus trip to Stanley is quite exiting and not really great for the faint hearted like Noel. This thing whizzed around corners missing other buses by centimetres and swaying over the very bumpy roads with drops of several hundred feet just by the side of the road.

The walk around Stanley Market brought back pleasant memories for us both as we used to wander round the market on a Sunday with two little children clutching our hands before we went to MacDonald’s. This place has changed a lot since then and is much more professional and also more expensive.

We decided to have a snack at a waterfront café and so we sat down and ordered some fried rice with a view of the Stanley Bay only a removal wagon turned up and blocked the view.

We headed back to town and the Hotel but left again for Causeway Bay area to a restaurant called ‘Milano’ which Noel used when he regularly visited Hong Kong. The food as usual was excellent with ‘Rack of Lamb’ to die for, leaves the rack of lamb at Gianni’s restaurant in Weybridge looking not so good.

A final walk back from the restaurant to the Hotel and we stopped to watch a group of quite middle aged men playing football on a hard and wet surface. We think the Goalkeeper our end was about 80.

Walking through the streets at night with all the coloured lights etc is fascinating and we both look back with pleasure at the years that web lived here.

After 2800 kilometres we left OZ

We had a slow start this morning while we sorted out our suitcases for air travel. On the way down in the lift for breakfast we noticed that the clocks were still wrong by one hour. We knew that the clocks were changing around the world this weekend and were now worried that we had got up too early but we were OK.

However we arrived at the Airport about 12:15 and noticed that clocks there were also showing 11:15, Great for an Airport to have the wrong times shown everywhere. We understand that Queensland never changes it’s clock, see earlier Blog, but it would also appear that either NSW won’t change when other states change but the doorman at the Hotel explained that it was only Sydney that would not toe the line. However nobody seems to have told the computers that control the Government Clocks. All very confusing.

The Virgin flight left on time and we arrived in Hong Kong early along with many other flights so immigration was packed and very slow compared with my past experience of visiting this place many times.

We took the train to Hong Kong Island and arrived at the Hotel around 22:45 local, just in time to have a cup of tea and go to bed.