17-22 May - Ms. Wing_May goes to China - her 'tour-group' manages stops in LiJiang and Kuming (amongst other places). While in LiJiang Ms._May stays in a hotel with internet access and I actually got a couple of e-mails. I HOPE there will be pictures when she returns and we can post them here, so you can see where she went and what she saw.
Mr. Bill returned to the USA on 9 May - thanks to United Airlines... He had hoped to teach GIS - Computer Mapping on 10 May at the local Community College. However, there were not enough students signed-up for the class so it didn't "make" so he didn't teach.... IF you're at all interested, there's a GPS "Track Log" showing the bulk of his return trip - overlaid onto "GoogleEarth" images of the earth - shows some very interesting things when one "Zooms In":... ... ... Link to 'track-log-file' (not much good 'by itself') - overlaid onto Google Earth
And - yet-another gathering - this time of sailing-types...
(from left to right: Mr. Yan, Ms. Rita, Mr. & Ms. you know who, and Ms. Janet)
Last night (Monday night) we had a 'Motorola SPS dinner' (the few (and the great)) that are still around...
here's a smaller-version of our attendees.. left to right, C.M. Chu, Lily Yung, Bill / May, Daisy Wu and JM. - keep in touch - gang!
Last night (Saturday night) we met-up with a few friends to have a 'sailing dinner' - at a local seafood restaurant. After a number of 'fits and starts' we finally ended up in different restaurant, and had great visiting, conversation, and etc...
Here's a picture of the attendees, the waiter at the restaurant kindly cooperated and took a couple of pictures of all of us... from left to right: Mr. Chris, Ms. Josephy, Mr. Bill, Ms. Yung, Mr. Crazy, Ms. Gallie (with her eyes closed, sorry)!, Ms. May and - finally , Mr. Andy...
Amongst things we've done in Hong Kong for the last week (other than EAT EAT EAT) - we have visited A LOT of friends and such - and eaten at A LOT of great restaurants. One was a Thai restaurant that we used to rollerblade or ride our bicycles to - this was right near our home in "Sha Lan Villas" - anyway - Aggie and Colin took us there last Thursday (I think) and it was rewarding to see the restaurant still there and the food still very tasty.
A couple of more pictures of our tasty dinner at the Thai Restaurant near our old home at 'Sha Lan Villas'. Mr. C and Ms. A were helpful in a number of other ways - both when we lived here - years ago - and used to do some boardsailing with them - as well as more than helpful, this visit, with things they helped-us-out-with...
Here's, also, a picture of how they will 'save' a BIG TREE when they are doing some rennovation / land-work here in Hong Kong - hard to see, but you 'get the picture'!
AND - just for fun - here's how they will 'save' a SMALL TREE (just look to the right of the tree to see the crane in the background (yeah - it's distant, but the tree is in the 'foreground' but you still get a sense of scale!) - gives you some concept of the scale of this SMALL TREE - and a scale of the way things are done in Hong Kong when it comes to 'saving trees'... They don't pussy-foot around here - engineering is engineering and it's usually done very well...
We left for Hong Kong (BEFORE) OH Dark Thirty on Friday, 27th April and arrived in Hong Kong late-afternoon - Saturday the 28th of April - thanks to United Airlines / US Airways for the transportation - a VERY LONG TRIP - mind you - something like 21 hours elapsed time (door to door) via Chicago's O'Hare airport and a trip (almost) over the North Pole (mind you my USA-based Garmin GPSMap 76CSx worked flawlessly until it's batteries ran out) - there is a WHOLE LOT OF NOTHING up there near the North Pole - a whole lot of ICE, of Water, of COLD, and of very very little else
...
Since we have been in Hong Kong we have visited with A LOT of friends (from Mr. Bill's_Motorola_ days and from sailing and other things... We've eaten a LOT of very very good Chinese food, did some e-mail, bought some things and generally got re-acquainted with the area - it's been a LONG TIME for Mr. Bill (8 years) - and the city has definitely changed a LOT... What hasn't changed is that the MTR / KCR (public transport) are still as inexpensive and efficient as ever (even though they are both about double the size and carry a lot more passengers than 8 years ago)... the Government is better (we applied for new "Smart" (with silicon chip on them) ID cards - like a US-Driver's license and Social Security Card (number) all rolled-into one... - Mr. Bill learned that to keep his 'right of abode' - he must return to the territory at least once every three years or so - but based on the value and the savings of just the little bit of shopping I've done so far this won't be a 'stretch' at all! - great savings on a lot of things - so far only some sewing stuff but later some clothes and other things!!!
We also learned about 'text-messaging' on our (USA-based) cell-phone(s)... This is something any 12 year old in the US can do but Mr. Bill has had significant trouble (like he sent the same message 6 times to someone recently). However, we will persevere with new-technology and maybe someday we'll figure this all out?! On the other hand I've tried three times to send a picture over our borrowed picture-phone and that has continued to elude me! - more challenges in the future, huh?
While staying in Ms. May's Dad's flat in "downtown" Tsim Sha Tsui (the tourist district) we used an 'outside' laundry service - not bad at all for $3 US...- Here's Ms. May with the laundry bag on our way to the laundry one day...
last updated: 15:44 p.m. Tuesday, 29th May 2007; revID: 1k ( from: Groveland, Florida - where there is too much wind to fly!)