Monday 18th September

Abi woke without crying this morning, and not starving hungry as one would have expected after not eating much last night and having had so much excitement in the ball room. It being a very comfortable sunny / hazy morning we decided to make an excursion to HK Park to see the walk through aviary. It’s taking us less time to leave the house now, but Abi is so patient as she hears “let’s go out” then an hour later we actually leave with our bags of supplies.

Caught the No.23 bus from under the overpass. Managed to get a window seat so that Abi could watch the passing traffic and buildings, which she did for a while then decided that the video monitor in front of our seat was much more interesting cos it showed muppet type characters. She kept on saying “elmo” and held on to the grabrail until it was time to disembark.

The Bird Park is behind the main financial / law area of HK. It’s at the side of the expressway and offers an interesting view of nature contrasted with shiny skyscrapers. There were cascading water feature which first caught our attention, and Abi wanted to walk up the steps to touch the water. Then at the top she was distracted by the koi and terrapin pond, calling out “yu yu” (fish) excitedly as she toddled between rocks for a better view. There were lotus flowers in the pond with perfectly circular leaves turned up at the edges. Then she saw the waterfall in the distance and walked quickly there. it was steamy and sunny, good thing we applied sunscreen to her cos she wouldn’t wear a hat (too hot). We distracted Abi from the waterfall and made our way to the outside of the conservatory. There were triangular spots of light from the rooflights above which Abi seemed to find fascinating – she ran between them calling “triangle”. People smiled as they walked past.

We made our way to the open aviary, walking through 3 sets of vertical chain mozzie doors before entering the netted enclosure via an elevated timber walkway. Abi was more interested in the chains than the birdies. Eventually she saw a bird and called out “birdie”. After a while the well camouflaged feathers became too difficult to see and she wanted to look down at the tropical leaves and stuff. There were signs warning against touching any birds or bird poo, and we seemed to find interesting viewpoints just where the birds had made a deposit on the handrail. Some of the birds were all white, some bright green like Australian parrots. Most were brown, ochre or blue. Occasionally some would fly past close to our heads that you could hear their wings. The guard warned us to put our umbrella away (very sunny and hot) cos birds might fly into it. Abi protested cos she wanted to hold the umbrella and was bored, but as soon as the guard spoke to her she stopped whining.

We soon make our way out of the aviary enclosure cos Abi was getting hungry. Unfortunately the next stop on the path was the kiddie play area. Guess what Abi wanted to do? That’s right she played on the slides and stuff and even made friends with an expat child with his mother there. After about 20 minutes we distracted her with a drink from the water fountain nearby, then a sandwich box was pulled out and we said “sik sik” (eat eat). She rushed on over. We sat in the shade as Abi inspected the sandwich, pulled it apart and discarded the cheese contents and proceeded to eat
the plain white bread triangle, offering one each to papa and mummy.

Lunch was finished off with an apple which Abi held and nibbled with gusto and persistence. Quite possibly she was still hungry. Anyway she didn’t protest getting into the stroller as the adults contemplated the long walk to Pacific Place for lunch. It was the nearest shopping centre there and we followed the stream of office workers from nearby buildings as they snaked across the HK Park and its water features to yet another set of escalators leading down to Pacific Place. We kept on seeing people holding bags of lunch purchases and it made us determined to get there. Felt so touristy but who cares.

Down 3 escalators to get into Pacific Place – suddenly realised that Abi had fallen asleep holding her half eaten apple! Regretted the stroller not being able to recline cos her head kept on rolling around, so finally tilted her back for a better sleeping position (not so good for the pusher’s back though). Didn’t like the look of Pacific Place Eating Hall – like DJ’s food hall with the trendy packaging for pre-packaged food plus there were eateries and a woman pushing mooncake sales. Lots of baguettes etc for the expat heavy crowd.

Decided to follow the stream of workers walking across to Queensway Plaza – surely there must be food places amongst the glam fashion shops here? Sorry the only place remotely food like is the Park n Shop (supermarket). Nothing else here except fashion, cosmetics, jewellery, and lifts to commercial offices. OK, lets check out the park n shop. Hey, it’s got grilled sandwiches and freshly made chinese pancakes! So that’s why so may people are pouring through the joint! Cost of teriyaki chicken panini HK$29 was okay. At last we sat on one of the few public benches available and ate while balancing Abi still sleeping and tilted back. Saw some other parents with kids in strollers - we seemed so incongruous amongst the black suits walking through this 1980s shiny glam sterile surroundings.

Made our way to the Admiralty MTR via old ladies trying to sell raffle tickets at the bottom of the escalators and entrance to MTR. During our train trip Abi woke up and seemed not too fussed to be where she was. Decided to get off at North Point instead of our usual Fortress Hill so that we could pick up some shirts and sandals for Chris which he had scouted out yesterday. Gee the lift locations in the MTRs are really tucked away, you’d never find them except for the line of tactile ground surface indicator tiles leading they way. 2 lift rides later we were at the surface – quite unusual cos normally there is a flight of steps leading to the street level.

Bought 4 shirts for Chris at Crocodile, Abi charmed the sales lady while she showed Chris the different colours etc. When it came time to pay, Abi insisted on holding one of the shirts, and wouldn’t let them remove the anti-theft thing until we showed her how all the shirts had to have that procedure done. Reluctantly she let go, then promptly forgot about it once the shirts were put into the plastic bag. She refused the sales lady’s offer of a smaller but empty shopping bag.

Next stop the sports shoe shop (only men’s sporting gear on sale). Between nibbles of animal crackers (“biscuit”) Abi walked and checked out the shoes on display. As Chris took of his shoe to try on some sports sandals, Abi indicated that she wanted to take one shoe off also and promptly put her foot into one of the sandals left on the floor. She acknowledged that it was funny as we laughed. Even the sales staff smiled. Pretty good price for Nikko sports thongs.

Then a bad precedence: gave in to Abi’s whining in a bookshop by buying her a Pooh bear toy so that we could leave. We had spent a good half hour browsing through the kids section and she was very good staying in the stroller all that time while we showed her some books. But none were suitable or that I could read in Chinese. So the toy was my guilt being expressed.

We finally made our way back to the apartment. Abi immediately started to play with the Megabloks bus. But she was whiny so carrot was peeled and cut alongside her playing. Must have been really hungry cos she tried to eat the raw carrot stick. Made 2 minute noodles plus carrots and last night’s corn and peas and chicken drumstick. Not interested in anything except the noodles and carrots and cheese slice and some peas. Had to wash her straight afterwards cos there was noodle everywhere. And it was only 5pm. Let Abi play with the new bath toy – fishing for bath foam stickers. Couldn’t get used to the fishing bit (too much co-ordination) but the sticker part was a hit. Then Abi got progressively frustrated as she tried to stick the bits of foam on curved parts of the bath and they kept falling off. Put the stickers onto ceramic wall tile to show her how they stuck, then she imitated straightaway. After we dressed Abi gathered up the foam stickers and took them into the living room where she got VERY frustrated trying to stick them to the painted wall! had to explain to her that the foam stickers were only for playing in the bathroom, just like the toy fish and bucket. Amazingly she accepted this.


Decided to get photo prints then some dinner at MX (Maxim’s), and to take Abi along!! She was yawning as we surveyed the dusk view over the balcony, but quickly moved to the front door once we said let’s go out. She was fascinated by the sheer brightness of the shops and tall buildings in night mode. Wouldn’t let me take her into the restaurant until she had taken a good long look up at the lights. Ordered a steam fish dinner set which had a 200mm long mandarin fish with bowl of rice, medicinal tasting soup, blanched lettuce and tea. All for $HK38 which is about AUD$6. Abi was keen to try the rice, but recoiled once she found it was “hot hot”. After cooling some rice in a separate bowl we were pleasantly surprised that she ate spoonfuls of it. She pointed to each of our rice in turn and said “papa, abi, mama”. We felt so pleased that this could be a turning point in her rice appreciation. The distraction of the growing throng of diners and the view of traffic out the window could have played a part.

After unsuccessfully trying some yogurt back at home, it was bedtime for Abi. She quietly let us change her nappy and clothes, then only got halfway through the bedtime story before closing the book and heading for the bed. A short while later Chris emerged from the silent room. He rewarded himself with a night time jaunt around North Point (took a tram ride to the terminus how exciting – not).

How will we cope with Abi once we return to our sleepy lifestyle in Lilyfield? Will we have to contend with 8-9pm bedtimes and a 1 hour daytime nap? Will we be able to provide enough stimulation for Abi to come close to the HK excitement (not that she will be able to take so much excitement everyday, but still,,,) Does this mean that we can eat out for dinners more often and bring Abi with us? Time will tell.