The LambCutlet Disorganisation

14th of February — Did I ever mention I really hate Valentine’s Day?

• Got myself out of bed sometime mid-morning and it dawned on me that I had already spent 1 week in 香港 (Hong Kong)! As both 卓欣 (Cheuk Yan) and 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) were back to work now with the public holidays over, I’d having to be doing a lot more fending for myself and keeping myself amused. So much to do, yet so little time to do it in!
• Morning tasks were doing a number of errands outstanding, first was to collect the washed and ironed clothes from the laundry, which was literally just across the road from the hotel. Have to say they did a really great job too, so much so I had great reservations in messing up the clothes they had immaculately pressed for me!
• Next was a quick phone call to see if I could get hold of Mr. Eric Ho, the current manager of the Police Officer’s Club whom had advised my father, himself the assistant manager back in the 1980’s there, to give him a call once I was in the territory. Eventually did get hold of Mr. Ho himself and arranged to meet him at the Police Officer’s Club tomorrow at 14:30 HKT
• Time was now somewhere approaching noon and got a call from uncle that I hadn’t forgotten about the fact we’d arranged for a 飲茶 (Yum Cha) with himself, his wife and my maternal aunt at 14:00 HKT. So the now familar bus ride on the Nos. 7 to 尖沙嘴 (Tsim Sha Tsui) was in order and waited dutifully as instructed at the flag poles between the Star Ferry Pier and the Ocean Terminal & Harbour City complex
• On meeting uncle, it turned out his wife was ahead at the Chinese restaurant with ticket waiting for a table for the 4 of us and he was just waiting for my maternal aunt to arrive on her bus. The chosen place for our 飲茶 (Yum Cha) was at the opposite end of Ocean Terminal & Harbour City which on walking through wasn’t all that different to what I remember as a child, just different shops and more buildings had been connected up to make a huge shopping complex!
• When we arrived, uncle’s wife was still waiting as today was a pretty busy day for the restaurant. So much so that smallish groups of people would share the tables for normally a single group of a dozen people. With that, it wasn’t such a long wait till we got our table, shared with three other groups
• A bewildering arrange of dumplings, steamed buns, other dim-sum, congee and so forth were ordered. All a very good thing since I was by this time I was rather hungry having not managed to get breakfast, let alone lunch! As we ate, uncle invited me over for dinner, telling me that it’d save the hassle in having to hunt for food myself in the confusing streets of 香港 (Hong Kong) and considering (apparently!) how skinny I am already, loosing more weight by not having a proper meal wasn’t something the family was going to accept at all…
• Feeling I gobbled enough food for 3 people by the time we finished, I was let loose to wonder around 尖沙嘴 (Tsim Sha Tsui) for a bit before travelling back up to 樂富 (Lok Fu) to uncle’s for dinner sometime around 19:00 HKT or there abouts. Whilst out and about, manage to check out the outside of the Hong Kong Art Museum whom were running an Impressionism exhibition though once glace at the queue of 500 strong people, I gave it a pass and left it for another day. Still managed to take a number of photographs as I walked along the Avenue of Stars though!
• 19:00 HKT was looming so this time it was on to the MTR and get myself from 尖沙嘴 (Tsim Sha Tsui) to 樂富 (Lok Fu) for some dinner at uncle’s. Maternal grandmother was pleased to see me as ever and food was already left for me, since the others (uncle, aunt, uncle’s wife and uncle’s wife’s younger brother) were quite involved with their 麻雀 (Mah Jong) plus all three daughter’s were absent. I knew the youngest, 卓琪 (Cheuk Kai) is hardly ever in the house and the eldest, 卓欣 (Cheuk Yan) was to be doing whatever married couples do on Valentine’s Day. 卓兒 (Cheuk Yi) on the other hand did mention the night before she was to be taking me somewhere though too had mysteriously disappeared and not answering her phone!
• Being a little bit stuck for what to do and time now 21:00 HKT, I thanked my family for dinner and came up with the bright idea whilst walking to the MTR station that I would pop over to island side to Causeway Bay for a night time wonder. Had yet to venture there during the evening since I’ve come back plus I really needed to get my route figured out if I was to meet Mr. Eric Ho on time tomorrow at the Police Offficer’s Club
• The MTR ride was efficiently uneventful and once in the thick of it amongst the crowds in Causeway Bay with late night shoppers. Inbetween the occasional familiar landmarks, I have to honestly say I did managed to get myself rather lost! I did eventually manage to locate the underground walkway, the only way to cross Gloucester Road and passed the Noon Day Gun as I headed by the Police Officer’s Club
• Was reassuring to see that the club, plus it’s neighbour the Royal Hong Kong Yatch Club, were more or less the same after one and a bit decades. The smelly waters of the typhoon shelter still lingered in the area though just like 15 years ago, so despite all other places I had come across so far being much much cleaner they had been in the past, there’s always one exception to the rule! ;)
• Confident of where I needed to be and how I was to get to the Police Officer’s Club the next day, I just had to take a few more night shots of Causeway Bay and carried on by foot to Wan Chi. From there, I took the scenic route back to the hotel consisting of a tram to Central, the Star Ferry across the harbour and finally the ever present Nos. 7 bus back to 窩打老道 (Waterloo Road)

Shower, bed, sleep… have to fend for myself now remember? :P