It's a nice day for a white wedding...er, I mean pink.

Here are some wedding pics, for those who may be interested in seeing them. We wish we had more time to plan and to arrange for all of our friends and families to be there. It was a great day.

I clearly did not wear a traditional dress, as there was really no time for that. I am not normally a "pink" person and in spite of my daintiness (no laughter, please), I am not very "princess-ey". But on this occasion, with very little time for selecting a dress and not really time for major alterations, a princess-ey pink dress caught my eye. I shopped non-stop for days after work. It was exhausting. Nothing ever fits me because I am short and (eh-hem) shapely. Not to mention, I really do NOT like to shop. So, while trying on dress after dress, I kept passing the clearance rack and seeing this princess-ey dress. It was not at all what I was looking for, but it kept calling to me saying "You know you want to be a princess for just one day and you like to play dress-up, you freak, so just try me on...". And lo and behold, it fit. Except for the length which was a minimal alteration. That is how the pink dress came about. And I loved the princess for a day feeling, it was great. And I love a good bargain, too -- BONUS!

Now that I have bored everyone to tears about my dress, here is the good stuff...

We were married at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. More specifically, the ceremony was held in the Chinese Garden area of the Botanical Gardens. It was a place that is apparently not highly sought after for weddings, as it was available on short notice...of course, that could be because of the oppressive July heat, as well. Either way, we were there and it was lovely. There was a very cool artist display there at that time, as well. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Chihuly for more info. It was pretty cool.

My favorite picture is the one of my feet...in the bathroom. This pic is courtesy of Mae. I love that one! She must understand my sense of toilet-humor. Hehe.

Mmm...soup...er, I mean noodle soup!

I like to cook. I prefer quick recipes that have some nutritional value. But I don't like them to taste "nutritional".

I made the most delicious chicken noodle soup with an Asian motif and I am going to share:

Ingredients:


3 cups chicken stock
3-4 cups water
grated fresh ginger, to taste
2-6 cloves of garlic, to taste
2-3 T. soy sauce
2 small red chillies, thinly sliced
2-3 chicken breasts
approx 1 lb hokkien noodles (or any noodle, really)
fresh asparagus, maybe a 1/2 lb.,
cut into bite-sized pieces
4 green onions, chopped

This really only takes about 20-25 minutes. Seriously.
1)Combine stock, water, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and chillies into a large pot; cover, bring to a boil.
2)Add raw chicken breasts, bring back to a boil. Then simmer for about 15 minutes when the chicken should be cooked through. Remove chicken from stock mixture.
3)Return stock mixture to boil, add noodles, separate noodles with a fork. Add asparagus and some of the green onion. Simmer, until noodles are tender.
4)Meanwhile, slice up the chicken.
5)Divide noodles and soup into serving bowls and top with chicken slices; may also top with raw green onion and chillies if you like that sort of thing.


There is only 6g of fat per serving, this recipe serves 3-4 people.

And I thought it was delicious and so did Cybr (and he isn't a big fan of veggies).

This is the end result:

Please pass the Pepto.

I am cooking a steaming hot bowl of rice for Chini.

Once again, she has scrounged up something delectably disgusting to eat outside. There are so many things to choose from here. Her favorites are dead crustaceans, wet/squishy cat food, dried poop, and anything else that you can imagine that will make you want to puke in your mouth a little bit...

This bad behavior of hers has only one result...diarrhea. Bad things are happening in her cute little girl belly.

This is the number one SUCK thing about living in Hong Kong...NOT HAVING A YARD so the dogs can just poop and I can be none the wiser. I miss the days of just opening and closing a door and the dogs just do their business. Ahh...the blissful ignorance. Now, I am all into their business. Not by choice, by shear necessity. Poop pick-up is necessary here since the grassy areas are public areas.

Imagine for a moment, if you will...having to pick up dog poop is one thing but the added twist of having it be in a non-solid form is just more than I am prepared to handle. This is where the Pepto and rice come into play. These two things combined will settle and solidify her ickyness. (Please don't try this at home without consent from your vet.)

I know, I am gross. I am sharing entirely too much info. Go ahead and say it, "TMI!!!".
The way I see it, THIS is all part of living in Hong Kong compared to living in the Midwestern US.

Gross or not...I just want everyone to share my experience.

And I like to think I am grossing you all out, too. Hehe.

UPDATE:

Chini had to have a trip to the vet shortly after I posted this entry due to passing an enormous amount of blood.

As it turns out, her diarrhea was due to poisoning. She was poisoned by our grass. More specifically from the insecticides that are sprayed on the grass and are activated by our polluted rain.

Apparently, per her vet, it absorbs through the skin, through sores and goes to the blood. And, since she licks her feet and chews her nails, she digests the toxins as well.

So, she is having to take four kinds of medicine to correct her digestive system and liver function. And she has to eat yogurt once a day to restore good bacteria. And her feet must be washed with soapy water everytime she is on the grass to prevent further digestion.

The vet said it should have caused permanent damage. He said the reason for all the blood was that all of her intestinal lining is gone.

She still has a belly ache and her little butt is sore, but I can tell she feels better already...

It was an accident...I swear

Here's my story and I'm stickin' to it...We acquired these lovely creatures from McDonalds. Even though we really don't like McDonalds much, who can resist a Happy Meal toy of Hello Kitty characters. We have ChocoCat, Kuromi, Bad Bats Maru, and Hello Kitty herself...

If only I had remembered that they were sealed in plastic, we could have prevented this tragedy.

Now, they are all dead having asphyxiated in their plastic death shrouds.

I have to live with the guilt for the rest of my life...

Okay, I'm over it.

I do have this obsession with Hello Kitty and friends. I always have, since I was a three year old kid who received a pair of Hello Kitty scissors that looked kinda like this (only mine were WAY cooler and they were red and white):

I have been in love ever since...and it has become increasingly more difficult to locate Hello Kitty merchandise in the states. You can do it, but it is nothing like Hong Kong...I am in Hello Kitty heaven over here, it is everywhere and I love it.

I wish my name was Hello Kitty, or at least Kitty, which is funny because one of Cybr's co-workers has the English name Kitty and she hates it because everyone says "Hello, Kitty" and it drives her crazy (we discussed this over dinner one evening). I told her I would LOVE THAT and she thinks I am crazy, but that is okay with me. I still think it would be cool to have that name. Hehe.

I have one of these back home in storage: and I miss it. I just have to hold onto the hope that someday I will be reunited with my toaster.

I also wear Hello Kitty pajamas. Yeah, I'm sexy. You know it. (insert modified rendition of "I'm Too Sexy" song to include Hello Kitty pajamas.)

There will be no pictures of my pj's, you'll have to take my word...super sexy Hello Kitty pj's, YEAH!

Blah, blah, blah...

That is how I am feeling today and for no apparent reason. I just feel blah. Not bad, not good, not really anything.

I am sure it will pass.

I think too much, that is the real source of my problem. I can't stop, my mind never seems to shut off. I haven't been sleeping well because of it, I go through phases like that.

So, I will just maunder a bit...

I read a lot in order to focus my mind on something other than the constant reel of thoughts and images. I just finished all three "Books of Blood" by Clive Barker. I read them back when I was in junior high, but wanted to read them again since it had been a while and I enjoyed every morbid detail. Before that I read "The Rising" and the sequel "City of the Dead" by Brian Keene. Those were great. I was on edge waiting for the sequel to come out. It was just as good as the first book. I also recently read a few biographies on severely abused children. Books like "Sickened", "Ghost Girl" and "Behind Closed Doors". I have this morbid fixation on these terribly sad, true stories. I can't get enough of them for some reason. I think it captivates me that the people writing these stories really experienced such horrible atrocities and survived. I relate to their strengths and weaknesses in a number of ways, as I am sure many people do.

So, when I read I don't think as much. I sing, too. It makes my mind slow down.

Today I am listening to and singing Tori Amos - "Happy Phantom".

Kung Hei Fat Choi...

which loosely translates to "Congratulations and be prosperous"...it is what is said here to acknowledge the Chinese (or Lunar) New Year and 2007 is the year of the Pig.

We are going to go to a wet/dry market specifically set up for the new year that is in Victoria Park. You can buy flowers, new panties, and all other new year traditions. We will be cautious to avoid any taboo signs of bad luck, like speaking of the dead, buying new shoes or pants, buying books, getting a haircut, and sweeping the floor.

It is good luck to wear new clothes and have fresh flowers/plants in your home. I am sure there is MUCH more, but that is all I can think of right now.

I will post pictures and an update as the four day (in HK) holiday progresses over the weekend...

UPDATE:

We went to Victoria Park to the market, which was really more like a fair. There were balloons and stuffed animals and cotton candy. It was SO crowded that all I could see was heads on all sides of me and balloons in the air (it sucks being short sometimes). I had to ask Cybr to tell me if he saw anything worth taking a closer look at.

I did get shoved around a lot. The whole crowd seemed to move as one in many areas and people completely ignored the "One Way" signs for crowd control.

At one point, the crowd seemed to disperse some and I saw some interesting merchandise to look at. There is probably three feet of open space around me, yet one crazy woman is still shoving me from behind. Seriously, I am NOT moving. GO AROUND!!! I was beginning to get a little wild-eyed when I turned around and told her "I am NOT moving." She got it.

I did buy some beautiful orange flowers that B Doo has been terrorizing since they first came through the door. Clearly, I chose the wrong flower to be in our home. I need one that is cat proof...like a plastic flower might survive!

Considering how insanely crowded the market was, we opted not to go to the parade. We really wanted to see the dragon and all the other cool stuff they do but after seeing the market and heeding the advise of Cybr's co-worker's...yeah, we wouldn't have seen a damn thing. So, we chilled out on Sunday and watched Fantastic Four. Not very festive, but we had fun anyway.

We tried to catch the local Discovery Bay festivities on Monday, but we were too late for that. So, we watched Robots and went out for dinner. Good thing for us they are featuring good movies on cable TV this month!

All in all, it was a pretty uneventful holiday for us. Although, we both had stomach issues that were unspeakable at different times over the holiday...staying home is recommended here in case of toilet emergencies, as finding a toilet can be very difficult out in public here.

Oh, by the way, for anyone who may have read Cybr's blog entry regarding this holiday (see his link below)...He says "Gung Hei Fat Choi" on his post and mine says "Kung Hei Fat Choi". These are both correct. His is in Cantonese and mine is in Mandarin.

Okay...here are some of the things I saw at the market. Keep in mind that I couldn't see much!

In order from top left to bottom right...entrance to fair, flower market area, funny year of the pig display, crazy piggie, "uh...what the hell does this mean?!?" sign, yin-yang piggie balloons, caged zebra balloon, free range giraffe balloon, and the always cool SUPER MUSHROOM!!

Trailblazing and gasping for air...

above: the paved trail crossing over a stream that becomes a small waterfall further down the trail.

We took a hike about a month ago that I have been wanting to share pictures of. It is the same trail that the "Doggie Day Trip" post covers, only the full scale version of it. The "Doggie" trip was just the first half hour of the full journey, whereas we had previously hiked the entire trail.

Anyway, we heard about this trail from a neighbor (our dogs play together sometimes). He said it was a great hike and it takes about an hour and a half. Of course, he and his family are physically fit.

That being said, it took Cybr and I about three hours. It goes over mountains, is paved with sidewalks or stairs the WHOLE way, is very steep and seemingly about 2/3 of the trail is UPhill. In our defense, we did stop to take pictures frequently throughout the journey so we aren't THAT out of shape. Okay, we are. But who is keeping track? It's not like we had mountains to climb back home in order to prepare ourselves.

I digress (very frequently, hehe).

Our neighbor told us where the trail entrance is and we were a little surprised at the location. We knew where it was, but we thought it lead to housing and had no idea it was a trail. He also gave us some much needed advice, saying that when we first begin on this trail it will seem as though we are walking through peoples houses. He says it IS the trail, so just keep going. Yeah, uh, it doesn't seem like you are walking through peoples houses...you ARE walking through peoples houses. If he hadn't advised us on this particular subject, we would have turned back. It seemed intrusive and kinda rude to us, but we plodded on per his advice. And it was good advice. The housing isn't exactly housing like we are familiar with either, it is squatters that live in very primitive homes with very primitive accommodations and many of them are of Philippine descent. Everyone we passed was kind and friendly and my perception was that this was not a bad way to live compared to how they lived before coming to Hong Kong.

Anyway, when I say that it is paved the WHOLE way with either sidewalks or stairs, it is really difficult for me to explain the scope of what that actually covers. I have not the words to describe it and pictures cannot do it justice. It is immense. It is grandiose. It is like nothing I have ever seen before, nor did I realize it was even possible. We would stop and just admire this paved trail that crosses miles of mountain terrain and say to each other "There is no chance of ever explaining this to anyone and have them actually visualize what we are seeing".

And the views from up top were beautiful, although it was a little hazy that day so my pictures don't do it justice.

Once we reached the downhill stretch it was all steep, narrow stairs going straight down. This was my favorite part, but I would guess it was a bit difficult for Cybr to maneuver since my feet didn't fit on the steps. Each step requires your attention or you plummet to certain death. It was cool!

The end of this trail brings you to a village called Mui Wo, also called Silvermine Bay. Cybr and I absolutely LOVE this village. It is so quaint and comfortable and the housing is so much cheaper. This would have been the ideal place for us to live over here with our dogs, had we known then what we know now. It has much more of a "local flavour" than Discovery Bay, where we currently reside. Too bad for us, we are locked into a lease.

Water goes down the hole...

Francois likes to watch the water go down the hole. He will come running in to catch the action if he hears a flush. If he feels that a courtesy flush is in order, then he will commence with pawing at the toilet lid as if to "cover" its contents (much like what takes place in a litter box).

This picture contains no actual poo, as this is not a dirty blog. The contents of the toilet include water and an unused tissue. No animals (or poop) were harmed in the making of this post.

Sunshine on my sofa makes me happy...

I used to sing the title of this post to my Sun (obviously those aren't the original words). He was my handsome Sun, that was his name...or at least one of many names he responded to.

He brought so much sunlight into my life, he was my friend and he was my son. He died shortly after I arrived in Hong Kong, on December 14, 2006 to be precise.

In order to come to Hong Kong with our pets, I mentioned there were a lot of flaming hoops in which we had to jump through to take the best care of our fuzzy kids. No matter how many flaming hoops, the bottom line is that it was still a stressful journey for all of the kids and we knew it would be. I was actually sick from worrying so much about how they would fare on the journey.

Based on all the veterinary information we read, all the vaccinations and microchip requirements, and the strict time restraints on all of the above (and then some) we were forced to make a difficult decision (probably me more so than Cybr)...

My Sun was sick with a hyper-thyroid condition that he was taking medication for. He was 13 years old. He had been diagnosed with and treated with medication for his condition for nearly 5 months. We were exploring other options besides medication, as the medication can cause kidney damage, and then we were faced with this life-changing opportunity to relocate.

So, as difficult as it was for me to part with my Sun, I left him in the care of my Dad. My Dad is the only other person I know that loved him as much as I do. I knew they would be good for each other. I did not take the decision lightly, nor easily. In the end, I did what was best for myself and for my Sun.

I felt I would be holding myself and Cybr back if we did not take a chance on Hong Kong. And I felt if I decided to take my Sun with us, then I would be needlessly risking his life. The stress of the journey would be too much for his body, which was already under a great deal of stress trying to battle his illness.

So, I left him in the trusted care of his Grandpa. I saw them together before I left and they were genuinely happy together, he was quite content with his living accommodations.

However, only 3-ish months after getting to Hong Kong, I got a dreaded phone call from my Dad that when he woke up that morning of December 14th, my Sun was dead. His heart had stopped during the night. Unfortunately, he appeared to have not been sleeping when it happened but I would like to believe that his pain did not last long.

He was supposed to have the treatment that would cure his thyroid problem in January, but he did not live long enough to be cured. His little body was too tired.

I had a terrible time dealing with this from HK. Not being there to take care of my Sun's burial. Not being there to say good-bye. The guilt of having left him behind was initially very bad, I thought I had broken his heart. But eventually, I remembered how happy he was living at my Dad's and being the only fuzzy kid again. I remembered how handsome he was, how brave he was, how he used to watch over me every night after having laid on my chest and purred the loudest purr I have ever heard, and how he meowed the word "Mom" when he wanted me (he sounded like "maam"). He was my watch-cat. He was my handsome son and my sunshine. He was an angel that lived with me for 13 years and will now live in my heart for ever.

He was loved. He is still loved. From the moment I saw him, the runt of a stray litter of kittens under a friends porch. He needed me and I him. He was cross-eyed from birth and may not have survived as a stray cat, but I was 19 years old and needed him to love me at that time as much, if not more so, than he needed me to love him.

He will be in my heart and memories forever...

Non-traditional cake topper

So, back to some wedding details...

We did not have time for the reception we would have liked to have. But, that did not stop us from having wedding cake. We loves us some wedding cake. Wedding is the best flavor of cake. Period.

As I was saying...we had a wedding cake with our mini-reception dinner with all the parents after the wedding. These specially chosen Stikfas were used as our cake topper.

Please, take special note that they are in a back-to-back pose, as if representing our union as "having each other's backs". Only, they represent that we are both kinda weird, too.

If/When we get back and put together a reception like we would like to do, with all our friends and family, then we will have yet another wedding cake. We would also use the same cake topper...only maybe we can turn them on each other and have a Fairy vs. Ninja face off. Hehe.

Dog speak...the universal language of dogs

Dogs may not be able to read, but they can understand images. Thus, this visual aid posted at dog height clearly indicating to your pooch that if he has the urge to poop...he better move it along with his/her little butt clenched and save it for the next patch of green.

Why else would it be posted at ground level if it weren't for the dogs?

These cute little "No poop here" signs are periodically found throughout Hong Kong. (Be sure you notice it isn't a sign indicating "no dogs", it has a tiny pile of poo behind the dog pictured.)

Stuff that I think about...

This is one of my favorite pics of my sweetie...he appears to be in deep thought (or preparing to pee in the ocean). Either way, I love this one.

This is one of the beautifully landscaped walkways that we pass through on a daily basis. Most everything here is landscaped meticulously.

These are some of the most recent additions to my weird sock collection. I like weird socks and I don't feel the need to explain myself...much. I DO wear them and I like having quirky socks on for some odd reason, and I have had this weird sock thing since junior high school. One of the perks to living in HK is that weird socks are in abundance here and are very cheap, too. YAY! More funny socks for me!!!

This is the building next to ours...Ours looks just like it, but is covered in green mesh so that people don't get hit in the head with construction materials. So, you really can't see it well. Anyway, all of the buildings here are undergoing routine maintenance construction and are scaffolded in ALL BAMBOO. It is kinda cool to watch them construct the scaffolding and it is AMAZING how fast it can be assembled and how high they can go with it. We are in a low rise apartment building, but they do this to the ginormous buildings too. Along with the admiration for how efficient this bamboo scaffolding is, it also brings to mind that it isn't a wonder that Panda's are running low on food.

Mmmmm....REALLY fresh seafood. It is still alive. They "hog-tie" all the crabs so they can't fight or escape.
This is the view looking down from our balcony. I love the sound of waves crashing into the shore, but sometimes it really makes me have to pee.
All of the eggs we see here are all brown eggs, this proves that eggs really do come from a chicken's butt! Actually, it does come as a shock to some people to see eggs that aren't white, but I can say for certain that they come in a variety of colors...brown being the most common. I grew up on a farm and collected eggs straight from the chickens and washed the poo off of them ('cause chickens are gross and poo on everything, thus the joke that they come from a chickens butt...I really do know better.).

I hope this gives everyone something to think about! Or, uh, not...

Peas and catfood...

It's not easy to tell the difference, right? Okay. Clearly it isn't difficult to differentiate between the two (fyi...peas are on the left).

So, since there is an obvious difference, then I must be completely out of my mind.

I was making dinner and while I was multi-tasking with the pasta and the sauce and trying to remember not to burn the garlic bread, I decided to put the peas into the microwave. This should be a simple task. But I am a special person and I can make heating canned peas into an ordeal...

I started draining the pasta and realize something smells funny. I check the garlic bread, no it's good. Then the microwave dings and I think "Peas are done!", so I turn to take them out of the microwave and...wait...the peas are sitting on the counter next to the microwave...so what did I just microwave?!?...

Ahh, yes, you guessed it! The cat food! That explains the smell, too!

I busted a gut laughing at myself. I do that a lot.

It took a moment to catch my breath, due in part to the smell (eww, not a good one) and the laughter, and called out "DINNER" to Cybr.

He came in and asked "What is that smell?!?" I told him it was his dinner and handed him the cat food and then laughed so hard I could not speak again. Finally, I was able to tell Cybr what I did and he laughed at me too. He does that a lot, too.

It was an interesting dinner. Hey, I didn't burn anything except the cat food!

Shout out to Mae Midwest!

I just wanted to thank my dear friend, Mae Midwest, for mentioning my blog in her recent post.

I also want to thank her for TOTALLY GETTING the "Frankie Goes To Hollywood" parallel in my blog title "Francis Goes To Hong Kong"...it was subtle, but she got it. I was concerned it might be too obvious to go with "Frankie" and too subtle to go with "Francis", but since we rarely ever call him Frankie I opted for Francis. I am just glad someone got it.

And, yes, I am a big dork for thinking that was a funny title...at least I am not in denial!

I thought the picture of my orange kitty curled up on top of HIS orange kitty was cute. It is his bed, he sleeps there every day. I had no idea he would adopt the stuffed orange kitty when I purchased it, but he did!

Oh, and just to share a little of my own bizarre quirkiness (this is the nice way to describe my being a little bit crazy)...

I think I mentioned that Francis' full name is Francois B. Douix Douix. And that we usually call him B. Douix (B Doo, for an simpler spelling/pronunciation), but I have yet to mention that we call him Doo Doo a lot, too. This is no big deal, really, since sometimes he is a real Doo Doo head...however, I do go overboard from time to time and say things that sound crazy to anyone outside of this household. Things like, "I LOVE Doo Doo" and "This is a squishy Doo Doo" and there are probably other phrases that are equally disturbing if you don't know I am only speaking about my cat.

Okay, it sounds kinda crazy even from within the household...seriously, I am not a fecalphiliac.
M-kay?

New Addition

Cybr and I went to the Goldfish Market in Mong Kok and we bought a hamster...strange, but true.

I would like to introduce everyone to our newest addition to our fuzzy family, Pixel.

He is a Chinese Hamster and he is so tiny and cute. He is very gentle, sweet, and completely fearless of the cat and dogs.

Initially, Chini would have liked to have had him for a snack until we convinced her he was just a baby puppy. Now she thinks it is HER baby and she watches him constantly and whines if she cannot see him. She is very protective when we have him out. When we put him in his ball on the floor, she follows and watches him.

Francois ignored him at first, we even put Pixel on Frankies back and Frankie didn't even notice...very entertaining for us. Then, he decided that maybe he should at least make like a cat for a moment and get the mouse but all that entailed (hehe, tail) was him pressing his (clawless) paw onto Pixel. That was it. He was done. Although, he does enjoy watching him in his cage, most especially when he runs in the ball. They touch noses periodically, too.

Guinness doesn't mind him one bit. He thinks it is a baby, too, what with all the hoopla required to convince Chini. Sometimes he resents the baby, because HE is THE baby, as far as he is concerned.

He is so tiny and cute that I could just squish him...but I wouldn't!

When dreams mimic life

I had a dream the other night that I just cannot get out of my head. It is very simple dream among a long history of memorable, colorful, significant dreams of mine, but it is perhaps the most ironic of them all.

I remember a lot of my dreams and they are always in color, very vivid and frequently powerful and real. Although this particular dream is simplistic, it stands out.

In this dream, I try on every pair of pants in my closet that do NOT fit. The ones that are too small, but I still hold onto the hope of fitting into again someday (pants aren't cheap, so that is my excuse for keeping them). I just keep trying on pair after pair of pants and all of them "ALMOST" fit...but not quite.

This is my dream. They almost fit, but not quite. I am almost there, where I want to be, but not quite. I do not get upset or even annoyed by this, I simply accept it.

Okay, is this a dream or is this reality? Seriously, this dream may or may not be about pants...it may very well be about my life...or every one's life...or a lot of peoples' lives...

Maybe I am reading too much into it, but I have to say that I woke from this dream and told Cybr about it and we both cracked up on this dream for at least a day. Every time something was "almost" right, we made a joking reference back to my dream. It was quite funny and yet I cannot get past how true to life that sensation actually is or how frequently it can be experienced. And it cracked us up repeatedly, which is a bonus.

I had to share my uneventful dream that has an uncanny resemblance to life...

Doggie Day Trip

above: Chini going crazy in the sand
above: Chini cleaning her nose...mmm, yummy sand
above: Guinness being stern. Why? We may never know.
above: Guinness catching a breeze

above: view I captured during our hike

above: a boat adrift at sea

Chicken prints (aka Chini prints, we call her Chicken sometimes)

We decided to take the fuzzy kids on a hike on Saturday. They need the exercise and so do we, quite honestly. We have taken this hike before and taken the complete hike, but decided the first time out that the full journey was too long and steep for the kids. So, we opted for the shortened version.

The full hike is a two or three hour hike and goes from Discovery Bay to Mui Wo and we hiked it a few weeks ago. It goes over mountains across to the other side of Lantau Island and is very cool. I will try to get some other pics together from the full hike, but for today I will focus on the doggie day trip.

It is only about 30-45 minutes of a hike to a beach that is near the Trappist Monastery. We were practically dragged there by our dogs since they were all excited about going "bye-bye" and were very much overly stimulated within 15 minutes of the journey. Once we finally got to the beach, Chini and Guinness got to see the ocean for the first time ever. Chini is our water dog, but even she was a little apprehensive due to the ebb and flow so I had to wade in with her. The water is VERY FREAKIN' cold right now, just so you know. I rolled up my jeans and took off my shoes, unleashed the kids and in we went. Chini seemed to like it, despite the apprehension, and Guinness would not go too close to it but we expected as much from him since he hates water.

Both of them enjoyed the sand. Chini likes to roll in it and make puppy angels and dig her nose into it. She does the same thing with snow. It seems to make her crazy. Guinness just liked the way it feels to run in it and kick it up.

We were totally alone on the beach. Just me, the hubby (Cybr, for future reference) and the fuzzy kids...until a little old lady came up behind me and scared me half to death. She came out of no where without a sound. It was at that moment that I thought "Perhaps I should go get my shoes, because it would be a crappy hike back barefoot.". Not that I expected anyone would steal them, but just to be safe. I get to my shoes (they are still there, yea!!) and as I am putting them on I realize that Chini's leash is gone. I had set it right by my shoes. It is gone. I think, "Cybr probably picked it up". I go around the big rocks to find him and he says he doesn't have it. We searched our backpack, no leash. Great. Two dogs, one leash. This is not good.

To make a long story longer, Cybr saw where the little old lady went so I went to ask her about the leash. It is just principle that I cannot just let it go. I walk up to her house and she is outside in her yard with her dog and I ask in Cantonese "Hai bin dou" which means "where?" and I hold up the leash...she ignores me for like five minutes while I am talking to her and then finally looks at me and shakes her head "no".

Okay, clearly she is lying. She was the only other person on the whole beach. Seriously, I would rather give her the money for her to buy a leash than to have her steal mine. It annoys me. Oh, well, what more can I do? Beat up an old lady over a leash? Seems reasonable to me, but I think Cybr might have objected. Hehe.

So, we made it back home with a homemade leash made of plastic strips that we found tied to something on the closest pier. Guinness was completely indignant about his homemade leash, he was so embarrassed. Poor kid.

By the way, the Cantonese phrase is courtesy of Cybr. He just picks this stuff up at work. He is a fart smeller...er, a smart fellow. Something like that.