From Sydney to North Wales

Special thanks to Joanne, Irene and Max for putting us up in luxury in Hong Kong

Sydney -> Hong Kong -> London -> North Wales

Tuesday 5th July - The day before the departure; apartment emptied, Bart (the cat)  taken down to Susan before collection by his new foster parents, bags packed and off we go  to the Surry Hills Presbretery (Brian & Grant) for our last night in Australia for a while. Great farewell dinner with B & G and Michael and Stephen.

Wednesday 6th July - picked up by Michael and ferried to the airport - think trepidation was setting in, is this the right thing to do? Certainly both a bit twitchy. Oh well a last G & T and on to the plane..... We're off!

Arrived at 23:00 in Hong Kong after a very average flight with Virgin (won't do that again) through customs, on the train and at Joanne's by about midnight. A great welcome as you would expect from Max (the dog) who seemed to remember us from Sydney, if he didn't he put on a great show.

Thursday 7th July - Did some bits of shopping and bits of banking.  Arranged to meet up with some old friends (Paul C and Paul H) for dinner. Got taken to the Japanese restaurant in the Fours Season where Paul C has now taken up residence. . The food was great and the sake slipped down a treat. Both Pauls looking extremely well Hong Kong obviously still treating them well.

Friday 8th July - More bits of shopping and went to pick up WRK's on-line purchase from darkest Kowloon. The place turned out to be a ex-garment factory on the 6th floor with no lift. Very Hong Kong all dark, rather grubby but sort of mysterious. Eventually managed to get what we came for and then found the lift on the way down.

Met up with David for a drink in the Irish bar in Stauntan Street, later joined by Joanne and then went to a very good Tapas style place in SOHO - Enoteca. David, Willy and I kicked on for a while ending up at what was the original Propaganda Club which has now been revamped. I was one of the original members of this club and still have the card to prove it.

Saturday 9th July - Went for a walk up the peak with Joanne and Max saw this green snake on the way. Made it to the top and went and had a good wander round. Caught a taxi back as Max was rather tired also Joanne was off to the hairdressers.

David came round to Joanne's about 19:00 and we went out to the The Pawn Restaurant in Jonstone Road, Wan Chai. Met up with Joanne's work colleague Bernadette - food very disappointing but was a fun evening.

A Snake on the way to The Peak

Sunday 10th July - got of to rather a late start. Met Joanne for Dim Sum at the Bamboo Bistro by the escalator on Caine Road. It really is very good far from the normal noisy dim sum places - quite small with good food and service and all quite reasonable. After lunch went shopping in Admiralty. For dinner met up with Paul, Paul H and PH's aunt at what was Gunga Dins and is now Gangars. This is the same place I used to go to when I first arrived in Hong Kong 20 years ago. Still good Indian food at reasonable prices.

Early start tomorrow so straight home to finish packing in time for a 08:00 take off to London.

Monday 11th July - Up by 6.00 and off to the airport express waved off by Joanne, Irene and Max. Pretty uneventful except Mr Grumpy had joined us somewhere along the way - hope he's not stopping long.

It never ceases to amaze me how HK just works - left Joanne's place at 06:00 and on the plane by 08:00 ready for take off.

That's Hong Kong done and permanent residency renewed for another 2 years just in case.

Hong Kong to London and North Wales
Special thanks to:
Danae (very proud recent grandmother) - for accommodation in lovely Battersea
Judith (sister) - for the driving catering and accommodation
Catie (Intrepid Traveler & Harbour Bridge climber) - for the entertainment
Lucy (niece) - for the Skoda and Chicken

On the flight from Hong Kong to London watched "An Education" and "Toast". Both both great movies (if you like that sort of thing) and apart from that and eating slept all the way. It really was a very comfortable flight in spite of being in cattle class - Well done Air New Zealand - pity you can't find a better partner than Virgin Atlantic!

Arrived at Heathrow a little earlier than scheduled, managed to get through customs with my new 'face recognition' enpowered passport. Worked first time and through very quickly but then of course the wait for bags which always seems to take forever here.

Judith (sister) was waiting and chauferred us to Danae's where we are staying for a couple of days to get ourselves sorted out with phones, broadband, transportation etc etc
Settled and in had dinner which was Pork in Cider and Chocolate cake. Mr Grumpy came along for a while which I think was brought on by Rupert Murdoch and the telephone intercepts getting more attention than he was. Really fascinating stuff (Murdoch not Willy).

Tuesday 11th July - Mr. Grumpy had choclate cake in bed for breakfast. We then went shopping in Oxford Street for a SIM card for my telephone. We came back with a SIM card and a Motorola Xoom tablet. All makes perfect sense as the Xoom can operate as a hot spot which the I-Pad can't do....Still not sure if I made the right decision going Android - time will tell.

Called in at Marble Arch for a drink on the way back home. Arranged the motor insurance and recovery policy on the soon to be acquired Skoda and watched more Rupert & James on the TV.

Catie and Richard (the ambassador) came for dinner which was Lamb and Taboule with Chocolate cake and Raspberry Sorbet - a good time was had by all. Returned Catie's pearl which was lost at a 'triumph' of a dinner party in Sydney and Mr Grumpy appears to have left, perhaps it was the drink that did it.

London -> Norfolk -> North Wales

Wednesday 12th July - Eggs for breakfast, lots of packing and then off to Norfolk leaving a rather anxious Danae who was about to look after the new grandchild on her own...

Left London trying to avoid the congestion charge which probably cost us more in petrol than paying the £6, especially when we found out several days later that we had unknowingly managed to go into the congestion zone and got a £60 fine!

Eleanor - 6 weeks

Tarka - the dog

Arrived at Lucy and Stuart's (The Puffin man) 17th century house at about 16:00 to be greeted by Tarka the border terrier guard dog who was really pleased to see us even though he had never seen us before. Spent time fighting off the extreme licking and desire to sit on your knee. Lucy and Eleanor (6 weeks old) home soon afterwards.

La Skoda 

Took possession of the Skoda - isn't she a beauty. This picture was taken in Norway not Norfolk and really doesn't do her justice - think more Merc than Skoda!

Had Jamie Olivers Spicy Chicken for dinner - reallly really good and then an early night - we're off to North Wales in the morning - all three of us!

Wednesday 12th July - left Norfolk about 11:00 journey took most of the day and was pretty uneventful except for a blow out on the elevated part of the M6 in Birmingham - not the best of places to breakdown - anyway managed to fix it and carried on. Arrived about 18:00 unpacked and went shopping for the essential - food and booze and then went to Toad Hall for dinner - fish and chips all round washed down with warm, flat beer - delicious!

The Local - Rhos Fynach

Friday 14th August - The Coffee Incident. The weather was really nice and we decided to go for a walk to Rhos. Called into Fortes Coffee shop.... WRK asked for a latte with a double shot of expresso to which the very nice waitress said “lets call that a cappuccino” I was quite prepared for this but WRK said no he couldn't do that. So we went through the recipe again - at this point the waitress got the three possible containers - a latte glass, a small coffee cup and a large coffee cup - we all agreed that it was a small coffee cup with 2 shots of espresso and milk - to which the waitress said - “There I was right all along - we'll call it a cappucino" at which point thankfully WRK capitulated. There's more but you probably get the drift..

Rhos-on-sea by moon light

Did more shopping went to Llandudno to the fish shop had Conwy mussels for dinner.

Saturday 15th - Tuesday 19th July - Weather a bit iffy. Not much happening - more into chilling out and getting into sloth mode that high activity.... Decided to get a local garage to look at the rear brakes, before the trek to France and Norway. They needed new brake shoes and drums so had that fixed which put us off the road for 2 days but now we have great stopping power.

Chester from the
Roman Wall

Being off the road gave me a great excuse to watch the Dirty Digger & James saga - it really is fascinating stuff - can't wait to see them (or at least James) in court.

Wednesday 20th July - - Weather brilliant - bright and sunny - decided to go Chester - a Roman Town just over the border in England about 50Kms to the west. The Chester Rows, dating back to medieval era, consist of covered walkways at the first floor behind which are entrances to shops and other premises. At street level is another set of shops and other premises, many of which are entered by going down a few steps. The Rows, found in each of the four main streets of the city of Chester, Cheshire, England, are unique; nothing precisely similar exists anywhere else in the world. (thanks to wikipedia)

Chester - The Rows

Did a little shopping I bought a pair of walking trousers and Imelda bought a pair of shoes. Nearly went to place called 'appy feet'. It's a shop with large fish tanks and benches to sit on. You take your shoes and socks off and put your feet in the fish tanks. The fish then come along and nibble off all the dead bits...Great idea eh? (apparently not - spreads diseases!) 

Drove back to Colwyn Bay - Fish Pie for Dinner. Really must clean the oven and empty the vacumn cleaner before we leave, they are both due for their two yearly clean.

Thursday 21^st July - Weather bad again decided to go to Colwyn bay library to print off the insurance and breakdown documents at the library. Went to the Internet coffe shop and downloaded a book for the journey tomorrow then decided to go to Llandudno to look at camping (camping moi?) equipment.

Well we looked at lots and lots of camping equipment but because we are still unsure how the car is going to perform we decided not to buy the equipment at this time but wait until we are both more positive about La Skoda and her capabilities (you may get my drift here).

Went for a short walk in the afternoon near Penmenmawr - not terribly good. Then home

We are off to France tomorrow!!