A Day in Macau

October 5 (Monday)

P-day. Went to visit Auntie Mai Soo. She's still in the hospital, but is looking well. Hopefully she will be released this week.

FHE tonight with the gang. Had a potluck dinner at the Ngai's. John made chopped ground pork, with water chestnuts, chinese sausage, and shitake mushrooms, trimmed with Shanghai bok choi and oyster sauce. I think it was a big hit, since there was none left. Also had chow mein and a spicy stir fry. Dessert consisted of fresh fruit, and pumpkin pie with whip cream. No turkey...so sad. :(:(

Deborah Bodily's first attempt at making chow mein under the tutelage of Shirley Nga...10/10!!!

October 6 (Tuesday)

Facebook today is full of "ponderizing" challenges. In Elder Durrant's talk at Conference on Sunday, he spoke about choosing a scripture and to ponder over its meaning during the week. Put it to memory and see how it can help you improve something in your life. Each week, pick a new scripture. I thought I would start with a simple one:

D&C 6:36 "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not."

This scripture goes hand in hand with one of my favorite scriptures: Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct they paths."


October 7 (Wednesday)

Can you believe it? 20 years? Happy Anniversary Jasmine and Wayne! We'll celebrate when you get to Hong Kong. Also, Happy 26th(?) Anniversary to my brother Byron and wife Nancy also on October 7.

Went out to lunch with the Lee's. They wanted to show us where to get great won ton soup. It was in the Sham Shui Po area, and it was the best won ton soup we've tasted here. This little shop is famous for their home made noodles and is highly recommended by a famous food critique. All their ingredients are fresh, not frozen and you can watch them making it in their open style kitchen.

Space is at a premium in Hong Kong. It is common practice for strangers
to sit at your table if there is space available. Don't know this guy. He just
sat down and had his lunch with us.

After lunch, we shopped around. Found a dragon/phoenix ring for John.

Will you marry me?

After shopping...dessert time: tofu mango pudding, red bean sesame dessert.

After being out all day at Sham Shui Po with the Lee's, we got home around 5:00. John read his email and discovered we were to be at a PA meeting at 6:00. So we quickly hopped on the bus and went to the meeting, only to find out it had been cancelled. Apparently there was some confusion in the emails he received about which meeting had been cancelled. Since we were out, we decided to go to the bookstore "Page One". I've never seen anything like it! Can't describe how massive and incredible this store was. Pictures don't do it justice.

2 storey Page One Bookstore

Miles of aisles of books, books, and more books.

Books in every category you can think of in Chinese and English.

On our way home, we explored some of the streets in Tsim Sha Tsui. This Esprit Store uses the whole building as their billboard with a continually changing screen. Now that's advertising that gets your attention.

October 8 (Thursday)

Happy 92nd Birthday to Shung Foo Chan, John's Dad.
Uneventful. Just another day at the Temple. Sister Bodily and I made treats for all the temple workers. She made an oatmeal chocolate chip cake and I made butter tart squares.


October 9 (Friday)

After work at the Temple, I had a massage appointment with Sister Hung who is also a Temple worker. She said to meet her at exit "C" at the MTR station at Tsuan Wan at 5:00 and she would take us to her office. So there we were at 4:45. We waited, and waited, and waited till 5:30. Then decided to leave thinking maybe she forgot. I called her when we got home, and she said she waited for us for an hour! I have no idea where she was waiting. Obviously it was not at exit "C" unless there was a different one. No massage, so sad. Just felt bad that we both wasted an hour and never met up.


October 10 (Saturday)

Today is the first Saturday we've had off since we started working at the Temple. The Bodily's, Lee's and us decided we'd go to Macau for the day. We took the ferry over, about a 1 hour ride. Macau is a SAR - Special Administrative Region - of China, similar to Hong Kong. Even though technically, it is part of China, it has its own separate "government" apart from China. Macau is famous for it's many casinos. It brings in a lot of money to the area and is the main industry along with tourism.

We boarded a hydrofoil for a 1 hour trip to Macau.

Richard contracted Alex our chauffeur and tour guide of the day.

Macau was originally settled by Portuguese, a strong Catholic influence.

The famous ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral

Only the front remains, the rest being wood, burned to the ground.

21 canyons atop the city.

June and John enjoying fish balls and shrimp balls.

The Grand Lisboa Casino in the palm of John's hand!

You have to be there in person to feel the vastness.

Intricate carving from an ivory tusk. 

A detail close-up of a portion of the above.

Gold dragon boat. Betcha this one has a pretty price tag.

Chinese water colour art in lobby of the Grand Lisboa.

We were lucky to run into this street performance of a lion dance.

Drumming up business... 

Ewweee...tongue, worms, bugs, and ????

Lunch at the famous "pork chop bun" place.

Famous Lord Stow's Bakery

Home of the famous Portuguese egg tarts - they sell 1,000's a day with a continual lineup outside their door.

Beautiful Bonzai Garden

Chan's, Lee's, and Bodily's at the Bonzai Garden

Topped our evening off at the "House of Dancing Water" Show. 

An incredible show like no other! A must to see.

October 11 (Sunday)

No church today since it was Conference broadcast here. Got to sleep in. Listened to all the Conference sessions we missed last week. Nora and Shirley dropped by with some homemade noodles and to discuss what to do with our time off.