Goodbye Facebook

We are now Facebook free.   No more adverts, no more pictures of other people's food, no more dross.  

How to lose a parrot and find it three days later!

This is Wong Dai our orange winged amazon parrot.   We think he is a she but we are not sure. I bought Wong Dai in 1999 when she was a very young and angry bird.   It took me at least a year before I was able to get her to trust me and not bite lumps out of me but since then she has turned into a sweet and adorable pet.   She loves to have her head scratched and tickled and fussed over.   As time has gone on, Wong Dai's family has grown with her.   Her arch enemies are Mango the macaw who lives in the cage next to her and Matthew! Noone knows why she dislikes Matthew but she has done ever since he was a baby.  

Up until last week Wong Dai had never uttered anything other than ear splitting screams and she has made it very clear that Matthew's fingers are fair game if they ever come within biting range.   This has now all changed.   For the past five years, Wong Dai and all the other parrots have lived up in their cages on our rooftop.   A place where they can make as much noise as they want.    They have plenty of fresh air, sunlight, shade and loads of things to keep them occupied.   They have survived typhoons, tropical rain storms and the winter chills.   Never once have their cage doors been blown open and never once have they escaped. BUT, .somehow, last weekend Wong Dai went missing.   The cage door was found open and the bird had literally flown the nest.   We searched and searched and searched.   We woke up before dawn hoping she would call out as normal but we could not find her nor hear her.   Her green feathers we presumed made her almost invisible in the trees and her silence we took to mean she was miles away or dead, killed by a snake or mobbed by other birds.

The boys were distraught and although they cried innocence we suspect they were involved somehow as it was their responsibility to feed the birds and they were the last ones to open the cages to do so.

Nevertheless in the late afternoon on the third day Nuch carried some washing up to the roof to hang out to dry and thought she could hear Wong Dai calling.   We all rushed up to look but could not hear anything.    I searched the internet and used my laptop up on the roof to play a recording of an orange winged amazon's call.   After twenty minutes, we could hear her calling back and eventually we spotted her down on the floor just a few yards away from the house.

With the aid of one of the boy's fishing nets we managed to scoop her up and plonk her back in her cage.   She had lost a fair amount of weight and was dehydrated but otherwise seemed uninjured.   We made sure she was firmly locked back in her cage and left her to rest.   Thankfully, she is now back to her normal self and more.    Whenever Matthew says hello to her, she replies with hello too.   And whenever Matthew puts his hand towards her, she moves towards him and lets him pet her.

So there you have it.   If you want to get a parrot hand tame and talking.... all you have to do is let it see that the grass may not always be greener on the other side.

A sad, sad day for Man Kok Tsui

Today, we lost our dear friend, Mr. Tsang Chun Kee or  Gung Gung  as he had us call him.   Although we only knew him for eight or nine years (or from when he was 85!) he immediately welcomed us into his life.  Despite the fact that neither he nor I spoke a common language we spent many an hour sitting in the shade of the banana trees at the edge of beach, just watching the world go by.   He named me, "A Hello", I think because that was one of the few words we both knew.

A refugee from China, Gung Gung rowed to Hong Kong during the cultural revolution and made his way along the South side of Lantau Island looking for somewhere to set up home.   Eventually he landed at Man Kok Tsui wher he has remained ever since.   He initially survived as a grass cutter selling thatch to the inhabitants of Cheung Chau Island.

When in his sixties, with his wife dead and his children long dispersed he was struggling to cope with running his smallholding of pigs and vegetable patches.   Encouraged by his friends to give up his humble life and move into government housing in Mui Wo, he remained defiant that he would not leave his "home".  Instead he sought out, (no doubt with much charm and twinkling of his eyes) a new wife and married "Patum" and equally resourceful and fiercely independent lady.
 
Gung Gung adored people visiting and people seemed to enjoy spending time with him too.   It was always a surprise to find hikers from Hong Kong returning again and again just to say hello to him.   Perhaps because he always could find a cold beer or a drop or two of the stronger stuff or a juice drink for the boys.

Rest easy Gung Gung,  
 

It's the law

It's the law in Hong Kong that cyclists must use a cycle path when one is there.   This classic piece of engineering is in Tung Chung.   How on earth did this pass approval?    Surely a sign of qa country with just far too much money if you ask me.

The swallows are back

Summer must be on the way as there are swallows and swifts zooming all over the place.   They were not here yesterday.   I wonder if they are en route to somewhere else or have reached the end of their journey?

Look out Mr. Bolt

Arthur (second from right) and his school pals celebrate their win in the Island District school athletics competitions.   Well done boys.

The Rosemary Bush

Our Rosemary bush that we planted as a few twigs a couple of years ago has thrived and thrived, so much so that it has sprouted some rather pretty flowers.  I never knew they flowered...

Pond Digging Time

Although it doesn't look like much what we have here is the Lantau equivalent of the Peckham Spring! (a la only fools and horses).
It actually is a natural spring and the water seeps out of the rock face.
This pond was about 1 foot deep with about 2 feet of thick mud.
After tipping the water out with buckets and having our toes bitten by the fresh water crabs, some of which were a fair old size we got down to the gloop.  A few hours later and the pond is as close to its original shape as we can figure.  There are four more ponds to sort out!!!!!!

And what we have here is the newly cleared stream bed at the bottom of the garden.   Thank you Mr. Government for doing this for us!    Next some gabion walls to stop the sides collapsing, a little bit of digging and hey presto we should have a fully functioning stream.

Man Kok Tsui towards Hong Kong

Heard some sad news today.    A work pal in UK on his way home from work had to learn from his daughter that his wife was gone.  He had spoken to her on the phone earlier in the afternoon and everything was normal.  By the time he reached home his whole world had been turned upside down.  I cannot imagine how he and his children must be feeling.   How would I cope if it were to happen to me?   I have absolutely no idea.   I just know I would be devastated as I am sure he is today.    

How is it and what is it that makes some people tick along I wonder?   The proud gent in the pictures is in his nineties, yes, nineties and just keeps on trucking.   He lives a simple life and always has a smile and time for anyone who cares to give him time.  He clambered into the boat from the pier virtually unaided and was telling jokes and larking about with the boys as the boat bounced over the waves.  Where is he going?   To his younger sister's funeral.   OK he's a bit mutt and jeff but other than that he's as fit as a fiddle.   It all makes me wonder about what is actually important and what is just irrelevant.   Be brave Jonny!




  

Neolithic stoneware fragments

How exciting, a few months ago the boys appeared with some pieces of broken pottery that they had found in the sand down on the beach.   We never gave them much thought except agreeing that they were quite unusual.   In fact we just let the boys play with them and then left them on a shelf.   Anyhow, curiosity got the better of me and after a little bit of research on the internet I discovered some archaeological reports of an archaeology  dig done in the 1960s by HK University and blow me, there are pictures of nearly identical pieces of pottery found in Man Kok Tsui that were dated back to the late Neolithic and Bronze ages.   That means the boys have stumbled across pottery that is some three or four thousand years old!!!   Any one know what we should do with the pieces we have found?

Percy Thrower shows off the garden

River Silver (Mui Wo)

A quick walk around the garden in Man Kok Tsui, before the typhoon came along.

Typhoon Signal 10 and Eagles

A real bumpy night of wind and rain.   Trees down all over the shop in the morning.   The tide was surging too.   Luckily Man Kok Tsui seemed to weather the storm and the beach remained intact.   Last time the beach was trashed and covered in debris.   I suppose this time the winds must have been from another direction.   5 in the afternoon and not much happening but by midnight it was a very different place.

When Nuch and I took the boat round to Man Kok Tsui to check the house we counted six or seven kites soaring over the headlands.   As we looked closer we noticed the birds seemed to keep diving down onto a slightly larger bird with broader, wider and fingered wings and a distinctly rounded tail.  The bigger bird seems to be about 25% bigger than the kites.  The kites seemed to line up and take turns to mob the bird, occasionally locking talons and tumbling over and over before letting go.    Too far away to properly ID I guess it was a stranger to the shores that had been blown off course by the typhoon winds that had swept up from the Philippines.

Matthew turns 7

   
A birthday celebrated with a party on the beach is always fun, especially when there is an home made cream cake involved.   How we managed to serve it up without sand in every mouthful is beyond me.   Succeed we did though.   The cake was gone in less than five minutes; his new bike we hope, will not be so quick to disappear!  It is hard to imagine that seven years ago, on 4th July, we (that is Nuch and I were getting a free helicopter ride to the hospital.)