Security can be great!...but then again...

Finally managed to get back into this blog. Yippeee!!

When I was still at JWU I used my JWU email for pretty much everything. However, I forgot a password, changed computers and could not get into this blog since 2007, that's 11 years!

I have tried many times and written to Google Blogs via their contact link in setting/help yet never got a reply.

This morning, for some reason I thought I would try again. After about an hour of logging in and out of two seperate accounts I finally managed to change settings and get access as publisher.

Now I have to relearn all how to publish blogs and familiarise my self with the way around the dashboard.

Anyway, so happy that I am back in. Looking forward to posting again soon.

look at this

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.
It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

Dressing the part Renaissance 2007

Simon wearing a Cavalier hat, he didn't buy it though.


Tamsin having fun at the hat shop with a pirate hat



The Squire and his fair maiden

Renaissance Festival - Glass Blower

He starts off with a small amount of glass which he gets from a cruciable that is kept continually at 2000 degrees F.




After coloring and blowing he shapes it with his tongs while rolling the pipe the glass is on

Now he hangs it a while and lets it cool a little.



He then puts it back into the furnace to heat up again, man that thing gives off some really fierce heat....



and now he twirls it while it is really hot and it gives the bowl a ribbon effect....darn clever these medieval glass blowers!

Renaissance February 2007 Quiet Waters Park

This act is called "Barely Balanced" Tamsins favorite show. They were very good acrobats showing lots of strength and had loads of humor in the show. A little eye candy for me Lords and Ladies did not go astray either


These are the two most georgeous looking washer women ever from the Renaissance, arent they just beautiful? If the audience didn't go along with them they splashed you with water from their wet laundry.


The two washer ladies made a right couple of 'nana's out of these to buff loooking volunteers. The show was really funny.


I have no idea who or what this lady was supposed to be. She kind of looked like a medieval baglady, but she was pretty good with the long bow.



Tamsin made friends with a cute little troll

Stanley

Stanley Market, it looks exactly as it did in 1962-3....................NOT!
It really is a lovely little market though.


This was another bus stop on the way to Stanley Village. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, and look at the hill to the right you will see a path that looks awfully familiar to me. My Dad took us walking up many a mount in Hong Kong.


I had to take this one for Lesley. My first pic as I stepped off the bus in Stanley Village bus station.


This is along the waterfront in front of Stanley Market, I thought "where is the beach?, they've filled it in with concrete, but it is actually just around the corner to the left in this picture. The hill in the back shows the road that goes up to the barracks at Stanley Fort. All the nice buildings on the right side are new.


This is the bus stop at Stanley Plaza. I was not sure if this was where I had to get off the bus or not, I chose to stay on and that was the right decision.

Here is a link with interesting information about Stanley

http://en.allexperts.com/e/s/st/stanley,_hong_kong.htm

Repulse Bay

This pic above is what you see when you come round the corner to Repulse Bay on the road to Stanley. That huge building actually look as if it is leaning outwards.



Then as you drive around the corner further there are even more buildings. Repulse Bay is quite a favorite of the Hong Kong well-to-do.

Day trip to Stanley Bus ride

I went to Stanley for the day and managed to catch the number 2 bus right outside the Hotel on Canton Rd. which went all the way to Stanley bus station. The crane like structures you see in the photo above are exactly that, cranes on barges designed to lift cargo containers. You will see these being towed by tugs with their containers to many of the docks around the Hong Kong coastline. A rather unusual but obviously in-demand industry.
So where do the 6.9 million people live on this 1100 square kilometre economic gatreway of China? look at the above picture and you will begin to understand how you house 6,380 folks per square kilometre! infor from: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2747.htm
A view of HOng Kong Island from the top level of a dounle decker number 2 bus before it goes into the Harbor tunnel west. The tunnel comes out in Victoria.
This is in Victoria going up the road to go over west side of the peak on Pok Ful Ham Road which goes over to Aberdeen. The red taxis's are nearly all Toyota's. If you look really close you can see so much industry going on but at a lower income level than in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Mnay of the sky rise apartmaents have individual air conditioning units and you will also see laundry ha nging out side of the windows. If you click on the picture above and blow it up in size you can see the laundry hanging on the beige building in the back center of the photo.
I am thinking of possinble starting a pressure cleaning company for high rise buildings over there, seem slike there is lots of potential!

Around Tsim Sha Tsui

Hong Kong has so much construction going on that it is almost frightening. I did notice that they were trying to keep some of the old colonial buildings while proceeding with the skyscraper building. I thought thas was pretty good. I tried to catch both in the above pic which is right outside Harbor Center on Canton Rd.
The ladies who keep the city clean. It is not uncommon to see these workers with surgical masks on. Not a bad idea as they are working in an atmosphere of constant exhaust fumes.




This is on the street right outside the Marco Polo Hotel. The fourdays I was in Hong Kong before sailing on the Costa Allegra the weather was overcast misty and drizzle.........nasty!
The streets have more signs than you can shake a stick at. It appears obvious that Chinese is rapidly becoming the main language, but many signs are still in English and Chinese (Cantonese)
I took this to show the whimsical side of a hustling and bustling metropolis.

This is the walkway across Canton Road from Harbor City.

Ocean Terminal/Harbor City goes from the Star Ferry all the way up Canton Rd to the China Ferry.

You can click on all the pictures in this blog and that will open up a larger image in a new window for you.



see Link:

http://www.hkstreet.com/tst/tst.htm




While i was in hong Kong I stayed at the Marco Polo Hong Kong Hotel which is in Harbor City.
It is a really huge three level shopping mall/complex wiht Hotels, banks etc and also the place for boarding the cruise ships.
Pretty much every name brand store you can think of is there.
You have got to have a few dollars to buy anything.

Hong Kong Cruise and visit

So I had to go and give a training on the Costa Allegra which is sailig out of Hong Kong and visiting Da nang and Chai Lin in Viet Nam.


There was a bit of a mix up in my ticket (not my bad!) and so I arrived the morning after the ship had sailed.


Here's how it went, I left Miami at 6:30pm and after a five hour flight arrived in LA at 8:30pm (3 hr time change) and had a wait for my 11:30 pm flight to Hong Kong. That flight on Cathay Pacific was 15 hours and with an eight hour time difference I arrived in Hong Kong 7:30 am on Tuesday! yup we crossed the date line and gained a day (or lost a day depends how you want to look at it.
When i turned on my phone I had all these messages telling me that the ship sailed Monday, so I had missed the ship! Yikes!
Anyway, Costa had arranged for a hotel for me until Friday when the ship would be back in again.
Now I had to rework my visit to Magsaysay Institute in Manila, Philippines which I was going to do after my two five day cruises on the Costa Allegra.
Below are a couple of shots from the plane when landing in Hong Kong, the misty part of the world. The Jumbo above is the plane I flew on.