Ho Ho Ho!

(the Santa "Ho", not the street corner type)
~


Last week I was walking home from work. Strange things happen to me all the time, I think I have a freak magnet. Anyways, I was half way to home, when a bus stopped and Santa got off complete with the boots, full red and white outfit, a real beard and snowy white hair. WOW.
~


~

But this Santa was a little bit off. He was piss-drunk. He was so drunk he could barely walk! Where had he been? Was he at a party? Have children driven Santa to drink? Is that why he's so jolly? I've seen him a couple more times since then, doing a little better, not quite so drunk. I'll never look at Santa quite the same. After a search on the internet, it appears that Santa is a drunk. I'm sorry to say it but, there are hundreds of pictures of him passed out, half naked and drunk. (I've spared you all the pictures of Santa naked!)


So Merry Christmas- tell your children the real story of Santa

Dealing with credit card companies is like playing Monoploy

Y'all have a couple of these in your wallets I bet. I used to have 3 of them, but I cancelled one and have been slowly paying off the balance. In October I made my last payment of about $35. I felt really happy that I had finally paid it off, and was looking forward to seeing nothing but zeros on my next statement.

_

_

I had always thought when you pay off a balance in full, that you are not charged interest. Anyone else think that? But today when I got my final statement, I noticed that they had charged me interest! It was only 9 cents, but I was annoyed enough to call up my CC company. The guy on the phone said "Well lets not make a big deal out of it, it's only 9 cents." But in my mind, those cents add up.

_

In the end, I got the 9 cents credited to my account, and I got a tutorial on interest charges. Here's how it works:

_

They send out your statement and estimate the number of days it will take to get to you (about 4 days). They then charge you a daily interest fee from that day forward. In my case 6 days worth of interest on a $35 balance. So if you are like me, and pay your bills just before they are due, you are getting charged extra interest. TIP #1: pay your bill as soon as you get it to avoid the daily interest charges.

_
_
My other tip of the day, (let's call it TIP #2) is that if your credit card ever charges you fees (like overlimit fees, late fees etc) call them up. A quick phone call is all it takes- as long as you ask nicely. They have never said "no" to me. The one time they hesitated, I just calmly asked who I should talk to about cancelling my card. That changed their tune. Same applies to having your interest rate decreased.

HK Leftovers

A few last pictures I forgot were on my camera.


On Sunday, all the nannies have the day off. There are so many of them, that they close the streets. Anywhere that's covered is packed with them.




Is this Lexi's water dish, or is it a foot spa for cats?






Sarah in the Hong Kong jungle



I don't know what this bird is, but it looks like a teradactil


Lunch was at a Vietnamese place- very nice.






Random street shot




Sarah do you have any lip balm??? Let me check...


on a 2 hour outing, Sarah brought 8 different lip balms/glosses!




Manolos!

Hong Kong

Good things come to those that wait, here are the HK pics.

In Sarah's neighbourhood on the moving sidewalk


On our way to the peak we met Jackie Chan.


To get to the top of the Peak, we took a trolley it felt like a 30 degree incline. It was one of my favorite things



The view


At Bubba Gump


Sitting on the double-decker streetcar.


The streets are pretty confusing. Not only are the cars on the other side of the street, but they won't stop for pedestrians. In the above picture is a double-decker street car, they run down the centre of some of the streets.


Near the base of the peak is a park with gardens, ponds and an aviary. Theresa found a humongous leaf



The next day we went to the other side of the harbour, an area called Kowloon.


Judy had told me about a giant escalator. It was HUGE! I noticed that all of the people that were riding the escalator were taking pictures, so we weren't the only hicks.


About 10 years ago Whitney worked for a company that was in charge of designing a museum in Kowloon called the Hong Kong museum of history. We went and checked it out. There was lots to see.

Sarah with some giant dudes


Sarah and I in a trolley car in the museum


A Chinese junk in the harbour


And then it was time for the light show while we ate gyros. A bunch of the buildings are lit up to music, but my camera just didn't capture the light show very well.


We checked out a park in Sarah and Ryan's neighbourhood. Theresa and Sarah tried out the reflexology rocks. It's supposed to be good for you.


Cool Pagoda in the park, complete with a pond full of giant fish


Ryan came back from work, and we headed off to Shenzhen for a day of shopping. (And relaxation). Sarah and I got peddy's, Ryan opted for a massage.


I needed the pampering. Shenzhen was far and away the most overwhelming experience of the entire trip. The border was confusing, without Sarah and Ryan I would have been lost. In the shopping mall, the sales people were so pushy, and all I could hear was "Missy, Missy! DVD! Missy, Missy! Copy handbag? You Look!" Not to mention the squatter toilets...



The next day Theresa and I went to see the big Buddha on Lantau island. The Buddha is on the top of a mountain, and at the base of the hill is a monastery.

At the monastery

Next was a day at Macau. Macau was owned by Portugal, and has some very out of place buildings, it also has a ton on casinos. We got a pedicab tour of the tourist areas. Our guy was so old! I thought he might keel over and die on us.

Strange signs. Was this a bathroom for dogs? Or people?

We went to an old barracks or fort

A view of the city through the fort walls- they were about 3 feet thick.

Cannon

Heading back to the ferry, we checked out the casino area. It was all new, but made to look old. There were a bunch of nice looking bars and restaurants, but they were all deserted. Turns out that lots of things are closed on Mondays, so we didn't get the full Macau experience.

We went to a Moroccan restaurant Sahara, where we got to smoke the sheesha pipe. I think this is Sarah's imitation of Snoop Dog. The food was so good we ate here twice.

And then it was off to Lan Kwai Fong, the bar area. It was Carnival, so it was extra packed. There were lots of food stalls and entertainers. Ryan got into the spirit apparently. Theresa bought a shirt similar to a "I Love NY" shirt except hers said "I Love fish balls" but in Chinese. I never saw her eating fish balls though...

The next morning, after a breakfast at the Flying Pan, we hopped on a double decker bus for a winding drive to the other side of the island. It was one of my favorite things in HK. Here I am dipping my toes in the ocean for the first time. If I get cancer of the foot, we'll all know why.

After that, we spent a couple hours shopping at Stanley Market. I loved it! I could have spent an entire day shopping there. The other thing I liked was the grocery stores, Safeway is so blah now.

Off to Thailand for some sun!! We spent 1 night in Bangkok, that was horrible. Our guesthouse was beside a night club (little did we know). BOOM BOOM BOOOM all night long. Theresa and I fell asleep sometime around 5, just in time for the alarm clock to go off at 7. And then hopped on a bus for a 6 hour journey to the beach. After a ferry ride we were in paradise on an island called Koh Samed. Our bungalow was just off the beach

The restaurant out front of our bungalow

My beach umbrella and chairs

The view from my chair. The beach vendors were very nice, not pushy like in Mexico.

Perfect! In Hong Kong it was so smoggy, that I never wore sunscreen and didn't get any colour. But in Thailand it was so hot that I reapplied constantly.