The Bridge

Can't go there and not have a picture of the bridge. Lux took this.

Streets

Just a street picture to show the slopes typical of the city.
Many street names were also spanish in origins because of the Hispanic influences. To my surprise, I was told the state used to belong to Mexico. I was surprised becos Mexico seem too far south to that. So much for my sense of history! Till today, there's still a strong Hispanic influence and population, and I think even a strong proportion of the tourists would have come from Latin America. Sometimes though I would think they're Chinese becos they have difference features and skin colour, till they speak.

There are of course also many Asians here. We had lunch one day at a Chinese restaurant, whose owner was happy to give us a bit of history. Many of them speak Cantonese here, so i had assumed they were from Hong Kong. As it turns out, they were mostly from China, Guangdong province. Increasingly others were coming, so Putonghua is getting more common as well. The owner also gave us some perspective on property prices. A studio with a toliet, and no kitchen, would have cost US$1,700 a month to rent. Property prices are also very high. I was later told the kids population in the city was falling becos families couldn't afford to stay and were moving to the suburbs.

The other pic is what Siyuan had. The food was surprisingly good there, better than most of the places we ate at in Hong Kong. haha

Fries and growing up

I love pictures like this one, where u can see siyuan and lux walking together. I chose one from the back rather than the front to emphasize the difference in height. It always makes me think - he's so small, yet he's complete in every physical sense. It also shows how vulnerable he is, and how much smaller in size he is to us. Sometimes as parents, i think we forget becos our babies are always so much in our faces and all over us.
The other picture shows siyuan's obession with fries and anything that looks like it. He was basically on a fries and orange juice diet, rejecting most of our attempts to feed him decent food. He did get some porridge stuff we brought, strawberries and bread etc. I guess the other good thing was he decided he could handle eggs again. For a month prior to the trip, he refused to eat egg, whether scrambled, fried or boiled, and would spilt them out no matter how disguised they are, or mixed with other food.
Btw, this time round, what's in the box wasn't fries but sweet tapioca strips.

Raining in HK

It rained all the time we were in Sans Francisco and continued to pour when we're back. And guess what? For the first time in 7 months, since we got here, we have clear views in HK. When we went to the bayside track near our place, I can finally see across the bay. I never realized there were coloured buildings there.
I can see across the bay at my office view as well! My view there is no longer restricted to the buildings nearby. I can see why HK would be so attractive in the past, but the pollution is a real pain nowadays.

Sure, China has to do with a lot of it, but you have to wonder about emissions from local power stations and motor vehicles. I was at Mid-levels checking out a rental apartment when i first got here, and my eyes were tearing while standing on the street waiting for the property agent to arrive. I was there less than 10 minutes.
That's just from the motor vehicles emissions.

And if pollution is that bad from China, why is it worse in HK island than in New Territories which is nearer to China? you have to wonder, wonder, wonder.