Little things I like

It's now been ten months since I left New Zealand to come over to the UK, and on reflection I have to say that I've probably found the transition easier than most - I had a job, a place to live, and supportive friends and family already over here. So rather than struggling with London rent, homesickness and terrible English food (OK, I'm maybe still struggling with terrible English food) I instead got launched right into the swing of things. I have however found myself missing certain things at home, while appreciating others here.

Here:
Premade food. Oh my lord the premade food at the supermarkets. You can get fantastic microwave meals here, and they go on special for less than the equivalent of $4 a lot of the time.

Carrot sticks - I love carrot sticks, and hate making them. The solution? Ready-made carrot batons!

Tea (and everything that goes with it). If you want a speciality tea shop here, no problem. There's chains of them to choose from!

Opening hours and free takeout delivery - hungry at 10pm on a Thursday evening? No problem, you can choose from Chinese, Indian, Italian...and get it delivered for free!

Fashion - Londoners are STYLING. And they don't care if you wear weird things.

And they like to stuff penguins, apparently.

Home:

Good fresh fruit and veg - I have to say, it's a bit of a roulette wheel here. I've had some fabulous fruit and also some really rubbish overpriced stuff.

Good Chinese food - I don't know what it is about these British people, but it's been a real struggle to find really nice, decently priced Chinese (and more importantly, Hong-Kong style food...)

Okay, so this is ACTUALLY from transit in Hong Kong...

Traffic - there's SO much traffic in London, and you all sort of drive around each other. Much quicker to get the tube most days.

Space - back yard? Detached house? Forget about it unless you have a cool couple of million pounds (or don't live in London...)

Look, these houses AREN'T all stuck together!

These are just some of the things I notice, but it also makes me wonder - what are the things that other people notice when they move countries...?

Skiing Flaine - with Action Outdoors and UCPA

I love skiing. It's always fallen into the category of "one of those things that I like, but that I struggle to improve at". So this year, with the proximity and relative inexpense (compared to a similar ski package, from New Zealand) of the French Alps I decided it was about time I dusted off my ski jacket and got outside.
I elected to go with UCPA via Action Outdoors as it was the most convenient option for me and I didn't mind paying a little bit more for the convenience of having only to organise my flights to and from Geneva.

UCPA is a French organisation intended to encourage young people to participate in outdoor sports, and they own hostels/resorts throughout France. They offer package deals for long weekends as well as full weeks, including gear hire and tuition for all levels. Action Outdoors is their official UK partner and basically has set up packages that make it slightly easier for people coming from the UK, with airport transfers able to be organised with them and most packages including Saturday night accommodation rather than starting on Sunday. They also make it super easy if you don't have a group of people to travel with, as they will sometimes organise weekends specifically for single travellers and offer extra discounts.

I finally made it to Flaine, in late January - this cost £448.93 including half-time tuition and airport transfers, with flights around £80 return via Luton airport.

I called Action Outdoors for a recommendation to start with as I hadn't been skiing for quite some time and wanted to go somewhere suitable for an (improving) intermediate skier, and Flaine was one of the options they gave - and what an awesome recommendation! Although people rib on the architecture (it's a polarising concrete jungle) the UCPA resort there is 50m away from the pistes, you can return for a cooked lunch or choose to take a picnic, and all the rooms are twin share so you only have to share space with one other person. The hostel itself is not the newest, but the facilities are clean and well maintained including the all-important central heating - in fact it was almost too hot some nights!

Food

The weather was fantastic as well, with snow at night -> powder in the morning, and I met (and skiied with) a whole group of lovely people there via my room-mate who was the 'odd' person in the group. The runs are mostly intermediate (blue and red) with a smattering of black and green runs.

This is honestly what the weather was like the entire time!

I think if you're keen on off piste or more challenging skiing that it's probably not the place to be - the off piste is considered quite dangerous because of the number of holes, and I skiied most of the field and found it manageable having not really done a lot of skiing for a few years. I probably wouldn't go back to Flaine since there's so much more of the Alps to ski, but I would definitely recommend it to someone who wants to learn or improve.

I'm looking forward to exploring more of the ski areas in Europe, maybe once December rolls around...as much as I like mountains, I vastly prefer them with ski lifts and groomed pistes as opposed to walking up them!

Long time no see! HIghlights from Dragon100 Forum Part 3: Taiwan

So in the interests of completeness, I am now writing (6 months late....r) about the awesome time we had in Taiwan as part of Dragon100. The organisers had initially wanted this part of the forum to be spent in China, however at the time of organising there was a lot of worry about the re-emergence of H1N1 and the possibility of an epidemic - so Taiwan it was!

Our journey to Taiwan started in the middle of the night, or rather, at 4am when we all got on the bus to the airport. It turns out, of course, that the flight (...never again, China Airlines...) was delayed for another 4 hours so we didn't even need to be at the airport that early! I suspect someone, somewhere, has some photos of me sleeping on the chairs at the airport since I distinctly remember hearing the clicking of cameras and being too tired to do anything about it.

Because of this delay, we were rushed straight to the Tzu Chi foundation where we were to spend our first session. I have to confess that despite the foundation being one of the largest humanitarian organisations in the world, I had never heard of them before, and was amazed by the organisation and scope of their work. They even run a TV channel which is named "Da Ai" (big love) to model and highlight the values they are based on.

To be honest, it's been so long since the trip I will just bring you some of the highlights in a series of photos.

Sneaky photo at the National Palace Museum, where you are Not Allowed To Take Photos. I got my brother the souvenir jade cabbage spoon, and he was confused as to why there was a vegetable on the teaspoon.

Clubbing in TW

Drinks all included for $20 NZ...

Traditional drumming...somewhere around Miaoli

Soup dumplings. I so want decent soup dumplings

Fishballs

And the food just kept on coming...

Actually, the best was left for last - after getting to know everyone over the course of the week and feeling like we'd known each other for a lifetime, we had an awesome discussion forum at the end where the ideas just kept flowing and there was just so much spark. I love that feeling of creative and intellectual energy - as I type this I'm totally missing everyone!

This last photo illustrates just how truly global the Dragon100 delegates are despite all being of Chinese descent. There are phrases written on the window in French and Japanese - we had someone who studied French in the UK translating that to English, someone else translating the Japanese to English, and two people translating the English into Mandarin so everyone could understand!

(Yet another bloody) Kiwi In London

Long time no blog! In the last couple of months I have been frantically packing, sorting out my visa, sorting out flights, moving countries, trying to get settled and stressing about whether I would get paid... luckily it has now all been sorted, I'm settling into the hospital (i.e. no longer having to look up every single unfamiliar medication in the BNF) and I'm planning some travel around Europe.

I flew into London early last month, via Hong Kong - which gave me a last chance to have some decent Chinese food before getting to the United Kingdom. Seriously, does anyone even know what Yum Cha is here?

This looks like it should be an Instagram photo.

  Luckily I had some spare HKD from my Dragon100 trip, so I spent my remaining change on a meal which was breakfast, lunch, dinner and a mid-night snack - breakfast because it was early morning in Hong Kong, lunch because I'd had a breakfast meal on the plane, dinner because that was what time it was in London, and a mid-night snack because it was about 2am in NZ!

As does this, really

I'm working and living in West London, and to be honest the medicine is not that different, apart from the shocking availability of radiological imaging (same-day semi-urgent inpatient MRI head, anyone??) and all the medications that aren't funded by Pharmac back home. Sadly, we also see a lot of lonely older people who come to the hospital - many with medical problems that need inpatient treatment and loneliness as a significant comorbidity, but some whose presenting complaint could be avoided with a bit more companionship. I don't remember seeing this in New Zealand as much, but I also wasn't working at the front door. It actually reminds me of the old-fashioned idea of having a "companion" - perhaps it isn't such an antiquated notion after all. That in turn reminded me of the Anne of Green Gables novels (Charlotta the Fourth, in particular) and Anastasia novels - I think the third one is where she decides to be a companion with hilarity ensuing.

I leave you with some pictures of stuff.

At the Victoria and Albert

On a bridge

My place! 

.

I wasn't actually trying to get here, but I took a right turn and thought this was a great photo opportunity.

I live in a beautiful country

I've just moved everything home in preparation for the big move - to London - and took some photos of what I'm leaving behind. My last day at work was beautiful so I took some photos.

Driving to work

Work...

Work carpark...

Driving home!

Yes, that is a cyclist on the highway. Yes, they are allowed to be there.

I drove up from Wellington with a very fully laden car. It was not the most fun 7 hour trip of my life, mainly because everything was crammed in and spilling over into the space for the driver and passenger...a testament to how much stuff I have, I think.

Wellington - the view from my balcony

Heading up the coast...

Obligatory sheep and cows

Driving into some rain on the Desert Road

Turangi

Lake Taupo

Thankfully it was great weather for driving for the most part and the weather continued to hold. I'm now frantically stressing and packing for London (which has consumed most of the last 2 months to be fair...) but will hopefully update this a bit more once I'm there!

Dragon100 Forum Part 2: Culture and crazy awesomeness

Part 1

Day 3: Temples and temperatures

The day started off with a couple of slightly hungover people and several more sensible, not-hungover people (I was actually in the latter category, having mainly had energy drinks rather than alcohol the night before) being subjected to the heat and humidity that comes with being outside on a mid-summer, sunny Hong Kong day.  Whilst the weather was certainly nice and warm, my eyes were definitely protesting the sunlight and of course I forgot my hat and sunglasses. 

It was hot. Very hot.

Of course this had a cultural purpose to it, this being experiencing Chi Lin Nunnery and Nan Lian Garden. This complex is an undertaking on an epic multi-million-dollar scale, and perfectly replicates the Tang Dynasty style of garden and temple. Something that I just can’t get used to (being, of course, from New Zealand) is the backdrop of high-rise buildings outside this peaceful oasis.

Every time I look at this picture it confuses me.

I will let the pictures speak for themselves as this place is much more spectacular than any words could describe.

An exhibit explaining traditional wooden architecture in the garden. Apparently these hold up to earthquakes just as well as the modern earthquake stabilisers; they're built on platforms so don't have underground foundations

Second view of the Golden Pavilion from the top of the stairs. It is entirely coated in real gold, and closed off to the public. Even most staff members are not allowed in it.

Chi Lin nunnery, built using the traditional methods. No close up photos of the temple complex were really allowed since it is supposed to be a place for worship rather than tourism...

 The afternoon was spent at the Yuen Yuen Institute (actually, if you want to visit, look at this link) which is a complex which initially confused me because it is dedicated to multiple religions and so the variety of temples and places you can worship at is almost like the variety of street food you can get. This is something I couldn't imagine really having in New Zealand, although having a church, mosque and temple all within a stone's throw from each other would look pretty cool. We were provided with an amazing vegetarian lunch, the opportunity to explore the huge complex and offer our respects in whichever way we chose, and treated to an exhibition of Tai Chi as well as hearing about some of the crazy awesome projects other delegates are involved with. Again, pictures.

Lunch! Vegetarian lunch, even - the variety of mushrooms was amazing.

One of many places of worship

I was actually trying to get a picture of the giant albino carp that was at least a couple of feet long - that's just the top of it's head and mouth visible to the left of the orange fish...it was HUGE

That evening was spent wandering around the Hong Kong waterfront, taking MANY photos and just being generally touristy.

Ridiculously clear evening...

Further support of my hypothesis that no matter where you go, the Irish pub will always be called Murphy's

At this point I seriously wanted to jump in - it was BOILING!

Lights at night and someone's hand

Day 4: Enter the Dragon

Our final day in Hong Kong started at a quite reasonable hour of the morning with a trip to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Not only was this exciting due to my love of museums, but also because the first thing we saw as we got out of the bus was a poster for the special exhibit about Bruce Lee! So naturally there were many attempts at replicating the pose of the giant statue that greeted us as we entered the museum – my best attempt is displayed below.

How I wish my side kick was actually as high as the statue...

The Bruce Lee exhibition itself was an overview of not just his adult movie career and martial arts skill (which is what most people remember him for) but his whole life, covering everything from his early days as a child actor, dancing skills, personality, and career as an adult movie maker. Unfortunately it was strictly no photos allowed (and policed fairly vigilantly) so I don’t have any illustrative aids, however the exhibit was well laid out and absolutely crammed full of personal items, images, and films of Bruce Lee, including of course his movie costumes and notes about martial arts as well as personal letters and a portion of his library of martial arts books. According to the exhibition information, it includes the largest amount of items ever loaned to a museum by the Bruce Lee Foundation. This is a special exhibit which according to the website will be up for a number of years – so if you’re in Hong Kong before 2018, take the time to visit the Heritage museum, and for this exhibit give yourself a good hour. I could’ve spent two hours here easily, but most people seemed to be done at about the one-hour mark.

We also toured one of the permanent exhibitions about Cantonese opera, a subject about which I previously knew absolutely nothing apart from what the title inferred, and also looked at the movie adaptations of some of the Cantonese operas. The skill, costumes, and presentation are just breathtaking - especially since martial arts often feature in the opera, so performers must be particularly acrobatic and talented as well as being able to sing and act. One particular movie clip featured a performer spinning her ponytail around her head during a martial arts display, and I’m just going to say – Willow Smith whipping her hair has NOTHING on her!

We spent the afternoon at the School of Creative Media which is an incredible facility somewhere in Hong Kong (I was well and truly lost in terms of my sense of direction by this stage) and has this amazing 3-D room. Again, it wasn't super appropriate to take photos here, but wow. The room. We were shown the Mogao caves in a way that you can't even experience in person (as some are sealed off now). According to the guide, they were painstakingly photographed, laser scanned, and adapted into this format so you can essentially be inside and experience the caves. The current feature exhibit is Pure Land which has taken one of the murals in the sealed-off caves and made it come to life - you can see the "restored" original colours of the mural, hear what the music in the temples sound like, and even see the dancers which have been animated. Very, very cool.

Photo courtesy of the School of Creative Media

Dragon100 Forum Part 1: Hello Hong Kong!

I was selected earlier in the year to be one of this year's New Zealand delegates to the Dragon100 Forum on "Chinese Culture: Continuity and Innovation" which was held in Hong Kong and Taiwan. To be honest, I applied without the expectation of being selected so it was an awesome surprise when I got the confirmation email!

Day 1: Introductions and setting the scene

I touched down in Hong Kong at the very respectable hour of 7:30am for the Dragon100 forum and immediately experienced a 15-20 degree rise in temperature and 80% rise in humidity compared to New Zealand. I’d had a good sleep and terrible breakfast on the plane, so was ready for whatever the day ahead held.

Not exactly large, friendly letters on the cover, but a good travelling t-shirt

Outside the airport, to demonstrate the weather I arrived to!

We were met at the airport by volunteer staff members, transported to the hostel for formalities and check in, and then told we were free to do as we chose until the introduction portion of the evening. My first priority was to take a shower, then get food – luckily, Y-Loft (the hostel) was located immediately by an MTR station and thus a mall. I was lucky enough to find a group going out for dim sum, shopping, and exploration around Causeway Bay. Not much was bought, but I had good fun wandering around and looking at the shops.

First priority: food! This one is a pineapple bun 

Char siu bun, egg tart, custard/fruit plait. All are recommended!

Second lunch/early dinner of dim sum

Sneaky shot of a cat-themed store

As a side note, I would definitely recommend Y-Loft as a place to stay if you don't mind being half an hour out of town and at the end of the MTR line. The rooms are clean and well-presented, there's wi-fi everywhere, and it's a generally nice environment. There aren't really many power points free to charge your electronics (you'll have to unplug the lamps) and apparently the hostel block is not as nice, but the common areas are modern and there's even a small gym (which has 2 treadmills, a bike, a bench, and some mats. No weights, oddly enough, and supposedly only open from 8am-10pm but no-one minded that I went outside those times)

Beds - the messy one is of course mine

Bathroom - with not-wide-enough shower curtain

TV and desk.

This was a design feature I particularly liked - despite being 13 floors up, it felt like we were in a smaller building as there was a central courtyard built in, and all the rooms in the block had a small balcony.

Our balcony!

But actually this is how high up we were....

Day 2: Happy Birthday, happy birthday

Our second day was focussed specifically on the 10^th anniversary of the Dragon100 forum and celebrations pertaining to the same, including a ceremony, afternoon workshops, and of course a celebration dinner.

Everyone dressed up in their business best!

For me, the highlight of the morning was actually the keynote lecture around the topic of the forum, “Chinese Culture; continuity and innovation”. Despite one of the delegates saying afterwards that the lecture was not so informative because “everyone knows this”, I learnt a lot both in terms of basic facts and with respect to the more current conflicts between "older" traditions and values held today.

Keynote speaker

On that note, since it did make me think a bit about assumed common knowledge, I think it’s easy to be complacent about things that “everyone should know” when you assume that everyone comes from a similar context as yourself - particularly in a forum such as this where all the participants are of Chinese descent. However, in the same way that I don’t necessarily expect everyone to know what I consider basic information about health despite everyone needing good health to stay alive, I don’t feel that it's expected of me to have learnt about the history of China and Chinese culture. This is particularly true given that my upbringing and schooling has been entirely in New Zealand where it isn't really part of the curriculum. I can tell you a whole lot about the history of New Zealand though! Of course, lack of knowledge doesn't mean lack of interest (especially when it’s pretty much handed to me in a nice gift wrapped hour) and actually, given how well-presented the information was I am more inclined to find out more now.

Different types of teas

During the afternoon workshops, my topics of choice were tea ceremony and qipao. Despite the workshop on tea ceremonies being entirely in Mandarin and me requiring translation of 95% of what was being said, I enjoyed learning about the different tea types and the rituals involved. The second workshop, on qipao, was also partially in Cantonese and Mandarin, and there were more than a few blank nodding and agreeing faces between me, some of the other non-Chinese speaking delegates, and the non-Cantonese speakers. As someone who is a hobbyist with respect to sewing, this workshop was pretty much captivating – we covered the history of qipao pattern drafting, construction techniques, tools, material choice, and got to see some amazing hand sewing as well as the instructor hand-sewing a basic qipao for a delegate within an hour and a half.

Apparently this garment is around 300 years old

Chinese tailor's chalk, ruler, and traditional width fabric

One of the points raised during the qipao workshop was the lack of a national dress in China, and the desire to preserve the older style of qipao rather than the more modern, British-influenced garment as being more "true" to tradition (the newer style typically uses western tailoring with darts and a zip; the older style has neither). This lead to several interesting discussions about the place of qipao in modern society and the different approaches to clothing and fashion - probably enough discussion for a separate blog post that is likely to go off into geeky tangents about sewing, in fact. So I will talk about the rest of the night instead.

Dinner was of course a fancy and formal affair as would be expected due to the nature of the celebrations, with performances from local dance groups and also the local Hong Kong delegates. And the food. Wow. Food. Pictures speak for themselves, I think.

There was a teeny seahorse in my soup!

Rice with fish roe in it, amazingly tasty

Sweet soup and pastry

 A group of us headed out to go clubbing in LKF afterwards (can't remember what it stands for; too lazy to look it up) and spent a couple of hours dancing in 7 Heaven. The music, atmosphere and company were great, but I'm used to clubs being non-smoking areas and I really hate the smell of cigarettes, so that irked me a little. Not enough to stop me having fun, of course.

On the right is the club we went to...

People on the street - way busier than New Zealand is usually!

I have over 300 photos and a whole lot to say about my trip since I didn't lose my camera/phone this time - so stay tuned for further updates and discussions.