5 Minutes

A Long Walk

Yesterday was a holiday in Hong Kong. I had agreed to walk Maclehose stage 1 and 2 with a couple of friends. I have walked this track before and I was surprised at how much it did actually take out of me as I was told it was flat prety much the whole way.....it is not!

We started at around 7:45 at the entrance to the country park under cloud cover. It had threatened to be either a very hot day or a very wet day but the conditions ended up being perfect for hiking. The cloud cover stayed the rain never fell and there was a nice breeze the whole way.

The first stage of the walk is a little tedious, it takes you around the road that circles the side of the High Island Reservoir. There are some good views but it is most nondescript and all on sealed road so ne real excitment.

One you get to the end of the road you walk up over the hill and you are confronted with the view of Long Ke beach which is the view above. It is a great view and the beach is just beautiful. There were only about 10 people on the beach.

After the beach you climb the mountain on the other end of it, if you open the photo and look carefully you should be able to make out the track heading up. It is a real slog up this Hill, it starts from sea level and goes up to 314m above with out a flat section in between. The last time I did this it took an incredibly long time but knowing what was coming and not having the sun beating down it was a lot faster this time round.

After this the route pretty much evens out until you get to the down hill to Sai Wan Beach. This is a great section of the track, you follow the coast after Sai Wan with a couple of good climbs and drops and then end up on Ham Tin Beach. From Ham Tin you go back inland. The first part of this is along a tidal area and we have to negotiate a couple of streams that were flooded and the bridges to cross them were under water, nothing dangerous though!

From there the walk to Pak Tam Au cover another 2 very decent climbs. We ran into a team of medics who were out walking the trail. One of our party who will remain nameless asked them what it is that they do and when they told him he proceeded to fall off the track into a stream....probably the single best piece of comedy timing I have ever seen. (I was concerned initially as it was a nasty fall) but we got a live example and the question was properly answered.
We got back to the road in pretty much 6 hours all 3 of us knackered and happy to see a taxi come by.

I will get some more pictures posted later today and get the link on here.

NOT SO NICE - SATURDAY

Come on the Chiefs!

What a game....well maybe not so much but the ending was so cool. I could have sworn we were going to lose it at the death. In all honesty what ever way that game went it was going to be fair.

I thought the Hurricanes were a bit absent for a lot of the game but not quite absent enough to let the Chiefs get away. Once they started firing I was worried and a 4 point buffer is just rubbish for a comfortable final few minutes.

Well done to both of the teams and especially the Chiefs. Now all those people who laughed at me when I wear my Chiefs Jersey can swing!!!

Fire Sale

Folks, here it is thebrunners fire sale. We are looking to leave in the first 2 weeks of June so make a move as quick as you can.

thebrunners Fire Sale Website

Please spread the word as much as possible

Golf Swing

This was my second shot on the Par 5 18th at Kau Sai Chau East Course.

4 Iron from 288 with wind behind....although I obviously thought I had made it I must have missed buy enough to roll to the bottom of a big hill at the side of the green.....must have been the back spin!

Busy Week

Over a week since my last post, good effort it must mean I am busy elsewhere. This is pretty much true and amongst the fun I have managed to get several things up and running.

We are now very much in the process of moving back to the UK. Things are being finalised in Hong Kong and I am now looking forward to the challenges ahead. At this stage we may be putting our belongings in Storage in Hong Kong while we test the market and see if anything does come up in either NZ or Asia. I am not overly positive on the chances but anything could come from anywhere at this stage and I am sure something will come good.

I am in the process of setting up a website with all our belongings for sale and will post a link here once it is done. The car is the bain of my life yet again. We have a 100% buyer for it in the dealer that we bought our first car off but it will be a huge hit to take and I seriously need to look at taking the car back to the UK and what that means all round. If any one reading this is interested in a 7 seater Subaru Tribeca, 1 year old with 20,000 on the clock let me know, make me an offer...nothing can be as silly as what the dealer is offering and I would rather offer a good deal to some one then let the dealer profit from it.

Monday I was out playing the East Course at Kau Sai Chau. What a great course, it is long and it is pretty tough but great all the same. Lots of Risk/Reward holes, I played safe a few times and it didn't work, neither did going for it in most cases but it sure was more fun trying to make the carry. It cost me nearly as much in Golf Balls as green fees! I have posted some pictures on Picasa for those that are interested.

The big event since the last post is that we have got Ci (our Golden Retriever) back. That is a long story but the short version is some one found her walking around and took her in. They were in Sai Kung during the last week and noticed one of the posters we had put up and called us. I could not believe it when it was actually her! She has put on a few pounds and seems to have been well cared for, it is a massive relief.

A Post will follow later!

Back to Work

Well, for Catherine it is. I continue to enjoy the freedom of being made redundant and the joy of not having to go to the office everyday talking about when I am getting laid off and seeing all the excited faces. Today I left home at 8:50 to go to a meeting in town, sunroof and windows open, 27 degrees and just taking my time amongst all the people stressing to get to their offices. Once in town I sat down for a coffee, logged on, checked some news and my emails and then eventually pottered over to the office. It's great watching the rat race when you are not one of them.

It also became clear to me today that work will come my way again and most likely in the not too distant future. The longer I am in this predicament the better I feel about it. It's the break I was yearning and I have realised there are jobs out there that are so much more me than what I was doing.

Anyway, the weekend was a good one. Great weather and steaming temperatures. Saturday was a lazy morning around home followed by a swim and dinner at the club.

Sunday was mothers day. We made a visit to Disneyland which was a great day out for all. Catherine enjoyed the day out with the kids and we all had fun. The big girls rode Space Mountain for the first time which they both loved.

The play in the wet zone was the end of the stay, another Disney dress was required for the trip home and that always gets expensive when you have 3 young daughters....but hey, life is for living. I have posted some pics up on Picasa. Click HERE to see them.

We've been to see the Inland Revenue about our taxes to pay prior to leaving as it looks pretty likely we will be back in the UK in the very near future. A bit of a shock there and the number needs to be confirmed and paid in the next week to get everything in order for us but it all looks like it will be under control. The process has started, keep your eyes peeled if you are in Hong Kong for anything we will be selling, I will post details or links to details here soon.

One More Thing

Typhoon/Cyclone/Hurricane season has started again!

What to do on a Sunny Day

The Roller Coaster

Well, Brunner life continues to be full of changes and uncertainty. Last Wednesday I got the message that I had been waiting for since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. I am surprised it went on as long as this. When you are a Client Service rep and you have no clients the job life has to be limited. So I was told my role has been eliminated and I am now a man of leisure....well a job seeker to be more exact.

So although I was expecting that day to ruin my life and plan and I love life in Hong Kong I suddenly decided that this might not be the worst thing that has ever happened.

Spending time with the kids has been great. I get to go to all the school events without having the feeling people think I am skiving work and I can put the kids on the bus in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon. I get to spend time with Catherine on her half days and I am in general less stressed. It has also made me realise that being in Hong Kong is not the be all and end all.

So we are now looking for work in Europe, Asia and New Zealand. We would love to stay in Hong Kong but we would be fine with leaving as well. The job market here is really bad at the moment so we are open for any location, it is a ll pretty exciting.

So the last week has been spent trying to look at options, playing golf, enjoying the sun, looking for work and so on. The only thing I have not actually managed yet is a sleep in and I don't fancy my chances. Not that I care, after spending the last 2 years getting up before 5:30 sleeping until 7am is actually a good start. I am sitting here now on the porch in glorious sunshine typing out a blog entry watching my youngest daughter chasing a spider. If I put the uncertain future aside for a moment things could not get much better.

Tee Time 08:42

Tomorrow for the first time in what feels like ages I will be playing golf out at Kau Sai Chau. I tested the shoulder out again and it all seemed to work quite well so thought it would be worth giving it a go at a whole round. Hopefully the scoring is reasonable so that I don't do any unwanted damge.

I'll be on the KSC boat at 8am joining up with Shane and his colleague Stein. Should be a good day with 3 dcent golfers out, Shane probably gaurented to take the cash home but I will defo fight for it!

I'll update on the result tomorrow.

There are a couple of new albums on my Picasa. Still need to add the detail and these have previously been on our Mac website but feel free to take a look.

Singapore Zoo, Feb '08
Golden Hill Road, Jul '08
Tioman Island, Mar '08

Update on Ci

We got a message while at the Wetland Park to say that the Lady who has found the dog that could potentially be Ci has recaptured the dog. 

She has said she will take her to the vet on Monday to get the Microchip checked and will get back with the result of that.

Hong Kong Wetland Park, May 2nd 2009

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Today's plan had been to go ice skating in the morning first off and then head out to Yuen long in the very north of Hong Kong to meet up with some one who has found a Golden Retriever which is in a post a few days back. This plan was blown up when we got to Megabox for skating at the perfect time and there was an all day Ice Hockey tournament in progress.

The girls were upset and Nia was just not having it that she was not allowed to go skating but I managed to convince her this WAS the case and we got back into the car and headed off. It was too early to call about seeing the dog so we decided to go to the Wetland Park which had been on my agenda for this weekend anyway.

It's a great drive out to that part of the world, big quiet roads and with 30 degree heat we had the windows and sunroof open and the music blaring....only in remote spots will I play this music so loud and I won't go any further than that.

We got to the park and the guy before us got the last park. We were told to try again n about 2 hours, what is it with these people! We went and parked down the road and got a taxi back after a quick early lunch.

The girls enjoyed bits of the park, things like the Hides, the Crocodile and the Swamp Adventure Playground. Other than that though it was really just a walk on a prety hot day which went down quite well until nearly the end. I'll let the photos do the talking but the place was not exactly teeming with wildlife. Still I guess that proves it isn't commercial and it's nice to see hey have not figured out how to pay the animals to come yet!

It is agreat facility and it is so well set up I would definitely go for another look, probably not on a public holiday Saturday though.

Tap Mun (Grass Island), May 1st 2009

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Friday was a public holiday, I had considered the Hong Kong Wetland Park but after speaking to our friends Mark and Sam we decided to complete the Grass Island trip that we had to cancel due to the terrible weather the previous weekend. It was an early start and meant we got out of the house before Catherine left for Manila and thus avoiding any complete meltdowns.

We left the house as planned at 7am on the dot thanks to some guidance from Catherine. We got to the car park at the entrance to the Country Park at the same time as the Webbs and in enough time to buy a couple of kites from the shop and to get to the bus stop.

The good thing about doing things early in Hong Kong is that you always manage to avoid crowds. This is a great thing, believe me, especially when travelling with little ones.

The bus trip to Wong Shek Pier was pretty good, as usual the bus driver seemed a bit too keen to get there as soon as possible which makes for an interesting trip at the best of times. The children all seemed to enjoy it though and it made a change from catching a Taxi.


We got to Wong Shek very early for the ferry over to Tap Mun. There was a guy waiting with a Surfboard and he asked us where we were headed. He seemed pretty happy that we were heading to Tap Mun and offered the sharing of a speedboat. I pretty quickly agreed to this after him saying it was only going to cost about HKD 100 for the whole boat. The bloke proceeded to speak Cantonese (fluently, or at minimum confidently) and said that the boat would be there shortly.

This poor guy was amped up ready to get on his surfboard and go and the boat person was messing him around. He ended up negotiating with a guy on the pier so it ended up being HKD 150. Considering this move ended up turning a slow 30 minute trip on what actually ended up looking like it could be described as a smelly old boat with seats it was probably the best money I have spent in ages. It took somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes to get there and the good thing about speed boat is the kids LOVE it and they just do not feel seasick as it is more of a bump than a rock, bloody marvelous!



The Island feels like it could well be a look at what life used to be like around Hong Kong's shore lines a long time ago. Getting off the boat at the Pier we only just got to the dry end of the pier and there were 3 big sheets of shrimps drying on the concrete basketball court. Dried fish is pretty much the extent of what is on offer for sale on the island other than a few small sea dweller nick knacks which my girls ended up with, of course.

The walk around the bottom part of the island took us about an hour and a half including a good stop for snack and a spot of kite flying at the top of the hill near the Concrete football pitch/helicopter pad. The kids loved the kite flying and conditions were great to start with at the beginning. The wind picked up quite suddenly and after getting Rhiannon's kite to a pretty good altitude the string snapped, we chased it down with much enthusiasm.



We continued the walk around the island past the 'balanced rock'. I thought this may be more interesting in real life than in picture I have seen but I was wrong. It's really not that much to look at, although sitting above it was a nice spot for a pic of My Girls and I.



We carried on to the village past an awful lot of grave sites. It must be said, not a bad place to be buried in the scheme of things!

We got back to the fisherman's village at 10:40 and decided an early lunch at the New Hong Kee seafood restaurant might be the plan. Unfortunately they were booked to the rafters from 11am until 2pm with 600 tourists coming through, yes by 10:30 the place was insanely busy.

We ended up next door with more Fried Rice with Sea Urchin, Crab and Clams then we knew what to do with. Washed down with a couple of cold bottles of Tsing Tao it really was a good end to the visit.

The only thing that I found really disappointing was that all the paths on the island are concrete and it just takes something away from what it could be. That and the mindless visitors that just don't seem to appreciate what it is that makes the island special, but then that is par for the course around here.

If anyone is considering it here is some info:
Bus to Wong Shek Pier: KMB 94 from Sai Kung or 96R on Sunday and Holidays from Diamond Hill
Boat: Hourly on weekends. INFO HERE
Speed Boat: Phone 9257 2706 - Not the best English but it worked. Agree the Price before getting on.
New Hong Kee Restaurant 2328 2428