Maracas

Finished school on Friday feeling tired but jubilant from the week that has passed and the weekend ahead. The staff gradually collected at ZAKS at the Plaza and the usual level of buzzing conversation ensued about accommodation, our classes, weekend plans and what we did before we came here.  Apparently we have just 79 teaching days to go until the Christmas break, doesn’t seem like a lot.

In celebration of it being Friday evening, Kylie and I invited our friends Tanya and Vince to join us in a McDonalds coupon deal. We sat on benches overlooking the ocean enjoying our £1.60 feast. Armed with a beer each for the ferry ride we caught the 7pm crossing. Mum ‘skyped’ me on the way over which was funny as the four of us squeezed our heads into the camera range to talk to Mum. We arranged to meet Tanya and Vincent later and dashed home to get ready.

We met Sasha, Kelly and Kris at Al’s Diner in Lan Kwai Fong. The street was teaming with people of all nationalities. A parade of Chinese were promoting Corona and marching up and down in yellow and blue t-shirts and face paints. Giving out balloons was all very well but we all agreed that beer would have been better. There was a brilliant atmosphere, people spilled out of the bars onto the streets, flags and lanterns bobbed and swayed overhead and music pumped out from all directions. Our first drink was most dignified, a jelly shot from an oversized plastic syringe! We decided to move on from there as it was so hot and went to the vodka ice bar. This was more like it. At this bar there was a fridge that you could stand in! We were issued with fur coats (not that we needed them for a long while) and went in and stood in the chiller! I don’t think we bought any drinks just took a load of silly photos, pretending to be bears!

Next we went to the Cavern, little did we know that we had stumbled across probably one of the best venues here. We got in free on the proviso that we buy drinks (which we did) and there was a dance floor, which we dominated immediately. Soon others joined and the place was packed out. A band came on who played clubbing music live on the stage. I got up with the lead singer and every now and then he held the microphone for me to sing the odd word or line, my friends clapped and cheered. It was hilarious! Well we continued to drink and dance and Matt and Jarrod arrived and started to buy us drinks. Nice of them but no two drinks were the same so we ended up pretty influenced! I was wondering all day on Saturday why I had a pain in my shoulder and I finally recalled playing the maracas for about an hour with the band! I just had the one but it was really heavy and I remember having to swap arms regularly.

Kylie and I woke the next day to a call saying that our sofa bed would be arriving in twenty minutes time. We were both suffering from the night before but still managed to feel excited when the men came and assembled our new piece of furniture. They were reminiscent of a pit stop team and were out within ten minutes. We had arranged to meet Daniel for a coffee in central and we struggled to get ready. Once out in the heat we were feeling considerably worse and we were relieved to reach a café and waited for Daniel. He called and asked where we were at which point we realised we were at the wrong station. We had followed signs to the MTR at Sheung Wan instead of central and were about 10 minutes away from where Daniel had been waiting patiently for about the last half an hour. Being the lovely person he is he set off to meet us so we stayed put and cautiously nibbled on a shared panini wondering whether coffee or juice would be the best option. I noticed that my legs were covered in mosquito bites.

Daniel arrived shortly and we enjoyed catching up, feeling braver we had a second panini and chatted about school and where we had been for our night out.

I spent the afternoon practising chords and singing while Kylie lay comatose in bed with a magazine on her face.

We ventured out again in the evening, first stop dymmocks bookshop for some window shopping. Books are very expensive here so they will remain a pipe dream for at least a few months. We get paid in just under two weeks and when that happens practically every dollar has already been accounted for then we have to pay back our school loans for three months from our wages. After that though, we will be on full income and by then we’re hoping to be skinny as well as rich!

Next stop Pacific coffee to enjoy a bottled water and free internet access. Heads down we tapped away at the keyboards checking various sites and e-mail addresses. I looked at flights for the Christmas break and saw some excellent deals for New York. We had a wander round soho on the lookout for some bargain chow. It was then that we found Jo’s Café. It turned out to be a good find. Cheap food but also brilliant service we shared a pizza and salad and watched football on the big screens. As we talked we said how happy we were that we were sharing an apartment and that it has made it so much more enjoyable than if we had tried to make this move alone.

It was a big improvement having a sofa to sit on and we watched the last of Gavin and Stacey series one. Having not quite had our fill, we agreed that we should start series two as well before bed. Feeling almost recovered we said that we wouldn’t be drinking like that every Friday! Looking forward to another lie in we took to bed.

God bless x