Having completed our journey with Air France, it’s good to be ‘home’. It’s 2 years since we last visited and I must say, I’m seeing a new side to the city this time round already. Before, it was always ‘family holidays’ where we were pulled one family dinner to the next, or – during 2003-04 – it was for work, which meant I saw even less of the city and more of a desk due to the working hours. Or maybe it’s just that this is my first official holiday from my full-time IA career. I must say, I did need a break, and you can’t get any further away from it all than sitting in a rural village in Hong Kong surrounded by mountains.
Just on the taxi back to our village – the taxi ride was a comparative luxury compared to the flight – the scenery was a refreshing change to the UK. With mountains, bridges, harbour-side dwellings, inner-city suburbs, marvelous urban engineering and architecture, Hong Kong really is a photographer’s dream. I sometimes wonder why I left. Something to do with ‘getting a proper job’, and getting a better work-life balance. The things I do miss though is the food, the sunshine (ok in small doses), the ability to use it as a base to explore other parts of Asia, the quirky almost-Japan-like culture, and the different types of activities you can do here: from nice beaches, shopping, trendy bars, original restaurants, a cosmopolitan community, island-hopping, hiking, and so on. If only I could read / write Chinese, maybe I’d be able to build a career for myself here. Oh well.
On a bad note, they’ve managed to build yet another house directly infront of my bedroom so what view I did have (admittedly it was a view of the carpark) is now someone’s window. That’s the rate they build things here!
Healthy Diet 5 servings of fruits + veg each day (preferably 3 servings of yellow fruit + veg + green leafy vegetables, and 2 servings of other fruits & veg).
The average woman does not need any extra calories for the first six months of pregnancy and only about 200 extra calories per day for the last three months.
Two hundred calories is equivalent to:
two slices of wholemeal toast and margarine/butter
a jacket potato with an ounce of cheese
one slice of cheese on toast.
Occasional treats are OK You don’t have to give up all your favourite foods just because you’re pregnant. But processed foods and snacks and sugar-packed desserts shouldn’t be the mainstay of your diet, either. So as far as snacks are concerned, try a banana rather than luxury ice cream, or a frozen fruit sorbet instead of canned peaches in sugary syrup. But don’t feel guilty if you fancy the occasional biscuit. Enjoy every bite!
No. I’m not kidding. Well, hmm. Ok, I guess he’s not your traditional spaceman who is propelled into space in a Michelin man outfit. Nooooo. This guy was the ’space’ man. His job was to show drivers where the spaces were in the car park. First time I’ve come across such a job. Interesting. He is kitted out like those lollipop ladies except his ‘lollipop’ says “spaces” and he points in the vague direction where spaces can be found. I imagine it’s quite useful but probably not in my local Sainsburys … where there are loads of spaces. Seriously, he was in the way of the spaces at times and at other times he was simultaneously pointing at so many spaces I thought he was re-inacting the Saturday Night Fever dance. I would have taken a picture of him except this dude looked like his normal job was a bouncer and he would have probably chased me down the street with his big lollipop.
So there you go. More proud parents will now be saying: “my son’s a space man” …
