Quiet Weeks

 Hello all!

It's my turn to write this week. The last couple of weeks have actually been very quiet. It seems everyone takes the week before and after Christmas off around here -- except for us of course. So we go into the office every day but we have found it more difficult to get things done because the people we work with here and in other countries are a lot more difficult to get in touch with. And both Steve and Greg (my bosses) are gone so things have slowed down a bit for the first time since we got here.

We do have a couple of activities that occurred this last week; so here we go.

The biggest day of the week was Thursday when we went to the temple to do baptisms. We did this in honor or Liz who did baptisms in her temple for the first time this week.

Me doing what I tend to do a lot of -- talking to different attorneys all over Asia. I've spent a lot of time these last two weeks working on some difficult issues in India. Here I'm working with an attorney in Hanoi, Viet Nam.

Late Friday afternoon we hiked up to the "Peak", the number one tourist attraction in HK. Steep and unrelenting all the way up.

So we rewarded ourselves with a dinner at the top.

 

Saturday morning we took off with the other lawyers and wives in the office to go explore Sharp Island. Unfortunately, we got on the wrong bus and ended up way out in the middle of nowhere. This was the end of the line for this bus. So talked to the bus driver and explained our dilemma. He said, "no problem" and told us to get back onto the bus and he proceeded to drive all the way to our destination, almost a half hour away. We were the only people on this big double-decker bus. When we finally got to where we really needed to be we offered a sizable tip to the driver who absolutely refused. He said he was happy to have been able to help us.

Here we are with the whole bus to ourselves.

This is our group with the bus driver -- a most kind and pleasant guy.

After disembarking from the bus we hired this boat to take us out to sharp Island.

I thought you'd appreciate the boat captain's instructions.

 

Here we are on Sharp Island preparing to walk on this land bridge to an outer portion of the island. This bridge is available only during low tide (which is was). At high tide this is completely under water.

They even had an art installation on the far side of this outer island.

Here we are, ready to walk back. The tide is already starting back in.

Made it!

I'll end with this picture of a local shop down the street from the office. These shops, full of red envelopes and other red party paraphernalia, are springing up all over in the street markets. We are getting all amped up for Chinese NewYear. This is the biggest party of the year around here. It occurs in early February. We can't wait! 

That's it for this week. We anticipate everything to get way busy again this coming week. We love and miss all of you. Have a great week.

Pampa and Grandma