Today was our second last full day in Hong Kong.  On Friday we start the long, horrible ride home.  Today, we don’t have any set plans, so a good day should pan out.

We started out a bit slowly.  The longer we’re away, the later Emily goes to bed, and therefore the later and later she gets up.  In the family we call her “Lazy bones Jones”, and she just giggles.  The child LOVES her sleep!  Stephanie, on the other hand, gets up pretty early still, although later than the 6:00am she treats us to at home!

I had a ring to pick up and Danny’s lenses for his glasses are ready, so we had told the kids that we were going to Causeway Bay first, to get those things done.  In fact, we had pre-negotiated that today was going to be the grownups day, because tomorrow they want a repeat performance of DisneyLand, so we hold all the chips!

In Hong Kong, school started back today, so the buses were full of kids in uniforms.  In fact, their first day is only half a day, so the buses and shopping malls were full of them all afternoon!  It was fun to see.  That’s another reason why we may concede to Disney again tomorrow as the local kids are back in school so it might be less busy.

I picked up my new ring, but Danny’s lenses weren’t done yet, so we decided to take the MTR over to MongKok for street food and shopping.  We asked Emily and Stephanie what they wanted to eat, and Emily said “noodles, air conditioning, and a cold drink”. Ok, that we can do.  So we went into a tiny local noodle place that was hopping busy, and delivered on all three fronts. 

We wandered around in MongKok, both the markets and the stores, and bought very little.  Danny was able to get the “replica watches” that he wanted for some friends.

I had decided (and negotiated) that tonight was going to be dinner at our favourite hotpot place.  Tomorrow we are having our final dinner with Pok Hei and Serena, at a restaurant they’ve chosen, so tonight I wanted to pick.  One thing I also suggested was that Danny invite along his #5 auntie.  She’s the one that actually isn’t an auntie at all, just an old family friend that he has been close to all his life.  She’s a favourite of mine, and is quiet, so if we see her in a group, she is completely overtaken by others.  When he called her, she was thrilled to have dinner with us, so it was all going according to plan.

Are you waiting for the “but…”?

There isn’t one.  We headed back to the hotel so the girls could swim (that was also part of the negotiated settlement).  Just me and the girls hit the pool, so Danny could head back to the optical store and get his glasses and then he was going to meet his aunt and make sure she found the restaurant.

No problems encountered at all.  I love the Hong Kong bus system, and the kids and I are completely comfortable getting around the city.  We hopped on the #23 bus in front of the hotel, and arrived at the restaurant in Causeway Bay on time.  Both kids were happy after their swim, and since dinner only involved one additional person, they were content.

Dinner was great!!  Danny’s aunt was happy to see the kids, and ate really well.  She has some older-person eating challenges, with denture problems and digestive issues, but I ordered carefully and she was able to enjoy lovely fresh fish, shrimp, dumplings, and tofu.  She even had dessert. 

The kids did really well at dinner, too, and kept me and Danny very happy.

After dinner, I insisted she take a taxi home.  Believe it or not, at 80+ years of age, walking with a cane (shakily) she still takes the darned bus everywhere.  Oh well, not when we’ve invited her out.  I hailed a cab and basically strong-armed her into it.