The Big Chill Blues

picture source: South China Morning Post

The reason why I didn't write a Blog in a while - well, I was sitting on my hands to warm them up - Hong Kong experienced the second largest cold spell on record and together with the mostly grey skies and the pollution most people were either pretty depressed or cursing. We had a strong winter monsoon and whenever the temperatures drop below 12 degrees, the HK Observatory issues a cold weather warning which we had 25 days in a row. Europeans and Americans used to icey winters might be rolling on the floor reading this but trust me - in a subtropical climate where most of the people don't have heat in their flats, an indoor temperature of 16/17 degrees (for the well built ones) is not enough to lighten your spirits. You run around in multiple layers to fight the damp feeling caused by the humidity and volunteer to do the dishes several times a day to warm up your fingers - and we are the priviledged ones, living in upscale apartments, imagine the poor and the elderly - not funny!

I am sure you've heard in the news that this was the coldest winter in China over 50 years and that it wreaked havoc all over China to the extent that we had major travel delays over Chinese New Year with many people being stranded for several nights at the airports, stations, highways, etc. In addition more than 150 tonnes of fish stock have died in the fish farming zone off Lantau Island causing losses of about HKD 10 million which is huge. Relief is not expected any time soon since the fish can hardly recover with the low sea temperature. At the moment temps are warming up slightly but it's announced that they'll fall again next week due to cold air blowing from Siberia - and why does that frustrate me probabely most of all?

Well, on feb 29th we'll begin our dragonboat practices and we'll be basically drenched with salt water for 1 1/2 hours on tuesdays and fridays. Yes, it's this time of the year again, remember last year's Blogs about this event? This time around I am Coordinator & Captain of the AWA Globe Paddlers which is the all ladies team of the American Women's Association - it took me quite some time to come up with a sponsor to cover our costs (about HKD 40.000 = approx. Euro 4.000) but in the meantime we're happy that Crown Relocation is eager to sponsor us and get their name out there. We're 24 paddle enthusiasts and I hope that good comradeship paired with a common goal will carry us all the way through raceday on june 8th which is the official Dragonboat Festival Day - keep your fingers crossed that it'll become a memorable experience!

Other than this the HongKong Arts Festival is in full bloom and we're lucky to having secured tickets for the New York Philharmonics/Lorin Mazel, the famous Stuttgart Ballet with "Onegin", the modern dance troupe of Pina Bausch with "Vollmond", their newst dance piece and a modern dance company from France, Marie Chouinard, who is performing after the music of "Ode of Joy". In addition Carlos Santana and Maroon 5 are coming into town and of course - we'll be there!

OK, got to sign off for now, just wanted to give you an update and say HI.