It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Community Highlights Asia It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

New Developments in Kai Tak.

It's December and Christmas decorations are starting to appear all over the place. In fact last week when Bonnie, Peter and I went out for a meal in The Chippy, Bonnie and I stopped off to have our photos taken with Santa on the way home. Peter didn't join us as he didn't want to walk all the way back to the Santa bench.

Bonnie with Santa.

Me with Santa.

On Sunday the first of December I went shopping in the North Plaza. The beautiful weather is still continuing, so I photographed some gorgeous purple bauhinias against the bright blue sky on my way there.

Bauhinias.

Looking back towards the club.

There were Christmas decorations in The North Plaza outside the supermarket. I'll need to come back in the dark when it is all lit up.

North Plaza decorations.

On Monday I went to Tai Shui Hung and walked along the waterfront promenade to Ma On Shan. The promenade faces out onto Tolo Harbour. Behind it there are many tall residential blocks There are good views from here towards Chinese University where I went to visit my friend Agnes recently. I could clearly see the university's water towers perched on the hill. On the shoreline I could see the Science Park, which I haven't visited yet. This walkway is very popular with the people who live in this area. There's a cycle track, a running track, fitness stations for the elderly, play areas for kids, sitting areas, tai chi areas and a bougainvillea garden, though there weren't many bougainvilleas in it at the moment.

Tai Shui Hang.

The two water towers on the hill.

Chinese University.

Exercising on the waterfront.

Ma On Shan Promenade.

Poinsettia flowers on the waterfront.

Flowers on the waterfront.

Eventually I reached Ma On Shan Park and I had a quick look around. I've been here before. This is a beautiful and well maintained park. It has a maze, a short forest walk and a maritime plaza with dolphin statues.

Maze.

Forest walk.

Selfie on forest walk.

Maritime Plaza.

Behind Marine Plaza.

There's also a mining exhibition, as the villages around Ma On Shan once centred around the mining industry. I still need to visit the mining museum in the village behind Ma On Shan.

Mining Exhibition.

I liked the park's feature garden with its beautiful stone Japanese lanterns. There was a lovely pandanus tree with interesting roots, some beautiful flowers and rather tall cacti.

Japanese lanterns.

Flowers.

Interesting tree.

Shelter in Ma On Shan Park.

Cacti.

After wandering around the park, I went inside the Ma On Shan Mall. They had Christmas decorations based on some cartoon characters I have never heard of. I wasn't overly impressed. They have an interesting clock and a colourful carousel here all year round.

Decorations Ma On Shan Mall.

Clock.

Merry-go-round.

After a quick look around here, I decided to get on the MTR and get off the train at Kai Tak Station on my way back, as I had heard there were two new interesting buildings here called the twins. This whole area is being redeveloped and it is unrecognisable from the way it was before. It may be beautiful when it's finished, but there's still lots of building work going on everywhere. The Twins are just yet more shopping malls, but they look quite pretty when viewed across the expansive pond here.

The Twins viewed across a pond.

The Twins across a pond.

Reflections of Tall buildings.

Around the Kai Tak area.

Building site and bowling green.

Kai Tak Arena.

On Tuesday I arranged to meet up with my friend, Suman, for a coffee in Central. I went there a bit earlier, so I could look at the Christmas displays in the IFC Building and in the Atrium of the Landmark Building.

The IFC Building was doing a display themed around Santa's workshop. So far this year this has been my favourite. I especially liked the flying reindeer driven sleigh.

Holiday Happiness Hub.

Santa's Workshop.

Flying over the rooftops.

Christmas room.

Christmas shelf.

The IFC also had some lovely Christmas trees. I liked the wooden soldier decorations as well as all the soft toys that were displayed on them.

Christmas tree.

Close-up.

The Landmark's display was called 'Wrap it up' and it was themed around the art of gift giving. Personally I didn't think this display was as good as last year's or the year before's. Maybe I'm just not in a Christmas mood.

Wrap it up display.

Detail.

After looking at the displays, I headed off to Starbucks to meet Suman. We haven't met up since before the summer, either I have been away, or she has. We are never here at the same time. We had a lovely chat and caught up with all our news. We promised we wouldn't leave it so long before our next meeting. On our way home, we stopped by a Christmas tree and took some Christmas photos.

Me with the Christmas tree.

Suman and I with the Christmas tree.

Next day Peter and I were supposed to meet Bonnie for dinner in The Peony Restaurant. I had a birthday voucher for a free bottle of wine there. Peter had had an upset stomach all day, so I was going to cancel, but he kept saying he wanted to come. At the last minute he suddenly decided he didn't feel well enough to go, so I went on my own, because I didn't like to cancel so late on. I walked in to the centre of Discovery Bay instead of taking the bus, so I passed some Christmas decorations.

Christmas decorations, Discovery Bay.

Christmas in Discovery Bay.

This is the first time I have been to Peony since it moved out of the club. It's actually a really lovely venue and the food was much better than it used to be. We ordered a green leafy vegetable dish which was excellent, sweet and sour pork, and beef with bean sprouts and ginger. It was all delicious and we had a lovely chat while we ate.

Inside Peony.