Yesterday we got together to celebrate Yang's birthday in Causeway Bay. I went across to Hong Kong Island earlier, because I wanted to pick up some medicine for Peter. I was expecting to have to wait a while for the bus out of D.B. but got one immediately. Then, I was expecting long queues in the pharmacy, but got served straight away, so all in all I was quite early. Since I had plenty of time, I decided I would go for a walk through Hong Kong Park, which I had heard was beautifully decorated for Mid-Autumn Festival.
Before reaching the park, I came to St John's Cathedral. I decided to go inside, after all medicine and prayer is stronger than just medicine.
St John's Cathedral.
Cross outside St John's Cathedral.
St John's is an Anglican Cathedral which dates back to 1849, making it the oldest Anglican Cathedral in Asia. It has some beautiful stained glass windows; I especially liked the image of the Tanka fisherwoman. Mainly though, the interior is quite plain, because the cathedral suffered a lot of damage during World War II when the occupying Japanese forces used it as a club house. For the first time I noticed the old British regimental flags in the small St George's side chapel. Some of them looked like they'd experienced rather a lot of hard times.
Dove mosaic at the entrance to St John's Cathedral.
The altar.
Stained glass window.
Tanka fisherwoman.
Icon.
British regimental flags.
Next I wandered into Hong Kong Park. It had a beautiful giant white rabbit lantern at the foot of its waterfall lined stairway and there were many smaller rabbit lanterns here, too. Along the pathways, the trees were decorated with strings of colourful lanterns and at the far end of the park, near Pacific Place, there was a lantern column surrounded by more little white rabbits and flowers. It must be really pretty at night when it's all lit up.
Giant rabbit lantern.
Giant rabbit lantern.
Lanterns in the trees.
Lantern column.
Lantern column.
Flower.
Flowers and rabbits.
Rabbits and flowers.
I noticed a statue from an exhibition called 'A Path to Glory'. It was sculpted by Ren Zhe. There was one of these in Victoria Park, too.
'A Path to Glory.'
I had intended to take the MTR from here, but changed my mind and just kept on walking. After Pacific Place I found some cute little sculptures inviting people to the moon party.
Moon party.
Moon party.
I soon came to Lee Tung Avenue which is always excessively decorated with an absolute sea of lanterns. The displays here will stay up longer as they are for Mid-Autumn and National Day.
Entrance to Lee Tung Avenue.
Lanterns.
Lanterns.
Lanterns.
Lanterns.
Hong Kong and China flags for National Day.
Beyond Lee Tung Avenue was the Blue House which was also covered with lanterns. Again I guess it would be worth seeing at night.
The Blue House.
The Blue House.
I now felt it couldn't be too far to the restaurant, so I got myself onto Lockhart Road and walked towards Causeway Bay, hoping I'd notice Kyoto Plaza where the Fung Mei Gwun Restaurant we were all meeting in was. Fortunately, Kyoto Plaza was clearly marked. I took the lift to the seventh floor and found Lai and Elizabeth were there already. Maggie and birthday girl Yang were next and then finally Linda. Unfortunately, Sarah couldn't join us as she was feeling unwell. Hope she gets better soon. The staff in the restaurant were very chatty and friendly. Service was good.
Me, Elizabeth, Lai and Maggie.
Linda, Elizabeth and Lai have all started in new schools this year and they told us all about them. They all seem to be really enjoying their new jobs.
Birthday girl, Miss Yang, got quite animated on her views on men who blame their wives for all their misfortunes. I'd tell you what she said but I'm pretty sure it would violate the decency filters on this site. Just in case he reads it this was not directed at her own husband.
We spent a lot of the night laughing.
Maggie laughing and Linda pensive as she consults the menu.
The first course to arrive was an interesting one. It was salted egg yolk fish skin. It doesn't sound that good, but it tasted delicious. It was brought to the table for us to look at, then taken away and chopped up. This restaurant paid a lot of attention to the presentation of its food. Each dish was presented beautifully. I, of course, had made the fatal mistake of sitting opposite Yang, which meant when she photographed the food, she got me looking ridiculous in the background. I'll know better the next time.
The fish skins and me looking like a total moron.
The chopped up fish skins.
Next course was a sweet and sour pork, presented beautifully with a wedge of pineapple.
Sweet and sour pork.
After that came an interesting dish of crispy boneless chicken, stuffed with minced shrimp. The pieces were arranged to make a checked pattern. The outer parts were chicken skin and the insides were shrimp. Unusual but very tasty.
Chicken stuffed with shrimp.
We then had a delicious green vegetable dish served as a soup.
Vegetable soup.
This was followed by a wonderful fish dish. This together with the egg yolk fish skins was the tastiest dish as far as I was concerned, though the vegetable dishes were also really good.
This fish dish was soooo good
We then had a stir fried vegetable dish that was delicious.
Stir fried vegetables.
The next dish was where it could all have gone horribly wrong for me. Linda had told the waiter repeatedly that I was allergic to scallops and he had assured her there were no scallops in our meal. The final course before dessert was a rice dish. I had a couple of spoonfuls when Maggie suddenly said: "This dish is filled with scallops." I immediately stopped eating. Linda complained to the serving staff. I began to pay attention to whether or not I was about to swell up. I seemed ok.
THE SCALLOP FILLED RICE.
We proceeded to dessert which was a coconut Chinese soup. I don't know exactly what it was called, but it was pretty tasty and I say that as someone who doesn't normally like Chinese desserts.
Dessert.
After that it was time to sing Happy Birthday and bring in the cake, a very beautiful chocolate gateau selected by Linda. Yang very professionally extinguished her birthday candle with a single clap of her hands, then got quite dangerous with the knife. She was possibly thinking about men who blame their wives for everything again.
Yang's card.
Yang with her beautiful cake.
Birthday girl, her cake and all of us.
Yang said that teapot was worth a fortune so she wanted it in her birthday shot.
Making a birthday wish.
Miss Yang is famous for always taking photos.
It had been a lovely evening filled with news, gossip and laughter, but it was time to go. The continual hot weather had broken and the rain had started. Let's hope it is going to cool down.
All of us on the way out of the restaurant.
Posing in the lift.
Outside on the street we were still taking photos.
I've no idea why we are all posing with a Korean restaurant we didn't go to. Perhaps we all had too much tea.
Happy Birthday Miss Yang.
Happy Birthday Miss Yang! Wishing you health and happiness and a great year ahead.
This featured blog entry was written by irenevt from the blog Coming to a close..
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