October 2-7, 2012

Fireworks on Chinese National Day viewed from outside our apartment complex

More fireworks

New stake center in Tuen Mun, New Territories Stake

Filippina sisters at our National Day celebration at our Branch

Tom and Garnalee in tailor made suits

The group heading for a day at Macau

Old meets the new--St. Paul's ruins and flower shaped hotel

Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral 

Tom pulling Garnalee in the rickshaw (posing)

Monday evening we viewed the fireworks for National Day in China. There were some amazing fireworks that we had never seen before like 5-pointed stars, soft sprays that looked like dandelions that had gone to seed, and two sided explosions that reminded Tom of a lotus flower--green on one side and red on the other. We enjoyed socializing and snacking with the other senior couples. Our Promenade was packed with many people. Many groups rent boats for the evening to come to Victoria Harbour to view the fireworks from the boat decks. That evening there was a crash southeast of Hong Kong Island where a ferry boat ran into a pleasure boat. Tragically 38 people were killed which included five children.
Tuesday was temple day with our Branch. We invited the new senior couple, the Watkins, to go with us. After the temple session we went to our Branch building for pizza, salad, ice cream, and brownies. We had planned on watching a DVD from President Monson's 85th birthday celebration but the DVD was scratched and it froze up. We will try again later in the month when we have another holiday.
Tom has been writing some stories called Grandpa's Pearls of Wisdom for the grandchildren. He has been writing these at Holly's request for helps in teaching good values to her children. He finished the first story this week and emailed it to her. He plans to write several more. Holly has volunteered to put all of the stories into a book for each of the grandchildren when they are all finished.
Wednesday we took our first adventure alone and went to Tuen Mun to visit the newly constructed stake center and approve a new family history center there.
We left early Saturday morning to go to Macau. We took a hydrofoil jet boat for the one hour ride to Macau. Macau is a Special Administrative Region like Hong Kong. It was founded by the Portuguese in the 1500s and was turned over to China in 1999. All the signs were in Portuguese and Chinese so Tom didn't have any difficulty reading the signs. We did have to have our passports to enter Macau. We spent the day touring the historic district which had many interesting ruins and features e.g. St. Paul's cathedral ruins, mosaic tiled streets in black and white, cobblestone streets, Buddhists temples. There was an amazing hotel that looked like a big flower that we took a picture of. In the evening we attended a Dancing Water Show in the City of Dreams hotel. The show had a giant pool of water, but a floor could rise from the bottom to make a solid surface. Water appeared and disappeared and there were fountains from a couple of inches tall to 50 feet. Performers jumped and dove from as high as 100 feet. The tickets were $76 US each but the awe inspiring show was worth every penny.
I started teaching a Sunday class today which is the Teaching the Gospel course. As Elder's Quorum president, Tom taught a priesthood lesson on money management. For our Break the Fast meal the Filippina sisters made a traditional dish with noodles, beef, and vegetables. We also had meat filled steamed rice balls that were very good.