End of November

Well not too much has happened since my birthday.  Every month there is a birthday celebration for the team and the team members with a birthday that month get a cupcake (or something bigger than everyone else).  Here is November's celebration:

Birthday Girls - me on the 12th and Man on the 25th

Thanksgiving came and went - no "Black Friday" sales in Hong Kong.  Everyone shops all the time.  Apparently their big holiday to shop for is Lunar New Year in January /  February.

I did bake a Cranberry Pie to celebrate the holiday with the team and it was a major hit.

1st Cranberry Pie of the season.

No leftovers here.

For the Anderson Thanksgiving we did something we felt was American....

This past Saturday was spent at "the" spot to shop for home furnishings - Ap Lei Chau with our friend Kerry.  28 floors (less the numbers that have a 4 in them) of shopping.  We tried to be strategic and did place orders for some light fixtures (delivery next Friday) and a TV stand (delivery next Sunday).  Chi-chi also got a new catnip toy which she fell in love with.  Pictures hopefully we be available next week.

Today I then baked my 2nd cranberry pie for Patrick.

Gwen's Birthday

So here is my birthday via photos:

My computer monitor decorated by the sourcing team - specifically the intimates, sweater, outerwear and performance teams 

Gift from the FFF (fast, fun and friendly) committee

What was in the bag.

Dim Sum lunch with the team.

Yellow Inside Bao - yum

The team included visitors from MN.

Flowers from my boss - Patrice

Patrick had a present put on a building for me :)

Dinner was Italian with amazing bread that tasted just like Jennifer's homemade bread.

Antipasta

Forgot to take a picture before - so here is my empty plate of muscles shells and Patrick's of gnocchi.

Tiramisu for dessert.

Cute little sweets to finish the meal off.

The doorman had roses waiting for me when I got home from Patrick.

And Chi-chi had to be part of the party too.

A food weekend

Until I downloaded the pictures I took over the weekend I did not realize I only took pictures of food.  It has been a busy week with lots of people from Minneapolis visiting for work.

Big news of the week is we are finally on the grid again we have internet, phone and cable.  So my posts will go much faster - you won't see that but it will make my life easier.

So Friday for lunch a co-worker took me to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch that was really good.  So good I took another co-worker visiting from Minneapolis there for lunch on Saturday - but I forgot to take pictures either time.

Friday after work the team meet at a German resturant in our building to meet with my bosses husband visiting for a few weeks.  We ordered pizza - see picture below - very good wheat crust with veggies on top.

Team at HH

Saturday night we ventured over to Hong Kong Island for dinner with Laurie to a Thai place we had eaten at before that was very good.  But there was an hour wait so we wandered the streets and found a bar for a drink - see below

Gwen's Dragon Lily Martini and Laurie's Mojito

Patrick's Negroni

Patrick's red curry from Tuk Tuk Thai.

 So as we were looking out the window of the restaurant and Patrick say these huge green vegetables at a what looked like a food distributor.  Patrick thought it was a monstrous zucchini.

This was my find Sunday after brunch with Dustin and Jen.  Found a larger more western supermarket in a larger mall and found fresh cranberries.

So the team will get to taste Gretchen's grandmother's Cranberry Pie on Thanksgiving.  I will be bringing this in for 'tea time' on the 22nd.  Yes they were a little expensive US$4.20/ 12 oz bag.  It was worth it. 

Another busy and productive week

Well it is Sunday night and I have been documenting our busy and productive week here on the blog.  I could not do it all in one post - so if you want to see pictures and details of the Xian terra cotta warriors I say on Thursday or the big Tian Tin Buddha I visited on Sunday look at the previous 2 posts.  Here is what else happened this week.

Halloween - I have been here before for this holiday and it is not quite the same as the US.  Here are pictures of the decorations outside my office building and our monthly party celebrating the month's birthdays:

And Halloween leads right into Christmas - there are decorations everywhere - this is at my bus stop heading home on Oct 31.

Speaking of public transportation - her are some interesting shots from this week:

Now if only they would read this sign.

Yes - I was feeling a little jealous seeing cyclists with their road bikes on the MTR on our way to Lantau Island.

But then I was thinking - they are crazy - I do not want to do that.

Friday brought another milestone to settling into our new home - curtains.  And yes we have slept in past the sun rising every morning since they were installed.  The installer told me I would need 3 alarm clocks to walk me from the black out curtains in our bed room.

Saturday night for dinner we heading to Lan Kwai Fong to an American BBQ place.  Ribs were great.  Mac n cheese was gone very fast.  And the pies were popular with the non-Americans.  We were with ex-pat from Zimbabwe, an Italian visiting from China to re-up his visa and Tgt team member from Turkey.  Here is dessert:

Key Lime Pie

Pecan Pie

The streets of LKF turn into a big party.

 And we ended our weekend finishing building all our Ikea wardrobes.  We are officially out of cardboard wardrobe boxes and it feels even more like home.

So this upcoming week will be busy again - quite a few visitors from Minneapolis.  Looking forward to catching up with people I have not worked with in awhile from H&H PD&D and Ops.  And Thursday morning our last utility hook up should occur and we will have phone, TV and internet.  My i-Phone hot spot will get a rest.

Saturday with the Big Buddha

On Saturday I ventured with some other Target team members from around the world (3 from Minneapolis, 1 from Turkey, and 1 other ex-pat from HK) to Lantau Island to visit the "Big Buddha".  The the trek there is a key part of the experience.  We started at the Kowloon station of the MTR and rode the Tung Chung line to the end.  Next mode of transportation is a cable car over a few mountains from the center of Tung Chung to the village of Ngong Ping where there is Po Lin Monastery and the Tian Tin Buddha.  Since this might be a once in a lifetime experience we decided to upgrade to a "Crystal Cabin" cable car - thus as you will see the bottom of the cable car is clear.  This also cut 45 minutes to an hour off our return trip as the normal cabin queue was very long.

Enjoy our adventure.

A 5.7 km cable car ride that takes 25 minutes

Everyone's foot looking below at the Tung Chung Bay out the bottom of our car.

Megan brave enough to lay on the floor of our crystal cabin.

View of HKG - new airport built completely on reclaimed land.

A hiking trail - there were a lot of people hiking - glad we took the high road.

First view of the Buddha

Tgt fabric sourcing team rowing their way to Lantau.

An interesting fashion statement we all remarked on.

Brandi with the big fat happy cat.

Megan with the big fat happy cat.

Gotta love the translation

Monastery with construction behind it.

In case anyone was wanting to do laundry - the sign specifically says " No drying of linen or clothes"

South China sea in the distance.

Megan with her zodiac warrior.

Brandi with her zodiac warrior.

Sumit with his zodiac warrior.

Wishing tree in Ngong Ping Village.