I have been rather scarce lately and I apologize. So what have I been up to since Christmas? This year for the fist time since I have know Mr. Grey Cat we were able to go to see his family for Chinese New Year. The last time Mr. Grey Cat was home for CNY he was some one who receives red packet and this time he was the one giving them out. It had been so long that he didn't know what we were supposed to do. We had no idea how much to put in them or who we were supposed to give them too. Thankfully I he has a wonderful family who were more than happy to help us out. I must confess that I was a bit worried about meeting many members of his family for the first time, even though we have been married for 14 years! I need not have been concerned though. Everyone was very warm and friendly. All in all it was a great trip, filled with lots of friends, family and food. However the highlight of holiday was not CNY, but a bicycle ride around Marina Barage with our niece and nephews. It was a wonderful morning with three of our favourite people.
Not long after retuning home from Singapore we had a visit from another of my favourite people in world. My sister made her very fist trip to the Far East and stayed with us for three weeks! It was nice having her and I enjoyed playing tour guide. It is always interesting when people come to Hong Kong for the fist time. This city is never what they expect. Most are amazed at how large it is and how green it is and she was no exception.
Speaking of how green HK is, this past sunday was the first beach cleanup of 2012. These cleanups are organized by DB Green and happen throughout the year alternating between the local beaches. They had a very good turn out despite the grey, cool weather. This was my first beach clean up and while I always knew the beaches needed help, I didn't realize just how bad they get. The amount of plastics is mind boggling. The photo below does not show just how bad it was. I expected bags, bottles and wrappers but I did not expect to see so many toothbrushes! Sadly there were many lighters and syringes, thankfully without needles.
There was also plenty of fishing nets. It made me wonder if some of them came from the fishing boat I regularly see not far off the shore.
The sad reality is most people do not think of what happens to their garbage and while Hong Kong is a very modern and advanced city, it is way behind much of the modern world in environmental protection.
