Four Hours

Sorry for the long absence, but Mr. Grey Cat and I have been busy over the past few weeks. I have been fortunate enough to visit a friend in Scotland (more later) and he has been busy working. Today we both had a free day and what does that mean? Groceries. Thrilling. Yes, in case you forgot, I live in Hong Kong perhaps the most dynamic city in the world and while we may want to spend our days sailing on a junk, drinking fine wines, socializing with the worlds movers and shakers (not that we know any); we still must take care of everyday life and like most of us the world over, that means doing groceries and running errands. So list in hand we trekked off to one of two local grocery stores. After disembarking from the bus (this is sounding ever more glamourous isn't it) we went to the post office (oh the thrill of mailing parcels!) and the bank (trust me ATM lines are the same the world over, I am always stuck behind the person paying every bill imaginable) then to Fusion (grocery store, the one that happened to stock the most times on the days list). An hour or so later we arrived home with a list of deliverables (laundry soap!) and fresh supplies, including two steaks for dinner.

The rest of the day was spent by Mr. Grey Cat doing taxes (oh the excitement! ) while, I feeling sympathy for him and figuing he deserved an amazing meal afterwards,  decided to put my culinary skills to the test. So music on, wine in hand (ok that came later), and a bazillion dishes later (my kingdom for a dishwasher!) we had dinner.

What besides steak was for dinner you may ask? Today is a beautiful day, 23 degrees and sunny. Perfect BBQ weather. The sad thing is, we do not have a BBQ or even a balcony to put one on. However we do have a really good combo microwave that is also a steamer, convection oven and griller. We had never used the grill function and decided to give it a try, hence the steaks. But no matter how much you love steak, that alone is not enough. Mr. Grey Cat expressed the desire for cookies the other day, so I decided to bake some for desert. Then I made a green bean salad and a tomato/corn/avocado salad as sides and homemade steak sauce. Simple right? Yes and no. While none of the dishes were complicated, by the time I had baked the cookies, blanched the beans, cooked the corn, hulled and chopped the tomatoes, sautéed the onions,  made the dressings, chilled the salads, made the sauce and had the steaks marinating, I had used almost every dish in the house and it was pushing 6pm! For us Canadians that is almost unheard of! Not even cooking dinner by 6! Most of us have eaten and we are on our second cup of tea by then. But by that time there wasn't much to be done except grill the steaks. Roughly 15 mins later the result is pictured above.

And it was good. The steaks, while not as good as our BBQ, were acceptable and much less expensive than going to a restaurant for a steak dinner, the salads were fresh and tasty, with very little left over and the cookies were yummy, but then it is hard not to like peanut butter/chocolate chip cookies. To me the only thing missing was our beautiful patio and deck, but then when I sat in our window seat and looked out at the Hong Kong/Kowloon skyline, Beatles playing in the background, I thought, what is there to complain about?

Shek Kwu Chau Incinerator

A Junk in Victoria Harbour as smog veils the city. 

I love Hong Kong. Honestly, I really do. No other city in the world has quite the mystique that Hong Kong does. It is a fascinating mixture of East and West, bustling, busy, dynamic, exotic and undeniably cosmopolitan. It touts itself as Asia’s World City and mostly I feel that is an apt title. But for a city that is so very advanced it is also so incredibly backwards. Business drives this city. BIG Business. And as is often the case, business, particularly BIG Business comes at the expense of the environment.

The government is very happy to lay Hong Kong’s air pollution problems on what gets blown over the border and that to some extent is very true. But for a city that is as cosmopolitan as Hong Kong, it lacks some of the simplest environmental initiatives.  While HK may not be able to control what blows down from China it can certainly control pollution of its own creation. Roadside pollution is a big issue but Hong Kong only recently introduced vehicle idling laws and honestly they are woefully inadequate. Three minutes is a long time for a vehicle to idle and the fines are small. There are no emission regulations and as a result many vehicles are poorly maintained and heavily polluting. When the power company proposes a rate hike the government responds be offering a rebate to consumers, who would be better served in learning to reduce power consumption (including myself). Faced with a growing population and the garbage it generates, instead of promoting waste reduction measures like recycling and composting, the government proposes to build a super incinerator in an environmentally sensitive area.

Shek Kwu Chau, the site of the proposed incinerator, is an island located near Lantau Island and Cheung Chau. It is uninhabited except for a Drug Rehabilitation Centre and you need permission from the government to get there. Its waters are home to dolphins that are increasingly threatened by habitat loss and pollution. The incinerator project requires extensive land reclamation that will increase the stress on these already fragile animals.  Why the government would propose to build an incinerator using, from my understanding, outdated polluting technology on an environmentally sensitive area, in a city with already poor air quality, with no existing transportation links to move the garbage and with no public consultation makes little sense to me. But then I am just one woman. I am not Big Business and I suspect that Big Business is behind this project.  However I have a voice. It may a small one, but it is still a voice and I believe we can stop this project.

Please visit the following sites for more information and to find out what you can do to stop this project: 

Living Islands

Green Power

Petition to Stop Incinerator