Wednesday 3 November 2004

Dad's Excellent Adventure

Ok, so yesterday I wake up and feel as if I had been partying for a week straight. Everything is aching. Then the cough comes back, a slight fever, and a really sore throat. To make the matter worse, I am now loosing my voice (something I am famous for having happen every fall/spring). I don’t want people to know how cruddy I feel, because there is so much more to see and do before we leave next week.

Jasper has an eye exam this morning. I accompanied Tess over to the Queen Mary Hospital to give her some support during this rotten test. Jasper is not thrilled by it, but is a good little trooper and gets through it. He hates having his pupils dilated and then his eyes forced open. Not that a lot of people enjoy that. This was a test to see how his ROP was doing (if it was advancing or not). The good news is that he does not have to go back again for another 6 months. Secondly they said it has not worsened, and thirdly, they feel that there has been some improvement! Yeah! Poor J looked like he had been raving at Woodstock all night long and had pupils the size of quarters for the remainder of the day.

Tess thinks that some shopping intervention therapy might help us to feel more welcomed back to HK, so off the 3 of us go. Dad’s full intentions are to go to the War Museum (actually it is the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence it is free admission on Wednesday). It is the day of the American Election and a dear friend of Tess’s (an American) is at the Ritz Carlton watching the results as they come in. Tess mentions this to Dad who is following the results the best he can as the day went by. Sandi mentions to him that if he has any trouble getting in, to drop her name. We gals go in our direction, and Dad to his.

Tess and I found some killer deals and then decided to go for lunch. We found a great little fish and chips place, which was very tasty. The restaurant we went to was the size of my bedroom closet, but somehow seated 5 tables. You got to know the people at the next table quite well by end of meal. The food was fantastic. I had poached sole, and Tess had beer battered fish and chips. We enjoyed the food and listened as the results were being announced on the radio. We figured that the results would wait, and we continued on with our day of shopping and dropping off film, getting a few groceries etc.

Spent a quiet afternoon at home wondering how Dad was doing with his adventures, i.e. museum visit. Around suppertime both Tess and I figured that Dad had found Sandi (the dear friend), and that somehow they/he had not made it to the museum. She and I decided to start making bets as to what time he would call, if he would call, if he was out with Sandi, if he had been abducted etc. We had more variations and odds than any bookies I had ever known.

Around 7pm, the phone rang, it was Dad (I won the phone call time), he and Sandi were now heading out on a private “junk” to go on a wine testing tour. He couldn’t remember his bank pin # and he was hoping Tess had it. (We know nothing). Around 10:30 that night Dad came home quite proud of himself and was going on and on about how he had been interviewed by 2 Chinese newspapers re: the American election**. Imagine the irony in that, a Canadian, being interviewed about an American election while in Hong Kong. The rest of the evening was uneventful. I know that Tess and Dad were impressed that I had no voice left, and I think they secretly enjoyed the fact that I couldn’t talk.


Blake never made it to the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence. Maybe another day.


** Blake reports: Just to set the record straight I asked not to be interviewed but it seems the political mandarins in the crowd recognized the (ahem) famous Blake Lyons and the rest is history. Modesty prevents me from saying more. **

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