Jet Setter

Hello Most Excellent Ones,
I am stuck at the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station) for over two hours.  My train to Hamburg has been delayed.  What?  This happens in Italy not Germany.  Oh well this gives me some time to update the blog.

With Sven in Doha when it was only 40 above.



I flew off from Hong Kong  Saturday morning at 1:20 in the midst of a serious typhoon warning.  I think the winds helped my plane get to Doha, Qatar an hour early.  It was great to see Sven and we toured the  Khatari cultural centre, the Isalm art gallery and the Souhk Wakif.  We had to take a midday rest cause it was 45 above!!

With a new buddy.


After a day with Sven off I went to Frankfurt where I encountered chaos and aggravation trying to get my passport checked at the airport.  Over 1000 people milling around not sure what to do only three passport people to check us through.  Again I could not believe how un German that was.  In Italy ok, but not efficient Germany.

I survived that and my friend Michael Zimmer picked me up and brought me to his home in Bammental near Heidelberg.  After a nice German breakfast with Michael and Sabine, Michael's wife, off I went into Heidelberg to meet our former German exchange student Shirin and her parents Emile and Bettina.  It was a very nice visit.

Heidelberg Alt Stadt with Bettina, Shirin and Emile Betzler

The weather in Heidelberg was a humane plus 20.  It was nice to finally be in a cooler climate.

The next day I went on a monster 40 km bike ride with Michael through the countryside, small villages, and up to a castle.  Despite a broken chain we managed to get that fixed pretty quick and had a great time.  Later I had Michael and Sabine eat their sauerkraut and bratwurst with chopsticks.  That was great fun.

So my dear friends and family that is all for now.  I will check in later.  Hamburg, Berlin, and Stuttgart are still on the agenda.  Then its back to Canada on the 10th.  God bless you.

Love adios and peng on!

Dirk

With Michael on our 40 km tour.

Guess which one is Germany and Qatar.

Sauerkraut mit chopsticks.

Howdy Pardners,
For several decades the Flying Pigeon ruled the roads of China.  I refer of course to the Flying Pigeon bicycle, a stark, basic, one speed unit that was once treasured by the common Chinese, as much as a fine automobile, by us decadent Westerners.  For it was the only vehicle a common Chinese person could afford.  My how times have changed.  Now China's roads are clogged with cars as the common Chinese can now afford to buy a vehicle.  And the demand for high end foreign jobs is sky high here in the Middle Kingdom.  The Mercedes Benz people rub their hands in glee when they converse about the Chinese market.

Still one can see the odd Flying Pigeon here and there.  It will be sad day when they are eventually eliminated from the roads of China.  It is sad that bikes on Chinese roads are becoming a thing of the past.  China could have created a fantastic bike culture, like the Dutch, if someone had been forward thinking enough.

So in honor of a great bike I dedicate this blog to the Flying Pigeon, the once great transporter of the Chinese.

A three wheeler!

Moving day!

A bit of cardboard.

An egg hauler.

The Flying Pigeon is a great bike.

Please note dear people that I will be in Qatar next weekend.  As a result I will be probably be a bit late with my next blog.  I plead your forgiveness.

Love adios and peng on!

Dirk

Picasso

My Dear Great Ones,
This week I cultured myself by going to the Heritage Museum in Shatin to check out the Picasso's that they had borrowed from the Picasso museum in Paris.  Whoa whoa.  I know.  Pretty impressive.  Now I had seem some Picasso's in New York when we went to visit Eli so I had an idea what to expect.  Namely weird.  Maybe Picasso is a good artist since he evokes emotion out of me.  Except my emotion is basically disgust.  I think he was rather demented and depressed.  Nevertheless I have included some samples of his paintings from a brochure that I got at the entrance to the art show.  I was not allowed to take pictures at the actual showing.  So without further ado I will let you decide on whether the following is great or just trash.

Not bad if you are a 10 year old grade 5 art student.

Ok not bad.  Face is a little fat and the nose is out of proportion, but not bad for a 17 year old Art 20 student.

This is called,  "woman in an armchair."  Yeah?  It should be called,  "a dog's breakfast."  Not bad if you are a 5 year old Kindergarten student needing special ed.

 
This is called, "Man with a Moustache."  Don't get it.  A  PE teacher with no care or interest or aptitude in art could do this in 5 minutes.  No make it three.  The PE teacher would call it, "rubbish."

Art is in the eye of the beholder.  My eye when I see Picasso says  TRASH.

I think I would make a great art critic.  God bless you all.  Have a great week and Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

Love adios and peng on!

Dirk 

Riding with Ryan

Helloooo Splendid Ones,
As I have mentioned 1000 times before I love biking.  I don't consider myself a great technical biker, like skiing I love cruising on the blue runs and occasionally I will tackle a black diamond.  Using the ski analogy further, here in Hong Kong the biking is either green, easy with a million novice, jittery bikers all over the trails, or black diamond, serious rough, with hardly anyone.  Nice blue trails are few and far between.  My friend and colleague Ryan Barnstable is definitely a black diamond mountain bike rider.  He has led me on some of the toughest, most savage, most excruciating, most ridiculously difficult, most amazing, most scenic… well you get it, bike trips ever.   Helga always says I should not over do it, but with Ryan, "over doing it," riding in the rain, going up and down impossibly steep hills,  riding through narrow jungle trails, biking over rocks, tree roots, having wipe outs, flats, and five hours of continuous really tough biking/hiking, is normal.  I love it!  Yesterday we had our last bike ride together, for alas, he is heading back home to Saskatchewan, where he will teach in a small town.  He wants his kids to have some wide open spaces, raising little boys is tough in Hong Kong, yet I have a sneaking suspicion that once January rolls around he may be having some second thoughts.  Nevertheless I will certainly miss Ryan and the great biking trips we have had.   Yesterday was great as we biked near Tai Ma Shan country park.  We were way up in the jungle covered mountains that overlook Kowloon.  Awesome!  Thanks for the adventures Ryan!

 
Before the epic adventure.  Ryan and bike look neat and clean here, but believe me after five hours and the usual flat tire, which after much experience Ryan can fix in 10 minutes, both bike and rider were muddy, wet, exhausted, but happy.  As was friend (me).

Biking with Ryan is in reality a bike/hike.  Lots of carrying bikes up and down steep inclines.  Good for the upper body.  Thanks Ryan… yeah thanks alot...

Biking in the clouds.  We are so high up in the mountains that sometimes we are biking in the clouds.  This is a relatively easy stretch.  A blue run.

Off road.  Through the jungle.  There were also plenty of rocks to get through and around and over.

Down some slippery orange mud.  Great views.

About to ride over a dam.  "Keep of the dam face." read a sign nearby.

Awesome view. The island of Lantau, where Disneyland and the airport is in the background, underneath the cloud.

Another awesome view.  Behind Ryan is Kowloon and Hong Kong.

Wildlife.  A crab in the middle of the jungle.  Huh?  Isn't he supposed to be by the ocean?

Sopping wet from rain and sweat, exhausted, and sore, totally happy.  High up in the hills of Kowloon. Thank God for jungles and hills and good health. And friends and bikes.  I am very grateful.

It Is A Little Different Here

Hello My Dear Great Ones,

I feel rather uninspired today.  Getting a little tired and worn down from school.  So today I well let the pictures do the talking.  Enjoy!

These green bugs were everywhere at a camp I took some junior high kids too.  They were even in the toilet.  Great!

These poor critters are at a seafood place waiting to be chosen for consumption.  Starfish with Morey EEL?  Anyone?  Anyone?

So the seafood above does not whet your appetite?  How about rooster heads and legs?  Anyone?  Anyone?

Shaved Sheltie.  With temps getting up to plus 30 and 90% humidity it is merciful to shave long haired dogs for the summer.

The weirdest bus stop in the world.  Sofas and Buddhist shrines.  This, believe me, is not common. I am surprised that the authorities here, who like everything just so, have not been notified to clear it up.  Weird is interesting at times.

  

A long hedge filled with yellow blossoms.  Lovely.

Monkey Hill.  You are not supposed to feed the monkeys, but this guy did and it was a crazy free for all as dozens of monkeys in all shapes and sizes grabbed as many peanuts as they could as quickly as they could.  This included mothers with babies clinging on to their chest.  Interesting.

Well that is it for today.  God bless you all.  Have a great week.  See you next time.

Love adios and peng on!

Dirk

Biking

Dear Most Excellent People,
I love biking.  Some of my best memories are biking memories.  I love biking through beautiful scenery, I love the speed, I love the challenge of getting up a hill and the rush of going down.  I love what it does physically for me.  My ankles are better, my lungs are better, my legs are stronger, and I love it when the endorphins kick in.  Especially when you are biking on a scenic trail and suddenly you are filled with euphoria.  Awesome.  Biking is God's sport.

Last weekend I biked with two friends from school, Ryan and Daniel, around a reservoir.  Five minutes into the trip it started raining.  Perfect.  Ten minutes into the trip Daniel got a flat.  Perfect.  Once Ryan patched that up off we slogged through the mud, and puddles, jungle, bamboo groves, down stairs, up stairs, over rocks, around rocks, spending about twenty percent of the time hauling our bikes over impassable terrain, then gingerly flitting through more mud, and obstacles.  Perfect.  Half way through the trip we had a break and it was Ryan's turn to have a flat.  Another operation in the rain ensued.  Perfect.  Then we headed back on pavement up a half kilometre hill.  Perfect.  Keeping up with the (much younger) men on the flats was too hard, no way could I keep up, but for some reason on the hills going up I beat them both.    I guess in old age you learn to pace yourself better or I am simply in better long range shape.  Or  maybe the young guys were showing mercy, (not a chance) or were just bored, but whatever it was good for the old ego to beat them in something.  However, once we got to the downhill and flat stuff again I was left  way behind.  No matter.  It was perfect.

Still smiling afte getting up a half kilometre kill hill.  Kind of.  Me, Ryan, and Daniel.

Due to the flat tires a two hour trip stretched into four.  At the end I was covered in sweat, rain water, and mud and was totally wiped out.  Perfect.  Daniel and I took a taxi back and left the seat saturated in water.  Not perfect for the next customers.  Still it was a great day and this summer I look forward to biking in Germany and Canada.  Biking is great.  I love biking.

Till next time.

Love adios and peng on!

Dirk

A great view of the reservoir and jungle.

Slogging through a bamboo grove in the rain and mud.  Awesome.

Just before sailing into the abyss.  Was fun.

Old People

Hello Splendid Ones,
One of the most impressive features of Chinese society is how older people are treated.  Namely they are treated with great respect.  Part of the reason for this is that parents tend to treat their children very well since with little or no pension or old age security plans in Hong Kong and China  their kids are the "pension/old age security plan." So making sure their "plan," is well taken care, sadly in most cases, spoiled, is very common.    It is very normal for old people in Hong Kong and China to live with one of their children.  As a result some kids at my school have five adults raising them;  parents, grand-parents and domestic helper all  actually spoiling them since, as mentioned above, junior is the "plan."  The only requirement most Chinese kids have is to study.  Everything else is done for them like tying shoes, opening water bottles, putting on clothes, etc.  While these little princes and princesses can speak and read three languages and do basic math by the time they are five most can't tie their own shoes and can barely wipe their nose.  And oh boy when they get hit by a soft dodge ball, it is like they have been chopped down by an axe.  Teaching these kids how not to be wimps has been a big challenge for me in PE.  My rule is if you ain't bleeding and nothing is broken, you have ten seconds to bawl and then it is time to move on.  For the most part it is working.  Any way I digress,  I am supposed to be talking about old timers.   Here is what impresses me about Chinese old timers:  most  exercise in the morning.  The parks are filled up by 7:00 am with hundreds of them doing Tai Chi, badminton or slapping their bodies awake.  After that may hang around playing games, tending to their birds, or selling some things at the market.  Since their diet is low fat, heavy on the rice and vegetables, obesity is not a common sight here.  Many also have young family members walking with them, holding their hand helping them along.  There is certainly much we Canadians can learn from the Chinese about treating our elders with respect and dignity.  Here are a few pictures of some Chinese old timers.  

Till next week,
Love adios and peng on!

Dirk

Grammas selling at the market.

Men and their birds at the bird market.

Grampa with youngster at the bus stop.

Carrying the future pension plan.

Men playing cards.  Very common for old men to hang out with men and women to be with women.

A Chinese Colonel Sanders.

Stretching in the park.