While driving through the English countryside we decided to take a detour to Stonehenge.
What you can't tell from these photos and all the others you've ever seen of Stonhenge is that there is a road just 50 yards away. This really distracts from the historical feeling. The Stonhenge logoed ashtrays, keychains and such in the gift shop don't do much for the ambiance either. Whole story is cool though.

From Istanbul we traveled to the shire of Northhampton about a 1 1/2 hour drive north of London. Denis' company has a printing facility here. Denis had a weekend off so we rented a car and drove to the southern coast to the Isle of Wight (White in American). This is a bustling tourist sea resort in the summer, but a quiet coastal town in the winter. We stayed in a lovely inn with a view looking out over the English Channel. The village had three pubs, we tried them all.

One of the cool things in Istanbul was the 5-times-daily call to prayers chanted over loudspeaker systems. It echos all around the city. I was able to record the chant on my cell phone and was going to use it as the ring tone on my cell phone until I found out, thanks to the cartoonists, that the Muslims have no sense of humor.

Here we are in a predominately Muslim country and Denis is standing, gun in hand, shooting.....balloons! The Turkish entrepeneur had put strings of balloons out in the Bosphorus and supplied a round of ammo (air pellets) for target shooting. As Denis was on his second round of ammo a crowd was gathering as he had not missed a balloon. The Turk would not sell Denis a third round of ammo as he did not want to run out of balloons in the river.

Denis had business to do in Europe over CNY so I was able to tag aloong to Istanbul and the UK. Istanbul is wonderful. Great history and great shopping. We stayed in the Ciragon Palace Hotel on the Bosphorus.
Every morning a magnificent breakfast buffet was served so after Denis left for work I would wonder down to breakfast through this palace in my sweats (velour mind you).

Before Chinese New Year a big event is the fair in a park in downtown Hong Kong. The fair started out years ago as a flower and plant market because it is a tradition to have lots of new growth in the home to bring prosperity for the new year. Well, the fair has commercialized and expanded over the years till now it is what I found to be the "State Fair" of HK. The biggest difference is that here they haven't discovered the value of food on a stick. In fact, the only food on a stick we saw was saltine crackers sandwiched on a stick with some sort of spread in between. These are all scenes from the fair.
Lots of "dogs on sticks" since the year of the dog. The dressed up guy is the Wealth King, the Santa of CNY.

Unfortunately we were out of HK for Chinese New Year, but it was fun seeing all the preparation for the festivities. I went to a feng shui class to learn about the traditions that go along with welcoming in the new year like:

• Displaying the King of Wealth on your front door to bring prosperity for the new year.
• Orange trees are displayed everywhere like Christmas trees then the oranges are thrown into the water like coins in a fountain after the new year.
• You must cut your hair before the new year to promote new growth in the new year.
• Within the first hour of the new year you take a shower and put on new clothes.
• Also in the first hour of the new year you must open your front door as much as possible to let in the wealth for the year

Despite the population density in HK there are many beautiful remote areas.

After Christmas in Virginia Denis needed to go to his office in New Jersey so we took the train up. I insisted on taking the opportunity to go to Times Square for New Year's Eve. Denis is still in love enough to humor my whims so off we went way too late to get very close. So we took in the energy of the event, got a photo of the ball and headed for the closest bar.

Smiths was a great local blue-collar bar in Hell's Kitchen and we were early enough to belly up to the bar. At about the 3rd round the guy next to me threw the ice from his glass in the face of his "buddy" and next came the fists. I was so engrossed in having a front row seat to the brawl that I had no concern for my safety. My loving Husband grabbed me by the collar and threw me away from the bar, almost on the sticky floor and saved me from certain black & blue souvenirs. Bouncers and police moved in quickly and revelry resumed.

I was so impressed with Denis' quick thinking for my saftey that the next day I let him take me to dinner at Tavern of the Green in Central Park and then for a carriage ride around the park I also let him have some time alone while I went to the after-Christmas sales at Macys.

This will be a rarity from now on. It was good to be together at Christmas.

Not having an oven in HK the first thing I did when I got back to the states is make Christmas cookies and enlist the family in decorating. Here is Denis' sister Debbie and her son Peter ready to go at it.

Here in Hong Kong the only legal gambling is horse racing. Run by the Jockey Club all proceeds go to charity. Simon the owner of Denis' company is a member of the Jockey Club, owns a race horse and often hosts us in an owners box at the races. You have to dress up for the races, but I was kinda disappointed that they do not wear hats like they do in Europe. Maybe I should try to start a fashion trend. In the photo of the two ladies, on the right is Mary, Simon's wife and her best friend Helen who lives in Vancouver most of the time.

At the round table is left to right Raymond (Simon's best friend), Simon, Elwin (CIO hired by Denis from Target), Jamen (hired by Elwin from Target) and Denis.

I thought I should share some of my new knitting creations. I'm still meeting once-a-week with the HK Stitch n' Bitch group. We have a pregnant member due in March so we have a baby to create for. We also got an email from Debbie Stoller the founder of Stitch n' Bitch saying that Yahoo (home to most stitch n' bitch group sites) is going to delete "Stitch n'Bitch" groups because someone complained about it being offensive. I believe she is in a legal battle with Yahoo about this.

Anyway, the photos show the Fair Isle bag that I started in MN in a class. I've actually finished it and it is now with a friend here who has a sewing maching and she is putting in lining for me. I also finished a pair of felted slippers and a scarf (double thickness, knit in the round) that was a Christmas present for my HK son, Louis (story for another time).

When I was in the states in October I was able to visit a really cool yarh store in SF. It had a "yarn tasting bar." One ball of all yarns in the store was available at the "bar" and you were encouraged to have a seat and test it. They had a basket of needles at your disposal. Most yarns were custom made for this store. I found a ribbon yarn that I decided to use for a short-sleeve top pattern I also found (no disorder in this place). The clerk had me knit a gauge sample, took my measurements and then sat down at a computer, entering dimensions and gauge and printed out a custom pattern. How cool is that? No charge for this service. The yarn was $14/50gm but it was custom. Haven't started that project yet though. I'm working on my second sweater for Chaz and a second pair of socks. I just love the first pair I made.

Also, when I was in NYC over New Year's I took the subway to Smiley Yarns. I thought I was going to be mugged before I ever got there. The subway went through about the roughest part of Brooklyn, thank God I didn't have to get off there and the hood improved before I got to the Smiley store. The store had huge quantities of your standard Joann's fare with only a few choices of 100% wools. But acrylics were $1.99/sk. I bought some 100% worsted for $3.99/100gm. So my passing through the slums was worthwhile.

Kung Hei Fat Choi! Or Happy Chinese New Year! I know it has been a bit of a dry spell since my last posts. Time does fly when you are not working and have nothing to do :) But I think about my blog daily and have stored up a few adventures to share.

My newest pursuit to fill my time is the Hong Kong Garden Society. I've already taken a flower arranging class, attended two garden parties and been published in the society newsletter (sounds much more impressive than it really is). One photo is of the flower arranging teacher with one of her creations. Then there is a photo of a couple members of HKGS on a roof top garden. Both gals are Brits as most are in the society and I found it interesting that they are some of the most unpretentious gardners I've met. All eager to share the stories of their failures as much as the things they've learned about gardening in HK. They are all eager to give you a cutting and are whizzes at rooting. My initiation into the society was doing the newsletter write-up for the rooftop garden party. I've attached scans of my article for my avid gardening friends.

My next society event was the garden party at Arthur the author's house. Arthur is the author of Urban Gardening which is the how-to bible for HK gardeners.

• His tea time refreshments included warm sugar cane juice, white radish dip and a bowl of fresh lettuce leaves which you could spread the dip on or dip the leaf into a couple different choices of vinegarette which I thought was a really cool idea for healthy entertaining fare.