Happy Anniversary

Today is our seventh anniversary. After waking up from our big sleep, we had breakfast and started out on our day. We saw several parts of Hong Kong island, but the highlight was The Peak aka Victoria Peak, the highest mountain in Hong Kong. The tram up the mountain goes straight up the side at a rather steep angle. When we reached the top and made it outside of the tourist trap, we were in a nice little mountain village shrouded in mist and surrounded by lush green growth, which made the walks fun. Unfortunately the mountain was so shrouded in mist that we could not see anything below. We had lunch in a nice restaurant with glass walls that maximized our view of the mist. By the end of lunch we could just make out some of the nearest skyscrapers.

The rest of the day was taken up with seeing the excessive shops of Causeway Bay, having tea in a greasy spoon in Wan Chai and meandering our way back to our hotel through a night market.

Oh, and Charlotte started standing unaided today. It is quite fun watching her stand up, waiver for a few seconds and plop back down.

Where in the world is…

…the Criswell family? Brian is settling into his new workplace, and Rachel finished up her work with the fire relief projects and is now spending some time focused on Charlotte. We are about to set off on our next trip to south-east Asia.

Disaster, Disaster Everywhere…

As many of you know, our departure from Oxford at the end of July happened to be during some of the worst flooding the area has seen in a century. Today, 85 days after our personal effects were packed into a shipping container they were delivered back to us; a delievery that took place in the midst of a disaster at the other end of nature’s spectrum, wild fires.

Presently, there are two fires eluding the control of fire fighters that are both approximately 5 miles from our home. As with flooding, fires are a very localised kind of disaster, so 5 miles can make a huge difference as to whether or not you are directly effected. In our case, it is highly unlikely that a fire will actually make it to our apartment. Unlike flooding, however, fires have a nasty way of making themselves known. Significant quantities of ash are being released into the atmosphere and blown our way (I’ve had to brush the lap top off twice to clear off fine soot). It also smells disgusting and makes breathing difficult. As county transportation and businesses are significantly disrupted by all of the events, Brian was not required to be at work today nor tomorrow.

Ergo, right was we should be composing a jubilant, ‘We made it email’, we are instead catapulting down the freeway away from our earthly possessions to spend a day or two with Rachel’s parents in Los Angeles county. Ironic? We think so.