A week off work

I had a week off work, which seemed to fly by.  Sunday night comes around way too quickly and though I recognise the necessity of work, and enjoy what I do, I really do wish for more time with my Monkey.

We had a good week- lunch at the Peak Lookout, lunch at the Club....all part of my mission to get Monkey to sit for longer and longer in a high chair having a meal with others.  He hasn't been bad, and I've discovered that sitting outside does wonders for his ability to cope with being in the high chair.  Also, he *somehow* seems to be able to sit still longer for dessert....Hmmm, wonder why.

We've had a few rainy days, and we thought a fun thing to do on a rainy day would be to go to the Airport to see the plane take off.  I had memories of going to airports in my childhood, going to the viewing deck and watching the runway and planes arrive and depart.  We had not reckoned with Hong Kong International Airport.  

For a start, where was the viewing deck?  After wandering around a bit in Terminal One, we asked Information, who directed us to the 6th floor of Terminal Two.  Now to get there, we had to go down to Arrivals, across the walkway to Terminal Two, where you come in on the 3rd floor.  You can't get directly to the 6th floor from the lift we were at, so we had to get off at the 5th floor and ask for directions of how to get to the 6th floor, and once up there, had to walk around a bit trying to find the viewing gallery.  (You must remember that this is a BIG airport with long distances between things.) We realised that there aren't any signs to the viewing gallery because they've actually incorporated it into the Aviation Discovery Centre, which is an exhibition about airports and planes, which even comes with its own movie theatre screening Pixar and Disney films!  I can see how you might come here quite a bit if you live in Tung Chung, but what surprised us was that the viewing gallery was actually roped off and you have to buy a ticket to get up there!  OK, so $15 is not much, but what happened to the viewing galleries we had when we were growing up?  And why the charge?  Presumably for crowd control and to keep tabs on who goes up there, but I didn't see any security up there...or indeed, anyone else apart from a mum with her baby.  Or maybe they are trying to recoup on the investment of building the Aviation Discovery Centre?

Once we were up there, we did indeed have a good view of the runways, with quite a few planes coming in to land each minute.  Monkey looked at the planes for a bit, but what he most enjoyed doing was dragging his little bag around like he'd seen other people do in the airport downstairs. He liked wandering around the big open space, looking down through the glass balconies at the traffic below.

Point of information: there's actually quite decent food in Terminal 2 (on the 5th and 6th floors).  The clientele was mainly airport staff and local people, which is always a good sign.  There's a Chiu Chow restaurant, a Thai kiosk, the usual Burger King, some noodle and dumpling places and an assortment of Western restaurants/kiosks.  And quite a few children's shops such as Kaloo, Bossini, a shop selling soft toys, a shop selling Thomas the Tank Engine stuff and one selling "discovery science" stuff.  I can see how we might come here again.

The last photo above is from the stable today.  Who needs strollers!  What Monkey really gets a kick out of is a ride in a plain old metal trolley, sitting up in a feed tray on top of a clean numnah.  The special feature of this vehicle is that it's amphibious, and even goes through puddles.  Wow! :-)  He sits really still and has a huge smile on his face throughout!