Halloween

Yesterday, Matt and I were invited to a four course dinner and jazz show at the Aberdeen Marina Club. When Matt and I went on that junk boat trip a few weeks ago, the boat left from the the pier next to the AMC, and we had gazed longingly into the "Member's Only" club with the giant pool and waterslides and a very yummy smelling buffet. So, we were excited to have the opportunity to have a nice meal there. We were invited by a woman from the At Home group, and her husband is the head chef at the AMC. I was a little bit nervous that I wasn't going to make it through four courses and the all of the accompnaying drinks, but I did because each course was perfectly portioned so that you never got too full. We had stewed rabbit with gravy, a very artistic Caesar salad with all of the lettuce pointing upwards, roasted red pepper soup, Sea Bass, a very yummy raisin cobbler dessert thing with rum raisin homemade ice cream and then petit fours at the end. It was delicious. Oh, and never ending red wine, white wine and champagne. It is sort of disorienting because they keep refilling your glass, so it is hard to keep track of how muchyou have had. I had at least 4 glasses of different drinks going at one point. The jazz singer, Cherryl Hayes, was excellent. She was American and I found out that she had been an accountant until she was middle aged, when all of a sudden she realized she could sing. I think Dad would've loved that! It seemed like he always felt he was an artist trapped in an accountant's job.

So, sitting at the table surrounded by British people (aside from matt and one Chinese woman) I realized that I am having more culture shock with British people than I have ever had with any other nationality. I am very accustomed to Chinese ways, partly because of Quinnie, partly because there were always alot of Chinese people in school with me, and partly because they are usually so sincere and friendly. British people seem to be highly cynical and most of their "clever dinner party repartee" is just dripping with sarcasm. Now, don't get me wrong, all of the British people that I have met here have been nothing but nice. I was (fortunately) seated next to the Chinese wife of one of the Britsh men. She was very happy, nice, friendly, and funny. I could see glances being exchanged across the table, which were very unecessary in my opinion.

After the dinner, Matt and I went out for Halloween! Matt and I had a very good, last-minute sort of Halloween. I got my Bumble Bee costume on Saturday and Matt threw together his Mongolian Warrior costume on Sunday. We went down to Lan Kwai Fong and cruised the streets. We literally couldn't go five feet without someone asking to take our picture. I guess that is what the locals like t do, get dressed up and then go out and take pictures of themselves with other people that are dressed up. If I had known that, I would have brought my camera! There were some good costumes out there. Matt and I went to some clubs, but my wings were sort of clumsy on the dance floor and he was too hot in his lambskin Mongolian Warrior vest. We got into a club for free cause of our costumes, so that was cool.



Bzzz, I'm a bumble bee.