August 7 2006 - Crystal Birdies in Causeway Bay

This morning after Yoga I had a minor mission to accomplish. The bank had sent us a notice that said we were the proud recipients of a “birds of paradise crystal set”, as a “thank-you” for having our home insurance with them. They do this kind of thing all the time here, send us notices that we get some kind of weird gift for something we’ve done. I’ve never bothered to go pick one up, but this one had me curious, so I decided what the heck.

One thing I’ve realized in the past couple of weeks; the crowds in some areas of Hong Kong don’t bother me anymore, the way they did when I first moved here. Causeway Bay is one of those areas where the crowds always seem to be more intense; more people, and more movement. But I’ve been there a couple of times recently, and it was only afterward that I found myself thinking, “Hey that’s the sort of thing that used to make me feel dizzy!” I can even get on and off the rapid escalators now without concentrating ALL my physical powers on the event.

I need to remember though when we have visitors, that the crowds and the pace that things move was once a challenge for me. I think one thing I’ve learned is to go out, do stuff for a couple of hours, and then retreat back to my cool, quiet apartment on the mountain-side to rejuvenate.

Okay, back to the birds. The place I needed to pick them up was in Causeway Bay. I found the building and the floor where the office was without too much trouble. The birds themselves turned out to really be cute! I was surprised; I thought they’d be ugly junk. I’m kind of enamored with them, although I’m sure Lee is going to take one look at them and laugh. One is pink crystal and one is blue crystal. They’re about 1 inch high, and they’re drinking from a little crystal pool, with little crystal drops of water in it. They’re kind of Barbie birds…I think that’s why I like them; they look like they belong in the front yard of a very nice doll house (or Barbie’s dream house!).

And once I was home, I showed them to my Cantonese teacher. We used them to practice saying “a blue bird, a pink bird, two birds, one pink and one blue, two birds drinking water, etc”. It’s harder than you might think, at least for me. If I manage to remember the words, and the tones, I get the word order mixed up. Oh well.

The birds were also an excuse to practice using the macro focus on my camera….see what you think!