I realize there's been no blog update since we left Wrangell AK Feb 26, pre-surgery 2 March and departure for Hong Kong 22Mar. A combination of not very convenient internet accessibility and one hand typing. Sorry for that

For anyone wondering; Rusty handled his plane flight down from Wrangell just fine, and now is in good hands with our friend Wade. Wade and Rusty bonded on board DE last summer. Wade has suggested a time-share arrangement...

HK is a bit cooler this year, this time, than previous. Just the past 2 days though the weather has changed to more of that expected in the monsoon change from NE to SW -- warm and more humid. We're staying at the apartment of a friend -- very, very kindly offered -- up the escalator from Central District into SoHo and Midlevels. Unfortunately we got into HK after midnight (from our flight) and the escalator was shut down, necessitating dragging our baggage up the hills -- sweaty end to a long flight.

Our friends Bob & Margaret, who have Diesel Duck sister-ship "Highland Duck", came into HK earlier that same day from Lankawie (Malaysia, just offshore Thailand). We joined forces the morning after Dot and I arrived; hunted up new SIM cards for our phones and generally got re-acquainted and re-oriented.

The following day was the start of the 3 day HK Rugby 7s tournament. We met Tjasa at the HK Rugby Club to claim our tickets (and see Nela, Aiden & Tjasa's new baby girl for the first time -- absolutely gorgeous!)

7s was great fun as ever -- costumes, music, great rugby (although the US and HK teams performance were disappointing this year).

Since arriving in town we've done two hikes in the HK Country Parks, with Andrew -- Dragonback and up at the far northern end of New Territories, looking out on the Marine Reserve at Double Haven, just south of the Mainland China border.

I've been limited a bit by my shoulder surgery 2 March. Still in the immobilization sling; still quite uncomfortable (but I'd rather be miserable here, doing the things we're doing, than just hanging out at home being miserable). I've been unclear about my post-surg physical therapy instructions, so got a recommendation for a good sports physio shop here and have been going twice a week. The dilemma of course is that I'm doing better every day; and doing more (exercise) every day and therefore continue to be hurting. The therapist I'm working with is a very capable gal -- about 100 lbs and she's beating the crap out of me. But seeing real progress with strength and range of motion, which was not happening on my own. Now if I could just sleep for more than a couple hours at a time...

Dorothy and I, Bob and Margaret, and Andrew all made a ferry trip to the Seahorse boatyard. Andrew's boat is there for some warranty work; Bob needed some parts, as do we. Great to see Bill, Stella, Fido, Natalie and their crew; check out the boats in progress -- always improvements -- and also a 55' Oceaneer spec boat in the dry dock -- if I had the resources, that would be tempting. Bill (Seahorse Marine owner has finally gotten his model train collection unpacked and into a structure made up of storage containers welded together -- a big room 40'long by 5 containers wide. Really impressive! On the ferry ride back we hit some rough water coming out of Macau into the Pearl River approaches resulting in screams and puking from the passengers -- never a dull moment!

For those of you who've hung in with this episode of the blog, I've saved the best for last: one of the moments where you just had to be there, a combination of timing, location and cultural diversity... at the movie theatre in the IFC building last night, watching "Lincoln Lawyer" from a Michael Connelly book (English, but with Cantonese subtitles) and a character in the film says "you've got more balls than a Chinese ping-pong tournament" and the audience went wild. I have no clue how many of audience members understood the term in English, or picked it up off the subtitles (and I'd love to know how that translated?!), but however they heard/read it, it brought the house down. I'm still laughing.

So, back to Seattle a week from today. Between now and then, more visits with friends, more torture from Charmain (my therapist) and more cross-cultural adventures in HK!