Day 4 - Tuesday 10th - Beauty treatment and Rugby!!

Today started late for most of us. We are only getting to bed very late and PP Joseph Chan is very considerate. I discovered last night that after he has dropped us off, he has a one-hous trip home. I was amazed. That is serious “Service above Self’. Once again, huge thanks to PP Joseph. Oh, and he won’t let us pay for a thing – not coffee – it’s just “No! I’m paying”. We congregated from our various places and joined PP Joseph to go to the Rotary Club of Hong Kong City North. As we were going to do a presentation, we went to a coffee shop at 11.30am and went over our presentation. All was well and we went off to the club which meets at the same Craigengower Cricket Club where we met last night for our welcome dinner with DG Albert Wong.

We were welcomed by President Terrence and his committee. PP James Hicks was there. We had met him the evening before while waiting for our welcome dinner to begin. He was on top form again and reminded us that he had been a Rotarian for close on 33 years. He also told us that he was instrumental in the chartering of the Hong City North Club.

There was a good turnout and after the usual introduction of the team and a banner exchange we discovered that we were not doing a presentation after all. A delightful young lady named Kita, a registered phsychiatric nurse was to give a talk on “Mental Disorders”. I was looking forward to some explanations of some peoples behaviour, however, just before we began she apologised that her speech was going to be in Cantonese. So we listened politely for about 20 minutes and were none the wiser. The meal however, was superb. Rotary lunches here are at least three course affairs, with red wine, water and coffee in abundance. Really excellent. At least two of us made that the only meal today – can you believe the willpower!
Picture: Desert at a Rotary lunch in Hong Kong (sigh)

After lunch, two great vocational visits – the first one to Rotarian Venice’s MENCE men’s health and beauty salon where we were clinically assessed for body/fat percentage and all sorts of other uncomplimentary things. It is safe to say that with the exception of maybe Brendan, none of us are too keen to discuss the results of our assessments! It is however, a stunning place. The treatment rooms are really something else. Absolutely 6-star luxury. Apparently the treatment is used by all the famous movie stars and big movers and shakers in Hong Kong. We didn’t ask what the treatment costs but judging by the furnishings it is going to be more expensive than a cup of coffee at McDonalds!

Picture: Us at Venice's (pronounced Ven-neice) health and beauty parlour. Venice is the lady next to Nivashni

After that we paid a visit of Rotarian Garrick’s business which is called “Smart Kids Club”. He explained that in Hong Kong there are many, many people who are not proficient in English and apart from offering English lessons to them, they offer entire English courses comprising of DVD’s, books, tapes, online internet exams – all aimed at promoting mainly English language skills amongst children. It was fascinating stuff and we watched the DVD’s with him and had a chance to ask questions.

End of our day as far as GSE business was concerned and so Nivashni and Jonathan went with Brendan to the Hong Kong Rugby Club. Brendan is a seriously keen rugby player and after eventually finding the place, we watched Brendan joining in the main team practise drills. People, please understand, we were seriously impressed by Brendan. He slotted in there as if he had been in that club for years. And it was interesting to see how the Aussie coach started noticing him. There were about ten different nationalities at the practice and they were really practising some hectic drills.

Picture: Brendan (far right) at rugby practice with the Hong Kong Tigers

So, dear Rotary friends and family, this is a GSE trip that includes all sorts of things – not just Club and Vocational visits. Watch this space. As you can see, we are having a great time with our great Hong Kong Rotary family. The acceptance and warmth is exceptional. Take care and we’ll post again tomorrow.