A Walk Through Central

Top of Peak 2

So let me start off by telling you about the really cool hike I did yesterday with Cathy.  I met Cathy and her 3 co-workers in Wan Chai where we caught a bus down to Stanley.  From Stanley we hiked the Twin Peaks in Tai Tam park backwards. Usually you start in Happy Valley, Quarry Bay, or somewhere in that general vicinity and hike down to Stanley where there's a lovely little waterfront plaza to enjoy lunch.  We however took the wrong bus and didn't have a really set plan, so Stanley beginning it was.  You walk up a ton of stairs, although I must say considerably less than Nepal (never again!), to the top of the first peak where you have amazing views of Stanley (duh) and Repulse Bay.  Then you walk down a bunch of stairs, pass all the people who look like they want to end it, walking up the correct way, go up a smaller set of stairs and you're at the top of the other peak.  It also has breathtaking views despite the grey that is winter here.  It was nice as we walked I got to chat with each of the girls whom I had never met before; one from CT the other two from the UK.  After the peaks we decided to go the longer way around the Tai Tam reservoir.  It was beautiful!  Despite the millions of people living in HK who claim to love hiking, the trail was deserted.  All in all we hiked about 2 hours, and I'm guessing because my Runtraker lies to me, about 7 kilometers.  Pretty good for a Saturday am.

The trail down through the peaks

Tai Tam Reservoir

Reservior

Came home and Paul had just gotten home from school.  We cooked hot noodles and dumplings together and spent the afternoon catching up on the end of the Real Housewives reunion.  I mean hockey, football, and rugby....

Prosecco Cocktail

Feeling unmotivated yet liable to go out, we finally pushed ourselves out the door to Central.  As we got off the bus with no real plan we passed by Linguini Fini.  It's the newest Cafe Deco restaurant bar in town, gets lots of press for that reason and because they don't take reservations, so we thought we'd give it a try.  We sat at the bar because place was packed to the rafters and had a look over the cocktail menu.  All of them sounded amazing.  And reasonable.  When does that happen??  I ordered the Prosecco Cockatil and Paul got the Negroni.  They were both good, but I liked mine better; Prosecco, bitters, and vermouth.  Yum yum yum!!!  They were so good we decided to stay for another round, although my second was not as good.  In fact, I don't recall the name of even what it was other than light green and ok....Paul had a good whiskey drink though.

Selection from Portrait

Moving on we head up the hill to Portrait Winery.  We had been once before right before I started working for HOFWs.  I had bugged the owner Steve to meet with me and discuss career options, then bailed because I had to start working.  Turns out he remembered me.  Hmmm, and didn't seem to pleased.  Regardless we had their premium wine flight, and wines be yummy!  They also have a new guys working there who like me was working in Finance (banking), then decided he loved wine and got his WSET certification.  He recommended I started with level 2.  So level 2 it is this spring!! Anyway, the wines were all really nice and we finished with an amazing pear brandy.  Didn't taste like brandy at all, but exploded pear.  They are show casing their spirits this Friday in TST at the China Wine and Spirits Awards, so I'm going to try to bail on work early and go!

But as everything, the flight came to an end, so we hopped a few doors down to our favorite place; the Globe!  Love love love love the Globe.  It was packed per usual on a Saturday night, but we managed to find a couple of seats at the bar and enjoyed one Belgian tipple each; Delirium Tremons for me and Chimay Blue for Paul.   Got to love the boozey Belgian beers!

Belgium's finest

Post Globe we were pretty well hammered so we caught the 11:30 bus home.  Remember the days when you could stay out past 12?  Seems like a distant memory.

It's 10 now, Paul's still sleeping.  I'm going to wake him up soon because we're heading to Aura in Central for a Champagne (probably Prosecco) brunch.  Then soup week continues with chili!