Neighbourhood

I live on the 18th floor of my building and these are the views I have front and back.There's some heavy construction going on next door as they're laying the foundations for a new building. This involves driving huge, deep holes into the ground using a massive pile driver."Bang, Bang, Bang".
It goes on for hours. Luckily I'm not usually home but today getting ready to fly to the UK , I've had the unnerving experience of feeling the whole building shake every time the drill strikes home.
I'm on the 18th floor and still the couch shakes.
My building is being shaken to it's foundations.
That can't be safe.
Can it?
The building out front is covered in bamboo scaffolding which is a common sight here, but I wonder how safe that can be. Its a long way up for the guys to be risking life and limb on the tensile strength of what appears to me to be a pretty flimsy foothold.
I had a ton of last minute things to do today and walking no more than three blocks from my place I was struck by the variety of stuff in my neighbourhood.Old buildings like the one next door to my place, sit cheek by jowl with towering apartment blocks and silly fusion restaurants. There's a feeling here that life is going on. Not just expat package to and from work, but normal everyday things.

Just down the hill on Robinson Road, the trees cling to perches along the retaining wall lining the street. I find them impressive in their tenacity to survive and the green they add to the place gives a livable vibe to the concrete and smells of this city.

The grade leading up to the Peak is steep and there are all sorts of stairway alleys snaking upwards between the main roads. It's easy to miss them as most people head for the escalator to go up or down to Central. These little arteries have clusters of "stuff" at their base and top, mostly catering to local Chinese. Relax, its a deer tail not an unmentionable bit of something endangered.
Sitting on Robinson Road amongst the modern buildings and antique shops is the Man Mo TempleIt was built in 1847 and is dedicated to two Chinese gods, Man Tai (the God of Literature) and Mo Tai (the God of War). Its a working temple and you're free to walk around and take pictures.

Apparently its made an appearance in the Shemue II video game. If that isn't a piece of useless trivia, I don't know what is.

These pictures don't convey it but it's almost impossible to breath in this place as the incense is so thick in the air.

I guess the thing I like most about where I live is the variety of people living side by side. There's an old folks home, fish market and swish expat digs all almost on top of one another. It keeps the neighbourhood from becoming too much of the expat ghetto that people have come to identify it as being. I think that's a good thing.

That's it for today.

I'm about to head off to the airport for the long flight back to the rainy, cold UK.

Stay well.

T