Cola update and Last of the Budha pictures

 

I thought Cola was dead yesterday morning ....I went over to her and could see no movement...No breathing and I ran my hand over her head and along her back. No movement. She felt cold to the touch ...... 

I was just in mid-sentance of saying "oh Sweets , Cola died in her sleep.... " but got no further than "oh Sweets .." when the dead lump of fur lifted her head and looked at me with bleary eyes ..... 

So my sentence became "Oh sweets - she's very cold" !!! 

But since then Cola has improved and is now eating a little ...But sleeps a lot and doesn't have a great deal of energy after competing with the other animals for MCds "hand fed" grilled chicken breast ...The Dinzie pets favourite bar none...... 

you must if not already done so see mcds entry with the poorly cola pictures....

McDinzie

 

 

Hong Kong Lantau Buddha overflow pictures  

 

"The statue is named Tian Tan Buddha because its base is a model of the Altar of Heaven or Earthly Mount of Tian Tan, the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. It is one of the five large Buddha statues in China. The Buddha statue sits on a lotus throne on top of a three-platform altar. It is surrounded by eight smaller bronze statues representing gods or immortals. Like the Daibutsu in Kamakura, Japan, the Tian Tan Buddha is a image of Buddha Amitabha.

The Buddha is 34 meters tall, weighs 250 tonnes, and was the world's tallest outdoor bronze seated Buddha prior to 2007.^[1] It reputedly can even be seen from as far away as Macau on a clear day. Visitors have to climb 268 steps in order to reach the Buddha, though the site also features a small winding road to the Buddha for vehicles to accommodate the handicapped.

The Tian Tan Buddha appears serene and dignified. His right hand is raised, representing the removal of affliction. His left hand rests on his lap in a gesture of giving dhana. The Buddha faces north, which is unique among the great Buddha statues, as all others face south.

In addition, there are 3 floors beneath the Buddha statue: The Hall of Universe, The Hall of Benevolent Merit, and The Hall of Remembrance. One of the most renowned features inside is a relic of Sakyamuni, consisting of some of his alleged cremated remains. There is a huge carved bell inscribed with images of Buddhas in the show room. It was designed to ring every seven minutes, 108 times a day, symbolizing the release of 108 kinds of human vexations."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tian_Tan_Buddha

 

AND so a few left over pictures of the "Buddhistic statues praising and making offerings to the Tian Tan Buddha" before we hobble down the 268 steps and dive into the wonderful nunnery (SP?)  for the best chinese vegetable meal in the hong kong area ...Especially the mushroom soup....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hong Kong Lantau Island Pt2

The Buddha on Lantau island is huge. In fact the inside of it is a museum of sorts dedicated to the Buddha himself. Beautiful chinese style paintings , wall hangings depicting the Buddhas journeys as well as his followers .... We had the steps to climb but every so far there was a landing where the devoted prayed...I stopped too and prayed my lungs would hold out :O)

A Dinzie Down.. Lantau Island, Hong Kong Pt1

First our bad/sad news .. We have a Dinzie very unwell ...(Dinzie is the collective nickname we have for our household, pets included.) Cola the fat beagle (not at all fat anymore) took ill at the beginning of the week with an upset stomach ...She got progressively worse over the next day and so Wednesday morning we took her to the vet before work ...

The vet decided to keep her in and put her on a drip. Test were done and scans taken to find she has a very bad kidney infection.. First thoughts were it may have been cancer.... We expected the worst ....

My poor McD was very upset and many tears were shed on the journey home from work as we passed the vets without stopping ... When McD isn't happy you'd better bet on me being worse and god help anyone if they've caused it.. But this time I couldn't do anything ...

It's been a very bad week ...

Short story is Cola is still at the vets ... Still not well, but the vet said she was better this morning and wagging her tail to all visitors ( who then prod and poke and stick needles in to her for blood samples) ...

She's a very old girl at 15 years. We are hoping she will be coming home at the weekend. But the vet has said that due to her other illness her imune system isn't working as well as it should..

But hopefully McD will get the weekend to fuss and cuddle her and we'll take it from there..

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Lantau Island - Hong Kong

Lantau is a different island from when we first visited about 8 years ago. Since then they built a new airport on reclaimed land beside the island... Hong Kong Disneyland has been built on the island (we didn't go) .. And a huge gondala was built .........

I'm not good with heights..Dangling off the sides of cliffs etc leaves me a mess really (But I've done it a few times ) ..Hanging off a wire in a gondola does pretty much the same thing really ... But I've had a few rides on gondola's .They are a popular thing in NZ ...Worse for being small and having the feeling of being built with No8 wire .....

Our visit to Lantau island (after the metro train ride ) was to get onto a gondola wit ha couple of very nice Chinese mainland holiday makers and spend 20 minutes or so wishing I hadn't ...However the trip to Lantau was one of extremes as we travelled to the opposite side of the island to a villiage there ... AND our first real near death experience (s) for this trip of the holiday.

The Gondola

We were lucky. As said just the 4 of us in the carriage ... Can hold up to 11 people with a number standing ..!!!!!!!!!! WTF !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway - apart from the fact there had been a recorded "loss" of a carriage during testing, it all looked very efficient and new ... Which it was of course ...

Once in the carriage (and it keeps moving when you get in) within a few seconds you are well and truely airbound ...

The climb upwards is steep ... We can now see we will be climbing for a while yet ... Actually all the way.

The photos are through the tinted glass. As we climb we then pass over a harbour

McD enjoys the rides ... As she casually leans back

We've heading over more water and to the top of those hills .........

Something else I won't be doing ... Living in flats like these ... .Especially at the top .... This was the day before a typoon passed by ... I can only wonder what that is like at the top of these ..

Still travelling - It was about here McD offered to take photos of the chinese girl and her Father(?)

The new Hong Kong airport.

IT WAS THIS HIGH !!! In fact it got higher ....

Finally over land...I didn't feel any better for it

There is a stepped walkway below it !!!! Are these people mad !!!

All that to finally see the statue of the Buddha ...

When we first saw this staue it was a gold colour ... Sadly no more but still impressive

We made it safe and sound ...... .Ask McDinzie what that red thing is she bought at the shop at the end of the gondola ride and the story behind it !!

This is a whole new touristy shopping villiage that has sprung up as a result of the godola ride ...

Buddha dominates the view

A Year In My garden # 9

My Whole garden is a construction site !!!!!!

The good thing is that daylight savings kicks in next weekend and then it will be light to around 7pm - a little more if the twilight counts ...... So the work can now kick up a pace and things can get done ....

This weekend, well this Saturday, was the Mum-in-Law birthday..So we decided to take the day off, pack our cameras and make the two hour drive to Palmerston North .... As usual of course we are in bleary eyed disarray. Dogs, clothes, cameras, keys, petrol, you name it, we went through it ..where's this, are you taking that ... No Petrol !! ....ugghg

McD's Daughter S is also in Palmerston North. At the university there..So we picked her up first ....

Of course there had to be The One Thing we were sposed to remember on such a day ...yep the birthday present .... This year McD had chosen a terracotta strawberry planter all planted with about 8 or so healthy strawberry plants that had stood in the sun for a couple of weeks in the yard, the strawberry plants loving it ....

But McD forgot it !!

"So give her an IOU" I helpfully suggest ....

"I do have a picture of it if that helps" I offered ....

So there we were hunting down garden centres in Palmerston North and then finding a terracotta strawberry planter that was empty, we then bought strawberry plants and potting soil and off to M-in-L's house S in the back seat ...

So there we were just around the corner from M-in-Ls house and I've parked and S is sent off to steal stones from the imaculately presented houses around us ...And I'm filling the pot up with soil, stones in place around the hole at the bottom to prevent clogging and the whole thing is planted in a few minutes and then S holds the pot as we make our way the 100 metres to the house ...

She liked it ....S gave her the pot and it was formally positioned in the sun in the front beside the door...

"You may want to water it" I say helpfully but totall ignored ..

Of course

And so the day went on ... the 3 generations of one family women rabbiting on over lunch at a restaurant... Me not really listening (too much baby and cousins I've never met and probably not heard of before type talk )...

And then a slow drive through the park there to see the Cherry Blossom trees in full bloom along the driveway ... An awesome sight for sure ...I'll leave those photos for McD to show ....

But to day I've had a bad back. I'm sore and my body is tired ...But up we get and do 3 or 4 hours work this morning and then in for a salmon omlette for lunch that McD made, 1/2 hours sleep and back out we go planting Dahlia tubers ...Which were the ones we had the good sense to dig out and not rely on jim the gardener to do ...

Despite our request jim the gardener decided not to dig all the tubers up ...in fact none of the tubers in the main round borded we have in the front of the house .... 167% more rain this winter than the average and hundreds of dollars of dahlia tubers had rotted ......

So we've divided the tubers we have and we have too many really ..but so many old friends in flower size shape and colours are gone and we won't see them this year ...and as I suspect a lot were self sown crossbreds we may never see them again ....

Back breaking work ...I've been in pain all day from my back and will struggle to sleep from it tonight ...

I know - Wingeing Pom :O)

The vegetable garden has been a bit of a mess as we've left things lying around , newspapers soggy from rain, plastic planters from the strawberries we've put in the beds ..Builders plastic , tools, compost and lots of mud ....... McD did a tidy up this morning but after I'd taken these shots ....

The construction site - It can only get better

The front yard is a mess too ... Fence that I've only painted half of needs completing ..We've had soil and pebble mounds on the tarmac for the past 4 or 5 months ... The aim now is to clear that and get a skip in and empty the garage and the rubbish about the property (like rusted BBQs) and get the place looking OK again ....

The construction site - Mud everywhere from the rain..grass and weeds taking hold again.

Then there's the house to decorate ......

It never ends eh......

So after all that work McD and I start seed planting ... McD documenting everything we've planted cause she knows i'm not good at that ...

Peas to the left, Radish, carrots and pak choi cabbage to the right .

So Pumkin, Eggplant, Cucumber, winter melon, are all planted in bio-degradeable coffee cups. then a large selection of Chili pepers and bell peppers have been planted into a seed tray row by row ..all documened from cayenne peppers to habeneros and bulgarian carrot chillis ....

Mostly cabbages but at the back celery, silverbeet, leeks, spinach .

Strawberry plants looking good.

Broad beans to the left, "mini-cabbages" in the middle, then egyption onion, garlic and strawberries to the right ...

A square foot garden in the making

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We now pick up discarded tyres from the road side and grow rhubarb in them.. Well one of them anyway

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This was the original vegetable plot.. We did rescue some mint plants and lemon balm plants from here ...Now it has a dozen Jersey Benne potatoes planted in it .

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The view from my seat at the top of the plot ...

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vegetable garden, potager garden, allotment, square foot,