Deep Breath .. Hold it .. Now let it out slowly. Do it three times.
I just did this myself since this is going to be a fairly long Post.
I am going to take all of you who wish to join me on a round trip ride on one of the Hong Kong buses. I am going to take you from the origination of the 5c bus route at the Star Ferry Pier in Kowloon to the end of the 5c route in the center of the Village of Tsz Wan Shan. Then we will ride back to the Star Ferry Pier. The trip is about one full hour each way.
Although it is not a clear day .. on the left side or the left edge of the first four photos below you can still see the skyline of Hong Kong in the distance across Victoria Harbor.
Immediately below you see the very large Star Ferry Pier bus terminus.
These five photos were taken at the Star Ferry Bus Terminus in Kowloon.
The next three photos were taken during the trip showing some of the 5c route signs along the way.
The 5c is one of MY routes. I ride the 5c as a routine part of my daily comings and my daily goings. The 5c is my friend!
In this Post there will be many tourist quality photographs and there will be many .. down and dirty photographs .. just showing you what you would have seen if you were riding with me. Real life in a real city.
So IF you think to yourself ..
"Why on earth is Cap showing some of these photos? Some of them are just so plain and simple and .. well mundane!"
Exactly! Life .. Daily Life .. Can be and often IS .. mundane and ordinary and routine and simple.
DISCLAIMER: IF you are sick and IF you are tired of seeing Hong Kong High Rise Buildings .. STOP NOW!
Sports Fans .. These magnificent buildings DEFINE Hong Kong !
Here we go .. buckle up! Yes the buses do have seat belts. Few IF anyone uses them but they are there should you so desire!
I AM ! .. IN THE CATBIRD SEAT !
I silently giggle to myself when I unload a really odd word in one of my Posts. There is at least some chance that some child in India may be reading along here. This bright eyed child .. eager to learn more English .. eager to see things that this child will never in this lifetime be able to see live-and-in-person .. will come upon the above term .. CATBIRD SEAT.
This bright and precocious child will then turn to their English language dictionary and eagerly thumb through it to the C's .. Down the C's this child will go and this child WILL find the word CAT. Mommy! Daddy! What does CATBIRD SEAT mean Mommy and Daddy! Mommy will look at Daddy .. Daddy will look back at Mommy .. and Mommy and Daddy will NOT be able to accurately answer their child's question!
"I haven't the slightest idea my child what a CATBIRD SEAT is."
Were I a fly-on-the-wall I would love to hear what answer Mommy and Daddy would come-up-with as to the meaning of CATBIRD SEAT.
Oh Captain My Captain you are NOT keeping up My Captain!
GOT IT !
My Goodness .. I GOT IT!
Mommy and Daddy will say to their precocious child .. "GOOGLE IT!"
VOILA !
The CATBIRD SEAT on a Hong Kong double decker bus is one of the four seats .. two on either side of the aisle .. at the very front of the upper deck. From these seats you can see everything! For me personally the two aisle seats are the real CATBIRD SEATS.
So lets get ourselves up to the CATBIRD SEATING area. On our immediate right in the below photo are the stairs leading to the upper deck of the 5c bus.
There is not exactly an abundance of room on the stairs.
Looking back down the stairs from the upper deck.
On the left in the photo below is the top of the stair well and a look at the back of the bus.
Now it is time to get back to the CATBIRD SEATS.
Below is a photo showing the front four seats in the upper deck of the bus. When you are in one of these front four seats .. you ARE in a CATBIRD SEAT!
My personal preference is the aisle seat on the left side. Then the aisle seat on the right side. The window seats slightly limit your ability to photograph scenes looking directly straight up the road ahead of the bus.
Note the yellow safety railing at the front.
Below you can look up at the second deck and see the above yellow safety railing. Now all of you have an excellent idea of exactly where we will all be sitting on our 5c bus trip! We are all going to be in the left aisle CATBIRD SEAT! Note below the Road Show logo at the top of the right windshield below. More below about the Road Show.
Even from a distance as you can clearly see in the below photo this distinctive yellow safety railing at the front of the upper deck stands out.
My HOMY INN is inside of my Union Mansion which is the red brick building you see at the right edge of the above photo.
Let's go back to the third photo above. When I snapped this photo (which I am showing again below) the bus was standing still waiting to begin its route. In the top center of the below photo is a rectangular black fixture.
This is a television set called The Road Show that broadcasts a wide variety of news and sports as you are riding along!
If you look carefully at our 5c bus below you can see the Road Show logo at the very top right of the windshield diagonally below the 5c. This alerts about-to-be passengers of this feature on the bus they are boarding.
Captain Our Captain! .. Please get this show on the road!
OK we are rolling!
We are leaving the Star Ferry Pier terminus. Up the street is the YMCA. It is to the left of the red bus ahead of us.
Now I am going to post photos in the order I snapped them.
Good photo of my YMCA.
The first of the below photos were taken along Chatham Road South .. just past my Union Mansion.
We have now turned off Chatham Road South.
Down and dirty just daily living in an ordinary building.
WOW!
WE HAVE REACHED THE OUTBOUND TERMINUS OF THE 5c BUS!
Outbound our destination was TSZ WAN SHAN (CENTRAL).
Turning around and heading back our destination on the 5c bus is now STAR FERRY.
I promise you the following:
On our return trip back to the Star Ferry Pier Bus Terminus I took far fewer photographs because I had already shot many of them coming outbound.
Captain Our Captain .. This is a program of honesty Captain. Just tell your followers to keep scrolling down and way at the bottom the truth shall emerge. You were busy photographing something other than the Hong Kong street scenes.
Back we go!
In case you didn't catch the other sign above .. the below sign is the second admonishment about drunk driving that I saw on our trip.
OK it is fess-up-time.
On the return trip back to the Star Ferry Bus Terminus I was distracted and much amused by my seat mates in the front seats to my right!
So I stopped photographing the street scenes and I turned my attention and photographic efforts onto my seat mates and I also began to visit with them as well!
This little one could NOT seem to take her eyes off me! Do you see her sister 'eyeing' me from afar?
See her older sister still 'eyeing' me? It was a challenge getting her to speak. Just look at her 'eyeing' me!
Finally big sister warmed up and over she came to join us. Will you all just look at Mom!
It looks like the little one has gotten sleepy directing all of her energy towards trying to figure out why I look so different.
Ah-h-h can any of you tell we have a VERY HAPPY MOTHER here?
Obviously I was talking to them in English. I was asking the older sister (Mom does not speak any English) questions such as .. "Do you go to school?" .. "Do you like school?" .. "Are you studying English?" .. "How old are you?" .. "How old is your little sister?" .. Big sister is 8 years old and little sister is 2 years old I think.
Here is the absolutely amazing kicker! During our extremely short conversation the older sister was actively picking up English words about as fast as I was speaking them!
Even the little one got into this act. THEY .. NOT me .. were humming .. Row Row Row Your Boat .. so I chimed in with the words. As the words fell off my tongue the little ones were picking them all up!
If I could read minds the older sister was thinking to herself ..
"Gee whatever he is saying is sure easy to pick up. I wonder if he has any clue about how hard it is for me to pick up this Mandarin language being thrust upon me by my parents and school teachers!"
I find it humbling to fully realize that there is a good chance that these children have NEVER interacted this closely with an elderly Caucasian western man.
In the below photo the YMCA is ahead on the right of the bus. We are only a few short blocks from the Star Ferry Pier in Kowloon. Our trip is over.
Call it a wrap Captain!
Captain you sure got in over your head again with this Post. You KNOW when you are burning up the camera shooting photographs like a madman that you will pay the price!
Smiles .. Cap
Hold on just a minute before you press Publish Captain ..
And NOW ?
THE REST OF THE STORY .. Rest in peace Mr. Paul Harvey! We miss you!
Below is a photo of Andy who is one of the active on-duty managers of the HOMY INN where I am currently staying.
As I was beginning this Post .. Andy came over to me and quietly looked over my left shoulder.
When Andy saw the photos of the 5c bus up at the beginning of the Post Andy brightened up and proudly said to me ..
"I live at the end of the 5c bus route in Tsz Wan Shan!"
I was touched by the obvious pride with which he uttered his pronouncement. Andy confirmed for me that .. Yes .. when he leaves the HOMY INN to go home for the night .. it is a one full hour ride. Andy often leaves after 10PM in the evening. I will bet you all that Andy enjoys the Road Show on the bus television set in the upper deck.
Patti Poo From Ooob La Do have fun proof reading this fun Post. Ready Or Not ! I am going to Publish it.
I just did this myself since this is going to be a fairly long Post.
I am going to take all of you who wish to join me on a round trip ride on one of the Hong Kong buses. I am going to take you from the origination of the 5c bus route at the Star Ferry Pier in Kowloon to the end of the 5c route in the center of the Village of Tsz Wan Shan. Then we will ride back to the Star Ferry Pier. The trip is about one full hour each way.
Although it is not a clear day .. on the left side or the left edge of the first four photos below you can still see the skyline of Hong Kong in the distance across Victoria Harbor.
Immediately below you see the very large Star Ferry Pier bus terminus.
The next three photos were taken during the trip showing some of the 5c route signs along the way.
The 5c is one of MY routes. I ride the 5c as a routine part of my daily comings and my daily goings. The 5c is my friend!
In this Post there will be many tourist quality photographs and there will be many .. down and dirty photographs .. just showing you what you would have seen if you were riding with me. Real life in a real city.
So IF you think to yourself ..
"Why on earth is Cap showing some of these photos? Some of them are just so plain and simple and .. well mundane!"
Exactly! Life .. Daily Life .. Can be and often IS .. mundane and ordinary and routine and simple.
DISCLAIMER: IF you are sick and IF you are tired of seeing Hong Kong High Rise Buildings .. STOP NOW!
Sports Fans .. These magnificent buildings DEFINE Hong Kong !
Here we go .. buckle up! Yes the buses do have seat belts. Few IF anyone uses them but they are there should you so desire!
I AM ! .. IN THE CATBIRD SEAT !
I silently giggle to myself when I unload a really odd word in one of my Posts. There is at least some chance that some child in India may be reading along here. This bright eyed child .. eager to learn more English .. eager to see things that this child will never in this lifetime be able to see live-and-in-person .. will come upon the above term .. CATBIRD SEAT.
This bright and precocious child will then turn to their English language dictionary and eagerly thumb through it to the C's .. Down the C's this child will go and this child WILL find the word CAT. Mommy! Daddy! What does CATBIRD SEAT mean Mommy and Daddy! Mommy will look at Daddy .. Daddy will look back at Mommy .. and Mommy and Daddy will NOT be able to accurately answer their child's question!
"I haven't the slightest idea my child what a CATBIRD SEAT is."
Were I a fly-on-the-wall I would love to hear what answer Mommy and Daddy would come-up-with as to the meaning of CATBIRD SEAT.
Oh Captain My Captain you are NOT keeping up My Captain!
GOT IT !
My Goodness .. I GOT IT!
Mommy and Daddy will say to their precocious child .. "GOOGLE IT!"
VOILA !
"The catbird seat" is an idiomatic phrase used to describe an enviable position, often in terms of having the upper hand or greater advantage in all types of dealings among parties. According to the Oxford English Dictionary,[1] the first recorded usage occurred in a 1942 humorous short story by James Thurber titled "The Catbird Seat,"[2] which features a character, Mrs. Barrows, who likes to use the phrase. Another character, Joey Hart, explains that Mrs. Barrows must have picked up the expression from Red Barber, a baseball broadcaster, and that to Barber "sitting in the catbird seat" meant "'sitting pretty,' like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him."
The phrase "In the catbird seat" was among the numerous folksy expressions used by Barber. According to Barber's daughter, after her father read Thurber's story, he began using the phrase "in the catbird seat." This seems to reverse events, however, as the passage of story quoted above clearly references Barber himself. According to "Colonel"Bob Edwards's book Fridays with Red, Barber claimed that Thurber got this and many other expressions from him, and that Barber had first heard the term used during apoker game in Cincinnati during the Great Depression.[3] Barber himself also put forth this version of events in his 1968 autobiography, Rhubarb in the Catbird Seat.[4]
Further usage can be found in P. G. Wodehouse's 1958 novel Cocktail Time: "I get you. If we swing it, we'll be sitting pretty, 'In the catbird seat.'"
The CATBIRD SEAT on a Hong Kong double decker bus is one of the four seats .. two on either side of the aisle .. at the very front of the upper deck. From these seats you can see everything! For me personally the two aisle seats are the real CATBIRD SEATS.
So lets get ourselves up to the CATBIRD SEATING area. On our immediate right in the below photo are the stairs leading to the upper deck of the 5c bus.
There is not exactly an abundance of room on the stairs.
Looking back down the stairs from the upper deck.
On the left in the photo below is the top of the stair well and a look at the back of the bus.
Now it is time to get back to the CATBIRD SEATS.
Below is a photo showing the front four seats in the upper deck of the bus. When you are in one of these front four seats .. you ARE in a CATBIRD SEAT!
My personal preference is the aisle seat on the left side. Then the aisle seat on the right side. The window seats slightly limit your ability to photograph scenes looking directly straight up the road ahead of the bus.
Note the yellow safety railing at the front.
Below you can look up at the second deck and see the above yellow safety railing. Now all of you have an excellent idea of exactly where we will all be sitting on our 5c bus trip! We are all going to be in the left aisle CATBIRD SEAT! Note below the Road Show logo at the top of the right windshield below. More below about the Road Show.
Even from a distance as you can clearly see in the below photo this distinctive yellow safety railing at the front of the upper deck stands out.
My HOMY INN is inside of my Union Mansion which is the red brick building you see at the right edge of the above photo.
Let's go back to the third photo above. When I snapped this photo (which I am showing again below) the bus was standing still waiting to begin its route. In the top center of the below photo is a rectangular black fixture.
This is a television set called The Road Show that broadcasts a wide variety of news and sports as you are riding along!
If you look carefully at our 5c bus below you can see the Road Show logo at the very top right of the windshield diagonally below the 5c. This alerts about-to-be passengers of this feature on the bus they are boarding.
Captain Our Captain! .. Please get this show on the road!
OK we are rolling!
We are leaving the Star Ferry Pier terminus. Up the street is the YMCA. It is to the left of the red bus ahead of us.
Now I am going to post photos in the order I snapped them.
Good photo of my YMCA.
The first of the below photos were taken along Chatham Road South .. just past my Union Mansion.
We have now turned off Chatham Road South.
Down and dirty just daily living in an ordinary building.
WOW!
WE HAVE REACHED THE OUTBOUND TERMINUS OF THE 5c BUS!
Outbound our destination was TSZ WAN SHAN (CENTRAL).
Turning around and heading back our destination on the 5c bus is now STAR FERRY.
I promise you the following:
On our return trip back to the Star Ferry Pier Bus Terminus I took far fewer photographs because I had already shot many of them coming outbound.
Captain Our Captain .. This is a program of honesty Captain. Just tell your followers to keep scrolling down and way at the bottom the truth shall emerge. You were busy photographing something other than the Hong Kong street scenes.
Back we go!
In case you didn't catch the other sign above .. the below sign is the second admonishment about drunk driving that I saw on our trip.
On the return trip back to the Star Ferry Bus Terminus I was distracted and much amused by my seat mates in the front seats to my right!
So I stopped photographing the street scenes and I turned my attention and photographic efforts onto my seat mates and I also began to visit with them as well!
This little one could NOT seem to take her eyes off me! Do you see her sister 'eyeing' me from afar?
See her older sister still 'eyeing' me? It was a challenge getting her to speak. Just look at her 'eyeing' me!
Finally big sister warmed up and over she came to join us. Will you all just look at Mom!
It looks like the little one has gotten sleepy directing all of her energy towards trying to figure out why I look so different.
Obviously I was talking to them in English. I was asking the older sister (Mom does not speak any English) questions such as .. "Do you go to school?" .. "Do you like school?" .. "Are you studying English?" .. "How old are you?" .. "How old is your little sister?" .. Big sister is 8 years old and little sister is 2 years old I think.
Here is the absolutely amazing kicker! During our extremely short conversation the older sister was actively picking up English words about as fast as I was speaking them!
Even the little one got into this act. THEY .. NOT me .. were humming .. Row Row Row Your Boat .. so I chimed in with the words. As the words fell off my tongue the little ones were picking them all up!
If I could read minds the older sister was thinking to herself ..
"Gee whatever he is saying is sure easy to pick up. I wonder if he has any clue about how hard it is for me to pick up this Mandarin language being thrust upon me by my parents and school teachers!"
I find it humbling to fully realize that there is a good chance that these children have NEVER interacted this closely with an elderly Caucasian western man.
In the below photo the YMCA is ahead on the right of the bus. We are only a few short blocks from the Star Ferry Pier in Kowloon. Our trip is over.
Call it a wrap Captain!
Captain you sure got in over your head again with this Post. You KNOW when you are burning up the camera shooting photographs like a madman that you will pay the price!
Smiles .. Cap
Hold on just a minute before you press Publish Captain ..
And NOW ?
THE REST OF THE STORY .. Rest in peace Mr. Paul Harvey! We miss you!
Below is a photo of Andy who is one of the active on-duty managers of the HOMY INN where I am currently staying.
As I was beginning this Post .. Andy came over to me and quietly looked over my left shoulder.
When Andy saw the photos of the 5c bus up at the beginning of the Post Andy brightened up and proudly said to me ..
"I live at the end of the 5c bus route in Tsz Wan Shan!"
I was touched by the obvious pride with which he uttered his pronouncement. Andy confirmed for me that .. Yes .. when he leaves the HOMY INN to go home for the night .. it is a one full hour ride. Andy often leaves after 10PM in the evening. I will bet you all that Andy enjoys the Road Show on the bus television set in the upper deck.
Patti Poo From Ooob La Do have fun proof reading this fun Post. Ready Or Not ! I am going to Publish it.
I'm in Hong Kong. I'm on the bus traveling the busy streets from here to there and back again. I'm overwhelmed by the enormity of Hong Kong's buildings and the beauty of so much of it. I'm glad you posted photos of the Not-So-Beautiful areas as well. Let's keep it real!!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed seeing the sisters and mother on the bus. I'm sure they enjoyed listening to your voice and peeking at your different appearance. As you wrote, they may never have been in such close proximity to an American and haven't heard on speaking.
I know what you mean about taking so many photos and then feeling as though they all should be included in your blog. Well, there's nothing wrong with being thorough. It just makes for work for us but who can we complain to about that!!??
Take care,
Shaddy
The problem with the number of photos I take is that many are duplicates with different lens settings and shutter speeds. So I have to be very careful to NOT print the same photo with differing light conditions. The sisters and their mother were priceless. Joy To You .. Cap in Hong Kong ..
DeleteEnjoyed the bus ride and the MANY photos. And, not one thing to correct or suggest in my proofreading! The children and the proud mom were priceless, and it was fun that you were able to relate to them with a song they could pick up. Second best to actually traveling with you is being able to travel with you on your posts! Fun trip!! Love and hugs. Patti
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing that we two did NOT do a round trip on one of the buses when you were here. This trip got the itch scratched and how. Much Love .. Cap .. I should have sung to them .. Froggy Went A Courting And He Did Ride Ah Hah ....
Delete