Hannah's Actual Birthday

To continue on from Stephen's previous blog (yes, this is Hannah - I've remembered how to blog!) I thought I'd share a few pics from my actual birthday.

Last year I finally got myself organised enough to apply for Chartered Professional Review with the Institute of Civil Engineers. I'd done a lot of the hard work back when I was in the Leeds office and 'just' needed to sit the actual review. I submitted my reports (after much writing and re-writing) in August and went for the actual review in September (a one hour grilling / interview, followed by an essay in exam conditions) and then awaited my fate.

Results day was a Friday in December, the very same day Mr Greene was coming to the UK for a week for work. I went to pick him up from the airport (yes, I remembered how to drive when I was back home!) and while I was waiting I thought I'd check my email... lo and behold I got a very nice email telling me I'd passed, just as he came through arrivals , awesome!

This email also said that the presentation ceremony for certificates would be on the 16th January, my birthday! If I was in the UK I'm not sure I'd have bothered to go, it would have meant a day off work and a trip to London. This was an evening bash and only on the other side of the harbour, the invitation also mentioned free drinks, which may have influenced my decision.

Anyway, I roped Stephen into coming to hang out with a bunch of engineers for the evening (he loved it...) and went to collect my certificate from the president.

Bit of 'fun time' on the stage, standard.

The event was held in a posh Japanese hotel, this panel in the toilet was quite interesting!?

Woo, I did it! When / if we buy a house I'm framing it and putting it in the toilet....

We walked along the waterfront to get the Star Ferry back to the island, I couldn't resist an obligatory picture with the skyline.

Got home and Mr Greene had got me some balloons and presents :-) 

And SIFT CAKES! Yums. (The best cupcakes in HK).

And that was that! A random but fun birthday and I'm pretty chuffed to have the letters CEng MICE after my name (not that I actually ever use them but you know, nice to know I can!). I'm having a year off this year, next year I'll work on becoming a MIStructE... then should I manage to pass that (might take several attempts...) that's me done with exams for a long time!

Hannah's Birthday weekend

Hannah recently celebrated her 21st birthday in Hong Kong and we had a Saturday of fun to mark the occasion.  Michael (my brother) had very kindly bought us Ocean Park tickets as a Christmas present, so we decided to head there for the day.  The Saturday in question was a risk because of the "cold weather warning" that was in place for Hong Kong.  Usually this means that temperatures are due to drop below 13 degrees centigrade (I know, freezing.....) but on this Saturday it turned out the warning actually meant it was going to be 20 degrees and sunny.   No surprise that we did not feel particularly chilly.
Ocean Park is a theme park, panda park and aquarium all in one on Hong Kong Island.  It also had great views as it is situated up on the hills.  We had a great day out with friends - arriving like all good theme parkers just as it opened and making our way round all the rides and attractions.  Think Hannah's personal favourite were the pandas - we are still hoping to see these in something a bit closer to their natural habitat in Chengdu one day, but hopefully this will be the subject of another blog if we make it!

Hannah and I showing off our roller coaster skills

I should have bought this hat

Panda!

Panda (same one but closer!)

Not a bad view for a theme park

In the evening we met some more friends for some drinks in an area on the island called Tin Hau.  It's an area that seems to have more bars and restaurants being added to it over the past few months - one of the things you really notice in Hong Kong is both how quickly places to eat/drink open and close, but also how there seems to be certain areas in which there are suddenly lots of new places.

Buddy Bar

The we headed to what must be the smallest curry restaurant I have ever been to!  We thought our friends were joking when they said it may be a struggle to add two more people to our table, but given the restaurant only held 14 people in total, 2 more was quite an increase.  The restaurant was called Chor Bazare and was another excellent Indian restaurant in Hong Kong - we definitely plan to visit again.  Hannah seemed to enjoy her birthday cake, even if we could not quite fit 21 candles for her to blow out and make a wish.  With that (and maybe another drink or two afterwards) we ended and very good birthday celebration day!