You win some and you lose some

Sorry it's been quiet for a few days.  Tuesday I did nothing worth blogging about.  Just cleaned my house and did errands and stuff.  I could have taken before and after pictures, but didn't think of it until I got to "after" and I don't want you all seeing how messy I let my room get anyway.  It wasn't quite as bad as the scene where Elsa ransacks Indy's room, but it was close. 

Yesterday I did some fun stuff, so I will catch you up.  In the morning, I finished some cleaning and errands and then began grocery shopping because I had invited Carol and Karen over for dinner before Carol leaves on a trip to Germany.  I was hoping to find the groceries I needed at some of the Western-friendly grocery stores in Macau, and while I was walking from one to another, I saw a ghost.  Or what looked like one anyway.

Those of you who remember my parents' dog "Woof" will realize why I stopped in my tracks when I saw this one.  Upon closer inspection, this dog's hair was not quite as curly as Woof's, so it didn't have the little ear tendrils that Woof did.  Other than that it was the spitting image.  Crazy.  Especially since Woof was a mix of several different breeds of dog.

No one in Macau peninsula buys beef roast it seems (probably because no one has an oven), so I ended up taking the bus to Taipa and I fulfilled my quest at the big Park-N-Shop there.  After getting the food, I stopped and picked up a mahjong set in Senado Square before I came home and started cooking.  (If you've never played the real game, it's much more complicated than the computer solitaire version.)

I made a beef roast the Houdek way, mashed potatoes the Gunther way, gravy the SF Chronicle way, asparagus the man way (according to my new cookbook for men), and mojitos the Reader's Digest way.  It all turned out pretty well, and Beth made cornbread muffins to go with it, and then Karen brought the tasty little dough balls in the upper left for dessert.  They were fried with red bean inside and sugar outside. 

After dinner, Karen and Carol began explaining all the rules of mahjong to us.  It's complicated, but fun.  Similar to gin rummy in many regards, as Beth pointed out.  I love gin rummy, so I think I'll do alright as soon as I get the rules down and familiarize myself with all the symbols.  I got a smallish set for cost and weight/size purposes, but it makes the tiles a little hard to see.   As it was, I was the only person who didn't win.  Karen won the most by far though, so we'll have to work toward revenge.

The time flew by and after a few rounds we decided to have another round of dessert - coffee Bailey's over ice cream.  Yum!  Even our attempts to win by giving Karen alcohol failed and after beating us several more times she finally called it a night.  By the time they left it was after 1am, which is why I didn't blog.

Today Beth decided we needed an adventure, so we set out at the crack of noon and hiked the Big Taipa Trail.  It was lovely and wound around a big hill in the middle of Taipa island so we could see  panoramic views in every direction.  I took many videos and pictures to share with you, but unfortunately my camera went missing (I'm pretty sure it was stolen) later in the day, so you will have to wait until I can go back and do it again.

The theft took place at an expat coffee shop we really like and we had stopped there after our hike for a snack.  I know I had it there because I took a picture of what we were eating.  Afterwards we went straight to the bus, and it was on the bus ride that I noticed it was gone.  So although it seems almost impossible to believe that someone took it out of my bag while we were sitting in the cafe, I can't think of another logical solution.  It's hard to believe, both because Macau is generally so safe and because the only people near us was a family with little kids and they didn't seem the criminal type.  So halfway to Coloane I realized the problem and so then we took the bus all the way back to the cafe to talk to the staff, but no luck.  Anyway, RIP, little camera.  You did a great job and I plan to go out and buy the latest edition of your family ASAP.  

After the long, nauseating bus ride and the bad news, Beth suggested we do something pleasant.  So we decided to walk around near the cameos which are adjacent to Old Taipa Village.

Here are a couple of videos of the area near the cameos, which are what we call these historic buildings.  Aren't they pretty?

We looked around a bit and then went inside to see what was in the museums.

This was supposed to be an example of Portuguese folk dress and was displayed inside one of the cameos.  There was no description of the guy who looks like a haystack, so we were left to speculate his role on our own.

We think he may have been in cahoots with this guy, who was supposed to be a warrior.  I guess his skirt and flowered hat should have tipped us off.  Our theory is that the opposing force would have been so confused about the outfit above that they wouldn't notice the haystack men sneaking up from behind out of the fields.

Aren't these gardens beautiful?

As we left they turned on the Christmas lights.  Nice!

Afterwards Beth suggested we go to Old Taipa Tavern for dinner and she bought me a drink as a consolation for my loss.  We toasted my camera's good work over daiquiris and the fish and chips.  It was delicious, as always.

When we got home I made another batch of fudge and then Jaja stopped by.  She'd asked me if she could come by with a few friends to do caroling as a fundraiser for relief for the flooding in the Philippines.  She and her husband and friend stopped by, all dressed in red with Santa hats and a guitar and sang a nice little medley of Christmas songs.  They were quite good and it was really fun.  Afterwards I brought out some Christmas cookies and we chatted for a little bit before they had to move on to the next house.  It was very nice.  Then Beth and I settled in for yet another installment of HP.  We're up to number four now and her blanket is coming along nicely.  No plans for tomorrow yet, except cleaning my bathroom, so I'll try to come up with something blog-worthy...