Keep it in the Family

3rd June

Today we flew from Guilin to Hong Kong.  We had been invited by my cousin Ruy Barretto and his wife Karen to stay with them whilst we were in Hong Kong and as we had never met them we hoped they would not regret their generosity!

Arriving at Hong Kong airport we did not know who we were looking for and although we noticed the man with the check shirt and the lady with the red hair we were not sure if it was them. Ruy said he saw a family resemblance and assumed we were who they were waiting for! So all was well. Hugs and kisses all round and the start of a wonderful visit to Hong Kong.

I actually saw two people smiling at what I thought were the people behind us but I was wrong it was Ruy and Karen! (T)

It was so good to meet them after all this time.  We had been in correspondence by email over the years as Ruys Grandmother and my Great Grandmother were sisters and Ruy has a huge amount of information on the family.

They drove us back to Tai Po where they live in a house that Ruys parents build 60 years ago.  They have a huge garden much of it wild jungle and consequently there is a lot of wild life.  "Don't go outside by yourselves and don't go out with bare feet!"

In reply to our wondering why not we were told that there are amongst other things 23 different sorts of snake that they have seen in the garden over the years plus various other wild animals. Recently Ruy has seen and photographed a large python!

Clearly we were going to do as we were told. "for once in your life" said Tone!

Large gins and a delicious supper followed plus a great deal of catching up with people in our families.  Over the time we were there we discovered that a boat that I had thought was in Shanghai and called Loiterer was actually in Hong Kong and called Lontra. (not sure of spelling)

This proved that Granny and Grandpa almost certainly spent some of their honeymoon in Hong Kong which we were not aware of till now.  I say this because in the series of photos we have including Granny and Grandpas honeymoon the boat is mentioned and they spent some time on her!

It is great to be here although I must say the thought of the big python will certainly keep me in my place for the next few days!