The Gold Coast - 'Where the Livin is Easy'

Looking back from the Golden Beach towards the concrete towers of Gold Coast Residences

At last I have replaced the camera that was stolen over Christmas and with the glorious weather over the weekend there was no excuse to delay trying it out. I decided to walk along the Gold Coast beach to the town of Tuen Mun about a couple miles west of where I live. The golden sandy beach stretched out before me and the water wasn't as cold as thought it might be, well at least for paddling it wasn't, swimming would be a different proposition. The weather was warm enough for sun bathing although I don't think the Chinese like to stay in the sun and they share the Thai pre-occupation for turning white. But there was plenty of activity and families with small children enjoying building sand castles and frolicking in the zone where the waves break on the beach. I imagine the beach will be crowded in a few weeks time when the weather really picks up.

I wandered around and eventually found a small pier with a sign that informed the reader that fishing was banned. Needless to say there were about ten people trying their luck for a fresh fish supper. Nobody caught anything whilst I watched for twenty minutes or so.

Hopelessly optimistic - but it passes an hour or two

Walking around a small bay I came across the fish market although it was the wrong end of the day to see it in full flow. In Chinese fish markets the fish are kept alive and are only killed when they are sold. This guarantees freshness but they have to swim in confined tanks for a few hours. In some of the very local markets you see filleted fish with the heart of the fish still beating which I presume continues to pump a little blood around its body. It is hard for me to have any feelings one way or the other. I can only guess the fish are less than delighted about their fate, but this has been going on for centuries so who am I to criticise. There will be things we do in the west that just as debatable to the eastern cultures. Anyway it is still interesting to see the different varieties of fish and shell fish and octopus.

Snails

Behind the market is a fence that has been half pulled down by people wanting to go through onto a very long pier that looked as though it was going somewhere, but I couldn't see where. That morsel of curiosity was enough for me to go through and walk to the end. It was very untidy and littered with all sorts of rubbish, and signs warning that rat bait had been set, but the boats moored up either side were great photo opportunities. I expected to find a body disposed by some gang in a revenge attack over a shady deal that went wrong, but all I did find was more hopeful fishermen with more patience than fish to eat.

I walked back along the Golden Beach and returned home just as the sun was setting.

View from the front room

Over the weekend I received the sad news that a distant friend had died whilst climbing in the English Lake District. He was a very modest, quiet and friendly person. The type of person it was easy to get along with. He was an excellent climber and one I looked at in awe of what he could do. But I will always remember meeting him at Dove Stones in Saddleworth whilst I was running and he was walking. We chatted for ages about this and that but mainly that he just retired from teaching because he was disillusioned about the system. A bit of the rebel was inside him, he was swimming against the flow. Most of my friends are like this and so am I. So it is real shock when news like this filters through. It is very close to home.

His death is untimely of course but it is a reminder that life is short and unpredictable. You have to go with your instinct because you just don't know. One second everything is ok, the next one it isn't.