Sponsored walk @ Happy Valley

Saturday week ago we went on a sponsored 1.4KM walk round the inner circuit at Happy Valley. Does not sound like a long way, but considering until recently Archie would not walk more than 100ft without asking to be picked up or to go in his pushchair, getting him round it non-stop was quite an achievement. And it was 35 degrees (something like that).

We raised £50 or so for charity. So will be asking for money from you when we see you at Xmas.

Happy Valley race course is a great place -- *ahem* it's in a valley -- with (as you can see) massive residential tower blocks built all around the periphery --- you feel like you're in a bowl.

We were walking on the grass bare footed (got told off for walking on the hallowed turf) -- it felt v. luxurious - then I realised that I'd actually not walked bare foot on grass (or much grass at all in fact!) since leaving England in July.

Tonight is race night (Wednesdays) --- coming home in a taxi, I drove past it on a road about the height of the top of the skyscrapers. Looking down from above, the race course was lit up like a spaceship -- wish I'd had my camera with me. The floodlights must shine right into the living rooms of the apartments nearby -- bet they don't need to turn on their lights on Wednesday evenings.

Here's Wiki on the history of Happy Valley:

"In early 1840, the British Army had set a military camp in the area formerly known as Wong Nai Chung Valley. However, the camp was later closed due to the increasing number of soldiers succumbing to malaria. The cause of malaria was unknown at the time and the soldiers apparently suffered a then-unknown fever. Early settlers had suggested the area to be used as a business centre, but the suggestion was put off due to the valley's marshy environment, which was causing fatal diseases. The death rate in the area and Victoria City was high in the early colonial days, and thus the valley became a burial ground for the dead. As a result, the valley was renamed as Happy Valley, a common euphemism for cemeteries. In 1846, the British felt that the valleyed terrain was ideal for horse-racing, and thus cleared the paddy fields and developed the Happy Valley Racecourse."

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