Ever hear the phrase, “That’s the best thing since sliced bread?”  It got me thinking.  Sliced bread has been with us for a relatively short period of time (it was ninety-eight years ago, in 1928, that the first mechanical breadslicer was invented by Otto Frederick Rohwedder), but that’s nothing compared to the first great inventions of the world, generally thought to be the wheel and the use of fire.  More than one species of humans have used fire to cook their food and warm up on a cold night in the Stone Age,  around two hundred to four hundred thousand years ago.  There’s evidence of the use of fire much earlier as well, but it’s the controlled use of fire that was the great leap forward.  Think of the early humans, Homo sapiens and the various subspecies, Homo sapiens idaltu (the “elder wise human”), Homo neanderthalensis (extinct now thirty thousand years) and Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, diverging from each other some five hundred thousand years ago, giving rise eventually to our first evidence for the common ancestor of all humans now on the planet some two hundred thousand years ago.  Somewhere in that time, these ancestors witnessed fire falling from the sky in the form of lightning, they saw it catch trees on fire, and they eventually learned how to keep the fire going, but not yet how to start it.  Then, in this distant past, one or more of these ancestors (because ideas never seem to arise from a single source), figured out how to create fire on the ground, using stones.  That must have seemed like a miracle then, probably sparking, too, the origins of the myth of Prometheus, stealing fire from the gods and bringing it to the Earth.

Over time, fire technology grew, with early humans placing stones around the fire to create a hearth, protecting the flames, until at last, the hearth fireplace was eventually born, a place around which we would one day all break our bread….  Of course, the next big invention after fire was the Wheel.  Some archaeologists say that the wheel was most likely invented in Mesopotamia, in what is now present-day Iraq, somewhere around 5,500 to 3,000 B.C., a little strangely for the purpose of making pottery.  Eventually, the new invention was applied to carts.  But, until then, they probably thought that this wheel business was the best invention since fire in a fireplace!

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We received our confirmation call at 7am telling us to be at our friends Hong Kong hotel lobby by 9am. We had a huge international buffet breakfast and then caught the MTR train to the Hong Kong hotel. Whilst waiting, we looked at the genuine named brand shops, like Chanel and Gucci. This hotel was spectacular, we thought after seeing our friends hotel, that we should book a room here too. The staff made us feel like royalty, just like all the other guests arriving in their Bentley’s and Rolls Royce’s.

Our friend met us and we went across to Hong Kong Central and caught the cable car to Victoria’s Peak, which has a spectacular view of the entire city and the harbour. We took the bus back down through a winding, hilly road to Stanley Market and we spent about an hour there. We had a good time checking out all the great sales. After that, we then went to the Aberdeen fishing village and took a ride on this very small Junk that had this very large boat driver. He sat in the same position the whole time. He took us around fishing boat villages, which were permanent homes for the fishermen, but the best part was watching them fish. The fishing homes seemed unsafe and a possible fire hazard, but they all seemed quiet content with their surroundings.

We went past the largest floating Chinese restaurant that seats 1500 people! We didn’t have reservations, so we couldn’t board the restaurant. It’s moored in the harbour, so you have to be transported to and from. It looks really great on the outside, Hong Kong was it’s backdrop and all kinds of fishing boats were moored alongside. After our harbour tour, we went to a jewellery factory and found some pretty good deals and some really amazing pieces of jewelry.

We came back to Kowloon through 2 tunnels, one was through a hill and the other was through the harbour. We actually ate at a McDonalds, and then went walking up Nathan Road. We saw so many sights, smells and sounds that we were almost overwhelmed. We had to bid our friend farewell, and head back to our hotel and take a power nap. Hong Kong is a city that never sleeps, so we wanted to get plenty of rest to later we can head out on the city and start to live it up.

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I forgot how European radio stations go from Enya, to Britney, to some Spanish song, to Enrique. I can’t decide if it’s the best mix or the worst. I leaning toward the latter. Being here in Ibiza, I’ve noticed the days lose themselves into one another. I’ve been experimenting with cooking recipes from a Moosewood cookbook. My daily meal is around 5, but it has sort of turned into a free for all, people decide to show or not, cook or not and with the small number of people here, it’s sometimes just a few of us around the table. You just gotta love Ibiza, there are no rules, well at least not where I’m staying anyways.

I missed dinner that other day, because Nacho and I went down to the beach. It was so beautiful and gorgeous, we floated in the water all day. All the best hotels Ibiza offers are right on the beach and cover the coast, which, as we walked along from beach to beach, we run into Germans, screaming Brits, and Spanish people. The two of us looked very out of place, because we had changed into our farming clothes. We volunteer at this co-op farm every Wednesday. This way, I get all my fresh greens for the week, plenty to cook with for who ever shows up.

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be leading three men for an hour of yoga. One of the new men, Bill, a builder from Scotland with tats all over his arm, is going through a midlife something, not quiet a crisis, so he’s enthusiastic about trying everything. I thought I’d sleep in, but he woke me up at 5am, all ready to do yoga! I told him his in Ibiza! Relax…stay sane. Ibiza man, it’s Ibiza. When it was time to run the guys through a yoga routine, I really made Bill sweat and ran him thorough a tough program. That worked, he was spent. I doubt he’ll be waking me up early ever again.

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