Lee was laid up this morning with a nasty cold so I went with my friend Nancy on an adventure to the British Consulate at the Kaohsiung harbor. Back a month or two ago Lee and I took the subway (MRT) to its western terminus and walked to the consulate and that's the path Nancy I retraced. It was a beautiful morning, cloudless with temps in the low 70's, flawed only by the smog hanging over the city.

Along the way we passed a lovely little courtyard with some amazing mosaic artwork.

As I may have mentioned earlier, the British Consulate hasn't been a consulate for over a hundred years and was in complete disrepair until the 1980's. It's now a must-see stop for the many mainland Chinese tour buses that come through town. And for good reason. Sitting on top of a knoll at the entrance to the harbor, it has wonderful views of downtown Kaohsiung, Cijin Island, Sizihwan Beach and the South China Sea.

At the base of the knoll is the former residence for the British Consulate. It has a nice little English garden:

a restaurant and life-like statues of people frozen in time circa 1890:

In this picture the women are real and the men are statures.

Nancy and I found a good spot for a selfie, of sorts, on our way back to the MRT:

That's me on the left and Nancy on the right.

This evening Nancy is cooking for us and a couple of other friends - chicken and dumplings - yum!