After visiting The Peak this morning I went to the bus station to get a bus to Stanley. 
At the bus station I saw hundreds of young women queuing up for buses. The night before I had seen hundreds of such women sitting outside in the evening playing cards and having a picnic. I couldn’t work out who or what they were. (Video here)
In the queue I asked a girl behind me why there were so many like her in the queue and in the city generally. She explained that they were all Filipino domestic workers and it was a public holiday so they were all meeting up and doing things like going to Repluse Bay and having picnics. She asked me to join her and her friends.
Her name was Emiline and she worked for a Japanese woman and Austrian man. Her mother works for a Japanese family in Japan and her husband works as a civil engineer in the Filipinnes. Her two children are looked after by her sister-in-law. I didn’t ask her how often she saw them incase she started crying! She said she got paid 350 pounds a month and sends money home. She was very happy with her employers as they treat her well.
She insisted on calling me Ma’am even though I tol dher my name. It made me feel like an old colonial! Emaline and her friends and I got off at Repulse Bay where we sat on the sand under a tree and they fed me Filipino food. After a short time the group next to us asked me to join them too. They were domestic workers from Indonesia and they fed my Indonesian food. After a few photo calls I was off on the bus again to Stanley saying goodbye to my new friends.
I feel like I’m on holiday!