Myth or fact: the glass-walled bathroom?

"ah hello Mr Bradley"
"let me get those bags for you, Mr Bradley"
"did you arrive early, Mr Bradley?"

We're met halfway up the escalator to the lobby of our serviced apartment building by Hong Kong's answer to the Chuckle Brothers and are essentially herded into the lift up to reception, then back into the lift and up to the 52nd floor where our apartment is, when all I wanted to do was get out of my travelling clothes (which were somewhat foosty by now, having heffed a large suitcase and a guitar from the airport) and go to sleep! It felt very much like my brain kept needling at me: "it's 1:30am (in UK time) - you're knackered, oooh look at that king-size bed, mmmm...." Ricky was very keen to show us the 50th floor (complete with gymnasium, lounge, laundry, conference room and reading area) but one look at my face told him that wasn't going to be happening soon; I think his words were "maybe when you're 'refreshed', just come and find me".

Sitting on the bed and casting my eyes around the 'apartment' (essentially a hotel room with mini-kitchen included - silly me for thinking it would have actual separate rooms!) my first thought was, hmm - there's nowhere for Simon to sleep when he arrives in 2 weeks' time; my second thought was sweet Lord! There is a pane of glass where there should be a wall. I like walls: they protect one's dignity, they are soundproof (on the whole) and they serve the purpose of distinguishing one room from another. They should not be replaced with glass! Unless this was some random Hong Kong custom of bringing Colin and I closer together - but I'm sorry, there's being close to your chap, and then there's a whole other world of closeness into which I don't think I need to venture. (See pictures if you're not sure what I'm blethering on about)


So there you have it. The stuff of what I thought was legend (i.e. just on some crazy real estate agent's website that I found some months ago) is alive and well in the newest building in Hong Kong. Maybe it's something to do with the 'flow of energy' or the feng shui in the room - I have no clue. All I will say is I am mightily grateful to the inventor of the venetian blind; if I can't have a wall, at least the little wooden slats are there to save my blushes (I am British, you know).

PS Not much else happened during the rest of our first day: we slept, went out for some dinner in the mall below our apartments, came back, slept. Talk about 24-hour party people...!

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Day two in the Special Administrative Region of HK

Ok, Hong Kong - get ready. I'm here and coming to see what you have to offer. Or at least that was the plan. The reality was that we sampled the facilities (very nice gym - good bit of running accomplished) and then after lunch managed to get to the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) (the HK version of the Underground) and purchase ourselves a couple of Octopus cards.

Now don't be confused and think that these are the same as your piffly Oyster cards in London. Oh no. Octopus cards can do all the things Oyster cards do and then some! So you load them up with 'value' and you can travel on all types of transport (MTR, bus, tram, ferry, hydrofoil) as you do with an Oyster (oh except that you can't use Oyster on boats) but you can also use your Octopus just about everywhere else! No change for your newspaper this morning? No problem - just beep your Octopus. Meant to go to the ATM before ordering your Big Mac? It's ok - the Octopus has it covered. Left your wallet at home when you're meant to be taking the kids ice-skating? You've guessed it - Octopus will save your proverbial bacon. It's amazing - Colin even uses it as his ID card for his work building - there is nothing this card cannot do!

Right, so before you start thinking that I've had to take a job on the Octopus Promotion Committee to make ends meet, we did actually use the card to get the MTR down to Central, (essentially the main business/shopping hub on the island; one stop south from where we are at Kowloon - which is the bit attached to the Chinese mainland) where we had a wander around another one of their massive shopping malls and checked out the International Finance Centre (tallest building on the island) where Colin will be presiding over his team of newbies from Wednesday (picture left in case you're wondering why I've included an image of a giant electric shaver).

Encased in acres of glass and shiny marble is the usual assortment of Gucci, Tiffany, Fendi and Donna Karan plus good ol' Starbucks and even a Pret a Manger to make us feel at home, but surprisingly, our search for noodles was not so easily rewarded. There's Japanese, Italian, American Grill, French, Malaysian, Vietnamese and Thai meaning after not very long I was somewhat bored with the 'hunt the noodles' game when we happened upon a place called Tasty. Brilliant. Wonton me up, good man!

We also discovered a strange phenomenon known as the 'foreign food supermarket' - a place which essentially sells nothing but stuff they have imported. You would not believe the produce they have in here - most of it from the USA where everything's high in fat, low in taste and has bright yellow packaging! I have to confess I did get quite excited to find they had Marmite though - I'm a sucker for the weird brown goo; the fact that it cost five whole english pounds had Colin reeling and I now have to ration it for special occasions...

Apparently one of those things you just have to do when you come here for the first time, is ride on the Star Ferry across the harbour, so not wanting to buck tradition and lose the tourist book companies loads of money by refusing to 'get on board', we dutifully made our way to Star Ferry pier number 7 and took our seats on board. I came over all 'super-touristy' and took quite a few pictures, but you'll be pleased to know I've spared you and only included a couple here. I think I'll wait till it's a really gorgeous sunny day and take some more for your enjoyment (and jealousy of course!) The second picture is actually what the ferries look like - not half as super high tech as you'd expect from somewhere like Hong Kong, hey?

The boat took us to Tsim Sha Tsui from which we lugged my Marmite back to the apartment which is NOT a good idea in 85% humidity! Not sure there's an easy way to convey just how melt-inducingly-hot it is here and why being outside is not generally something you should spend a lot of time doing, but I think I'll save that for another day's post. Bet you cannot wait.

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And so to Honkers...

[Written on the plane en route from London to Hong Kong]

Well chaps, I’ve learnt one thing in the last three weeks: being a lady of leisure ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.

While you all no doubt thought I was lounging around staying in bed until at least midday, having long walks in the park, perhaps partaking in a few games of bridge with the other ladies what lunch in Clapham, I was in fact running around like a blue-arsed fly.

Who knew that two people could accumulate so much junk that the task of sorting through it to determine what to send on the shipping container, what to pack in suitcases and, most importantly, what to donate to our good friends the landfill sites, would be such a nightmare?

Then there was the actual packing, the clearing, the giving away to charity (and special friends who would appreciate the rubbish that we didn’t want), the cleaning of the whole flat, the gardening (oh yes, that was in the contract too), the attempting to sell the car…be warned people: start getting rid of stuff way, way in advance of your moving date. Or better still; don’t hoard in the first place!

Now obviously the primary purpose of the ramblings so far has been to elicit some sort of sympathy, so you can share my pain and understand that while you’ve all probably been wistfully thinking about how much fun not working would be, when you’re preparing to emigrate – it’s not fun! (Though if the Hong Kong government should happen to call, it’s only Colin that’s emigrating – I’m just “visiting”.)

However, the other significant reason for sharing, is that finally, today, I have no more errands to run, no more packing to do and certainly no more weeds to pull up. Today, I’m free! And I can finally start to get excited about the adventure ahead – bring it on.

We’ve now been in the air for about six hours and I thought it would be a good time to put pen to paper (or in this case, fingers to keyboard) to document some thoughts. So far, I’ve watched two films, eaten a sumptuous lunch of prosciutto & salami with tomato salad, feta and kalamata olives followed by grilled tenderloin of beef with herb roasted potatoes and veg, I’ve had a little nap on my fully flat 6ft 4” bed and I’ve played repeatedly with the seat adjustments (especially the massage function).

As I think about indulging in a light snack, it’s now beginning to dawn on me that we’re off to Hong Kong – meaning not only am I speeding towards a country I’ve never set foot in, I’ve never even been close to the continent in which it’s located. Oh, bugger…

As you can imagine, there is a huge amount of anticipation brewing based on the fact that this isn’t just a little sojourn to check out a former colony and get some authentic dim sum – what if Colin has to work all the hours God sends and I’m stuck at home reminiscing on the days of yore when we used to go out for dinner and drinks? What if I can’t make a career out of writing and end up back in an office doing a job that bores me to tears?

And most importantly, what if everyone who said they’d come and visit suddenly realises they can’t afford it/haven’t got enough holiday/would rather go skiing and I lose touch with life back in the GMT timezone??

The flipside of all this of course, is that I’m incredibly lucky to be able to live in another country and try doing what I enjoy for a living without the pressure of needing to actually earn a decent salary from it. From that standpoint, I can’t wait to get there and get started, especially as the general reaction has been “Wow! My sister/ex-flatmate/mother-in-law’s second cousin’s second husband lives/lived in Hong Kong – and they loved it! It’s amazing.” Just to experience another culture is going to be pretty cool – particularly one that’s not too similar to the one I’ve grown up in. I might even end up learning Cantonese – you never know!

So, the immediate plan is to pick up our priority-tagged luggage whilst looking smugly at the cattle class plebs and then get the ‘tube’ to Kowloon station where our serviced apartment awaits just across the road.

Then we have an orientation tour planned for Tuesday, Colin starts work on Wednesday and I have to get stuck iinto the serious business of finding us a flat and locating the shopping district of course!

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