Saint Sarah strikes again

I know this is something that is very close to the heart of Pies, so naturally I felt it my duty to post a related entry, particularly because I'm not sure how much coverage it's getting in the UK.

Apologies if you feel like I'm labouring the point after posting along similar lines last week, but in the aftermath of recent interviews, I have to ask: how can we this close to Sarah Palin being a 72-year-old man's heartbeat away from the Presidency of the United States??! (I'm sure someone else used this line recently, but I couldn't think of a better way to put it in an original sentence!)

I think the woman manages perfectly well on her own in eliminating any shred of confidence you might have had heretofore (love that word!) in her, but here are a couple of my favourite moments:

The repeating of "My understanding is that Rick Davis recused himself from the dealings in that firm..." (i.e. I don't really understand the word 'recuse' so I can't paraphrase this sentence when questioned further.)

"I'll...try to find some and I'll bring 'em to ya!" (Mayday! Mayday! We are going down...)

The whole section over why she didn't get a passport until she was 43 - because you've been "working all your life"?? Oh, puh-lease...

In answer to the question: how does Alaska's proximity to Russia form part of your foreign policy experience: "Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land boundary that we have with, uh, Canada" and "our next-door neighbours are foreign countries." (Well, somebody's dusted off the globe they got from John last Christmas, at least...and thanks for the explanatory hand gestures to back up your answer.)

The way she has to namedrop John McCain every minute and a half with the same reverance most people reserve for Jesus. Does she think she'll get kicked off the ticket if she doesn't?


Interview day two: http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=_WkCZV83Cp8

I haven't seen much of Joe Biden so far, but I cannot wait for Thursday's Veep debate - I'm sure there'll be an abundance of new material for another posting or two, so look out!

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PS In other news...

The man who is being largely credited with arranging the Lehman Brothers takeover last week, Nomura COO Takumi Shibata, has revealed his "back-of-an-envelope plans" have paid off with the declaration: "Japan is back."

He seems like a pretty decent chap; I'm interested to see how things will unfold here.

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Politeness: maybe it just doesn't translate?

Here's an additonal word of the day for you: po·lite -adjective : behaving in a way that is socially correct and shows awareness of and caring for other people's feelings

So while out today, going about my business (which aujourd'hui included some food shopping, a little Starbucks sit-down and finally sending off my slaved-over, blood, sweat and tears-stained assingment for my writing course), something quite astonishing happened.

You kow how it is when you're about to push open a door and someone on the other side pulls it open an instant before andyou nearly walk headlong into each other? Well, such a situation befell me this afternoon at the local mal, and the man whom I now faced STOOD ASIDE AND MOTIONED ME THROUGH THE DOORWAY................... (The dramatics are to give you an impression of my subsequent dumbfoundedness.) I think I sputtered out a thank you before stumbling away.

I'll have to investigate this further to see if I can discover any specific origins, but on the face of it, it does seem that courtesy for your fellow man (or woman, of course) just doesn't exist here in Honkers.

Now I may have the rose-tinted glasses of reminiscence on seeing as I've now been a (secret) resident of this Special Administrative Region for 114 days, but I can definitely remember a number of incidents in the UK, where people (not just chaps) would be demonstrably considerate of others, like checking behind them and holding the door open for you if you were approaching. Such is the habit, when I pass through a door here I still have a quick glance over my shoulder and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry a few weeks ago, when I held the door for a woman with a buggy and she seemed so shocked that she was overwhelmed with gratitude.

So far, the inconsiderate occurences I have noticed range from the afore-mentioned oblivion when passing through a self-closing door; to pushing past you to get out of a lift that split-second ahead; to the lack of apology if they barge into you either on the street/on the MTR travelator/on the bus, etc.. Now, considering the amount of people crammed into Hong Kong - read Oxford Street at the peak of Christmas shopping - I'm not suggesting on-bended-knee-how-can-i-ever-make-amends-for-the-terrible-wrong-I-have-wrought-upon-you type apologies every time someone brushes your arm, but for the more serious you've-probably-left-a-bruise category of 'barge', a simple 'sorry' would be nice.

My favourite show of impoliteness thus far, chiefly due to its utter futility, is the 'not waiting for you to exit a tube train at the end of the line, and shoving past/into you to get onto a train that isn't departing for another seven minutes'. Where's the fire, people???! I've done my fair share of shoving onto the Underground in rush-hour, when you're in danger of not getting on before it leaves, but seven minutes is ample!

Naturally, I'm don't expect anyone to take it to extremes - I'd rather there wasn't any dragon-slaying in my honour or anything like that, though perhaps a little poetry-composing and harp-playing wouldn't go amiss... It just seems right that we should try and be courteous wherever possible. OK, sermon over; you may go about your business.

picture source: http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2007/specials/sag07/startracks/ashton_kutcher.jpg (yeah I know, any excuse to show a picture of Ashton Kutcher; though I will be having words with him over his choice of footwear to an awards ceremony...)

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"There's a boy who works at Starbucks..."

Happy Friday, people!

Bit of a lazy posting today I admit, but I have things to do! People to see, places to go - you know how it is; can't just sit around writing things purely for your amusement. And in all honesty chaps, I need to get out and see some stuff so that I have 'events/attractions/happenings' to tell you about, otherwise I'll just have to continue on in the same vein with me sharing my thoughts. Much as you love me, I think eventually you'll tire of my musings on the weather...

Should you be familiar with musical theatre at all (and some of you most definitely are!), you'll know exactly who Kristen Chenoweth is. In a nutshell, if you know the musical Wicked, Kristen was the one who isn't green, i.e. she was the original Glinda the Good Witch on Broadway.

I came across this clip on youtube some time ago and it makes me laugh. Partly because it's about a boy who works in my favourite coffee house, and partly because she performs it so well. A little bit of fun for a Friday that I hope you enjoy.

Taylor, the Latte Boy

Enjoy your weekends!

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"Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high..."

With yet another imminent typhoon sending those trusty flag-hoisters scrambling for their no. 8 signals (clearly flag-hoisting is becoming a much more stable occupation for the young-uns to enter into than say, financial services; at least if you live in the South Pacific anyway), I've been wondering what exactly causes these crazy and somewhat frequent weather phenomena.

Obviously, if you're a lot more knowledgeable on such a subject than I, feel free to click onto The Economist or Sky Showbiz without further ado. Equally, if you have no interest whatsoever in typhoons and the like, you may also leave. The curse of the blog reader seems to be that the writer always assumes people will be interested in their subjects, no matter how self-indulgent or trivial they are!

Apparently influenced by the Cantonese word tah fung, which literally means 'striking wind', a Pacific typhoon is a tropical cyclone specific to the basin in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, home to the strongest cyclones on record.

So, having read several descriptions of how these babies come about, I'll try and de-science them here (because believe me, it gets a bit like school otherwise): Areas of low atmospheric pressure which are close to the earth's surface tend to produce thunderstorms and strong winds anyway. These areas then feed off of, and are driven by the heat given off when moist air rises and results in condensation. The reason typhoons happen over Hong Kong and the surrounding areas is that you need heat from the sun in the first place to make the moist air rise and evaporate. Presumably why there haven't been too many typhoons recorded in the English Channel...

It's then kind of a catch-22 system - the condensation means the wind speed increases, which, along with the low pressure, leads to more of the water's surface evaporating, and so even more condensation is produced. And then we start all over again.

Tropical cyclones (a.k.a. our friends the typhoons) only happen over water for this reason; they need the moisture from constantly warm water to keep the process going. If it hits land, it fizzles out pretty quickly.

As you can imagine, there's a lot more to the science than this, but I just wanted to share what I'd discovered. I need to be careful though; it seems that the more weather elements I experience out here, the more weather-obsessed I become! See what happens when you don't have a full-time job...

picture source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hurricane_Kate_(2003)-_Good_pic.jpg (apologies that the picture isn't an authentic Asian typhoon, I have limited resources and hopefully you get the gist!)

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And from out of the wilderness field, there came Nomura

Finally. Some good news. The nine days of uncertainty, limbo and up in the air-ness are seemingly over.

I'm not sure how widely reported this is in the UK - even Bloomberg TV over here seems to be determined to report only on the fact that Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have succumbed and are no longer 'pure' investment banks and not much else - so I feel it my duty to bring you the next, and somewhat happier, chapter in the story known as 'The Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.'

Made official by a press release, Nomura Holdings, Inc. has bought the Asia-Pacific operations of Lehman (which include equity trading and investment banking) for an as yet undisclosed fee.

Most significantly, this takeover includes the retention of all Lehman Asia's employees (around 3,000 people) and they will all be offered employment contracts with Nomura. In layman's terms (pun intended), that means Pies and pals can breathe a lot easier with the knowledge that they will not only get paid this week, but will also have a job beyond the end of the month.

Of course, new owners could mean new rules. It's not yet known if salaries and terms etc. will stay the same, but hallelujah! It at least gives the guys some breathing space to decide what they want to do without being unemployed in the very near future.

ps if the title of this post seems somewhat cryptic, it's because Nomura (埜村) in Japanese means wilderness field, or field village - but that didn't work so well in this context!

picture source (Happiness in Japanese): http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/1537/happiness_20_28japanese_29.jpg

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Be afraid. Be very afraid.

First off, apologies if this entry has the vague markings of a rant, but when all you are bombarded with via the wonderful medium of television is almost 100% American, there comes a point where you want and need to get things off your chest.

As you'll know from a previous post, I currently don't have access to any non-financial news channels aside from Fox News which claims repeatedly to be "fair and balanced", ergo not supporting one or the other of the presidential candidates (or their 'Veeps' for that matter - yes, folks, even V, P is too polysyllabic for those Yanks). I hope for the good of all that is sensible in the world that the US election isn't getting the same volume of coverage in the UK, but even that wouldn't be so bad if I could be given a cast-iron guarantee (from Mr. Big Fox himself) that I will NEVER HAVE TO SEE ANOTHER STORY ABOUT HOW ABSOLUTELY APPALLING IT IS TO BE ATTACKING [SAINT] SARAH PALIN! (Sorry about the shouting.)

What is the matter with people?? Why are they suddenly so collectively in love with this woman because she has a 'normal' family? Quite frankly, if I'd called my children (hypothetically of course; I haven't surpassed all medical miracles and had not one, but multiple secret children in the last four months) Track, Trig and Bristol, I would expect most of my family and friends to question my fundamental 'normality'! (On a separate note, old moose-hunter clearly hasn't come across the Cockney-rhyming slang phrase 'Bristol City', or she might have considered alternative crazy names for her eldest daughter...)

As for the indignant shock demonstrated by many over the suggestions that Palin's five-month-old son is actually her daughter's, isn't this just the age-old dance played out between politics and the media? Surely when you agree to jump on the 'all-aboard for the White House' bandwagon, you should expect every journalist and his team of researchers to attempt to dig up and grab hold of anything that might a) help sell some papers/magazines, and b) cast doubt over your credentials. It's certainly not the first time the media has speculated over something that isn't actually true. From a very cynical point of view, I would have thought it's the media's job to uncover anything that the electorate can use when considering where to place their vote.

And when it comes to St. Palin of Alaska, there is much to be worried about, but for some reason all the majority of Americans seem to be concerned with is that she is a) a woman, b) not too displeasing to the eye, c) a wife/mother who also has a job - therefore she must be just like everyone else. Hmmm...she seems to be a tiny little bit better off than 'everyone else', but that's just my opinion.

I don't want to get into her credentials - as I'm sure you can research them for yourself and it's a bit of a dull subject - but next time you see her on TV, ponder over this for a second: exactly how maddeningly irksome is the woman's voice???!

picture source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitzcelt/715565362/

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My brain hurts

Just a short episode of musing today methinks, in part due to the fact that it's still all a bit doom and gloom here because nothing is actually happening; the other part being me not wanting to bore you to tears with more of this tedious credit crisis, the world is ending stuff.

So on a lighter note, I've been trying to press on with my writing course with renewed gusto. If I haven't already told you the story, I bought this comprehensive writing course (if I'm truly honest) way back at the end of 2003, the idea behind it being I could possibly make some money on the side of my day job doing something I actually enjoy - much as it pains me to say it, I didn't spend most of my carefree childhood days telling everyone that "I want to be a recruiter when I grow up."

As the 'comprehensive' in the title suggests, the course moves through various different genres of writing, teaching you about non-fiction articles, women's/men's magazines, local newspapers, through to how to develop the plot/characters/settings of your first novel from and onwards to writing for TV, radio and the stage. Along the way, there are assignments to complete which are assessed by a tutor, who makes suggestions for improvement or whether you should be submitting the piece to an editor/agent/publisher.

As you can tell from how long I've had it, I haven't found motivation the easiest thing to come by, especially when working full-time and wanting to use my weekends for sleeping and .... well, mainly sleeping actually.
Now that I have the time on my hands, I'm keen to plough on through the assignments, but am being driven mad by the fact that I don't seem to have any good ideas locked away in my teeny tiny woman's brain! (As you can possibly tell if you've been following this blog for any length of time...) I'm still in the non-fiction part of the course, so most of my assignments require me to write articles for either magazines or newspapers - a fantastic amount of free reign and I should be jumping at the chance!

I think what I need is some fresh inspiration possibly, so I am going to go out next week and just be nosy; observe people and see if anything sparks, or I could go and see some more tourist-y things perhaps, with the aim of doing some sort of travel article...hmmm...yes, that could be the key!

But in the meantime, the essence of this posting today is: if you have any cracking ideas that you think I could use, please send them my way - I'll buy you dinner with my first writing payment!

picture source: http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/Clipart/writing%20girl.gif

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Barclays: Knights in shining armour?

Chapter number three.

A few summers ago, I needed to buy (actually it was probably more like 'wanted' to buy, but whatever) some new flip flops and happened across a lovely pair in Faith for £25. Pfft, said I; I ain't payin' no 25 big ones for some flimsy summer shoes. So I waited. And waited some more. They were reduced to £20, to £17.50 and to £14. I revisited the shop, tried them on and considered paying the price at the time, but always decided that it was still too much. Then, Faith clearly saw sense, and knocked the price down to £12. I reasoned with myself that was more than 50% off and, given that I was going on holiday in three days' time, forked over my cash.  (These aren't the actual shoes I bought; the picture just made me laugh.)

On a much larger and less shoe-related scale, yesterday it was confirmed that Barclays are the me of the story, and Lehman are the flip flops. Or in other words, Barclays waited until Lehman were in serious trouble, had filed for bankruptcy and were dying a slow and painful death, before they said, "oh, actually, we do want to buy some of your assets after all."

And so, for the princely sum of $1.75 billion (£1 billion) Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of Barclays plc., have acquired Lehman Brothers' North American Investment Banking, and Fixed Income and Equities Sales, Trading and Research Operations. The Machiavellianist scamps have also included the New York office, its contents and around 10,000 employees in the purchase. Happy days. Or it will be when the bankruptcy court approves the sale.

Unfortunately for Pies and pals, both in Honkers and back in London, they are not among those 10k workers (I know, I know - the clue was there in the words 'north' and 'american') but if there is a glimmer of hope to be taken from this, it's that Barclays are still in discussions to potentially snap up other entities outside of the jolly old U S of A.

So what all that wiffle-waffle translates to is that we're playing the waiting game. And let me tell you kids, I'm not going to be recommending this one to MB Games to box up so it can be taken to dinner parties. It's lame - because everyone has a different opinion on what's going on; what's going to happen; why it all went wrong; whether or not it was worth joining a company that's now no more... so you just go round and round in circles, ending up with the same shrugging of the shoulders, pursing of the lips and tilting the head to one side.

On the plus side, it's looking increasingly hopeful that everyone will get paid by the end of September (PwC have told London that as long as they keep turning up, they'll get their money). No reason to stop looking elsewhere just yet, though!

picture source: http://flickr.com/photos/kramerdeluks/406670892/

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The Lehman saga continues...

I promised to keep you posted, so here is the next installment. And I know I've slipped and broken my own 'i must write a blog entry every day' rule, for which I apologise profusely - it's been an odd couple of days.

So, as I think anyone who watches/reads the news now knows, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 on Sunday night as no-one was interested in buying Lehman out if they couldn't get some assistance from the Federal Reserve (the US equivalent to the Bank of England).

I've heard from my reliable sources that the news coverage showed scores of London-based Lehman chaps clearing their desks and legging it to the nearest place that sells beer at 9.30am. So far, it's been a lot more subdued here; because of the bank holiday on Monday here nobody was officially supposed to be in work, but when we dropped by at about midday, there was a surprisingly high number of bodies beavering about. Colin wanted to go in to collect a ton of books and forward some useful emails that he's going to use to prep for the imminent interviews, but a lot of them seemed to be there just to get a head start on clearing their desks before being given the official "on your bike". It seemed a little bit premature, but then you might as well expect the worst, and any good news is a bonus, eh?

Nobody appears to be too sure what the exact nuts and bolts of the mysterious chapter 11 are, but from what I've gleaned from the Lehman press release (oh yes people, I've been devouring every article, every paragraph and titbit that might be remotely relevant), it gives them protection from creditors for a year while the administrators go about selling off any good bits of the bank so that its 158-year history isn't a complete waste of time. Oh and to also try and salvage something for the shareholders, employees and possibly the CEO if he hasn't been hunted down and munched on by a pack of rabid dogs (not my personal desire, I assure you; just the end you'd think some people are wishing on him, if you take some comments at face value). More uncertainty is stemming from the fact that only one bit of Lehman has filed for bankruptcy; there are many subsidiaries that make up the whole and a number of legal entities, and what happens with one of them (like London yesterday), won't necessarily happen elsewhere.

Currently, there's a surreal feeling of limbo amongst everyone. There's so far been no official word from anyone in Colin's office so there's been an attempt at 'business as usual' today (Tuesday), which is quite hard to say the least, when something so umprecedented and future-muddling has just taken place. But until told otherwise, there's not much else to be done - although of course pretty much everyone's assuming that, no company = no jobs; so we spent yesterday afternoon updating and rewording the Pies Curriculum Vitae ready to give the headhunters a dose of their own medicine. That is, bombarding them every four and a half minutes wanting to talk about the market and possible alternative opportunities!

It hasn't quite reached the carnage of London yet, where I read every recruitment consultant was grabbing his year's supply of business cards, heading to Canary Wharf and circling the shell-shocked masses like vultures scavenging a tasty young wildebeest. Colin did however, spend nearly all of this morning on the phone to recruiters which is hopefully a good sign, meaning that if (though more likely when) the word comes, he'll have a headstart on the jobs that are out there.

It seems to make sense to try and stay in Hong Kong, or at least Asia and maybe the Middle East, mainly due to the vast numbers of Lehman employees that will now be flooding the London job market - a number of recruiters have told Colin that his CV is one of the best they've seen - in simplistic terms, the odds are better here. It will also mean we don't have to break our apartment lease (not supposed to be able to give notice until next July) and we were just beginning to find our feet out here! The flipside of course, is that Colin's work visa is employer-specific, so a new company will have to be willing to sponsor him; the amount of expats working out here is hopefully testament that they struggle to find the required skillsets locally (the golden rule when justifying a work visa to the immigration dudes).

There also seem to be tech jobs up for grabs in Singapore, Shanghai and Tokyo, so all options will definitely be kept open - I'm sure the landlord here would rather we didn't jump ship after two and a half months, but if we can't pay the rent due to there being no jobs, he'll have even bigger problems!

Right, I'm beginning to bore myself with all this waffle, so I will leave it there. Obviously I'll let you know as soon as anything happens - in the most literal sense, watch this space!

ironic picture source: http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/09/bestplacestowork/source/22.htm (no. 22 in the list of best places to launch a career)

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'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.'

I wasn't actually going to write anything today, because it's the Sabbath and God says you're not supposed to work. And then I remembered I'm not Jewish. There was also the fact that the weekend is precious time for Packer and Pies, as Pies is allowed to not be in the office for two whole consecutive days (three in fact this weekend, as it's Moon Festival time, meaning Monday is a bank holiday). Then the third, somewhat more common reason was that I wasn't feeling hugely inspired.

So instead, I thought I'd share a little bit of what I'm feeling at the moment based on some highly irritating factors that are way beyond my control. Hopefully I've avoided it so far, but I reckon it must be quite difficult, especially if you've been writing a blog for a decent period of time, not to view it, or unconsciously use it as your own personal shrink; somewhere that you just empty your thoughts and feelings onto the page to help your peace of mind and stop them buzzing around inside your head like wasps in a jam jar.

So in the interests of trying to not put you off coming back to this blog, I'll keep it short. Those of you in the know will already be aware, as will any of you that have Bloomberg TV running 24/7 (fingers crossed that number is in the single digits), that Lehman Brothers, the investment bank that Colin works for, our Hong Kong raison d'être, is in severe trouble.

Again, those of you in the field will know exactly why (far better than a pleb like me), but in a nutshell, Lehman are heavily involved in that crazy sub-prime nonsense which gave birth to the most overused phrase of recent times: the credit crunch. Due to that, Lehman have made huge losses, and as a result, the two most important groups of people, the dudes that trade with Lehman and the chaps that buy shares in Lehman have lost confidence and are no longer wanting to do either.

As I type, the big cheese, the top dog and all the other fat cats are locked away in talks with various other banks, desperately trying to persuade them to buy Lehman, otherwise that's it. They go bust. No passing Go; certainly no collecting £200.

All of which has meant that since Colin first told me the share price was down to about $4 yesterday morning - which, in layman's terms, is bad - I've had that weird gnawing uneasy niggling in my stomach. A little bit like feeling as though one of your kidneys is a bit itchy, but you can't get in there to give it a good scratch.

So, not wanting to make it sound like the apocalypse is imminent, we're trying not to think about it too much, as there really is nothing that we can do. Except wait and see if Bank of America (Pies thought he'd seen the back of them in 2006), or a consortium of saviours salivate sufficiently at the prospect of Lehman at a knockdown price.

I'll keep you posted!

title source: Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, 1859
picture source: http://www.themed-homedecor.com/Chinese-Decorating.html

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Everyone harbours a dirty little secret

Now don't tell anyone, but I have occasionally been known to (covertly until now) watch the Ellen DeGeneres chat show. Phew; glad that's out there in the open now. Yes, this is the very same type of chat show that I was lambasting on Wednesday for not including any universally-renowned guests, but every once in a while (during the very few times I've watched it) old El manages to have someone on that I can't help liking, as she did this morning. Even if she does have the singularly most irritating audience in ze holl world.

If you know me even a little bit, you will be aware that I'm not a huge fan of children, nor am I swayed by them being "adorable" (as are most of the old gals in the audience, it seems). I do wish I could play piano like this six-year-old, though!

Apologies for foisting this on you, I promise I'm not going soft in my old age - it's gotta be better than me rambling on at you for another eight or nine paragraphs!

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"The sun'll come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow..."

We're currently enjoying a very unseasonal patch of good weather in Honkers (I'm sure you will have committed to memory the fact that I mentioned September is known for its participation in typhoon season back in a blog entry of June) and it made my swimming session yesterday even more pleasant than usual.

In fact, I was expecting something of a struggle to complete my 22 lengths (of what I'm certain is at least an Olympic-sized pool; no, seriously, it really is rather large), but splashing away in the sunshine, especially when 14 of those were in a completely empty pool, meant I was done in a jiffy. (What exactly is a 'jiffy'?? You know I'm going to have to find out...)

Now don't worry, this isn't going to be an excessively loquacious episode where I regale you with the merits of sunlight to our health, the above was just a little anecdote I thought you'd enjoy before I hit you with some photos. I've become a bit overly fascinated with the weather while we've been here, probably because it's so extreme, but I haven't so far been able to include any of the associated photos because they weren't as relevant as I like my accompanying pictures to be.

So that they don't end up forever in my 'Miscellaneous' folder, and thus not fulfill their photographic destiny, I thought I'd just whack them in here. Enjoy!

Hmm...what do you think those portentous skies are trying to tell us? Well, at least they give you some sort of warning; they're nothing if not courteous.

And then it's either rain so heavy you can't see through it...



...or a typhoon. Which also includes the invisibility cloak of rain...



...plus strong winds - pay careful attention to the tree a little to the left of the centre of the picture



Tim-berrrrr!



Then sometimes, to make up for the flash flooding, you get a teeny bit of weak sunshine.



And if he's feeling brave, he puts his hat on and everyone says "hooray!"



The little beaches in the middle distance taunt me every day there's a bit of sun; there's never anyone on them - clearly they are mine for the taking. Now where can I procure a small boat?



And what follows a sunny day? Glorious sunsets. To be facing west is most definitely best.
(My name is Sarah and I've been a sunset-aholic for about 11 months now.)





Couldn't not show you the spectacular bunch of flowers Pies got me for our two-year anniversary.

PS jiffy: a very short time; moment: to get dressed in a jiffy. The word is believed to have originally been thieves' cant for lightning. Annoyingly, it's also a specific measure of time in computing, but that's a bit boring, so we won't dwell on it.
PPS apologies for how long the photos have made this post; I did have quite a few of them side by side, but clearly the width of the published blog can't cope with that and has had to put them one underneath the other. Lame.

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Ah, the good old days. When women knew their place and TV was worth watching

Hmm...day two of trying to keep up a frequent-entry blog and already I'm flailing and scrabbling around for things to say. That's mainly because in the 22 hours since I last shared thoughts with you, I really haven't done anything that warrants a mention; instead, I have become an alter ego that pops up every now and again: the 1950s housewife.

Unfortunately, I don't mean I have built a time machine from old washing-up liquid bottles and old tyres like they used to in MacGyver, and travelled back 50-odd years. Rather more mundanely, I've washed up practically every piece of crockery we own (damn HK kitchens not being big enough for a dishwasher), I've cooked the dinner, I've done three loads of washing and I've re-arranged the two wardrobes and some drawers. Next on my agenda is to re-arrange even more, so that stuff isn't just shoved in cubby holes to give the impression of a tidy apartment - we have guests arriving in less than a month! Obviously, I will endeavour not to make every blog entry this thrilling; otherwise you may be too exhausted with the excitement of it all, and need a lie down.

Ironically, I have recently discovered a new series from the writer of Sex and the City (Candace Bushnell) called Lipstick Jungle, focusing on three highly successful career women and how they balance their demanding jobs with their families and lives, blah, blah. Yes, yes, I know what you're thinking, with a title like that why would I even bother wasting my precious time when I could be out creating material for you fine people?

What you have to understand is that television here is so abominably poor, that you find your once sky-high standards slipping uncontrollably. Kind of like that old thinking that if you eat enough rubbish food, soon your palate won't be able to distinguish between junk and the comestibles of fine dining.

Like a large number of things in Hong Kong, the majority of TV programmes are imported. Meaning you get endless American shows, shows I'd never even heard of in England, presumably because the controllers of the channels deemed them too dire to be considered for air. The comedies are not funny, the chat shows are full of guests no-one recognises outside of the States, the dramas are all very formulaic, and the news channels! The only one for which you don't have to pay extra is Fox News which, if you've ever caught a snippet you'll know what I mean when I say, is the most American-centric, jingoistic thing I've ever seen! The only time they even mention news from abroad is if it has a direct impact on Americans. If it wasn't for the internet, I'd have no idea what was going on in the rest of the world!

So, my point is, though I appreciate it was in danger of getting lost in my rant there, that when something vaguely well-written or almost convincingly-acted, or even just mildly entertaining comes along, you grab it with both hands. Hence why I've taken to this Lipstick business along with (I'm cringing as I write this) The Apprentice USA. Yes chaps, complete with he of the very, very questionable hair, Donald Trump.

Well, one has to have something on in the background when one's ironing the shirts, doesn't one?!

Source of picture: http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/original/50shousewife.jpg

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'Water Word' [sic] at The Long Beach

Quite possibly the most exciting thing to have happened since we arrived here happened just under two weeks ago.  What, what? I can hear you gasping.  The oh-so-long-anticipated opening of 'Water Word', that's what, people.

Now unless I have already raved about this to you, you may well be envisaging some sort of giant Scrabble game that's played underwater; or perhaps it might conjure up images of some after-dinner entertainment where Colin and I try to outdo each other by thinking up the largest number of words to describe water; finally, some of you might think it's the crazy kind of name they would give to a newspaper over here, given that we're in close proximity to a lot of water.  But, no!  You would not be right in any of these assumptions!

'Water World', as I'm 99.9% sure it should be (you'd have thought they'd have proof read it before getting thousands of flyers printed, could just be the pedant in me - maybe I'm being unduly harsh, English is the second language here after all!), is the latest leisure facility to open within our apartment complex.  That's in addition to the gym, tennis court, basketball court, billiard room, mini-cinema for private use, piano room, music studio and a stack of other things that are predominantly aimed at kids.  These were already open and ready for your delectation.

Now, as I've tried to capture with these photos, we have a huge outdoor (but also heated just in case the sun was a bit cold) swimming pool, complete with water chute, two outdoor jacuzzis (the smaller squares you can see under the gazebo thingummys) and indoors, something called a Furo Pool.  Added to which, inside both sets of changing rooms, there's a further jacuzzi - impressively-sized and with varying-strength jets, no less - a sauna and a steam room.

Man, it truly is the best thing ever.  I'd completely forgotten how much I enjoy swimming!  Apart from the obligatory my-goodness-I've-been-tanning-for-seven-hours-straight-I-think-I'm-melting dip that you have on your summer holiday (which even when you are in 35 degree heat, you put off because you can't be bothered to re-apply the factor 25 you so diligently put on only 15 minutes ago) I've not so much been in a gym that has a pool, much less ventured into a public swimming baths.  To be honest, I don't know hardly any adults that do; swimming's one of those activities that you seem to grow out of (unless you're really good at it, in which case I imagine you'd enter competitions or the Olympics maybe) mainly because of the time it would take and the effort it requires.  Remembering your kit, knowing where the nearest pool is, having wet hair on the journey home when it's minus two outside - who can be bothered?

Me!  The beauty of having 'Water Word' on site is that the hassle element goes away - I can have a shower afterwards in my own bathroom (I'm making you virescent with envy at the sheer luxury, I can tell). I have been going every day for the last week and a half (Pies accompanies me as and when work permits) increasing the number of lengths every time.  Hmmm...wonder if the application form for London 2012 is available to download online..?

The only problem I've encountered thus far, is that bikinis, great invention that they were for lying there looking sun-kissed, do not enjoy being employed for coverage for more than about a length and a half (specifically the bottom part of the bikini).  And considering, as is the way with every establishment here: they employ too many staff, the superfluous number of male lifeguards (not attractive at all ladies, I assure you, don't book a flight out here just to check them out), most of them have nothing to do but idly watch you try and swim while adjusting your briefs at the same time.  I shall be remedying the situation shortly with the purchase of a swimming costume, you'll be mightily glad to hear.

Right, as the hour approaches 4pm and the pool will shortly be open for it's afternoon session, I'd best go and find that damned impractical two-piece!

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The future of the blog

When I first started this blog, on the plane on the way over here believe it or not, I had all these grand ideas that it was going to be the best blog ever; if you were a Blogspot user too, you'd be intrigued by the Hello from Hong Kong entry in the Blogs of Note section, leading to a plethora of online awards, the Sunday Times calling wanting me to write them a weekly column on the trials and tribulations of my life in Hong Kong and eventually, (natch) a publisher calling wanting to compile the columns and/or blog entries into a book. Who said cracking this writing lark was difficult?

Funnily enough, it hasn't quite turned out like that. Yet. But I really should have cast my mind back over the last 15 years or so (still can't quite get my head around the fact that looking back 15 years doesn't mean I'm 5 years old) and realised I've always been a shockingly bad diary-keeper; I could never be bothered with writing something every day - especially when all that had happened was along the lines of, 'went to school, had lessons, had lasagne for lunch, I hate Mrs. Black, she's a mean old crow, came home, went to bed.'

In the same vein, you might have noticed that these blog entries have been irregular, to say the least, even though it was my initial intention (back on that plane) to post something at least every couple of days. Then I got waylaid, partly by actual 'things to do' (i.e. househunting) and partly by the worry that what I was writing wasn't at all interesting, meaning that I lost momentum and have only posted an entry when either something specific happened, or when some incident occurred that I thought was funny/interesting/odd, etc.

However, in the interests of trying to write something regularly (as my writing course advises the aspiring writer to do) and of honouring my grand ideas from the start, I have decided to try and write a blog every day, even if it is shorter than most of the previous posts (hurrah! I hear most of you cheer) and even if nothing much has happened in the 24 hours since the preceding entry. I will, of course, continue to write blogs from the 'interesting incidents/things I've seen' category. Imagine: that might mean two entries on one day sometimes - you can hardly contain yourselves, I know!

I apologise in advance for the tedium that may well attack you at some point during your reading of these new, more frequent ramblings; I promise I won't take offence if you feel the need to comment or email me telling me to "get out and do something interesting" just so I have something to write about. (Do feel free to tell me if you like it too, I won't let my head swell too much, honest.)

PS In an attempt to widen my vocabulary, I've subscribed to a Word of the Day email from dictionary.com, and lucky souls that you are, I'm sharing the love by adding the gadget that brings you the WotD too; that way, even if you feel your eyelids drooping while reading what I've written, you can always learn a new word with which to impress your friends!

PPS Apparently, I can also add a gadget to the blog that helps you 'Find out how to swear in any language.' Dear God. At the risk of sounding very old, is this what the world's coming to??

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