Youtubey goodness

I don't know how well-publicised some of these videos are, but they were new to me. One general comment: less yelling and more stabbing on the trains over here!





And here's a 'Long Hair' video:

HK is a distant memory

What's this, a blog update? I must be drunk.

I am!

Fine red wines we have here in WA!!

Life is good - good job, challenging, with business class travel and the opportunity to buy German off roaders (even if only VWs (the poor man's AUDI). T is here. Employed. Fine weather and friends.

HK is a distant memory.

No one is quarantined in shitty Wan Chai hotels.

No six day weeks either.

And so endeth the incoherence.

That Gornt and his offspring sure get around!

In fact, I'm sure he'll be relieved to know that his family retains incredible influence over affairs, even in the 27th century:



(Without cheating, does anyone want to guess who plays the good guy (Colonel Christopher Blair) in this clip?)

The neighbours

So... Mugabe is moving to Tai Po. House 3, JC Castle. Just a few houses down from T's family!

Here's the view of the "verdant countryside" that the Mugabes will enjoy from their new home.
It's a nice spot. Or, at least it was...

UPDATE: It gets better. T's family's maid actually saw the journalist from The Times get assaulted by Mugabe's goons (see the article linked above). I think T's family are fairly representative of the average HK resident and their lack of knowledge about Zimbabwe and Mugabe's ruinous regime probably explains the HK government's expectation that they could get away with letting the tyrant and his family buy property there.

Perspective

Build a bridge, sweetheart.



She was late to the gate and denied boarding.

Observation

It's amazing how the absence of things about which to be miserable reduces the desire to blog.

Maybe we do need that fork after all?

No need for the fork just yet

This blog is still not done, even if my time here is.

Good looking money

I am saddened by the news that Standard Chartered might lose the right to issue Hong Kong bank notes as I think they print the best looking money in town. I've decided to shamelessly rip-off Ulaca's idea and put it to the vote: which bank prints the hottest money?

Wale of a time

I happened upon this book in Page One the other day and instantly thought it might be of interest to Fumie, given his ongoing affection for all things Welsh. What particularly caught my attention, however, was the blurb (is that what you call it - tag line?) on the front cover.



"Holding its 700-page substance is like having all Wales in one's hands"

I'm sure Fumie would agree that it probably says more about the quality of Wales than it does about the quality of the book.

A little too local

As suspected the Tai Po Market branch of Starbucks is in trouble, if their marketing antics are anything to go by. One of the staff members is walking around the station concourse offering sample sized muffin pieces in order entice commuters in for an overpriced coffee or meal. Unfortunately, even the giveaway muffins aren't attracting much attention. I think it's just a little too local out here...

Short, flabby and middle aged

A few weeks ago I went into the TST branch of Fitness First - my regular hangout - with the intention of canceling my membership. The friendly Filipino behind the desk told me that, as I had joined at the Fortress Hill branch I would need to cancel there. This seemed like another Fitness First money scamming trick (seems like they're the Somali Pirates of the personal fitness world), but I was in no mood to argue so meekly nodded my head and wondered when the hell I'd get all the back to Fortress Hill again. The answer, it turns out, was Monday.

Fortress Hill's distant location is only one reason why I never go there. Another is the general ill-maintained feel the gym gives off (some of the heavier dumbell weights are starting to rust) and yet another is the general ill-maintained look of those who go there. Short, flabby, middle-aged Chinese men. Short, flabby, middle-aged Chinese men who like to dry their pubic hair, while standing stark naked in front of the mirror enjoying the view of themselves, with the hair-dryers. Short, flabby, middle-aged Chinese men whose pubic hair seem longer than their penises.

I've blogged about this issue before. But it seems much worse at Fortress Hill. Towels, people: use them.

Unseasonally influenced

Hong Kong seems determined to give me a fond farewell if the current weather is anything to judge by. I'm just waiting for the frigid temperatures, unremitting gray and closed-in pollution to settle in like it did last year. Actually, I'm not waiting for it at all. If the blue skies and pleasant temperatures last until Sunday - which is when I'm outta here - then I'll be happy indeed.

I've been doing lots of catching up these past few days with friends that I don't get to see much of. I can't help but conclude that I would have been much happier in HK if I had been living somewhere other than Tai Po. Yes, my job sucked and, yes, I had to work six days a week in the middle of Prince Edward (in exchange for HK$20K/month!), but that could have been managed if I had been able to come home to somewhere close to civilisation. A place with supermarkets that sold something more than chicken feet, intestines and fish bladders; that had bread that was genuinely fresh. In other words a supermarket that genuinely deserved the prefix 'super'. A place with food options that extended beyond Cafe-de-Coral and KFC and a place that, well, provided something (anything) to do once I came home from work. I know life in the suburbs in most countires is bleak, but it is nothing in comparison to life in the New Territories.

At least the suburbs in the West allow the enjoyment of personal space and the (smug) satisfaction of owning your own McMansion. Here in HK all you get is a shoddily constructed shoebox built in a tower of other shoeboxes.

In terms of civilisation arriving in my own little corner of Tai Po, I was pleased recently to note the opening of a small Starbuck's coffee shop in the Tai Po Market train station, just downstairs from my house. I stopped there this morning and enjoyed a reasonably well made latte (no jokes please Ulie) (although the bubble-less froth still troubles most of Hong Kong's baristas). I probably spent around 30 minutes there enjoying my coffee and reading the paper and during that time only two other customers came in. Tai Po Market is hardly a haven for the latte sipping set. At $31 for a 'grande' (中) coffee - that's about A$6 at the current crappy exchange rate - I suspect most locals remain uncovinced of the benefits of the brown liquid. Even if they are making it quite well at the local outlet.

So where am I going with this? Well, I guess I'm saying I'd give HK another go if circumstances require. I'd want to be living somewhere else, of course, and I'd want to be doing something rather more engaging than cookie-cutter English teaching. Maybe that's just the unseasonable blue sky influencing me?

Nearly there

Eight hours of classes and 29 children stand between me and freedom from teaching today.

What a relief to think that I will soon be liberated from the tedium of Hong Kong's children and their incessant chatter about NDS and PSP.

Strangely, I'll miss more than a few of them... Many of them seem to have wormed their ways into my affection.

Well, saying goodbye to them is a small price to pay for having my Saturdays back. I haven't had a free Saturday since April.

Not long to go and HK will be nothing but a memory. Will I look back in fondness?

Sucky news

Well... bad news. I'm heading back to Australia on November 30 and T will be following in March. We had planned for T to come and spend a few weeks at Christmas (when I wouldn't be working due to the stand-down over the Christmas period) so that we wouldn't spend so long apart. Anyway, T just checked with his mum to see if he could have the time away from work, but as his sister has already taken the opportunity to go back to France with her other half, he's been denied. So that means three months without seeing each other.

And, well, we're not really in a position to say to her to that it means alot to our relationship. Not that she'd accept that argument anyway.

Damn.

Food, freezing, French

I went out for dinner last night with the extended family in honour of my m-i-l's birthday . It was a vegetarian affair and, although the evening was nice enough, the food itself was not. I really don't understand the love of vegetables pretending to be meat that so many Chinese vegeterian restaurants provide. The first dish may have looked like chicken, but tasted like baked cardboard.

I also noticed that HK might be the only place in the world that requires people in winter to put more clothes on once they're inside. It was freezing in the restaurant and as the night progressed the people sitting around the table were reaching for their jackets in order to keep warm. As we made it outside, the jackets came off again.

Speaking of food, does anyone (Joyce) have anything to say about the food on offer at Pierre's in the Mandarin Oriental? I'm not going to Rubichon, but am interested in a nice French meal before I leave for Perth. Suggestions welcome!

God Love

Apparently, God loves the owner of this Porsche 911 Turbo more than you.

Otherwise, you'd have a 911 of your own.

Readers with long memories may remember this scooter, whose owner was far more generous with God's love but who didn't seem to be enjoying the love as much as the 911 owner (judging by the differences in modes of transport).