The highs and lo's of Hong Kong...

The last week has been quite crappy, apart from the fact that I was able to catch up on a heck of alot of sleep...

Got food poisoning on friday arvo, which pretty much ruined friday nite.. saturday, woke up just in time to see a doctor, who gave me a few pills (not the happy kind) and sent me home to feed on plain congee and rest...after a few very eventful trips to the toilet (and pouring myself open like a tap - yes it was a number 2 too!) my butt was feeling sorer than a gay cowboy easting custard, and I had reached a quota of about 10 Stephen Chow movies whilst here in HK.. luckily, HMV is still on sale and I can stock up yet again! Too bad bout the butt though..

Anyway, Monday and Tuesday off work was great.. a few more days in bed sleeping and a bit of tv to boot... also, Terry Goodkind was never any better to read, and I don't just mean on the loo!

By Tuesday night though, I was well enough to play my first game of tennis since coming back to HK.. first time this year, and probably haven't played more than 5 times in the last year, but held up alright, and managed a few sparse winners and aces... unfortunately the other guys wanted a midnite snack and I had to oblige them, going along to watch them eat for the next hour.. in the end, couldn't hold out and had to get some plain congee and join them in a meagre feast...

Wednesday felt back in it, and going to the track (Happy Valley) to see the races at night was great. Got a great place in a box, with buffet and drinks, and a TABish booky counter just outside.. no queues or anything which made losing money really easy... luckily, horse 12 in race 3 got a nose in front for me which saw me return odds of 17 to 1.. unfortunately, I only put HK$40 on him.. which is pretty much nothing... In the end, ended the night with more money in my wallet than I started with, a bloated stomach for the nth time this week, and a long, wet walk home.. courtesy of a long wet winter in HK...

Thursday now, and I'm paying for gourging myself last night, with a still bloated stomach, and little streaks of pain through my belly every once in a while.. even popping other ppls prescription pills are not helping today... so back to nutella sandwiches for lunch again... oh well, those are the highs and lo's of hong kong I guess...

CNY Fever

Gong Hei Fat Choy! (sorry if I spelt that wrong...)

Anyway, hope you all had a good Chinese New Year... I had a tough 5 days off coz of the holiday... don't know if I can get used to that lifestyle here ;p

Have pretty much lived in IKEA and HMV over the last week... don't know how many times I have gone through those places now, and am quite adept at finding things in each of those stores... Have definitely spent a whole lot more money at IKEA, but probably due to the allowance they are giving me more than anything else.. if I was allowed to claim DVDs on my allowance, then I know what I'd be getting... regardless of not getting money back tho, I've already bought the Infernal Affairs box set (8 discs!), Nightmare on Elm Street box set (7/8 discs), about 10 Stephen Chou movies, and the box sets of Project A and Police Story (Jackie Chan movies).

Apart from IKEA and HMV tho, over the CNY break, also got to go to a few diff places, like the flower market at Victoria gardens (which is basically an outdoors paddy's market, where ppl are selling toys, gimmicks, and other weird stuff, including flowers and food!!) and Shenzhen (in China, just on the other side of Kowloon and the new territories).

The flower market was alrite.. but really crowded.. and that was supposed to be an empty night! Bought plenty of cheap and nasty food too, cooked by the roadside, and probably contributes to my stomach feeling quite ordinary most of the time... Shenzhen was another place that contributed to that... feels very much like China... dirty... cheap... asian... Main thing I bought there were DVDs and PS2 games... haven't tested them to see if they work yet, but oh well, for AUD 1, can't really complain... Actually the worst thing was crowded trains there and back (took about 45 mins each way from TST), but was told that it used to take longer and had to catch a bus, so can't really complain...

So based on all that, you can probably guess that I have been spending most of my time at home, watching tv, playing games etc... most nights consist of a bit of Stephen Chou and Ali G with dinner, before settling into a couple of hours of xmen before bed... gets pretty repetitive after awhile but a hard cycle to break... but this week, as more things get settled around the house and we need to be home less, will probably hit the streets again... ;p

In Hong Kong, you'd be dead!

Welcome to Hong Kong!

A couple of weeks into it (sorry, didn't have net access until I started work), but have already achieved so much. The biggest challenges in the first few days included;

1. HK ID card - mandatory for carrying around on you, I think the wait in line to get it is mandatory as well. The average wait is about 6 hrs.. I think I set a new record in getting it done in 1.5 ... It's not hard, just a few forms, a picture taken and your thumbprints taken twice! but for some reason they like just making you line up and watch a screen for your number to be called... but they were all nice, including the lady that asked if I wanted to get my picture taken again (probably coz I looked crap!).. much nicer than those ppl at the RTA.
2. Bank account - needed so many forms of ID for this, but in the end a letter from PwC was enough to get me in, including the waiver of the first year of bank charges.. see PwC is the best... Anyway, again had to wait and it looked like it was going to be at least an hour, but luckily for some weird reason everyone else before me wasn't in the waiting room at the time and I ended up with a banker in 5 mins.. its so cool here, you can deposit multiple notes at once into the ATM, as well as cheques. The notes clear straightaway, and the cheques only take until 4pm the next business day. Gotta luv HSBC.. and gotta take pleasure in the small things ;p
3. Apartment - found a really cool agent (who I refer to as Danny mole - for all those who watch the Amazing Race) who took me around to about 30 different places in about 4 days, including sat/sun.. saw places from wan chai to causeway bay to tin hau, fortress hill, north point, taikoo and kornhill. Basically just followed the MTR line.. Also saw a whole range of places from 2 - 3 bedrooms with 1 - 2 toilets and really new places as well as one really really old and dirty place which made me scared... Funnily enough, ended up getting the first apartment I saw, which is in Causeway Bay. Rent is about $1k AUD a month each (which is actually quite cheap here) and have spent the last week or two buying all sorts of
   furniture (never thought I would eva buy so much from IKEA), as well as other miscellaneous things I would have never thought of buying...

Now I'm all settled.. my normal day is.. wake up 7:30am.. turn on hot water, turn off alarm
.. wake up 8am turn off alarm... wake up 8:20am, get ready for work.. 9am, leave home, buy
breakfast (a chinese bread thing from a maxim-esq shop downstairs) and get to work by 9:30
am. Work until about 7 - 8pm. Home then dinner, or dinner then home. Then walk around the
shops or play playstation/watch dvd until bed. Yeah, quite a meaningless existence, but it
suffices for brainnumbingness entertainment for the time being. Give me a few weeks and I
may start going out to meet new friends...

Have actually started making new friends.. in the past 3 weeks I have played ultimate
frisbee, touch footy, and basketball... all with diff ppl who I never knew before I came to
HK. Good to keep in shape etc... Hopefully I can keep it up.. but even nowadays I'm starting
to get lazy....

Anyway, time for another 3 hr meeting at work.. hope you guys are all having fun without me,
and keep writing to keep me updated on the going ons in Sydney/wherever you are!! ;p