family life high and dry in Hong Kong: September 2009

Arriving in HK

Well we arrived back in Hk and were stunned by the heat & humidity. I think I always managed to avoid summers here, before. How Pete managed on the catamaran without A/C I don't know! Anyway after a snooze in our horrible wee hostel room (no phone, no internet, no fridge or kettle) we rang up some estate agents Pete had looked up here when we were in the UK. One was free that afternoon so we blinked at the heat, bought sandwiches from the supermarket, jumped in a taxi and staggered off to meet one. I was a bit unimpressed that the 1st place she took us to was the huge pink multi-story high rises on the corner just before Stanley Plaza. Niceley landscaped with seats, plants, kids playpark, etc, but at midday on a dry day we were coated with mosquitos as soon as we sat down to eat. Luckily she arrived and showed us a small but beautifully re-decorated flat on the 1st floor. (Only 18 steps and a gate). Lovely - could have moved in as all storeage was built in and the kitchen was fully equipped & westernised. Just needed matresses! BUT very noisy as was right above main road, though she assured us that it was 'quiet at night as all the buses stop at 1 am'. Hmm, no early sleeps then! She showed us another still being done, in the high rise next door, which had the advantage of a guarded lobby, being at the quieter back side, a lift and no stairs whatsoever - but a different room arrangement and really for sale not rent. Then she took us back to Stanley, into the actual market, to an apartment on the 1st floor reached by going between the stalls. Charming location and we sort of agreed to take it, tho it was dirty and dated with lots of broken bits - its main balcony looked out onto Stanley beach and it was much cheaper. But at 3 am I woke realising that now is the low season and most times I visit Stanley I have to shuffle in the crush of tourists; plus it was only 1 bedroom with an annoyingly laid out rest of the flat so accomodating Finley or guests was awkward; AND it had 3 flights of stairs; AND was exposed on 3 sides so had been boiling hot early evening when we saw it. So, not ideal and not meeting my 'no stairs, 2 bedrooms' criteria to make shopping/ going out with the buggy/ getting my paint kit to & from jobs easy. Pete had 2 other agents who all wanted to show us the SAME 3 places; unsurprisingly all told us that in our price range there were very few places; most began at 5x our limit and the bulk of the market was on a least 10x our range - hmm, mad wages around here, as we knew! Then on Tuesday, a final lady had a different 2 (as well as the same 3!) so we went to see them the next day.The 1st was a 5th floor (all stairs!) tiny but OK place behind Stanley market (so lots of little alleys with steps to find it) in a columnar building - views all round but again, BOILING. The next was back to the horrible pink high rises. Bingo - 5th floor but in the building with a taxi/ car drop off bay, coded/ guarded lobby and 2 big lifts - no stairs at all. Also the flat had been re-done by its current tenant, a maths teacher from the USA, a year ago. So was all modern and western and for once had laminate floors, not tiled. (Now important due to Finleys little escapade as said later). No built in storeage like the beautiful noisy flat below it we had seen, but just what we wanted. Said yes and asked if she was selling her furniture....went back on Sunday to see it again/ meet her and signed the contract! Discussing keeping her sofa & wardrobes as thats a few things less to buy/ move! (wanted her bed but shes keeping it). I THINK these buildings are 'government', like council flats, but seemed far nicer than the Uk's; and yes our landlords are chinese. Lora the teacher said there is only 1 other western family in that tower (or all the towers???) and allegedly a covered walkway to Stanley from the 'gardens' below, which will be handy. Sadly she doesn't leave till 5th Sept so we have a few more weeks in our grotty room. Still, not bad to have seen all available in our 1st 30 hrs!

Later on Tues we popped into RHKYC HQ for Pete (and Finley) to see his boss/ colleagues and have lunch as we'd skipped breakfast to see the flats. Then we were off for a lie down to cool off a bit. He started work on Wednesday, straight in, lucky he knew what to do!

Oh yes with Clements' expert guidance (one of Petes weekend instructors - he works 1 day a week teaching sailing for the club, and the rest of the time is an accountant - hes a good friend who is determined to show us the 'real' HK and a very handy person to ring up in an emergency/ translation situation) again, we have been exploring different foods. We tried a dish of squid with 'bitter cucumber', which I think is the pale green super-wrinkly one. Maybe the same one I saw that documentary on that kept all the elderly Japanese people so healthy well past their 90th birthdays? Anyway , wooo, BITTER! Disgusting. Like compressed bile. Or cucumber pickled in bile. Clement bravely ate the lot - he says old people think it tastes sweeter. Yak. My fave so far was the fried dumplings (still quite soft like they were steamed) in ginger, yum, getting them again. I have promised him a return cooking 'lesson (don't laugh, mum/ Janet) as in the past he has made us traditional local seasonal dishes like turnip cake; but hasn't had a lot of my UK favourites. I suppose that depends on if I can find potatoes here though! As our wee flat will have a tiny but modern kitchen, I can't wait. Clement has also promised to take me round the markets to explain what everything is - even the supermarkets that cater to non-chinese don't bother labelling all the unusual veggies, etc, as westerners obviously don't buy them - all the other food is labelled in English too. He's bringing home-made dumplings to the housewarming he assures us we are having!

Leaving the UK

I had hoped to be all sorted & packed but as usual that didn't happen - after the week camping in muddy sandy woods at the Welsh face & body painting festival, and stopping in Diss to paint for a day on the way back, I spent 2 days just unpacking & washing! Then had another gig for the Mind, Body and spirit fair lady - much more relaxing this time as she had the sweet Eastern European guy doing 'gong healing' on stage rather than a drum workshop like last time. Anyway, started packing a bit on Sunday between vaguely getting ready for a big family tea. Luckily Sarah and Caroline both brought yummy stuff with them and Mich added one of her choc cakes so aside from shopping and Pete doing some veggies, there was not too much cooking to do. Lovely to see everyone - wee cousin Tom had suddenly shot up! Fin did most of the entertaining, between naps and streaking the croquet field. One of the less highlighted events was him depositing a 'small brown fish' as the film says, in his paddling pool....

Monday 17th Aug was last chance to pack....I had it about sorted (well, what we would take with us anyway) but hadn't had time to empty our room and also was finishing emptying the barn I'd been sorting out stored things in. Pete cleaned and emptied the 'new' car as we hope to sell it - I really don't like driving it and the neck rests are designed to be uncomfortable, real pain to sit with. Filey 'helped' and as well as getting very muddy and filling his clothes with stones again, got totally overexcited by it all and had to tell me all about it after an early morning bath. He got another bath 'helping' Brian clean the muddy tent he'd been using the week before at some national boat races - kept getting us too then decided to drink from the hose. Sue arrived with Ali and a set of scales at which point we realised the airline we were using this time had about 1/2 the luggage allowance we had been used to as well as charging by the kilo for over-luggage, unlike BA which had a set 80UK per extra suitcase (which worked out far cheaper than shipping stuff). Panic as we were double the allowance. A lot of experimenting revealed that most of Finleys miserly weight (no 'same as adult' like when we went to NZ) went on his folding cot so that was abandoned. Then Pete found our fairly light suitcases each took 1/3 of our weight up so we had to switch to old soft wheel-less bags - pain to carry but 2/3 lighter! I got fed up at that point as I'd packed light anyway - all the stuff was things I had to have really as otherwise I'd be paying to ship paints I already HAD out to HK (where I couldn't get them) - I needed to take more than usual as I have 10 bodies to paint at the upcoming Shanghai festival. And as for non-painty things, I know I can't get shoes/ clothes in my size in Hk at all. Pete was the opposite and refused to pack more than a few shorts & 3 tshirts which means I will have to shop for him as soon as we arrive.

Anyway it all got packed into bulging bags and far more carry-on than I wanted to have, and we arrived at Heathrow on Tues am. All made it on the plane except Petes windsurfing kit! Security was annoying - of all the previous 11 flights we did with Fin, they were not bothered by his medicines, milk, food etc at all. This time they wanted me to drink his sterilising solution (um, NO its basically disinfectant) and made me open all the special food jars we had bought for him and taste them, even the sealed-in-plastic ones. (Total waste as it turns out the room we got in HK had no fridge and they all fermented the first day. Not that they would have lasted much longer, opened, in a fridge. Grrr.) Fin was pretty good although he only fell asleep once the whole trip and woke up when we tried to put him in the baby cot thing as Petes leg went dead. So we were tired

Last weeks in UK

We left Brians for Grandpa Blacks funeral, which was sad but lovely to see lots of family. And the eulogy was interesting. Finley woke up teething that day so wasn't his cheerful self, but did wear his kilt again...(over a babygro as it was cold).