We've been here almost a week and I think I should jot some things down before they become less memorable or novel.
- ever since SARS they seem to have got very excited here about contagious diseases. Almost every lift we have been into reassures us that the buttons are sanitised every two hours - phew.
- if you come over to visit, cocktails on the 34th floor of The Excelsior are a must.
- summer is a mix of heat, humidity and heavy rain - although we've not had too much of the latter. In fact, every time I've taken out the umbrella we haven't seen a drop. The day I didn't take it out of course it rained very heavily. I'm looking forward to what is officially described as "black rain".
- apartment sizes are nowhere near what they seem. Having read the square footage before looking at some flats, we were surprised just how small some of them are. It turns that the square footage includes (for example) a bit of the common parts (e.g. a section of the landing, swimming pool etc) and the bit outside the flat where the air conditioner is sitting!
- gazumping is a phenomenon in the rental market here. We found a great place earlier on today and the landlord pulled out just as we were handing over the cash deposit!
- some of the flats we have looked at have a maid's room - most of which are literally no bigger than a single bed (which pulls down from the wall) - looked hugely inadequate to me.
- we met a lovely Swiss couple at church on Sunday who invited us around for dinner - when he first arrived in HK he couldn't speak a word of English or Cantonese. Very brave - he can now translate quite happily between the two.
- we met the nicest immigration officer ever this morning as we went to get our ID cards - we had a lovely chat. All very welcoming.
- Eve has us on a diet of 20 Chinese characters a day. If we can keep it up for about 150 days, we may even be able to read a newspaper.
No comments:
Post a Comment