The flat

We're loving our flat. We had to get some guys with a very large drill to come in last week to put some pictures up - the one I borrowed from a guy at church wasn't quite up to the task of making holes in concrete. It's amazing the difference a few pictures make - the empty box feel was quickly transformed into something much more homely.

It's got a cracking view - photos should be on flickr later today! It's great that it's so open in both directions which avoids that claustrophobic feel that some flats here have. Having two floors also makes the place seem very spacious - not the kind of pokey place we'd expected! The terrace is a little elicit, but no-one seems to mind us using it.

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Eve's birthday

A couple of weeks back we enjoyed a few days which were all about Eve's birthday - which wonderfully coincided with a visit from friends from London. After an evening exploring the night markets of Kowloon, we took the firm's "junk"out the next night. The description could give you the impression of something a bit run down - not a bit of it! It's a cracking vessel from which we got great views of the harbour and had a wonderful trip down to Lamma Island for some great seafood. The following evening took us to our local Michelin-starred restaurant and an outdoor rooftop bar. Greg and Ruth left for Beijing on the Friday and we headed to Lantau Island for the weekend - cable cars, beaches and even better seafood abounded. It felt seriously hot - 35 degrees and humidity in the 90s and the water didn't really aid the cooling down process with surface temperature at around 29 degrees!

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Typhoons

We had our first typhoon (which may come from the Chinese word for Great Wind which is pronounced almost exactly the same) warning last week.  A T1 signal means a typhoon is within 800km of Hong Kong, T3 means within 400km and T9 basically means a direct hit.  We had a T3 last week which manifested itself in conditions I would describe as "fairly breezy".  Anyway, it passed off without incident - T9 apparently means a day off work.  The guy in library in the office said there is a Chinese saying that if a typhoon misses you're in for 3 days of rain - thankfully, that particular saying wasn't fulfilled last weekend - sunshine all the way.

You get the feeling that Hong Kong wasn't quite designed to be inhabited.  The actual space you can build on on the island is tiny (which is no doubt why they've been reclaiming land at a fair lick), typhoons blow through and its hot and humid so everywhere is heavily air conditioned.  Basically, very clever things are done to make it safe and inhabitable and I'm glad they did - it's great here!

Flat and trips

It's hard to believe that we've only been in town for 3 weeks - it feels like we've been here for ages. 

We've looked at countless flats, been gazumped on one and now signed up for one.  We have the keys and most of our stuff should be delivered tomorrow.  It contains the odd curiosity - high on the list is the fact that there are three showers and two bathrooms.  The flat is split over two floors and an advertising hoarding covers one side of the top floor - a feature!  There's also no oven, but almost nowhere we've seen has one - Chinese cooking doesn't often require it. 

We've had a couple of nice little trips.  We popped up to the New Territories a week after we'd arrived and visited a lovely little island called Chap Muen Chau - although I'm not entirely sure how the wild herd of cows got there.  Last weekend we took a trip to Macau - Vegas on Sea which is about an hour by ferry.  A mate from A&O comes from Macau and was visiting his folks and laid on a fun-filled 24 hours.  From Super Class on the ferry (I think Macau would regard calling it Business Class as too understated) to a cracking hotel room (in the Grand Lisboa: http://www.grandlisboa.com/en/home/index.html) which was bigger than most of the flats we had seen.  The TV set in the toilet room wall was a highlight.  Gambling is what Macau is famous for - gambling tourism makes up about 50% of the economy.  Gaming revenue is apparently about USD20bn a year - which makes Vegas and its USD10bn look like a seaside amusement town.  I actually thought the non-Casino bits of Macau were really nice - some nice old Portuguese Colonial bits.  We were told the Portuguese are not that fondly remembered because they let things slide a little towards the end and people were being shot in the street in gangland warfare - they also didn't involve the locals that heavily in government.