Tours, tailors, and dinners

Admittedly it’s been a while since the last posting, and it’s time for an update to the blog I think. Since the last time I’ve completed my furthest overseas hockey tour to Jakarta in Indonesia (weekend May 24/25). From a blog point of view, tour rules apply in that ‘what goes on tour, stays on tour’. However, some of the highlights that can be discussed include how flat Indonesia is. The first very apparent notice were the signs in the airport stating that drug trafficking leads to the death penalty… nice! Apparently Indonesia was a Dutch colony – with a none to popular Governor at one point – and I did wonder if the Dutch thought it was just like home due to the flatness of the landscape. It’s very obvious how the surrounding area was devastated by the tsunami a few years ago as there is no natural defence available whatsoever. Jakarta itself seemed in places to be built on water. The local currency is the rupiah, of which about 1M equals HK$840, which means 1M rupiah is approximately £55. When you’re dealing with such stupid sums it does become difficult to keep a track of how much you’re spending. On the other hand, you do feel pretty rich when you’re withdrawing at least 1M of the currency at the ATM and realising it might not last a single night out.

Playing hockey at near the equator towards the end of May has to be considered uncomfortable at best. it was hot and humid, and drinking beer throughout the day made it no easier at all. I think the strangest thing in Jakarta was moving between the hotel we stayed at and other places we’d go for the nights out. Every large location (hotels and nightspots) would require passing through a security check with under-car mirrors, security guards, and checking the bonnet and boot. Probably even more security than I ever remember in Northern Ireland. I think Indonesia is a predominantly Muslim country but with a lot of Western expats and visitors so is potentially a flashpoint for ‘international terrorism’. During my very brief stay there I witnessed nothing. Although I was definitely struggling on the last day of the tour. There is no hangover worse than a Bintang hangover for sure!

I think I’ve previously mentioned that I’d decided to go for a tailored dinner suit for a couple of formal dinners coming up. Basically, myself and one of the hockey coaches thought it would be worthwhile getting a proper tailored sinner suit, as well as bow ties and cummerbunds. We had a couple of measurements before the Jakarta tour with a view to finally picking everything up shortly afterwards for the first dinner the following weekend (May 31). Everything seemed to be going to plan until the Thursday before the dinner when we were due to pick everything up… Unfortunately, the bow ties were not the type you can tie, and the cummerbunds were not silk. I’ll admit I’m quite picky about having a tied bow tie, my view being if you can tie a bow tie, you wear a tied bow tie. Back in the UK, picking up a bow tie and cummerbund is very easy, I’d go to the likes of John Lewis or House of Frasier or a very obvious formal wear shop. In Hong Kong I have no idea where to buy this type of stuff… and suggestions to go to a tailor are not helpful! Eventually we went to Tie Rack and bought not quite red and black matching ties and cummerbunds. Not ideal, not matching with the colours of the jacket lining or stitching we’d chosen, but a lot better than the original option.

Thursday night (29 May) before the first formal dinner (the whole of Valley RFC) involved a night in a friend’s flat, a few plenty of beers and me trying to teach two friends how to tie a bow tie. For those who know how to tie one it’s something that just happens, and then it’s perfectly obvious. Our hockey coach, Buttler, was able to figure it out pretty quickly. It’s just like tying a shoe lace after all… However our American friend, Dougal, just struggled thorughout the entire evening until after plenty of beer it just seemed to work. I just had to keep my fingers crossed that they could manage it on the night itself. To make matters easier we agreed to meet up beforehand arrive to the dinner location together…

Much to my surprise, we all managed to get changed and have our ties done correctly well before we were due to leave for the dinner. And the whole point of the tied bow tie is so that it can be undone later in the evening which it duly was. One of the advantages of being a guy is of course that you can wear the same outfit to multiple formal events. And so, 2 weeks later I was able to reuse my outift for the Hockey section formal dinner. Both events cost approx HK$500 (£35 at the most) and covered a hot buffet meal and as much as you can drink from the bar. This definitely compares very favourably with the equivalent events I’ve been to in the UK.

The tailored dinner suit certainly fitted very well, as you’d expect from a tailered suit. However, the satin on the lapels was a bit too shiny for my liking, and the buttons were white plastic (albeit covered with black material, though I can still see the white plastic…). The complete suit included a shirt too which obviously required cufflinks. Again, in the UK these are easy to find. Over here I’ve not got the slightest clue where to look, and although I did eventually a few shops (M & S being one), a lot of the cufflinks available were either gold (not my colour) or shiny, or worst of all encrusted with fake diamonds. The fashion over here is definitely very bling. Bling is something I’m very definitely not. Eventually I found a couple of sets that I absolutely would not buy in the UK, but I figured passed muster here…

In summary; a very fun tour (which I won’t write about), and two great formal nights out (which I can’t remember enough about to write about).

Olympic Torch reaches Hong Kong

Today marks the start of the Olympic Torch relay through China – I think it was 100 days to go to the start of the Olympic Games quite recently. It was quite damp this morning, which certainly in the UK would normally mean less protestors, however I don’t think there was a danger of there being mass protests along the route of the torch in Hong Kong anyway. Hong Kong is technically in a tricky position as the Basic Law agreed between the UK and China at the time of the handover guarantees freedom of speech, but the culture here of not wanting to lose face, and also the fact that Hong Kong is part of China means that the authorities here are very sensitive to the possibility of a protest along the route. I’m a big sports fan and am looking forward to the Games but, frankly, couldn’t give a stuff about the torch procession (so it’s been work as normal for me today). However, it’s difficult to miss the fact that the torch relay is happening today. Lots of schoolkids (obviously not in school!) milling around have been handed flags with the Hong Kong (Lotus flower) symbol and the Chinese national flag to wave. Lots of red stickers with apparently the date of the start of the Games printed on them being worn as well. The pro-China propaganda machine is in full swing it seems. From the little I’ve seen of the procession there don’t appear to be any blue tracksuited thugs minders surrounding the torch carrier either.

I’m currently looking into the possibility of going up to Beijing during the Olympics to see about trying to watch some of the hockey during the group stages. This will depend upon when this takes place and the general cost involved in travelling there. However, I do have a trip hockey tour to Jakarta towards the end of May coming up, and I’ve also booked a trip to Australia (Sydney) for the end of July. I’ll get to catch up with some friends I know through work there and also watch the Wallabies v All Blacks Bledisloe Cup match whilst I’m there. That should be very exciting, and set up nicely to watch the same teams play again in Hong Kong on November 1st. I just need to decide who I’m going to support now…

The end of the hockey season is approaching and the Valley B team are entered in the main Cup competition. Having successfully seen off a team from our own division last week (with more than half the team suffering horrible hangovers), we now face the Premier League champions in the next round on Sunday. Could this be a result to rival Barnsley overcoming Chelsea in the FA Cup perhaps? Either way, the most important match of our season is on 16th May when Valley B take on Valley C with 3rd place in the 1st Division at stake. This is an important match for me, as in the revers fixture I was playing for Valley C (when we won 3-0) so I now face my former team-mates… This match will be decisive as to who has the bragging rights at the Valley annual dinner a couple of weeks later. For which a tux is required. I’d bought a new tux back in the UK just over a year ago, and wore it to one Wokingham Hockey Club event, so now have to buy a new one here. Still, it’s an excuse to buy a tailored one which is in the process of being made. Typically, the tailored one is cheaper than the one I bought last year in the UK…

I received an email earlier in the week I have now completed six years with Novell, which served to remind me that I’ve been in Hong Kong for very nearly a year now. A thoroughly enjoyable year I must admit. Later that day, I got the not so welcome news I’ll be delivering another presentation in early June… another chance to talk to a room full of statues who I suspect understand very little of what I’m saying for 30-40 minutes. Ah well.

We’ve got another guy join us on secondment from one of our India offices for 9 months. As he gets to be the new guy (or FNG as new guys were labelled in the UK) it now falls to him to experience unusual foods at lunch time. However, it seems he’s going for the chicken option, and by that I don’t mean eating chicken, by saying he’s a vegetarian and just sticking to a plate of fried rice. Which he then eats with a knife and fork! Part of me thinks that’s quite clever, and another part is sad for him to be missing on the delights of jellyfish and chickens feet etc. In terms of food I feel I don’t do too badly with the food here – although I’ve come to the conclusion I just don’t like prawns. This has been a source of contention with friends in the past, and I’ll accept a lot of the dislike previously was that I hadn’t eaten many, and just didn’t like the idea of them. I’ve now eaten a fair amount, and I now know I really don’t like the taste, the texture as well as the whole idea of them.

Bit of a longer post that I’d originally intended. If you’ve got this far, you must have nothing better to do…

Hong Kong 7s

A couple of weekends ago (28, 29, 30 March) was the Hong Kong 7s rugby tournament. This is the showpiece of the world 7s series and tickets are, to say the least, eagerly anticipated. Fortunately, being a member of Valley RFC who are affiliated to the HK RFU means we get priority tickets, so there was no need to panic about making sure I had tickets for all three days. Attending an internationally renowned event such as this obviously requires a lot of planning beforehand – especially as a large group of us from the hockey section of Valley had decided to go dressed as Oompa Loompa’s (with one tall guy going as Willy Wonka). Being my first Sevens I figured I’d follow the crowd so quite happily signed up to the whole idea.

First off was being measured up for my Oompa Loompa outfit. The girl who had suggested it (and therefore had to organise it) had managed to contact a tailor in Shenzhen who would put together a tailored Oompa Loompa outfit for ~HK$400 (~£25). I thought to myself at the time, it’s not often you get a tailored fancy dress outfit! The tailor was also able to do tailored shirts for ~HK$150 (~£10) which seemed like a bargain. So I ordered four of those. Unfortunately, it seems the money was saved in button sewing or my Sunday afternoon helper is a bit too aggressive with the iron, as the buttons do not seem to survive long…

Anyway, the week in the run up to the Sevens saw the outfits delivered. Brown long sleeved t-shirt, and not very flattering white 3/4 length trousers/dungarees. The Oompa Loompa look we were looking for was from the 70s film with Gene Wilder rather than the more recent Johnny Depp film. Socks were dispensed with in favour of flip-flops/sandals on the day, and green hair would be provided via bad wigs. Green hair spray was considered, but I’ve seen the effects of hair colour not washing out by Monday morning.

Saturday tends to be the fancy dress day, so Friday afternoon involves getting to Hong Kong stadium as soon as you can work permitting and getting to the South Stand. The South Stand is 18 and over, and is the only stand you’re allowed alcohol in the seating area. As a result it would be classified as the ‘rowdy area’. The atmosphere is fantastic – it’s a mainly expat/tourist crowd, with plenty of sing-along music playing between games, and the nature of Sevens rugby being the games are played at a frenetic pace and over very quickly also. Very disappointing to see that Ireland were not represented though. After the rugby is over the idea is that most people head to the Sevens Village were yet more alcohol is available.

Waking up on the Saturday at about 8:30am with a hangover the mission is to get to the stadium before the South Stand is full. In previous years this is normally about 10:30-10:45am, so I’m aiming for 9:30am. My plan is not to be first – as sitting on my own dressed as an Oompa Loompa holds no appeal whatsoever. In fact, getting the taxi and having to walk up to the stadium is uncomfortable enough. I think I was about 4th Oompa Loompa to arrive – with no Willy Wonka in sight. As a result we look like 4 prats in brown t-shirts, bad green wigs, and strange white trousers… As it approaches 10:00am though more Oompa Loompas arrive (eventually about 20) as well as Willy Wonka (to provide the context for the rest of us). The South Stand is announced as full by 10:15 – before any rugby is played. To be honest, I don’t remember all that much of the rugby from Friday and Saturday – it was group qualifying stages and the main rugby is played on the Sunday. Leaving the Sevens Village it’s nice to see that taxi drivers the world over are really the same. I’m charged HK$100 for my short taxi ride home (normal price should be ~HK$25).

Sunday sees the Oompa Loompa outfit in the bin, and back to the stadium for about 2:30pm and heading to the West stand. I’d like to see some rugby, and with work the next day really can’t face another day in the South stand. England got eliminated by Tonga who they’d beaten the day before, New Zealand strolled their way to the final to face South Africa who had beaten Tonga in the semis. New Zealand haven’t been beaten in the entire world series, and a win here would wrap up the title for them. Unusually, they didn’t choke and thoroughly outplayed South Africa to win the title and series.

A thoroughly enjoyable weekend, although recovery time definitely recommended. Looking forward to next year’s Sevens already. Before then, in Novemeber, Hong Kong hosts a Bledisloe Cup match between the All Blacks and the Wallabies.

Macau follow-up

Unsurprisingly Macau felt like a wasted trip to me. My main reason for being there was to leave Hong Kong and re-enter under my now extended working visa. Upon reaching the immigration desk having returned from Macau and handing over my passport to the immigration officer expecting to get it stamped and updated I’m told this is unnecessary as it has already been activated when the extension was issued. So from that point of view it was an unnecessary trip entirely.

Of course I was also over in Macau to deliver a presentation – with the riveting title of Linux in the Enterprise – at a luncheon briefing for current customers or potential customers. I’m not really sure as I must admit I didn’t really pay attention when being ‘asked’ to do this. Bearing in mind other presentations I’ve delivered have felt like hard work, or had people dozing off, or just had no response at all from the audience I wasn’t exactly looking forward to this one either. Unfortunately this time was no different. Myself and a room of perhaps 20 people have 30 minutes of time wasted by me. I’m convinced either no-one listens or no-one understands what I’m saying (all other presentations are in Cantonese, and not in English with a slight N Irish accent). I know I can speak quite quickly when presenting and always suggest the audience ask if they want something repeated/explained. No queries or questions at all – I could be speaking to a blank wall and get more response. Slowly but surely any joy or confidence I have in presenting is being chipped away. Still it looks good for my employer to be able to wheel out a Brit to present, so I guess that’s why I’m there. Only one noticeable sleeper this time, so I guess that’s an improvement of sorts.

I’ve also had my main office of work shifted from the centre of Hong Kong (the originally named Central area) out to Tsuen Kwan O. After a bit of searching to find out where exactly this place is, I found it’s on the (east) Kowloon side and in the middle of an industrial estate. In fact, it’s not too dissimilar to Bracknell really. There’s an (unfunny) irony there to be sure. It also means my 20 minute stroll to work or 5 minute cab ride has become a 50 minute MTR swapping and shuttle bus trip. I also managed to leave my house flat keys in the office yesterday only realising when I was back at Admiralty MTR necessitating a full return journey back again. Much muttered swearing to myself as it was basically 90 minutes completely wasted.

On an unrelated note, I see that the Netscape browser is now officially dead. I first ran into Netscape at the university computer centre where it basically Netscape = worldwide web, and also meant I could waste some time playing networked Doom with my lab partner when we pulled an all-nighter to write up our boring dissertations in thrid year. It’s strange to think that from that initial exposure to networked computers I’ve now wound up working in Hong Kong in the IT industry. Considering my choice, I hope it’s a more interesting career than bouncing NO molecules off platinum (which I think was one of the dissertation subjects).

Off to Macau tomorrow

I’m off to Macau tomorrow. Two reasons for the trip really, number 1, I’m delivering another presentation excitingly about Linux in the Enterprise. No doubt this will be delivered to an entirely Chinese audience who I suspect will understand maybe 50% of what I say. I get the impression I get asked roped in to attend these events just purely to make an appearance as the gweilo who works for the company. Speaking to a few friends, this may actually be the case. This would also explain why I was asked to attend a presentation last Friday delivered by a partner company so that I could answer any questions that came up at the end. Another 2 hours of presentation to sit through entirely in Cantonese with no input at all required from me. It’s at times like these I feel most in a different country and culture.

The second reason for tripping to Macau is to leave Hong Kong and then re-enter on my updated work visa. This gives me the right to continue working here for the next year. It was a fairly straightforward process, just requiring proof from my company that I actually had a job. The only real complication was that my previous visa was only for 6 months, and the new one was looking for an additional two years. After phone calls with immigration, faxes, and letters sent back and forth I finally got my passport updated with the new visa… for one extra year. Something to look forward to doing again next year I guess.

The good news is the weather here is beginning to pick up and it’s feeling warm and sunny again. The winter here was considered to be very cold compared to recent years, but still nothing as cold as back in the UK. Coats and jackets can begun to be hung up until December or so with a bit of luck!

Rather not so good news is that it’s also that time of year to try and sort out tax. A job for some time next week to figure out what I need to do and so on… It should be similar, but less hassle, to the UK in that I’ll get to do another tax return. Can’t wait!

Kung Hei Fat Choy

Or as it translates in english – ‘Happy New Year’. My knowledge of Cantonese has expanded by a massive four words. It felt very weird to be celebrating a new year at the start of February, and we’re now into the year of the rat. There have been quite a lot of decorations up celebrating this fact, although some of the designs depicting rats looked more like mice to my eye. I checked this with one of my colleagues who is a local, and it was explained that rat and mouse are the same word in Cantonese, and I would guess Mandarin also. My attempts at trying to explain the differences between rats and mice weren’t particularly successful. I wonder if hamsters and gerbils fall under the same word?

New Years Day was on Friday 8th February and was marked by a fireworks display over the harbour, much like the 10th anniversary of the British handover was marked last July. They certainly know how to put on a good fireworks display over here, and I had a good view with a group of friends from the rooftop of one of their apartments in Causeway Bay. One nice part of Chinese New Year (abbreviated nearly everywhere to CNY) is the public holidays – Thursday and Friday of last week making for a long weekend. In fact, much like the UK at Christmas there’s a general slowing down of work in the lead up with noticeably less people about when going to and from work. A lot of businesses shut down as well and the whole city feels somewhat quieter. A lot of expats will book holidays round this period (the public holidays and booking extra time off make this an attractive option), and for the locals it’s a chance to spend time with their families. I’m already thinking that for next year I’ll be booking holiday, although I’m told it can be more expensive to travel at this time of year.

Apparently this Wednesday is the best luckiest day to return to work, according to some feng shui master anyway. Or so I was told this by a colleague from my office shortly before CNY. And walking into work this morning still didn’t seem to be back to it’s busiest on the streets. Needless to say, I’m back at work today as I can’t say I buy into all this feng shui stuff. Other local traditions seem to involve the giving out of red envelopes. Primarily, these are supposed to be given from married couples to the single people they know and should contain money. The act is supposed to be passing on good luck, or should that be fortune?, to the person receiving the envelope. Although it is also more of a general well wishing act to give out these red envelopes – I received one from a bookshop after buying a magazine. Sadly, the envelope did not contain money, but did have various coupons/vouchers to use. There are also quite a lot of small orange trees to be seen at various places. That’s trees with small oranges on them, as well as the trees being quite small themselves… In the local culture the colour gold is a sign of good fortune or prosperity and as oranges are close to gold in colour (yes, seriously, this is how it was explained to me) the small orange trees are meant to bring good fortune/prosperity for the year ahead. The significance of the colour gold also helps explain the number of jewelry stores with large amounts of rather brash gold jewelry in their windows. All very bling!

The whole envelope, gold, orange tree, feng shui stuff really does emphasise how superstitious the Chinese culture can be. I’ve also noticed an increase in the number of people burning stuff at the shrine outside my apartment block. I did look up my Chinese star sign. Being born in 1975 made me (just) the year of the Rabbit with the elemental sign of wood. Rabbits are indecisive, secretive, hyper-sensitive, complicated, aloof, gossipy, hypochondrial, naive, timid, gullible. At least those are the negative traits- on the positive side we’re the luckiest sign, creative, and sensitive to those around us. Although I was born on Chinese New Year’s Day of that particular year, so maybe I’ve gotten some of the previous year’s traits. I think everyone who knows me wouldn’t necessarily list creative as one of my traits. Just to show how inaccurate these things are; wood is negatively associated with anger and depression, but positively with patience and altruism.

If you’re suitably interested to find out your Chinese zodiac stuff, look here (new window). I’ve also applied to get my visa extended which will require a trip to Macau or elsewhere outside of Hong Kong once that is done. I’ll have to go through some kind of interview process though, as I’m replacing a short term visa (6 months) with a longer term one (2 years). With hindsight it probably would have been less hassle to apply for a shorter term extension and go through the process every 6 months or so. Still, at least this way once it’s done, it’s good for the next 2 years.

Writer’s block in the New Year…

I’ve been back in Hong Kong since Saturday 5th January, and there’s been a definite lack of activity on the blog. Probably more down to laziness on my part than any other particular reason. Although, I feel it’s been a pretty quiet time which is pretty typical for January. Definitely more of the calm after the storm of partying through Christmas and New Year. As ever, returning back to Hong Kong brought on the jetlag and I’m still figuring out the best way to get through this. I don’t think falling asleep at my desk at 3pm every day would be considered an acceptable solution. Having said that, as I’ve noted before, the locals here think nothing of putting their heads down at lunch time for a bit of a nap. They bring cushions in expressly for this purpose. How they manage to wake up at the correct time is a bit of a mystery, as I don’t hear a lot of alarms going off round about 1:30-2:00pm every day.

Just before returning back to the UK for Christmas/New Year I’d looked into joining a gym out here. I found I was definitely lacking fitness for hockey matches. I signed up for Pure Fitness at Kinwick Place a couple of weeks ago. It’s walkable from the office after work, is conveniently located, and not horrendously expensive. I have had to sign up for a two year contract though, which nicely complements the two year tenancy agreement I signed, and the two year Internet/broadband contract as well. Looks like everywhere likes to tie you into long term(ish) contracts over here. I’d toyed with the idea of entering the Hong Kong half-marathon but this is now fully subscribed so I’ve missed out on that opportunity. Next year it will have to be.

Since returning I’ve also bought a sofa for my flat so I can veg out in front of the tv more easily. The crappy and uncomfortable plastic seats supplied with the apartment can finally be hidden away in storage. Faced with the choice of going to a local furniture store, of which there are plenty on the nearest main road where I live, or going to Ikea in Causeway Bay… I went to Ikea. It was a lot less hassle, involving simply ticking a few boxes on a sheet of paper, and then arranging a delivery date. Ikea are also quite convenient in that they take EPS as a payment option. EPS stands for Electronic Payment System and is very similar to Switch/Solo in the UK, with one notable difference: hardly anywhere actually uses it! Sofa and table arrived last Wednesday, accompanied by three guys who promptly set about putting the sofa together. These guys work pretty quickly, and within 20 minutes the sofa was done. Unfortunately the sofa I picked was only available in white, so will undoubtedly be grey by the end of the year.

I have also managed to sort out a helper for my flat. By helper, I really mean cleaner. Fortunately, a friend who lives nearby has used this particular helper for years, so she comes recommended and is reliable. For less than £10 per week, I get to return to my apartment after hockey to find it has been cleaned, the washing up has been done, and the ironing done. This last one was a bit of a surprise to me this week, as I haven’t as yet managed to buy an ironing board. It’s another one of those challenges of living somewhere foreign as to figure out where to buy things. Back in the UK I’d go to what was previously called an ironmonger or hardware store, or failing that Argos. I’d not been able to spot an equivalent to these kind of stores before Sunday, so I had an iron, but no ironing board. I’m still not entirely sure how the ironing was done – however I have since found a local shop that sells ironing boards.

As a friend at the hockey club here put it when I mentioned the whole cleaning, washing up, and ironing being done aspect ‘I’m really getting into living in Hong Kong now…‘. I think he was only partially joking, as it seems lots of people employ helpers/cleaners/maids/etc.

I also got paid a bonus whilst I was back in the UK, so came back to find my Hong Kong bank account looking pretty healthy, which was convenient as my UK bank account wasn’t looking quite so healthy. I knew when I agreed to stay here I’d have to transfer money back every so often, so figured this was as good a time as any to figure out how easy it is. First obstacle was to get my Internet banking set up to allow money transfers (both overseas and to other local accounts). More form filling, and more waiting at customer services at HSBC. I’m slowly learning to not go to places with queues at lunchtime. Once that was done I had to wait for my security device to arrive through the post (techies would recognise the SecurID token). So HSBC HK Internet banking seems to be a bit more secure than that in the UK. Once in, filling out the money transfer information was surprisingly easy and straightforward (and in English). Even better, the fee was less than £10 and the money arrived in my UK bank account the next working day. And yet, money transfers in the UK still take ~3 days… weird.

Clearly being paid a bonus meant I had to buy myself something. I had that itch to spend some money, but couldn’t figure out what to buy. In the end I went for a Playstation 3, despite as mentioned in a previous post not being a gamer. I have, in fact, given the PSP I bought last year away to one of the hockey coaches as it was simply collecting dust. So far it looks pretty cool, and I’ve even bought one game for it in a token effort to make it practical. However, it’s also possible to have various Linux distributions running on it, so if I need to satisfy my inner geek I’ll maybe get round to trying SUSE on it at some point. Having gone through some of it’s settings last night it can receive media streams (you might want to browse elsewhere if media servers/centres aren’t your thing). Before coming out here I ripped my DVD (and CD) collection to hard disk so I could take my movies with me without needing to drag all the DVDs too. Quite impressively, I’m able to have these stream from my little NSLU2 storage unit to the PS3 and be displayed on my tv. At least now, if/when I don’t with games on the PS3, I’ll have an expensive media player and Blu-Ray player (I have, obviously, not bought any Blu-Ray disks yet). I’m also now hoping that Blu-Ray is VHS to HD-DVD Beta.

Oh yeah, weather has been cold enough to require jacket/coats in the evening, although I did get a bit of sunburn on Sunday whilst playing hockey. Air quality is totally rubbish right now though.

Last post of the year in Hong Kong?

Quite possibly the last post I’ll make in 2007 from Hong Kong, as I’m due to fly back to the UK on Friday 21st. Of course, my flight arrives from Heathrow after the last flight to Belfast has departed, so I get to spend a night in Heathrow before getting the first flight to Belfast. I fly into George Best Airport, or as surely everyone in Northern Ireland calls it, the Harbour Airport. I said in my last post that it doesn’t feel at all like Christmas over here, with a lack of over the top decorations and annoying music. That was a day before I had to go to Causeway Bay… It’s definitely decorated for Christmas there, and the first thing you can hear in the MTR station is Jingle Bells coming over the speakers in the station. Ho Ho Ho. Still, with blue skies and temperatures in the early 20s it’s still a little very odd. To get into the Christmas mood, I have mentally engaged into the pre-Christmas wind down at work though. I thoroughly recommend it.

I have managed to do no Christmas shopping of my own so far. I’m not the best shopper in the world at the best of times (except possibly when buying gadgets for myself), but the prospect of having to fight through the crowds at the same time as trying to figure out what might make a good present for people is not my idea of fun at all. When it comes to shopping my preferred method is to know what I’m going to buy, know where I can get it, go to the shop, and buy it as soon as I see it. Of course, I could possibly save a bit of money buying elsewhere if I traipsed round ten shops, however in my mind the time saving of not traipsing round ten shops is far more valuable to me. I suspect some people would see my viewing the additional browsing as traipsing as fairly negative, when I should see it as a chance to browse for other gifts, and generally enjoy the experience. Sorry, I just can’t do that very well. I can always pick up a tip from Stu, and do my shopping at the airport – as it seems I’ll have a bit of time to kill.

Once again, the Irish Sea is proving to be an expensive stretch of water to cross. How a flight from Hong Kong to London can be ~£600 return, yet a flight from London to Belfast can be ~£230 return baffles me. Some of it is due to the various taxes that have been steathily rising over the years, but even so, it does still strike me as a rip off. I can’t see the excuse ‘Sorry Mum, I’m not coming over as I’m being green’ getting very far with the parents in the future. By being back in the UK, I am missing the office Christmas party. This has been scheduled for Christmas Eve, and families have been invited. I suspect it will be very much like the ‘leaving’ meal I attended a couple of months ago, but I’m curious to know how it goes. If as expected it involves horrendous amounts of shellfish (again) then I’m not too disappointed to be missing it from a food experience perspective though.

The reason the leaving was in punctuation quotes above is, it seems as though leaving doesn’t necessarily mean not working for the company any more. I’ve seen the guy whose leaving dinner it was in the office when I’ve been back in almost every week. Yesterday, we were part of a presentation team to a potential customer. So, I’m somewhat confused as to what leaving actually constitutes – he’s still in the email address book, on Instant Messenger etc. Ideas anyone? (No Hotel California lyrics please)

My diary for the rest of the week is looking busy enough. Tonight is my last hockey match of 2007 – if we (the C team) can win we’ll be fourth in the table (sadly we lost to the last touch of the game on Sunday), then out for some pre-Christmas hockey drinks. Tomorrow night is a social night out in Wan Chai, where one of the bars offers any drink for HK$20, so long as it’s a Standard Chartered note. We’ve all been saving any Standard Chartered note we can lay our hands on at the hockey club. Thursday night could possibly be a meal in a Japanese restaurant on Kowloon side – although nothing is as yet confirmed. I intend to get time at the Temple Street night market to buy some tatty quality gifts for Christmas though.

Still alive

Despite the complete lack of activity on here for the past couple of weeks, I am in fact still alive in Hong Kong. I’ve just been rather lazy about updating the blog and not much out of the ordinary has actually been happening. That’s probably as sure a sign as any that I am now beginning to feel settled in over here. I took delivery of my suit on Monday 19th Novemeber. I’m pretty pleased with it – the trousers are maybe a little too long in the leg, although I haven’t made my mind up about that yet. Other than that it fits well and certainly seems to be well made and is lightweight enough for the climate here. About the only thing I don’t like about it is it’s got my name stitched on one of the inside pockets. A bit naff really, and makes it feel a bit school uniformy. I’ve been told by friends that this is pretty standard and if I were to get a tailored shirt I’ll have to put up a fight to not have it monogrammed. Terrific.

Trying to think of things that have been going on. The hockey rugby club I’m a member of hosted a street party in Lan Kwai Fong a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday night. The plan behind this is to try and attract new members to the club. At least that’s the theory. In reality it just seems like a good excuse to get the various sections of the club all out at once and drink as much reduced price alcohol as possible. Not sure how many new members we persuaded, but I think everyone present had a fantastic time hangover on Sunday. I had a return trip to Happy Valley races, courtesy of a friend who works at the Jockey Club. He’d been able to provide one of the corporate boxes to about 100 of us on a Wednesday night. For HK$330 we had as much buffet food and drinks as we wanted. As well as the opportunity to gamble on the races also. Unfortunately my luck in horse gambling continues. In the first race I had a total stake of HK$80, and had a horse I’d backed to place come in, which won me the grand total of HK$62. And that was my best return on the races for the night.

I was due to go on hockey tour to Bangkok at the end of November/start of December, but sadly that got cancelled due to lack of numbers, so my next travel will be back to the UK over Christmas/new year period. I’ll be back from the 22nd December to 4th January. Talking of Christmas, this is the first time I’ve spent time round Christmas time in a non-Christian country. There doesn’t appear to be the same ‘feel’ to the city as I’m used to. Of course, it’s not bloody freezing and wet here either, which I’d automatically associate with December. There’s also a less visible presence to Christmas, with more stores not having decorations than those that do. Of the stores that do have decorations, they tend to be of the ‘Seasons Greetings’ variety as opposed to the explicit ‘Merry Christmas’ type. A lack of annoying Christmas music is also a welcome relief. The stores that cater to the ex-pat community are, predictably, the one’s that have decorations, advent calendars, Christmas cards etc. for sale. In this environment they are even more obvious than usual. Likewise there are some decorated fir trees (HSBC main building concourse) and an archway over the main door (Bank of China tower), but nothing explicitly Christian in their decoration. I’ll have to sort out Christmas cards in the next few days or so I think, and then start hitting the markets so that I can buy awful Christmas presents… watch out Stu and Ang.

I’ve also (finally) sorted out a Hong Kong credit card and have arranged to join a gym when I return in the new year. I’ll look to sign up for the half marathon that is run in Feb/Mar of next year, so will have to hit the gym when I get back.

Suits you sir

I’ve decided to bite the bullet and sort out a tailored suit from the same shop where Dad got his jacket from whilst the parents were over. I headed over on Monday after work and was measured up in about five minutes with the various specifications for the suit taking about another further five minutes. There was no hanging around at all. I’m due for my first fitting after work today, and assuming all is well I’ll collect the suit on Monday. Total price is HK$2200 which works out at just under £150. I’ve never had a tailored suit before, so I’m pretty fascinated to see how the finished article turns out. Of course, once they’ve got your measurements it’s really easy to get subsequent suits and shirts created, so if all goes well I’ll probably sort out a couple more at a later date. The other alternative I’ve been told about is to take an example to Shenzhen where they’ll copy it for a lower price.

I’ve also got my Internet and TV services connected at home now. The PCCW now-tv engineer turned up at the allotted time and spent about half an hour or so connecting the phone socket up to an ADSL modem. It seems that both the Internet connection and TV signal are delivered via the same line, so it’s essentially broadband television which is a different delivery method to both VirginMedia (cable) and BSkyB (satellite) back home. No complaints so far and I do indeed seem to be subscribed to a variety of movie channels (multiple HBO channels, Star Movies, Cinemax, MGM, and TCM) as well as a lot of sports channels, and a range of entertainment channels with a variety of channels carrying American content (FX and Fox Crime) and some British content channels (BBC entertainment, BBC Lifestyle etc.). Similar to the packages I had in the UK, it means there’s an awful lot of channels carrying an awful lot of rubbish television. There also seems to be quite a lot of censorship on the channels, with only one of the HBO channels being listed as adult content and requiring the parental PIN. It seems the adult content means they can swear.

The PCCW engineer also seemed a bit bemused about trying to set up an ADSL connection from my Linux laptop rather than the expected Windows. This is obviously a worldwide experience, as NTL/VirginMedia basically offered no support whatsoever whenever you mentioned the L word. He showed me the connection working on his Windows laptop before leaving me to set up the connection under Linux. Actually, I didn’t care for connecting my laptop to the ADSL mode directly as I already have my own wireless router set up the way I want it, and as soon as he left set about connecting it. Hey presto! Within about fifteen minutes I had my wireless router up and running connected to the Internet.

I was also able to register the water service in my name for the apartment via the Internet so managed to save myself the half hour phone frustration of spelling out where I live and my name to yet another billing company. It has been a fairly productive week, as I’ve also now got sufficient salary history to apply for a credit card and get a savings bank account set up. At the end of last week I was playing for Valley C team versus the B team in a crunch match in the league. We started on 4 points to the 3 points of the B team (who had played one match less). These inter-club games are always competitive and so it proved on Friday night. However through some hard work and determination the C team played incredibly well to come through with a 3-0 victory. As you can imagine we were very quiet in victory and had an early night…