It has been almost 12 years since I moved away from Belgium. In these years I have met a number of very interesting people, from very different backgrounds and walks of life. Often i wonder whether I would have come across all these life stories if I had stayed in Belgium. I met people from all continents - Kenya, Brasil, Seychelles, Nepal, Australia, China, Japan, Russia, Norway, Japan, Dubai, Indonesia, Argentina, Tunisia, India, Israel, Philippines and may, many more countries. I've crossed path with people whose parents are from completely different countries. I've met someone whose father is Arab and Muslim, and whose mother is Russian and Jewish. I've met a Chinese guy whose mother is from Jamaica and whose father is from the UK. I've met British people who were born in Hong Kong, an Irish guy who was born in Israel and Filipinos born in the USA. I've met a Vietnamese guy who came to Hong Kong as a boat refugee when he was four and spent time in a refugee centre with his family. I've met people who left Hong Kong with their family when they were very young and moved to Australia or Canada because they were unsure of what was going to happen after the handover of Hong Kong to China. I've met a Canadian who lived in rural Japan for a few years. So many people, so many stories. And the best stories come from the people who moved around. Getting out of the country where you were born for a few years does broaden your horizon a lot.

Migraine

Many out there still seem to think that a migraine is a heavy headache and maybe a general not-feeling-well. It is far more than that. As a matter of fact, my migraine attacks are full body experiences and leave me exhausted. Usually for me a migraine will start with a feeling of pressure behind my eyeballs. It appears and quickly gets worse, to a point where it feels like my eyes are being pushed out of their sockets. By then a headache has formed that feels like a a ring of pressure around my head. Whenever I move my head, it feels like my brain is floating and bumping into the inside of my head. It does feel exactly like that - with a slight delay to the actual movement, as if my brain where floating or suspended somehow. Every move also comes with a humming sound, though it is not really a sound but rather a feeling that there is a sound. I can distinguish it from actual sounds I hear but seem to think of it as a sound. Imagine a sort of electric humming that flares up when i move and goes back to a more monotonous hum when I do not move. Sensory input gets magnified while I have a migraine. I get very sensitive to light and sounds, but my skin also gets hypersensitive. My boyfriend's beard touching my hand, for instance, caused me to recoil and the feeling got magnified to a point where it became really uncomfortable. When I brush my hand over the hair on my head it hurts. I try to move as little as possible during a migraine to avoid rubbing against sheets or clothes, and to avoid the humming sound flaring up or the bumping brain feeling. However, my muscles feel like I have been through a triathlon, that burning feeling you get after a thorough workout, and I tend to repeatedly tense the muscles in my leg to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling. Most of the time I spend sleeping, to shut off the sensory input. Doesn't always work, so I end up sleeping for a few hours and then wake up again. Overall it leaves me exhausted and I will be tired until way after the migraine has disappeared. Headache, yes. And then some.

Let's talk about my building.

Let me talk a bit about where I live. My flat is, by Hong Kong standards, large and cheap. There are a few reasons for that: it is in an old building, in an area that is yet relatively undiscovered by expats, and when I moved in it was in a horrible state.

This flat was was advertised in the window of a local estate agent for quite some time before I popped in and asked whether it was still available. Ten thousand HK Dollar for a thousand square feet did sound too good to be true, so I thought it was one of these 'bait' advertisings that estate agents use to get people to come in. Quod non - it was still available and when I asked what was wrong with it the agent said it had 'horrible decoration'. Images of fake marble and cheap glass chandeliers jumped to mind, but it turned out that the place was a) filty and b) sub-divided with plywood panels. When I say filthy I mean just that: everything was covered in a layer of caked on dust, and the kitchen walls were yellow-ish brown as a result of years of deep frying without and exhaust fan. The landlord does not care much about what happened with the place as long as rent is paid in time so I saw the potential. Took me a few hours to remove all the plywood as it was only screwed into the concrete beams and into the floor, and so I ended up with a large open space. Cleaning took quite a bit longer. I had to scrape the grease off the walls and use a steam cleaner to get the dust off the floors. It took time, but I got it done and I now live in a large studio flat with a rather industrial look and I absolutely love it.

The rest of the building, however, is not that nice. Without exception all the flats are subdivided into small rooms, most of them occupied by more than one person. If you want to get an idea of what we are talking about here check out the pictures in this link: http://hk-magazine.com/city-living/article/coffin-homes-subdivided-flats-and-partitioned-rooms-hong-kong The vast majority of people I know in Europe or the States would not ever get confronted with these sort of living conditions. It is cramped, uncomfortable and often unhygienic but this is the reality for hundreds of thousands of people in this ultra rich city. Wealth is spread in an extremely uneven way here and seeing these sort of scenes while the latest Lamborghinis and Rolls Royces whizz by outside makes me realise how incredibly well off people in Belgium (and most of Europe) are. Yes, there are poor people there too but not to the same extend.

More on this later, for sure.

Image from the SOCO/Publicis series. Check out the link higher up in my post for more pictures and background info. 

Maybe I should start writing again. I have been living my life here in Hong Kong for five and a half years now and I think I have become a bit too used to it all. Though I do continue to be amazed and fascinated by this place I have not been sharing it much. I think I should. For myself to read again later. For my family and friends in Europe to give them the chance to feel a bit more involved in what is going on with me on the other side of the world.

Will I keep it up this time? Who knows. Stay tuned.

Sexist

I'm considering starting to wear a skirt in the morning when I need to get a taxi. This morning a taxi moves towards me, and then suddenly changes its course and heads for the pretty girl in the red skirt on the other side of the road. At eight-something in the morning and before my first coffee that is bound to get me very, very annoyed. Sexist taxi driving pig. Grumble.

New gadget

Discovering iGoogle (yeah, I'm slow on the update when it comes to these things) and found a Blogger gadget that is now on my homepage. Hopefully that will prompt me to post something a bit more often...

My new favourite bit of Engrish

I may not have the leeks but I have the brian.

Spotted on a t-shirt in HK. Classic!!