Delivery!!!!!!

PAUL I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUU!!! Anyone who sends me a box full of Belgian chocolates, biscuits, sandwich spreads and chocolate bars is my very best friend :)

Well ok, my best friends are black and they are called called Leonidas, Godiva and Neuhaus, hehe

wardrobe, table, couch... getting there!

Bought, delivered and installed this weekend: my brand new sofa, wardrobe and desk.

Wardrobe is nice and large, with mirror doors (Pax Vikedal, from our Swedish friends at Ikea). The desk comes from the same place. Large and eeerh... affordable.

See pictures for sofa; it's only when I had already made up my mind and decided I liked it enough to buy it, that I found it actually folds down and turns into a guest bed. It was also reduced from 6999 to 4999 - unless I wanted to order a new one. Let me think: order a new one that is exactly the same as the one that was standing right there, pay 6999 and wait 6-8 weeks for delivery, or buy a perfectly fine piece at 4999 that can be delivered the next day? Right.

So yes people, Hotel Hong Kong is now open, please book in advance in order to avoid disappointment. :)

Ne gekko in mijn kot!

Yep, on sunday I had the first gekko in my apartment. Not that I mind, I've always liked reptiles and gekkos eat insects. Not sure though what would have happened if this one had encountered a cockroach. The poor thing was smaller than the average cockroach here in Hong Kong :)

Customer Support - HK

A source of great fun - and frustration - are the customer support departments of companies in Hong Kong. They probably are perfect if you're fluent in Cantonese, but when English is your only option it becomes a bit more tricky.

Take PCCW, the phone company, for example. After pressing '1' for English, you are guided through a whole phone menu to make sure you speak to the right person. So after a good couple of monutes of selecting 1 for English, then go for options 5, 4, 3, 7 and 9, you get to talk to an operator... who doesn't speak English :)

Another one: Watson's Water, the supplier fo the water fountains. I tried to order online, but was told I need a PIN number. Tried to call them in order to obtain my PIN number. There is no option on their menu to do this, but for about everything you want to do - and this includes talking to the customer service department - you need the PIN number.

auch

Problems with the water supply in my area last night. My landlady called the water company and was told that there wouldn't be any water until at least 10am today. In order to be able to take a shower, I went swimming in my local swimming pool. Great pool - 50m, open air, not very busy at 730am except for a bunch of old men. Old people seem to be incredibly fit here in Hong Kong. When i came out of the building I saw an old geezer put his leg on a wall that came up to his chest, and then he started stretching like we was preparing for the Beijing olympics. Respect!

After feeling pretty awake for the first hour after finishing my laps around this olympic sized monster, I now start aching about everywhere. So true what they say about swimming: it's a workout for your entire body. Or as my colleague put it: swimming in the morning, crippled in the afternoon!

Definitely need to keep this up :)

raindrops...

Last friday we had our first typhoon warning for the season. They've got level 1, level 3, level 8, 9, 10 warnings. Level 8 means you go home, companies get closed, public transport comes to a halt. Level 9 and 10 basically mean you hold on to whatever you have and hope for the best.
This time we reached level 3. This means that the typhoon is still far away (about 800km from Hong Kong on thic occasion) but you need to be aware of it in case it changes its direction and comes towards Hong Kong. It also means you get to experience some typhoon-related weather: heavy wind and heavy rain.
Heavy rain! My word, I haven't seen rain like this in a long time, if ever. Hard hard hard rain, without a break or without going softer or into drizzle for a while. Apparently there are levels of rain as well: amber, red - and black. Saturday was black. Had the time of my life! Put on shorts, put on flip flops, grabbed an umbrella and went out to buy stuff. Got absolutely soaked after a couple of minutes but it wasn't cold so I didn't mind. Actually, I loved it, felt like a big kid :)
The next day it was warm, sunny and humid again, as if nothing happened.

Things not to do in the morning in Hong Kong

A couple of things you should not do in Hong Kong in the morning on the way to work:

• Don't rush: makes you sweat and you arrive at work with your shirt soake
• Don't take a hot shower: makes you sweat
• Don't take the tram: it is slower than you think, so you have to get off and take the MTR. The running makes you sweat.
• Don't take the bus: the nice, orderly queue is endless so you're at risk of running late. You choose to go to the MTR instead. You sweat.

As a matter of fact, whatever you do in the morning, you sweat. Best thing to do, I guess, is to take five shirts to the office on monday, go to work in shorts and a T, and change upon arrival.

Off the beaten track....

In between work, the apartment and the shops I do manage to get some minor sightseeing done. Nothing major, but still:

I walked down the stairs that were used in 'In The Mood For Love', for the scenes where the girl goes out to buy noodles. It is one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen, so even though the stairs aren't that much of a sight it's just nice to know.




Had dinner at Cafe de Goldfinch, where scenes of '2046' were filmed. Sequel to 'In The Mood For Love' , still haven't managed to see it till the end but I feel the moment is near.

Last but not least, I was in the building from where the SARS epidemic spread in Hong Kong :) The whole building was closed for weeks, they desinfected everything... This is what I found on Wikipedia:
"In Hong Kong the first cohort of affected people were discharged from the hospital on March 29, 2003. The disease spread in Hong Kong from a mainland doctor on the 9th floor of the Metropole Hotel in Kowloon Peninsula, infecting 16 of the hotel visitors. Those visitors traveled to Singapore and Toronto, spreading SARS to those locations."

Found a place to live!

Tonight is the night... after work I am signing the contract for my apartment in Hong Kong! Very pleased about that, it means my nomad style living is coming to an end. When I first arrived in Hong Kong I stayed in a hotel for two weeks. After that I cold stay with my colleague Robin for a week, until his in-laws arrived last saturday. I then found a serviced appartment where I was going to stay for a month, but the same day I came across the apartment I am going to rent. So for the past few days I could stay with another colleague instead of having to pay for the serviced apartment.



The apartment is in Tin Hau, vlakbij Causeway Bay which is one of the busiest areas in Hong Kong. The contrast could not be bigger though. The neighbourhood is an oasis of low rise buildings in a city where 30-40 floors is becoming the norm. I am on the top floor of a 5 storey building. No elevator. Downstairs is a car repair shop, just like there is in most of the buildings in the area. The people work on the streets, they know each other, this is a neighbourhood with a social feeling that has become very rare in this megacity.



A bit more about the apartment itself. Surface is 600 square feet. Living room with wooden floor. Two bedrooms, one with windows on two sides (no tall building next to mine so i have corner windows) and another one, slightly smaller, with one window. Kitchen is basic and has a strong 70's design: green-yellow structured tiles with the occasional bunch of grapes. Dito decoration for the bathroom, but it has a separate shower area which is not always the case in these old chinese buildings.



Nice bonus to all this is that I have the exclusive use of the rooftop terrace right on top of my apartment. It's about the same size as the apartment itself, and the cables and tv antenna make it the perfect starting point for an über-cool urban hangout. Pictures will follow once it is ready!



In a bid to be one person in this ecological disaster of a city who actually recycles, I will try to use recycled materials and second hand furniture as much as possible. I'll be the king of DIY - trying to keep Ikea at bay.

Noémie

Tu nous manqueras, ma belle. Je ne sais pas ce qui t'empêchait d'être heureux, mais j'espère que t'as trouvé ce que tu cherchais.

You passed away too soon - only now I realize how little I knew you. You leave behind a group of people who loved you regardless, loved you for who you are and for the love you gave to all of us.

Rest in peace, Noémie.

HONG KONG

HONG KONG... I went on a holiday and came back with a job. If all goes according to plan, I should be living and working there by the end of February.

The story? Last month I went on a holiday to Hong Kong. The place had been fascinating me for a long time, quite a fez examples of world class contemporary architecture can be found in that city. Last June a friend of mine went and seemed to enjoy the place, so when I was told at work that I had about two weeks holidays outstanding I went to have a look at the ticket prices. Wasn' bad at all (335 quid return, long live Oasis Hong Kong Airlines!) so i booked. I knew that the company I work for was opening an office there, and one of the managers involved in the project was a Dutch guy I had been dealing with over the phone and by e-mail. So I sent him a message, told him I would be there and would love to see the office (hey, curiousity, you know how it goes!)

We agreed to go for lunch on monday, the day after I arrived. There Joris told me they needed more people, and asked me whether I was interested. I did like the position, but I had been in HK for less than 24h and I first wanted to find out whether I liked it or not. After lunch we went to see the office (33th floor, great view!) and it turned out one of the directors - a woman I know from being around in the London office - was there that day. She sat me down, gave me more details about the job, and then they asked me to tell them by friday whether I wanted to do it or not.

For four days I have been walking around the city asking myself if I could live there; I called my sister and a few friends in Belgium and London for advice; I met the other guys from the company who arrived on wednesday. And then I said yes.

So now the visa application is being reviewed by the company lawyers, and will be sent out next week. I will be working in my current position until January 18th, and then I get one more month of training before I move over there.

Exciting? Very! I am really looking forward to it, but at the same time I do get nervous sometimes. There is so much to think about and so much to arganize before I leave. Need to organize some sort of party or gathering for my 30th birthday as well, not sure whether I should combine it with my leaving due or not...

HONG KONG!!! Wooohooooo!!

Spot the similarity...

Thanks Peter, for pointing this one out...

OFFICE MOVE - THE TUBE

The company I work for has moved out office from Piccadilly Circus to Tower Hill. For those amongst you who don't know these areas: the former is in busy interesting lively Soho, the latter in dull boring dead Tower Hill. Yes, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge are right next to the building. I agree, these are beautiful constructions and definitely worth a visit, but... They don't have the same impact on my happiness as a large amount of shops, supermarkets, cafe's, bars, take places and restaurants. These are the things you need close at hand during the week. Plenty of them in Soho, right on your doorstep. Almost none in Tower Hill.

And then there is the Tube. Before I could take the bus to work, nice and easy, got to see something as well. Now? The Tube. IT IS A NIGHTMARE. I get on in Kennington, where the train is already full. The only way to get on is to press myself into the crowd and then bend my head so the doors can close (these trains really were built for midgets). What follows then is a ride from hell in an extremely un-ergonomic position, pressed between other victims. Sweating is unavoidable so I arrive at my desk with my shirt sticking to my back and my coat hanging open, thus catching colds as well. I'm not yet mentioning the mood it gets me in. I hate it with a passion you can only begin to imagine. As soon as my cold is better, I will try to cycle again. Keeps me fit and at least I have a reason to sweat then. Tube at rush hour? Horrible.

MYSPACE

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am no longer a Myspace virgin. At last I created an account, and even though there isn't much to it yet I am willing to explore. You can now become my friend on www.myspace.com/kitanlondon

SNAKE 'N SINGIN

As seen on the streets of London...

Met up with Anita on sunday, in Brixton. While I was waiting an old, half toohless black man came by, with a snake on his head. A living snake. Quite a sight.

Earlier that weekend I was waiting at the bus stop, and four men passed by. Four fully grown men, singing 'Tomorrow' from the musical Annie. They sang loud, full of confidence and in perfect tune. Gotta love London :)

A nice one from my collegue Jamie:

I am slightly sceptical about verbal confirmation.
In this day and age it isn't worth the paper it's written on.

Lunch

So funny when you see a guy coming out of one of the many sexshops in Soho and looking down to check whether he has a hardon, thinking no one has noticed :) As seen while i was walking back to the office after lunch with my collegue Anita.

Nice lunch break indeed. We walked past Prowler, the gay shop in Soho, and there was a really hot guy standing there talking on his phone. From the looks he gave me when he walked into the shop I could tell he was interested so I went into the shop with Anita. He smiled at me, we had an eeeeehm... nice conversation, and that was it :) I didn't get his number or name, but it still was an ego-booster and it made my day, hehe.

Stabbings

Things are heating up in London... Earlier this week a woman got stabbed to death at the end of my street in Vauxhall. No reason, just a random attack. This took place only a couple of hundreds of meters from the spot where some months ago a 15yo boy was stabbed to death by a gang of youngsters, also without any reason.
When I went to work this morning, the street where I work was blocked off by police. Apparently someone had been stabbed to death just outside the door of the building where our office is. About a month ago, someone got stabbed to death in front of the door of our other Soho office.
It seems like these random outbursts of violence are becoming more frequent. Very exciting, but worrying when you think about it too much. In the context of a city like London, these things seem to blend in and are pushed to the dark corners of your memory rather quickly. In a country like Belgium, less eventful, they linger on for a long time and people actively remember them for much longer.

Cornrows

After I put my picture of me with cornrows on the internet I started to get messages from black guys calling me a wigga. Yes, it’s a ‘black’ hairdo, but does that mean only black guys should have it? I don’t understand how on one hand the same guys are saying they are second class citizens and they are not treated in an equal way by society, and at the same time they try to separate themselves by opposing others who take over or flirt with their style or traditions. Put it this way: this is London 2006. It’s a city where so many people from so many different cultures and backgrounds live together. Isn’t it normal there’s going to be some crossover? Isn’t it even desirable that will happen?

one of these days

Got this by e-mail from my collegue Anita this morning, got me in stitches.

And...
Less than four hours til lunch;
Less than three til bathroom break;
Less than two til coffee break;
Less than one til boredom sets in….. ooops, too late - boredom has arrived early this morning :-)