The guided tour

Welcome to the 16th floor. As promised, I'll try to take you around as best I can. Remember, part of the deal was that we had to buy all of the furniture in the flat, so it might not be exactly how we would have things if we had started from scratch...

Let's start in the street. Here's what happens on Mondays, or 'delivery day'. The pavements get filled up with piles and piles of dried seafood, so the smell can get pretty strong. The second picture shows the stairs leading off the street and into our building.



We then arrive at the front door, which is hidden by a big sliding gate. Most flats in Hong Kong have one of these gates to slide in front of the front door once you are inside or when you leave, for extra protection. I think it might also have something to do with feng shui, but it's probably more about security.



Inside, the hall is lined with sliding mirrored cupboards, giving us loads of storage, but also making the corridor look bigger than it actually is.



You then have the bathroom, which includes a washing machine and dryer, a big sink and a fancy shower with lots of nozzles that I haven't figured out a way of using yet. From the bathroom you can go to the kitchen, which has two gas rings, a fridge, a microwave and a mini oven. This might seem banal to you, but in Hong Kong, it's luxury.



Moving beyond the kitchen bar we have a living room (shown here as it was before we moved in. It has a nice suede corner sofa and a GIANT tv (42"). Hopefully once our stuff gets here we can make it our own.



Here's a view of our bedroom. It is full of wardrobes at the moment (there is a LOT of storage here!) so it's a bit cramped, but at the end of May we will bash a door through the wall and create our big, beautiful master bedroom to make room for a guest bedroom where we are currently sleeping. By then our master plan will be in place and we will have lots of room and will never want to leave the flat again. Moua ha ha ha ha...



Of course, upstairs, there's the reason we actually moved in here, the roof terrace, complete with BBQ.



And finally the views. Inside, in the main room, the watchful eye of big brother IFC peeks into our kitchen while I stare back wondering why Krusty hasn't left work yet, and in the bathroom we get a preview of the open harbour views we get on the roof.



Now I just need to change absolutely everything and make it ours! I've already started picking up random stuff, like our menagerie, for example - some goldfish for the fridge (I don't think we're ready to take on the responsibility of living ones yet!) and a Hello Kitty doll that I got free at 7-11. Classy.