My day so far

This morning I was standing waiting for a taxi when I realised just how noisy the street actually was. It's odd that I am so used to the boisterous nature of this city now that I don't really notice it anymore, but today I had one of those out of body experiences where you realise just how insane the world surrounding you is. I took a picture on my mobile phone to demonstrate my point - the man pushing the trolley of dried seafood boxes is in fact in the middle of the road, behind me is an open hole in the tarmac where sparks are flying, the tram comes past while a bus overtakes... Anyway, you can imagine the volume of sound at this precise moment...



And just when I thought the streets of Hong Kong couldn't get any crazier, I arrived in Times Square, close to my office, and saw the Christmas decorations for 2008: a selection of creations from local celebrity illustrator Carrie Chau, with overblown little girls blowing trumpets with strange hats under gothic bare white trees. So strange. And yet - perhaps I have been here too long now - I found this really enchanting, and it made me dream much more than a green fir tree with red baubles would have. Have I gone mad?

The beast's baptism

Yesterday morning I got up at a leisurely hour for the first time in weeks. The sun was shining, everything was perfect. I stepped in the shower, thinking about what we should do for the day, but then I stepped out to a whole new reality... There was Krusty, with a huge grin on his face, introducing me to a giant army green gas ring burner that he had had time to buy while I was washing.

I spotted the cool Colombians Paola and Ignacio in the background, and understood that this was for the Paella Ignacio had gracefully offered to cook for us the next day. Just cooking it the normal way wouldn't have been enough for Krusty, though. He wanted more than just normal flames.

And so we set off to find a pan that would fit the burner. Wandering through the back streets of Sheung Wan, past the noodle shops and the bird sellers, P&I introduced us to a fabulous kitchen shop that seemed to have every pot under the sun... except for the one we needed of course... As if that's ever stopped Krusty! As we gave up, he disappeared into the back with the shop keeper, and came back out brandishing a huge tin, saying "It's perfect!"

And it was. Today we made paella for the masses, eating delicious helpings of it ourselves, but the eight of us not even managing to finish the dish.

The beast has had a Spanish baptism, now we have to find some other uses for it. We are thinking of starting a cooking club - each week someone finds a different use for the pan. Krusty has already declared that his week he will cook English fry-up for 10...

Ah the things you can do on a rooftop in Hong Kong...

Today's taxi ride

As I jumped into today's taxi, the driver said “Welcome missy!” and I felt so happy. The radio was off, the phone was not attached to his ear, and he said thank you about ten times before we set off.

I really needed that kind of refuge this morning, too – the little boy in my building who recently told me I was very big decided to go one step further, asking me during our usual lift ride, “Are you a witch?”

I almost replied “Yes and I am going to put a curse on you” but I decided against it. Although as I was waiting in the middle of the street between roadworks, speeding buses, trams, and trolleys full of dried seafood deliveries, I was already drawing up the recipe. “Tail of newt, fin of shark, tail of turtle...”

Cackle cackle...

Warning: intolerant rant coming up

Taxis are very, very cheap in Hong Kong. So cheap that to avoid someone stepping on my toes and breaking them again, I have been avoiding public transport and paying the 5 pounds a day needed to get to and from work in a red Toyota Comfort.

I feel guilty indulging this way, but not only is it necessary when I see the crammed buses and trams going past me while I sit in air conditioned luxury, it has also afforded me a cute snapshot of HK society.

Some drivers are polite, overly so in some cases. Others scream conversations through the radio. One morning, a driver was turning those metallic Chinese balls in his hand, proving that those souvenirs people bring back from Asia aren't complete tourist traps after all. Most of them have their radios on very loud (and anyone who has ever heard Cantonese radio will know how annoying this can be first thing in the morning – they like to put a song on, and then make comments all the way through it). Most are also on the phone, so as well as the radio I get to listen to loud Cantonese conversations, too. And the one I am typing this blog from has a row of statuettes of grotesque, cartoonish women with ginormous breats, one of which has a pair that jiggles with the motor's vibrations...

All of them make me nauseous really, or is that just the fact that I am using my computer in a moving vehicle?

Or perhaps it just because I am intolerant. Krusty tells me I have an illness which makes me hear more than others. Maybe. But I just think people are a little rude sometimes...

My bootie

I have been meaning to lose a bit of weight for the wedding, and now that the depressed guilty eating has subsided (I'll never make it... ooh is that cake?!), I have found the way to diet: I don't have time to eat anyway!

I have been coming home at around 9/10pm, when it's not 11, and then finishing off jobs I had started for other people. Sleep has become a rare, precious commodity, as has free time for that matter. Even if I do become an anorexic waif for the big day, the bags under my eyes are going to be so black no one will notice...

Which is why I had such a great time last night! Two other girls and I got together to have a Stitch and Bitch, and it was exactly what I needed. Apart from the fact that one of the girls taught me how to knit little booties for babies, and now my hormones are a'raging. And right now I have absolutely no problem with the idea of being a desperate housewife, knitting, cleaning, and cooking all day...

But look how cute! (I didn't make these particularly good ones I'm afraid, my "teacher" did...)

No time to blog

I am SHATTERED...