New apartment

Today was the big day. "Moving Day".

This morning I met the real estate agent and the landlord at the apartment for the handover. The agent went round the rooms checking and photographing everything while Edmund (the landlord) and I stood and chatted. Once she'd finished we both signed the forms without really reading them (hope they're correct), and that was that!

About half-way through the transfer, Crown started to deliver the boxes. The rooms started looking smaller and smaller as more and more boxes appeared in the room. And the boxes continued to multiply!

An interesting facet of life in Hong Kong was bought home to me tonight as I used the bathroom in the gym. Everything is automatic here. You don't need to flush the toilet because it's one step ahead of you (well almost) - all you need to do is stand up or step back, and the toilet thinks "that's my queue". Then to wash your hands, just hold them under the tap, and the tap thinks "now it's my turn". If you want soap (and you should always use soap), hold your hands under the dispenser and it turns on! Even the door to the changing rooms is automatic - even though it's a normal door with a handle! I am quickly coming to the conclusion that "time saving" is a national preoccupation. I'm a little worried that when we are back in NZ, UK (etc.), we'll be standing there wondering why the toilet is not flushing (broken?) and why you have to turn the tap yourself? And what's with the bars of soap?

The bed is assembled and made, minus pillows because we don't have them. The clothes are still in their boxes (no wardrobes or drawers) and the kitchen looks like a bomb-site. At least the BBQ fits on the balcony with a bit of room to look past at the boats as they go by! Once I get a minute on the weekend I will take and post some photos of the view. That is, of course, as long as the Typhoon warning signal does not escalate at the wrong time. Today the T1 signals appeared in offices and foyers of shopping malls and hotels. T1 means "stand by". If it escalates too much, we're supposed to retreat to our homes and shut the windows and doors.

Tomorrow morning brings a plane to KL, back on Saturday morning. Next week is looking like a tough one, starting on Sunday night with a flight to Jakarta, then Monday night to Tokyo. Depending on how the Monday meetings go, I'll either race back to Manila on Thursday for Friday meetings, or return on HK on Friday night.

As I write this, Cocktail is on - Tom Cruise looks so young! Still, it came out in 1988, so I guess he's now 18 years older.