FYI again

It did not snow in Seoul this morning. However it was very cold on the walk to the office (about 10 minutes down the street).

A note from Shanghai

Well my funny story for this week is that I got lost at the Crown Plaza Hotel. That is, my taxi dropped me off at a different Crown Plaza Hotel than the one I had checked into earlier that day... No wonder my key card did not work in the bedroom door... They all look the same honestly!! Am very pleased I worked it out before the staff had a too bigger laugh at my expense.

Anyway, all sorted now :-) I am happily sitting in the Shanghai Fudan hotel rather than the Shanghai Pudong hotel, and feeling none the worse for wear.

Shanghai is so different from Toyko. Development is going on all around, and everything is under construction. The roads a full of honking cars, and the pedestrians just walk out in front of the cars - adding to the reasons for honking. Toyko was so organised in comparison. Everyone (other than Andrew!) patiently waited at the crossing for the lights to change even if there were no cars coming. Here the more cars when you try to cross the better. If you flag down a taxi it stops in whatever lane it was in when it saw you - and you dodge the traffic (that is all honking!) to get into the cab. You feel like a real local.

Food here is so so cheap compared to Hong Kong - and plentiful. Out with work mates at lunch today in a nice Chinese restaurant cost RMB140 f0r 5 of us. That is less than six NZD each ...and we could not eat it all. When you realise that a Startbucks coffee (about the only type you can find in China sorry Paul) is about the same price it makes you realise why the locals think the western chains are so expensive. Frog was on the menu at the restaurant today (amongst the 10 or so other dishes they ordered). The little toads kept jumping off my chopsticks - man they are slippery! Not too bad tasting though :-).

Time for bed. Be good :-). Sonia

FYI

It was snowing in Seoul at 6:45 this morning.

Tokyo

We had a great day walking around Tokyo on Saturday.

Actually I should start with Friday first.

Sonia arrived in Tokyo at about two in the afternoon. That is, she arrived at the airport. By the time she got into town it was after four - it's about a 1.5 hour bus ride if everything is working properly. I was out of the office at a meeting, so Sonia decided to wait at Starbucks. In Japan, the automatic doors are slightly less automatic that you and I are used to. You need to touch a vertical strip on the door in order to instruct it to open. As Sonia stood there trying to figure it out, with the staff attempting to instruct her from behind the counter, someone else was leaving and opened the door. So Sonia managed to get in and obtain a coffee (and yes Paul, it's still called coffee, even at Starbucks).

I had arranged earlier for the consultants to head out for a drink after work to make sure they all get to know each other (we have a few companies working in the project). In the end they had turned it into a dinner instead. They were very concerned that it was at a local Japanese place and wasn't "flash and expensive". It was great to get the feel for the place - there were only four westerners there (Sonia and I, plus two french Accenture consultants). So Sonia had her first taste of Japanese business culture!

On Saturday, as I indicated earlier, we walked. And walked. And walked. And took the subway (you know - the one you see on TV where they push people on during peak hours). We started by walking from the hotel up into Akasaka, then across to the Imperial Palace grounds, and around to Tokyo station. By that stage it was time for more coffee at Starbucks, then off to find the subway.

We visited the Meiji Jingu shrine (most famous shrine in Tokyo, in honour of the Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken). It's in a suburb/district/prefecture (not sure what the correct term is) called Harajuku. Coincidentally it is the place that the teenagers dress strangely, which adds to the atmosphere. We have a few photos around there, including the gardens inside the shrine's park (Yen 500 per person to enter) where an older gentleman was playing the leaf!

Then we walked from Harajuku to Shibuya, with Sonia gaa-gaa'ing over the cute Japanese toddlers along the way. Given the low Japanese birth rate there weren't many, but those that were visible were cute.

The main intersection in Shibuya is the site of a great sequence in the movie "The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift". When I get the photos off the camera you'll see the mass of people crossing the intersection and you'll know which scene I'm referring to.

Then this morning we took the subway to Giza - expensive shopping area. Way expensive.

Sonia was packed off on the bus to the airport at 2:30, and I went to the gym. Exciting stuff.

I'll post photos here once I get the camera (Sonia's taken it back to HK with her).

Crowded House

For anyone who remembers Crowded House (the band) from the nineties: A story in the NZ Herald

Another Week Begins

Well it is the end of Sunday and I (Sonia) am home almost ready to head off to bed. Andrew left this afternoon to head back to Japan. He is away for a full two weeks this time - first to Tokyo, then on to Seoul and then ending up in Shanghai. I am taking Friday off work and flying out to Tokyo for the weekend (the advantage of Andrews's travel is a nice lot of airpoints I can beg from him!). I am then heading up to Shanghai for work the next week, so we will catch up again towards the end of the week. It is looking like the crazy travel schedule Andrew is keeping is going to keep up until around the middle of the year, so I am pleased I took the Prudential job and get to travel to the same countries at least some of the time.

We've also finally made Chinese New Year plans, and have booked tickets to Manila. It is only a two hour flight from here, and it will be good to catch up with Jonathon.... haven't told him we are coming yet, so hope he will be there :-). It has been funny trying to adjust to holiday destinations from HK - all the places we used to go are 3 - 4 hour flights away now so we need to find a new set of local places. It looks like Vietnam might be the place to go for beach holidays so we will have to try that out soon.

We went looking for cars this weekend - Andrew has big dreams for something flash. Time shall tell how high he manages to nudge the budget. I am getting much pressure to agree to another SLK.... what is it about boys and their cars? Surely if it gets you from A to B and keeps you dry and cool that is all that matters?

The other big adventure for the weekend was a trip to the driving range. I actually mangaged to hit some balls - maybe I could get keen on this silly game after all...

Finding a church is still giving us a challenge. We have been a couple of times now to one in the centre of town, and although the preaching is good and the people seem friendly it is rather more happy clappy than we are used to :-). We are trying to decide if we can cope with that or if we need to keep looking. We shall see.

Better finish up. It is about to strike midnight and I just might turn into a pumpkin. I will take the camera to Tokyo and post some pictures of our weekend.

Ohhhhhh - How Cute!

Article in the NZ Herald

Rain

Today it's raining - woke up this morning and looked out the bedroom window. Most days the visibility is limited by Hong Kong's smog problems. Even then, you can usually see the ships in the channel. Today, I could hear the horns of the ships as they passed, but could not actually see them.

Not that it was raining hard - it wasn't. However the rain seemed to be mixed up with general mist. Couldn't even see the lights on the bouys marking the channel through into Victoria Harbour. I would hate to be responsible for navigating one of those huge ships through the murk.

Saturday night Sonia and I went to the orchestra - they were playing a couple of Gershwin pieces (Rhapsody in Blue, and An American in Paris). Along with Ravel and something else that did not really stick in my mind. Not a bad evening, although getting home was a little fraught as we attempted to locate the entrance to the MTR in Tsim Sha Tsui. Not a logic layout. Comparing to the orchestra in Malaysia, I think we both rated Malaysia's better.

Interestingly, in KL there was a dress code - dinner suits, etc. In HK? Anything goes. Some of us were in suits/jackets, others were clad in jeans and t-shirts. And despite the repeated requests to turn off cellphones, pagers, and watch alarms (broadcast in both English and Chinese), some dipstick still left their's switched on. There really does seem to be a problem with some people's minds not engaging with their environment.

This week, Sonia has been in KL, flying to Bangkok yesterday. I'm sitting in the airport lounge (again) on the way to Bangkok. Returning on Friday night.

Met my old boss for coffee this morning. Great to catch up - he's helping us find a car, as he knows a lot of places around HK. We'll probably catch up on the weekend and take a look at some options.

Japan

Well, I was hassled by the relatives in NZ for always writing updates from an airport lounge. So here I am again - this time in the lounge at Tokyo's Narita airport. Listening to a podcast on the ipod (Christmas present from Sonia), sitting waiting for the boarding announcement.

This week has been very cold in Tokyo. When I landed on Monday evening it was 7.4 degrees. Later in the week I heard it was about 2 degrees first thing in the morning. Time for a coat or at least a scarf.

This week I've tried to learn a few words of Japanese. Since I'm in their country it seems only fair. Speaking to one of the guys in the office (who happens to be a Kiwi), he mentioned that the vowel sounds in Japanese are very similar to the Maori vowels. Apparently as a result it is much easier for the Kiwis to learn Japanese than for others.

Sonia was away in KL for the week, arriving back on Thursday. So I guess we went in roughly opposite directions this week. Anyway, they've just made the boarding call so I guess it's time to shut down and get onboard.

Photos at last

Well, we finally got the camera battery recharged after running it down over Christmas. Below are five photos that immediately stood out when we copied them off the camera. They are not in any particular order, but rather represent a cross-section of our trip back to NZ.

Lovely Lauren


















Father Christmas dispensing presents...



















King Daryl presiding at lunchtime, looking very pleased with the redundancy settlement.














Isn't Donald looking sweet?

Golf

Brrrrrhhhh!

Last night I caught up with a new arrival from Australia - he's working at the same company. We went to the driving range to demonstrate our respective forms (or lack thereof) with a club. He'd been to the range beforehand, while I had no idea what to expect. In the end, it turned out to be a city-style range (no grass), situated one MTR stop away from the office, then a three minute walk out of the station and across the road.

Major problem was the cold - it's become very chilly in the past week, with lower temperatures to come. The golf club charges for a bay by the hour, so you can hit as many balls as you can within the time limit. Not a bad way to spend some time, and the wind and cold meant that I did not work up a sweat. It did remind me that my persistent slice is still going strong. Not sure what I'm going to do about that, but something will need to be done!

First and foremost...

Still haven't got around to charging the camera, but we need to get the Eggs Benedict experience documented before the memories fade...

1. Cafe Extreme in Newmarket, next to 277 Broadway. It's somewhere that Jonathan introduced me to about 2 years ago when I had moved back to Auckland to live. We went there one day with Dad when Mum was away/out somewhere.

It's quite a large cafe, suprisingly so. The size of the room and relatively high ceilings makes it a little noisy, but the coffee is good. Not sure if Paul has sampled and agrees?

Sonia and I stopped at Cafe Extreme on one of the few times we were out on our own in Auckland. Eggs Benedict and Eggs Florentine were featured prominently on the menu, so of course I had to have it. The Eggs Florentine was the option that had smoked salmon, so of course that was the version that I had to select!

The eggs were cooked just right, but there was a little too much spinach attached to the dish. Not so much that I left it on the side like other places, but a little too much for my taste. The Hollandaise sauce was made with a lot of grain mustard, which made an interesting visual effect. The dish was drenched in sauce - a little too much really. The base was an English Muffin - which I think was toasted just right, but with the amount of sauce it was a little difficult to tell!

So to the scores:

• Eggs - 8/10 - seemed fine under all of the sauce
  
• Bread - 9/10 - see above
  
• Hollandaise - 6/10 - tasted great but a bit too much (which I managed to clear off the plate anyway)
  
• Coffee - 9/10 - very nice
  
• Ambience - 8/10 - a little echoy
  
• Total - 40/50

2. Verve in Parnell. This was a regular haunt when I stayed in the apartment in Parnell. Every Sunday morning for breakfast, with a great menu and excellent coffee (latte in bowls!). This time, Sonia and I took the parents out for Sunday lunch. Out of the six of us, three ordered Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon, and one ordered Eggs Benedict with Bacon. The other two piked out - bagel for one, and chicken livers for the other!

The bread was not a bagel or muffin, but was fresh and properly toasted. The smoked salmon was a bit of a suprise - not the usual thinly sliced cold smoked salmon. Rather, it was more like a salmon steak, which may have been hot-smoked? An interesting twist for a benedict-jaded pallet :-)

The atmosphere at Verve is a little more sophisticated than some of the other places - there are either couples with new/young babies, or grown-ups. Not a sproglet to be be seen. Peace, perfect peace....

On the downside, my eggs were almost solid. Bit of a shame - one of the three servings did have eggs done properly, so maybe it's the strain of so many egg dishes in such a small kitchen?

The scores:

• Eggs - 7/10 - overdone
  
• Bread - 8/10 - not a muffin or bagel, but nice enough
  
• Hollandaise - 9/10 - fine
  
• Coffee - 9/10 - very nice
  
• Ambience - 9/10 -very nice, but a little loud
  
• Total - 42/50

Very concerning that Daryl & Sharon's place is still winning - despite the issues with the ambience!

We're back

Safely in HK after a fairly uneventful flight from Auckland. Flying to HK is certainly easier than flying to NZ - the time zone change and flight times work much better.

Anyway, time for work. More later (including photos if we can find the charger for the camera).