Home Alone (well almost!)

It is Sunday night and Andrew is on plane to Mumbai. He arrives in the early hours of the morning and gets a few hours in a hotel before heading to Pune on Monday morning. Tuesday night sees him off to London and Saturday will see him home again (for 24 hour at least!)

That leaves me almost home alone. Jenny is here and seems to be settling in well. She does all our cooking, cleaning and errands as well as looking after the house and Sachi while we are away. She is possibly the most underworked Domestic Helper in the whole of Hong Kong, but we like her and it makes our lives here a whole lot easier. Sachi is of course home with us as well - as skittish as ever she still spends a lot of her day hiding in our wardrobe, but she seems to be slowly getting used to the new place

We goy blinds this weekend in the Living Room, Study and Guest Room. The bedroom still has 'newspaper curtains' as we want to re-use our Japan ones but need to get them altered first. Maybe this week :-)

We are thanking God that we were out of Japan before the big earthquake this week. We have managed to get hold of all our friends and colleagues now and they are all safe, but rather shaken by the whole situation. A couple of our expat couple friends were in the process of relocating from Japan for work reasons - I think they are all rather relieved now to be leaving. Andrew's Japanese colleagues described it as the worst earthquake they had ever experienced, so all in all it was rather unpleasant. Disneyland where I took Kyla was evidently flooded by first the liquefaction and then by the high tide cased by the Tsunami. That is a bit close to our old apartment for comfort!

We have been the last couple of weeks back to ECC - the church we attended when we were last in Hong Kong. It is great to be back in a such a vibrant church that is reaching out to it's community. There is a home group nearby where we are living, so we will try and get organised to go along to that. For the next 40 days the church is joining with 28 other churches in Hong Kong and participating in the Faith by Hearing program which involves listening to a reading of the New Testament for around 30 minutes a day - getting through the whole thing in the forty day period leading up to Easter. It will be good discipline and I am sure we'll learn lots - I need to get on and download the recordings.

That is about it for news. I am working here in HK for the next two weeks which is great - so nice to feel like I am spending more time at home than away!

Love xxx000

Sonia

Hong Kong Haze

Well ever since we (I) got here, it has been hazy. Whether it is cold or warm, the haze has really not seemed to shift. Although some element of that might be the tinted windows at the office?

Jenny (helper) is settling in, and it is wonderful not to be facing laundry, dishes, and other cleaning every night. Sachi is getting accustomed to having someone else in the house, and yesterday went so far as to attempt to nose her way into Jenny's room when the door was partially open. The multiple dogs in the complex are becoming more interesting rather than scary as it has become clear that they do not come through the second floor glass windows from a standing leap from downstairs.

I am back at the gym today for the first time in a couiple of months. Now to re-lose some of the calories that have crept back on in the interim period. I can certainly tell from the bike that I have lost some of my fitness. Level 6 on the bike instead of the 10 that I was doing before.

Sunday evening sees me heading off to Pune, India, and then on to London for the remainder of the week. Then the following Monday-Wednesday in Singapore, while Sonia heads off to Bangkok. She was intending to go to Bangkok today, but during an early morning phone call she managed to negotiate a delay.

We have a lounge chair arriving tomorrow, along with someone who will measure the windows for blinds. And Ikea will deliver and assemble a couple of cupboards and sets of bedroom drawers. Then a lounge suite arrives about two weeks later. So not too far off getting sorted. We do, however, need to sell the last wardrobes, which do not fit our lower ceiling.

Ok, enough news and workout, off to shower and go home.