Grammar

Some kind soul pointed out that my last post was a little disappointing on the grammar and plural/singular. However they omitted to sign their name, so I guess I will not be able to publicly flame them!

My only excuse is that it was late, I was tired, and I was trying to talk to Sonia at the same time. When I re-read the entry today, it was pretty poor!

Altura

About time that I wrote a story about the visit to Altura in Auckland. Actually, technically speaking it is in Albany. Altura has been a long-time favorite for coffee and breakfast. They roast their own coffee, so the place usually smells good.

Anyway, we went there with Sharon, Sandra, Jayna, plus Mum & Dad. The Eggs Benedict was always one of my two favorites, the second being Sweetcorn Fritters. In keeping with tradition I went with the Eggs Benedict, thinking ahead to this blog entry.

Altura-style Eggs Benedict is delivered on an English muffin, with a hash brown in the middle, plus smoked salmon and the usual eggs. My memory told me that this was a treat to be looked forward to, however in the end it was a little bit of a let-down.

The hash-brown was a bit too light on the "brown" side. A few more seconds in the deep fryer would have made a world of difference. And the hollandaise sauce was a little thin on the ground. Other than that it was fine, but as I said it did not really live up to the memory.

So, the scores:

• Eggs - 9/10 - nicely runny but the whites were done just right
  
• Bread - 9/10 - nice English muffin
  
• Hollandaise - 7/10 - was fine but it needed some more
  
• Coffee - 8/10 - the coffee was ok
  
• Ambience - 7/10 - on the hot side with not enough ventilation and a bit noisy/echo-y
  
• Total - 40/50

So in summary, it was good but not as good as I recalled.

The dream is over

Well, the holiday is, anyway.

Both of us are back at work now. We flew out of Melbourne, Sonia leaving on Tuesday afternoon, and Andrew on Wednesday morning. Sonia flew back to Bangkok, without the excitement of the trip to NZ. I flew to Tokyo and today was back at work. Both of us managed to get upgrades using points, so the flights were easier this time. I managed to watch four movies on the way.

Arriving back last night I walked from the bus dropoff point to the apartment, passing a side street. Normally the side street is fairly barren, however this time it was covered in cherry blossoms. The trees that line both sides of the street turned out to be cherry trees! This weekend I will endeavour to get out with the camera and get some nice shots.

Back to the routine tonight, with a dinner of chicken and salad followed by a visit to the gym. Luckily, I managed to only gain about 1/2 kg over the holiday, so the visits to the gyms in the different cities paid off! Daryl - you need to catch up!

Sisters!

Who needs them?! Well in the end I was lucky enough to get three seats to myself - the 747 was far from full. So I managed to sleep a reasonable amount between Tokyo and Brisbane (skipped breakfast). Then a shower at the first-class Qantas lounge before catching the 2.5 hour flight to Auckland. M&D were there to meet me, and waited while I waited for Hertz to get themselves sorted out. After getting the car, we then took 1.5 hours to get to their place. Auckland traffic is terrible.

Writing this quick update from the hotel in Queenstown where we arrived on Saturday around midday. Saturday afternoon was off to Cromwell for lunch and a quick look around. Including a stop at the dried fruit stall. Dinner last night at Wai, which was not bad. Interesting to eat NZ-style food again after so long in Asia and particularly in Japan.

Today started with breakfast at a local cafe, then off to Arrowtown. Dinner at home in the hotel room (kitchenette included) after a workout at the gym. Well I worked out, Sonia just mucked around and giggled a lot. Amazing how someone that old can still giggle...

Tokyo: Narita Airport

Well, this comes to you from the Qantas lounge at Narita airport in Tokyo. Last update before I get on a plane to Brisbane and then on to Auckland. Dirtbags that they are, the Qantas flight is operating by JALways, which means that I was unable to use airpoints to upgrade. And that means that I expect to arrive into Auckland late tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon, grumpy, smelly, and generally unimpressed with Qantas. The only non-Qantas flight and I end up on it!

GRRRRRRRR

Oh, well. See how it goes. Sonia says the planes are nothing flash. The Qantas lounge is not full, so hopefully this means I might be lucky and have an empty seat (or two) next to me. In that case I stand a small chance of getting some sleep between here and Brisbane. Then I have about an hour to transfer to the flight from Brisbane to Auckland, hoping all the while that my bag manages to make it onto the same flight. Then, on arrival in Auckland, negotiating the travails of the Hertz counter (has anyone ever had a good experience with car rental companies at the tail end of a long-haul flight?) before a 1-hour (or more) drive out to Kumeu.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

By this point in the narrative, astute readers will have worked out that this part of the holiday is not working out right!

Small consolation that Sonia's flight from Bangkok to Sydney is delayed (but not enough to preventing her making the connection to Auckland).

More once we get to the end of this trip....

Saturday

Well Saturday involved a very long walk. Initially I figured on walking to Tokyo Midtown to find a birthday present for day. According to his postal order, I was to find a small brass object representing something traditionally Japanese. In the end I walked a very long way. I made a map of it:


If you have trouble seeing this online, Click Here to see the full-size map. It also shows the names of the places I stopped or walked past.

Hong Kong

Well we were back in HK on the weekend - Sonia needed to sort out her Bangkok work permit.

I took the opportunity to take eight pairs of suit trousers and three suit jackets in to the tailor to get them altered. Too big for me now! Unfortunately the trousers and jackets are all still in HK, as it was a bit tight to get it all done between Friday morning and Sunday midday. However, they have been delivered to Sonia's hotel room, so I guess I'll have them back soon. In the meantime I'm down to one suit and one jacket. The joys of shedding weight!

HK itself was smoggy on Friday - a horrible reminder of the high levels of pollution compared to Tokyo. It was good to get back here with clear air and cooler weather. Sonia leaves HK tomorrow, having flown in on Saturday and needing two business days to get her visa sorted out.

Right - off to the gym again...

Holidays

Well the holidays are coming up fast, which means we spent time this weekend looking for presents! Saturday was another trip to Costco, where Sonia was determined to wander around every aisle looking longingly at the merchandise on display. Luckily for the bank balance, Sonia was aware that we had to be able to carry it all home in our arms, and thence to NZ on a small baggage allowance. So in the end the damage was not too bad, albeit we did end up buying an iPod Touch. Which did hurt the bank, but not the baggage.

We now have bookings for rental cars for the two weeks in Auckland, and the flights and hotel in Queenstown are also sorted out. Next is the accommodation and car in Melbourne. We hope to get the chance to drive the Great Ocean Road. I must confess that this is something that I have heard a few mentions of but don't know the details, so it could be great or could be a great waste of time.

This Thursday I'm off to HK for a long weekend while Sonia get's her Bangkok visa renewed. Friday will be spent visiting the tailor, a colleague or two, and a couple of headhunters (I need to arrange the appointments tomorrow morning). Hopefully also get a chance to visit one or two of the restaurants we like. Oh, and sort out the mail forwarding from HK to the company office in HK.

Kawagoe

Saturday saw us going out to a less-known town/suburb called Kawagoe, which one of our NZ/UK friends had seen in the paper and decided to have a look at. Turns out to be an area where some of the streets and buildings are relatively preserved. Relatively as in some of the buildings are pretty old wooden creations with narrow stairways, etc.

There is also a street where a bunch of candy/sweet-makers have their stalls/shops. Japanese sweets are a little different to what we're accustomed to, and while nice are less sugary sweet.

As we walked on down the road, passing an old wooden bell tower, we noticed a shop selling japanese hanging scrolls. Sonia immediately fastened her eyes on one of the pictures, and after looking at about 10 other ones (which the shopkeeper had to unpack from the boxes and hang for inspection), we finally settled on the first one and purchased. It's going to need a pretty tall room, with very plain walls/furniture to show it off to best advantage. Warning to all nieces and nephews: your fingers will be broken if you touch it!

Unfortunately the scroll was packed into a fancy wooden box before I thought to take a photo. I'm not sure when or if we will get up the courage to unpack it before we have a room to hang it in...

Oh, and as we were walking down the road in Kawagoe, it snowed again - only for 10 minutes this time, but there wasn't any snow in the forecast!

Lunch was sushi (very nice), and dinner was Udon noodles (good, but not as good as lunch).

Pictures

I managed to get some photos off my phone onto the PC. First, picture of the sushi plates stacked high after lunch yesterday.

Lights at Christmas time in Roppongi Hills complex.
Then a shot I got of a dog standing up on the chair at Starbucks while it waited for it's owner to return with coffee. I guess it was a cold day so maybe it was hanging out for a grande mocha latte?

And a couple of photos of kangaroos in Perth. At least they are kangaroo sculptures.
Sonia having breakfast in the sun at the Bed & Breakfast that we stayed at in Margaret River.
And another picture of the hire car - just before we gave it back.

Snow, Costco, and にほんご

And even more snow last night. It was forecast and we wondered all day when it would arrive. At about 7pm last night we looked out the window and saw that it was finally snowing. It only snowed for a couple of hours - heavy enough to settle, but it was gone by morning.

Yesterday we signed up at Costco in Kawasaki - a huge store, with the same sorts of things we were able to buy in Canada and the UK. The biggest problem will be the distance to get there from the apartment. If we do the train, we take the subway two stops, then switch to the JR train line for two stops, then back to a local subway line for another four stops. Then about a 15 minute walk to the shop. To get from one train to another takes about 10 minuets walk in one of the changeovers. All in all it takes around 45 minutes travelling. Then you have to carry things back with you. I think we will end up trying to catch a taxi back to the apartment at least one time - see how much it costs. If we end up being here longer and getting a car, it will of course become much, much easier!

Sushi (すし) for lunch today at a restaurant close to the apartment. One of the places with a train that runs around the restaurant. This is not so common - most places that we've been so far make it in front of you and only to order (i.e. you ask for two salmon sushi and they make it for you, before you order your next pieces). We managed to get through 15 plates today, with two pieces per plate. Very nice... We will be looking for somewhere with quality sushi in Auckland when we are back.

I've started to learn to read and write Japanese. There are three character systems, and to be literate you need to know all three.

First is Hiragana (ひらがな), which has about 50 symbols representing the basic sounds (5 vowels plus consonant combinations).

Then you need to know another 50 symbols for Katakana (カタカナ). Katakana is used for any foreign words. For example my name written in katakana is アンデリユー, which when you sound it out sounds something like my English name. Actually more like "ah-in-der-y-ew".

Finally there is kanjii, which are the chinese characters. Each character needs to be memorised, and can be used in multiple different combinations to make different words. The sound for a character varies depending on the position of the character in a word! They tell me you need to learn about 200 basic kanjii for it to be useful.

Luckily, when using a keyboard to write in hiragana or katakana, you actually type the sounds using roman characters. The computer is kind enough to translate for you! So in order to say "thankyou" (arigatou gozaimasu), you need to type the sounds for "ah", "ri", "ga", "to", "u", "go", "za", "i", "ma", "su". The pc translates this to ありがとうございます. Easy!

However if you're trying to learn to read it, you need to memorise the characters and link them to the sounds. Not so easy...

More snow

Well we had more snow on Sunday. It snowed all day from first thing in the morning until about 4pm. In the end it sort of petered out and turned a bit sleety (technical term).


Monday morning dawned icy, with the footbridge across the road covered in ice from snow that froze solid overnight. Lovely clear day though!


The new DM Head has started work and by the end of today had already managed to ruffle a few feathers. There are a large number of feathers that need to be heavily ruffled, but at the same time it's normal to take a few days to understand what's going on before you start changing things significantly. Wait and see what happens.

Changes

Well my new Head of DM starts on Monday, which means I can handover the sales activities to someone else. This is great because it means I can concentrate on the real work that I came here for. I guess the first 3-4 weeks will be handover anyway, so a more gradual phasing out of the activities.

Anyway, today was a bit warmer, and not windy for a change. In fact when I went out for lunch ("Asian" bento which means a combination of curries on rice), it was actually quite pleasant. The sky was bright blue, and Tokyo was generally a nice place to be. By about 4pm it had come over cloudy which was a shame. However, still a nice day.

No idea what it was like in Bangkok - if people post enough comments, maybe we can convince Sonia to add something here?

Winter

Well it continues to be cold around here. The temperatures are getting down to around zero most nights. A few times the wind is strong enough that it gets a lot colder, and walking down the street can actually be painful on the face. However it's quite dry so at least there isn't ice all over the place. Both Sonia and I now have coats, so at least most of us is warm. A scarf takes care of other parts, just leaving the nose and tips of the ears. And the hands!

She is so rude

The flights were booked in accordance with the instructions given!

Itineraries

Believe it or not he not only made a decision but he got it wrong. Typical! Instead of flying out of Tokyo on a Thursday night as originally planned we are now flying Friday night. Goodness knows what we will do with the days leave we have booked for Friday :-)

The tickets are booked and here is the plan
Tokyo - Brisbane Friday 7th March
Brisbane Auckland Sunday 9th March. We are conveniently arriving at 3.55 in the afternoon, so if anyone wants to come out to the airport it will make a nice Sunday afternoon diversion :-)

Saturday 15th March we are heading to Queenstown, returning Monday 17th. (Sorry Craig, even knowing that you were organising it I could not convince Andrew that church camp was what he really wanted to do with his one weekend back in NZ...)

We are heading out again on Friday 21st March and spending Easter in Melbourne before returning to Tokyo on the 26th. A bit of a flying visit all around, but it will be good to catch up with everyone again.

Let me know if there is anything anyone wants bought back from Thailand or Japan. Dried fish snacks anyone????

An update

Well the snow arrived in full force. From about 6:30 in the morning yesterday, it snowed. It was still snowing when I walked back to the office from a meeting at 1:30. Then sometime before 5pm it finished. Unfortunately it was not really enough to actually settle on the ground, but it looked great while it lasted. I got a couple of photos that I will transfer from the camera soon, and will post these so you can see what it looked like from the apartment window.

Today has dawned sunny with a bit of cloud, so I guess there will be no more snow today.

Trips

Grrr - Sonia will not make a decision on which itinerary! She insists that it is my decision, except that I know from many,
many,
many,
many,
many,
many,
many,
many,
many,
many,
many years of experience that whatever I choose will at some stage be considered the "wrong" choice.

Oh well, here goes again!

Weather forecasters

Are not much better in Tokyo than anywhere else. Usually the forecasts here are quite accurate, however the snow has not materialised!

Some more pictures

A shot of the crowds waiting to get into the shrine in Kamakura. It took about 30 minutes of inching forwards to get to the shrine itself.



Guards at the bottom of the final steps up into the shrine itself.


Lovely sign!

And looking back down the stairs at the next group of people who

And I've just found this picture of the gate into a small shrine in the centre of Tokyo - actually from last winter:

Snow!

Sonia has just left to go to the airport for the week in Bangkok. As we walked to the bus we stopped at the local 7-11 to get some cash. There is a friendly guy there who likes to practice his English on me, and he was kind enough to pipe up and tell us that the forecast is for snow at 6pm tonight - in about and hour and three-quarters!

And one morning last week I got out onto the street and noticed that the ground was wet. Strange, but it had not been raining that I'd heard. I found out later that there had been a small amount of snow overnight. Not enough to stay on the ground, but enough to make it wet!

I have just got around to saving a few photos from the camera onto the PC.

This is one example so far for our new collection of dog photos. We saw this one at the shrine in Kamakura in the New Year week...


And these two of Mt Fuji from our trip to Gotemba. The first one is from the train station where we had to change trains part-way through the trip. You can see clearly that there were no clouds anywhere in the sky. Apparently this is a bit unusual.


Not long later on (we'd arrived at the Gotemba outlet shopping village), I saw that clouds had built up:

First week at work

This is the end of the first week back at work in 2008. An interesting week in Tokyo, as many people are trying to ease into work as slowly as possible. However, we are trying to launch a call centre for Direct Marketing (you know, the people who call you at dinner time to try and sell you something). As such, we have been working with a few external companies to put the project together. This week was getting things finalised and a budget submitted to our regional office in HK for approval.

I have also been recruiting my replacement, and this came to close on Friday when the preferred candidate signed a formal acceptance of our job offer. Sigh of relief... This means that instead of double-hatting (Acting Head of Direct Marketing was now what I came here to do) I can focus my attention back on the projects side.

Sonia did her first week trip from Tokyo to Bangkok (and back). Seems to have worked ok.

The weather has been cold but sunny most of the week. Today dawned cold and rainy, so I guess everything comes to an end.

Grocery shopping this morning, and the gym this afternoon. Tonight off to dinner at the boss's house.

Holiday week

Well it has been a relatively busy holiday week here in Tokyo as we have rushed to keep up with the rest of Tokyo. Having been warned in advance by people at the office that most of the residents of Tokyo depart the city, we felt it was incumbent upon us to follow them. We searched carefully and decided on a couple of places where we felt it was most likely that we'd find them, and then set off on our way.

Sure enough, we'd correctly guessed that everyone in Tokyo would be at the big shrine/temple in Asakusa on Tuesday 1st January. We arrived about midday (45-minute trip on the subway to the end of the line), and the queue to get into the shrine was out to the roadway. Discretion being the better part, we hived off along the road, through small streets of shops and stalls, eventually coming to the shrine through a back entrance. Which conveniently led through all of the Japanese junk food stalls that had sprung into being on the grounds of the temple. After watching the crowds of people (resembling farm animals being herded into the shrine) for a few minutes, we sampled some of the food. Being the adventurous one, I chose a pancake that is grilled/fried with a big handful of shredded cabbage, an egg, and sauce. Sonia chose a plain baked potato with butter. We found a small area to one side of one of the pathways and joined a number of other groups that had stopped to "savour" the food. By the time we'd finished and made our way back through the streets and round to the main entrance of the shrine, we found that the queue had grown and now stretched all of the way down the road (conveniently closed to traffic) and almost to the main road (about 100 metres?). We took this as a good sign, because we now know where Tokyo goes on the first day of the new year.

Wednesday was shopping day - trying to find a winter coat at the sales. However, it turns out that all of Tokyo congregated in one of 3 or four shops. One attraction of the sales is what is called fukubukuro, which is sometimes translated into English as a "Happy Bag". This is a big shopping bag into which the company puts some stuff, seals it, and sticks a price on it. You take your luck with what you get. So if you are wondering where everyone is, they are at the department stores on Wednesday.

Sushi for lunch - there are a few places in Tokyo with the sushi "trains". This one was good, and we got through about 14 plates between us (each plate has two pieces of sushi).

Thursday, we went to an outlet village in Gotemba. This required a train trip of about 1 and 3/4 hours, with a change of lines after an hour. At the changeover point, we had about 30 minutes between trains and decided to have breakfast. The only places in site were a small noodle shop and a 7-11. Since we are now seasoned travellers, we decided on the noodle place, which conveniently had pictures of some of the dishes on the wall outside. When we got in the door, we found the vending machine where you purchase the tickets for the food you want. Which only had Japanese writing, and no pictures. I ended up with my head out the door trying to match the pictures to the writing. In the end we got two tickets for what we expected would be noodles with some pieces of meat. While I waited for the food, Sonia went off the find a table. Which was difficult since there were only four tables in the place, all within one foot of each other. When I saw them dishing the noodles I noticed the guy scoop a big spoon of gloop and put it into the bowls. Turns out we'd ordered noodles with curry sauce. Which turned out to be very nice.

At the outlet village, we were reminded of Cheshire Oaks in UK. Basically the same, but some of the brands were different. And full of everyone who was living in Tokyo. Did I mention it was freezing? This area is close to the foot of Mt Fuji, and I managed to get a few pictures that I'll load in soon.

The following day (Friday) we went to Kamakura - a place outside of Tokyo that one of my colleagues had introduced me to previously. It was apparently the capital at one point? Getting off the train at the station we ended up standing to one side as this stream of people from the train tried to exit the station at the same time. We must have waited almost five minutes as they filed past. Then we got out and walked our way towards the main shrine. Again, loads of people - I guess the people who went to Asakusa on Tuesday must have decided that they needed to hedge their bets and go pray at the Kamakura shrine as well. A number of people were dressed up in very nice looking kimonos.

After standing in line to get into the temple grounds for a look we made our way through and back out to the streets. Since it was past time for lunch we decided on Soba noodles - a place we had passed earlier. I am now at the point where I can manage to get food in Japanese, so we were not too worried about the menu that only had Japanese and no pictures. When you're in a Soba restaurant there is not much choice (would you like hot soba or cold soba?), so we ordered soba with tempura. When it arrived it was a big bowl of noodles in clear soup with a huge tempura prawn on top (maybe 15cm long). Not bad for JPY1300 each, although it is more expensive in this touristy part compared to the soba place around the corner from the office where I normally pay about JPY 1000 for noodles with more tempura (prawn, pumpkin, mushroom, and something else that I cannot identify).

Saturday has been out looking through a suburb called Hiroo for a supermarket that Sonia had read about. We found it, but I think the one I usually go to is bigger and has a better selection of stuff. Expecting to catch up with a couple of friends from UK for dinner tonight, although I am not sure if this will happen because they are not answering their phones. We will have to see...

Tokyo Christmas

It was an interesting Christmas day in Tokyo. It was the first working day of the week because the Emperor's birthday was on Sunday and therefore moved to Monday. Tuesday was a working day, except that for the expats it's Christmas, so you really don't want to be working. And for the Japanese, it's the start of the last week of the year.

I was invited to Christmas lunch at the boss's house, so after spending the morning in the office, I left to catch the subway. At the other end I ran into a couple of other people on their way to the same lunch, so we shared a taxi to the house.

Lunch turned out to be the full monty - an enormous turkey, baked honey ham, brussel sprouts (which I gave a miss of course), stuffing, potato, etc. Desert was apple pie, pumpkin pie, and Christmas pudding. Not bad!

Finished at around 4:30, at which point I headed back to the office to pick up my bag. Then a small dinner with a couple of New Zealanders that I knew from Wellington and who now live in Wilmslow (UK) but are in Tokyo. Dinner was at a restaurant set up by Francis Ford Coppola - the guy who made the Godfather trilogy of movies, along with many others.

Tokyo Festive Season

Well the festive feeling has touched Tokyo. This afternoon it seemed that all of the residents of Tokyo (and possibly the surrounding prefectures as well) had decided that it was time they went shopping. Only made worse by the wonderful sunny day, which they needed to enjoy by walking sooooo slowly. The sun was down by 5 (maybe a little earlier?) and the streets were getting colder so it was time to head home.

I got the news that Paul finally found someone... the pressure is now on, Jonathan.

Tokyo

Things are creeping slowly towards Christmas next week, although for the locals it is more about New Year. Apparently the city empties out a bit from 31st through until Monday 7th. Getting colder now - not sure what the temperature actually is, but it's very chilly in the morning on the way to work.

Nothing new to tell - parcels of Christmas presents are safely in NZ with one exception - Paul - which we missed sending because we thought he would still be in PNG. Then we find out that he's just arrived in Auckland. Oops!

What a difference...

...one day makes, 24 small hours... (look it up).

Back in Hong Kong for the weekend, arriving around 1:00pm today. Amazing how bad the pollution is. As we walked through the shops in Central, you could see the fuzziness of the air (?) across the space of maybe 50 metres. Probably worse for me having grown used to Tokyo's relatively unpolluted environment. As I sit writing this, I can look out the window towards the west where I should be able to see the sun setting. Alas, the pollution is so bad that you can hardly see the boats passing (M&D remember how big the ships are and how close they pass?)!

As soon as I got here today, we were off to the tailors to collect a suit that I'd got made. It fits really nicely, and they've done a great job quality-wise. Apart from a couple of chalk marks left on the jacket, that is. Three-button blue/gray with thin pinstripe. And four white shirts. This is the second suit I've had made in HK by the same crowd. They were recommended by a guy at the office who was impressed with their work.

Previously I'd got a couple of suits made in Bangkok by one of the tailors that most of Prudential seem to favour. The suits are good, but the quality is not up to the same standard as the HK guys. The Bangkok tailor is an Indian guy who was borne in Bangkok but spent a lot of time in the UK. Then moved back to Bangkok and married a local lady (if I recall correctly). Apparently he spends much of his day trading stocks in between consulting with clients!

I am now faced with a bit of a problem - I've lost just over 10kg and some of the suits are looking decidedly baggy. I think it will be back to the tailor to get some of them altered.

Tonight it's off to our favourite restaurant (Harlan's) for dinner. We've been there a few times and they know us well. To the point that desert is usually complimentary. However we do actually want to sample things off the desert menu, so we have strategised how we will jump in and ask for the menu before they bring out the desert.

Christmas presents are all either in NZ by now or on their way, with the exception of Paul and Jonathan because they are (1) troublesome to find something for, and (2) in countries where we cannot easily get the presents sent (Philippines and PNG). Now I just have to find a present for Sonia!

And dropping even further

I saw the forecast for Monday - down to 5 degrees at 6pm tomorrow night! Ouch.

This afternoon I took a ride with some friends - a lady from work and her husband. We hired motorbikes and rode out to a beach - about 250 km round trip.

I'd forgotten how cold it gets on a bike, especially once the sun goes down. I hired a Honda CBR600RR - a very nice ride. Red and black, nice and powerful. See it here.

We rode out to a beach and stopped for coffee at a local cafe (not an NZ-style cafe), where there were a bunch of guys on customised bikes. It's difficult to see on the pictures, but these are large two-stroke bikes (maybe 400 cc?) that have all sorts of cosmetic changes including back supports for the passengers - a la "whale tails" on cars. As well as cosmetic changes, they've changed the mufflers (or removed them?). You can just make out a police car at the far end of the carpark (in the last spot). This police car follows the bike gang around to make sure they don't cause too much trouble. When the bikers decided it was time to go, the policy car starts up and follows them out with lights flashing - but doesn't stop them.


The next picture is of the second set of bikes to arrive - these were larger four-stroke bikes, therefore being much more serious. Apart from using the length of the carpark to do wheelies when they arrived.


After warming up with koohi (coffee), we rode up the beach to a lighthouse. The views were great but the pictures I took didn't work so I've not posted them.

Then back towards Narita (the international airport) and back into town.

Click here to see the points of interest on Google Maps. When it opens up, click the "Satellite" button to see actual pictures.

By the time we got back around 7pm, it was positively freezing. But I do remember what I enjoyed about riding.

11 degrees

That's the daily high temperature at the moment, but most of the time it's down around 8. And I assume colder at night, although I must admit that I don't stay up to find out!

Getting colder, but still lovely clear blue skies...

All things sushi

Sonia and I had sushi for lunch before she left on her way back to HK and Bangkok. As we ate it, we realized how far we have come in what we now eat - surprisingly me more so than Sonia. As best I can recall the lunch:

Start with a soft tofu appetizer - served hot in a very small pot, with a couple of thin slices of mushroom on top, and a small prawn in the bottom. Yummy.

Then on to the sushi itself. Each piece is made separately in front of you, shaped by hand, a dab of wasabi (grated freshly in front of you), and the seafood on top. The piece of sushi is put on the lacquered counter in front of you, next to a pile of pickled ginger. There is a small saucer of soy sauce on the tray in front of you, but you're not really supposed to sully the excellent fish with soy. You eat each piece of sushi from the counter with your chopsticks, straight into your mouth. The chef stays about one piece ahead of you, so you cannot get much fresher than that.

The sushi part of the meal usually starts with tuna (very nice), snapper (or something like that), then a piece of squid, a piece wrapped in seaweed with a pile of salmon eggs on top, then more fish. During this part, a dish of miso soup with small clams arrives.

One of the sushi courses is made with an egg mixture - made with egg and fish soup, which is cooked and then allowed to set into a fairly firm cake - this is cut into pieces and put on top of rice.

Depending on the menu price, you may also get sushi made with sea urchin. Oh, and usually sea eel!

The sushi part usually finishes with rolls made with jellyfish and/or more tuna.

All of this is accompanied by Japanese green tea.

Quite a big meal, and I normally don't have a big dinner afterwards. I now eat everything except the clams in the miso soup. Not bad for someone who still dislikes broccoli and cauliflower! Sonia's not so keen on the sea urchin, or the salmon eggs.

Blogs

Wendy/Ian
If you're reading this, it's time you put something interesting on your blog!

A Weekend in Tokyo

Sonia arrived on Friday afternoon while I was out at a Call Centre trade show (which is interesting when it's all in Japanese). We met up at the Park Hyatt hotel, which has a restaurant and bar that was featured in the movie "Lost in Translation". The view is amazing from the 52 floor - you can see most of Tokyo and what looks like all of the way down to Yokohama.

On Saturday we started slow with bagels and coffee (at home) then wandered around central Tokyo sorting out errands. Getting new heels on my work shoes turned out to be expensive - around USD 30 per pair! Then a walk to the bookshop (there is a small shop with all English books) and on to the supermarket. The supermarket is pretty good - a large range of stuff that we have mostly not been able to get in KL and HK. The afternoon included a good workout at the gym - on level 22 it also has a good view up towards Roppongi. Then we went out to an Italian restaurant: "Il Mulino". Very nice! But it did make us realise that Tokyo can be very expensive. Coincidentally we saw a couple of advertisements for apartments (for sale). Most of them seem to be between 1 and 3 million USD. Incredible the prices!

This afternoon we caught the subway to Omotesando, then walked down the road to Shibuya. A walk through the backstreets around Shibuya, eventually finding a cheap hole-in-the-wall place that did nice Indian food. Then back to the apartment, the gym, and dinner of chicken breast and salad.

Tomorrow it's back to work, and Sonia is off to HK on the late afternoon flight (and on to Bangkok on Tuesday morning).

Monday

Monday is over...

A fine day dawned this morning, although a little chilly ("samui"). Started with a Japanese lesson at 8, then meetings straight through until lunch. Lunch was a Japanese restaurant with a few of the marketing team as we welcomed a new guy joining the team. Then meetings for most of the afternoon as well. Realised at about 4pm that I still had not managed to get a coffee all day. No wonder I was feeling slow by that stage...

Now at home, having had dinner (a chicken breast and a small salad), I am getting ready for the gym.

Sonia is still in Bangkok, and will fly back to HK on Thursday. Then up to Tokyo on Friday for the weekend.

Anyway, guess I need to get to the gym.

Week

Well the end of another week has arrived, and actually gone. It's Sunday night and I've spent the weekend nursing a cold. By this afternoon I have managed to recover mostly, and was able to get to the gym for 45 minutes.

It was raining all day on Saturday, so that wasn't a big loss. Then Sunday started rainy as well. By midday it had cleared up, and I went for a walk to Starbucks to get some fresh air and read the paper.

Sonia has been in Bangkok for the weekend and avoiding work that she should be doing. Instead she has been getting her nails done and attempting to break records for how many coffee shops she can visit in one day.

One interesting thing last week - I was invited to a charity dinner on Thursday night. A Japanese child cancer foundation set up by an expat couple who lost their son to infant leukemia. Not a bad night, and I managed to meet and chat to John Kirwin! And Dennis Lilley.

Madison's

Was a disappointment. We arrived and went through the entrance into the main part of the place. It looked like a bar or cafe, with more informal seating than we were expecting. However it turned out to be the dining area.

The whole atmosphere was a little disorganised - took time for the bread to be delivered although the butter arrived promptly after we sat down. The menu was ok, but leaned towards the more casual side of things.

By the end of the mains we'd decided that it was probably enough, and the dessert menu did nothing to tempt us to stay.

The restaurant was not even close to full. Given the location in Central, we wondered if it might be busier during the week - the after-work crowd?

The place is actually ok. However I think we were expecting something a little flasher based on the website, and the actual experience did not live up to this. Next time we'll head back to Harlan's. Or maybe "Tuscany By H", which is another Harlan's place.

Hong Kong

Well we are home in HK this weekend. Both of us flew into HKIA on Thursday night.

HK has got a bit colder in the last couple of months. Although we are not needing to wrap up warmly yet, I noticed some of the locals have got out their scarves and heavy coats already. We noticed this phenomenon last year as well. It feels like as soon as the "official" start of a season is reached, everyone goes overboard. Same as winter fades into spring - immediately out come the summer clothes, which are sometimes not really appropriate when the temperature is still on the chilly side.

Lunch today was at Zembra in Wan Chai. This is a bit of a favorite, as it serves good coffee and excellent food.

Tonight we are booked for dinner at Madison's in Central. I have been once before (over a year ago), and we've been trying to get a booking here for a while. Inevitably we are disorganised and end up trying to book a table on Saturday morning. By this stage it's always full. So this week I booked on Wednesday before leaving Tokyo. I will put an update on the blog on tomorrow.

The rest of today was spent playing squash with some of the work colleagues, ordering a new suit from a tailor here (pretty good work), a haircut, and getting some basic groceries. In a couple of minutes, we will be off to the gym to work off lunch and prepare the way for dinner.

No Motor Show

Well the visit to the Tokyo Motor Show did not eventuate. Oh well.

I have managed to surprise myself that I can now jog for 30 minutes (on the treadmill) without struggling. I guess that means I'm getting fitter. I've been trying to make it to the gym about 5 times a week and mostly achieving that. Usually 30 minutes on the bike (level 12) and then either weights or some time on the treadmill. The reason for thinking about jogging was a chat with someone who is working their way towards a marathon and mentioned that they job about 30 minutes each day. Out of interest I though I would have a go and see if I could last that long. And it worked!

Any way, Sonia has safely arrived in Bangkok for another week. I am heading back to HK on Thursday night for a few days, returning to Tokyo on Tuesday.

Six Japanese lessons so far - now I can count, ask for things, give basic directions to taxi drivers, and ask how much something costs. Of course when they give the price they speak to fast it's very hard to understand, but never mind. I can also start to pick up the odd word here and there in discussions at work, so that's helpful.

Oh well, need to go and write a couple of job descriptions tonight.

Comments

I guess the few comments mean that someone is reading this...

Might get to the Tokyo Motor Show tomorrow if I am lucky. Someone from work is thinking about going, so here's hoping.

As requested

Jonathan asked for a picture of the new car, so here it is...


I wish!

Paintball

Friday and Saturday were out of the office for me (Andrew) on a team-building and strategy workshop. For anyone who has been on one of these workshops before, you'll recognise that this is actually a thinly-disguised execuse to have some fun outside of the office. In our case this took the form of paintball on Friday afternoon and a visit to a kids amusement park on Saturday morning.

I sit writing this with a series of bruises ranging in size from a 5c piece (do they still have those in NZ these days?) up to a largish bruise about 5cm in diameter. And because it was outdoors in a valley (the walls of which provide a tactical advantage to anyone who climbs them), I am also suffering from very sore thighs. Although I have been at the gym on a regular basis (lost 5kg since coming to Japan), it appears that the climbing has identified a number of muscles that have not been addressed by the exercise bike or treadmill. Oh well, maybe try some different stuff in the gym this week.

Sonia arrived back in HK on Saturday afternoon after a couple of weeks back in Bangkok. I'm planning to be back with her around the end of the month for a few days - time to get the Japan work visa sorted out.

Third Japanese lesson last Wednesday - learning numbers and telling the time. The numbering system is a little challenging - although it's decimal, the major unit for large numbers is actually 10,000. So if you want to say 1,000,000, you end up saying something like 100 10,000's. Speaking to one of the translators on staff, they also find it a challenge to translate large numbers in a hurry during discussions. Glad I'm not alone. Turns out the gym is a great place to work on revision for the next lesson - no interruptions or distractions...

Oh - another thing about the numbers. There is more than one work for each number. There are two main systems - one for abstract numbers (e.g. telephone numbers) and another for counting things. Then there are variations depending on what you're counting - thin flat things, people, etc. And even within the abstract system, there are two words for 4 - "shi", or "yon". Groan! It's true what they say - learn languages while you are young because it gets harder.

Z4

In response to Jonathan's question - I think it was the 3 litre model? Certainly took off when you put your foot down!

A couple of pictures

Sonia with the rental car at Smiths Beach.

Parrots in a tree in the middle of Perth.

Sonia sitting outside the cafe area at Durance Vineyards. Not somewhere that we would recommend going to (food-wise, that is).

The holiday is over

Well it's the end of the week. Writing from the Qantas lounge at the Perth airport. Sonia got on her flight to Singapore almost two hours ago, and I'm waiting for mine to Sydney to board. Looking at the departures screen, it looks like it's late by a few minutes "DELAYED LATE ARRIVAL OF AIRCRAFT". Since the transit in Sydney is fairly short (1.5 hours) and involves a transfer between terminals and immigration/security, I hope that it's not too late!

We sat last night and were trying to remember our way back through the places we've eaten over the past week and which were the best:
Saturday night - 44 King Stree - very good
Sunday night - Two Fat Indians - very good
Monday night - bread and bbq chicken on the beach in Dunsborough
Tuesday night - The Cape Wine Bar - very nice steak
Wednesday night - fish and chips on the beach at Yallingup
Thursday night - Bay Cottage Cafe - an entertaining evening when we turn up not realising it's a fixed 5-course menu
Friday night - bread, cheese, and chorizo in the hotel room in Perth

And that is not counting lunches. The best lunches were at Vasse Felix winery and Voyager Estate winery. In the case of Vasse Felix it was the setting - up on a second-storey balconey overlooking the vines and the river that winds it's way through the vineyard. The food was good. At Voyager Estate the settings were a little plainer - inside, with no openings out onto the vineyard itself. The food was very nice - excellent Lamb Wellington in my case, and a very nice Seafood Asiette for Sonia.

We ended up deciding that 44 King Street was one of the best - we visited at least three times (may have been more?). It is a nice casual place with a good menu and pretty good coffee.

The worst experience (which we will write more about latter) was at Laurance Wines. Not very impressive - rather the opposite.

Time to board - more later - after my 18 hour trip back to Tokyo.

Story of the day

In Perth safely after a long and torturous journey.

Breakfast yesterday was at a small cafe called "Sassy on the Swan", which is built on stilts overhanging the Swan River. The river itself is a horrible and grotty red-brown colour at that point. Anyway, we decided that a newspaper would be in order, so Sonia wandered off in search of one while I waited for the food to be delivered.

About 30 minutes later (not really) Sonia came back with a very sheepish look on her face. She'd been to a shop/dairy place and asked about newspapers. After a pause the lady behind the counter said "you get them from the paperboy". "You do?"

Apparently the newspaper boys set themselves up in the middle of the intersections selling papers to the cars stopped at the lights. So off Sonia trots to find a paperboy - on foot of course. And back she comes with a newspaper. I guess everything here is geared to people in their cars.

At the airport

Well the points upgrade came through, so I am writing this sitting in the Qantas lounge at Narita airport, having caught the 5:30pm bus, and then had a shower. Nice and fresh. 25 minutes until the flight goes, so as soon as I save this, I go to the gate - which is very close.

Sonia just texted to say she made it safely (if not without problems) to Singapore. She is off to find dinner in the rain (as you do in Singapore).

Wendy McCabe (or Ian) - if you read this, it's time to put something useful and/or interesting on your blog. If you've forgotten where it is, click the link on the right-hand side of the screen. :-)

Counting the hours

It's only a matter of hours before we start the trip to Perth....

The hire car is booked (Holden Astra convertible), although I have just found a place that rents BMW Z4's (and others) so maybe we'll change to that. I am thinking that if Sonia spends time in such a nice car it might remind her how much fun it is and possibly lead to a purchase back in HK.... watch this space.

In other news....

I am being kicked out of my office today. A new CFO arrives on Monday, and since we are short of offices, and he has "C" in his title (and I don't) I am given the short straw. Not really a big deal, as in a few weeks we get more space (extra floor in the building) and I'll move back into an office.

Anyway, time to get to work.

Learning

Well I continue to learn. Yesterday I was informed that the spellings of the Japanese numbers that I had written on my white board were incorrect (refer to an entry a few days back)!

6 should be "roku"
7 should be "schichi" not hitchi
8 should be "hachi" not hutchi
9 should be "kyu" not qu
10 should be "ju" not dew - although that's so close I'll never be able to tell the difference.

Island ECC

Well the church has a new website - click the link on the right-hand side of the page underneath the Eggs Benedict ratings (you can see priorities here!).

Back to HK

Well this weekend coming, Sonia and I will be back in HK. I have a couple of meetings booked on Friday, so tonight I jump on a plane at 6:30, then fall into bed by around 11:30. Sonia gets in on Friday night. It's only a short trip for both of us, as we need to be back at our desks the following week - Monday for Sonia, Tuesday for me (Monday is a holiday in Tokyo).

It will be good to have a chance to make sure the apartment is still ok before we swan off on holiday in Perth/Margaret River the following weekend.

Not much to tell right now. Oh, I am taking some Japanese lessons - the team have been teaching me some basics (numbers are below), but it's important to have some of the formal phrases you need in a business context.

1 = ichi
2 = ni (as in knee)
3 = sun
4 = see
5 = go
6 = rock
7 = hitchi
8 = hutchi (I think)
9 = qu (as in queue)
10 = dew

Strangely if you want to indicate 50, you actually say "go-dew". Similarly, 15 is "dew-go". I guess it makes some sense, but it will take a bit of getting used to.

Cooling off

Well things are starting to cool down here in Tokyo, while Sonia continues to sweat it out in Bangkok. A few rainy days have meant that the temperature has dropped back into the twenties - positively chilly! Not really, but it has been better on the last two or three mornings walking to work.

Sonia flys up tonight, arriving early tomorrow morning. Since she has spent most of the week with a cold, I am not sure what we will get up to around Tokyo, but there is a nice restaurant I was thinking of getting to. And of course maybe we should look for Eggs Benedict to review.

There is an IT/Gadgets place called Akihabara which I'd like to take Sonia to see - amazing area full of shops with tvs, stereos, computers, and anything else gadget-wise that you can think of. It is also known as one of the places that exhibits a more quirky aspect of Japanese culture - "maid cafes". They are innocent (as opposed to sleazy) places where all of the waitresses are dressed in french maid uniforms. I've not seen one of these cafes, but walking around the gadget shops you see the waitresses walking past outside. There are a few strange aspects of the culture here, so maybe over time I can write some more.

Once great thing is the sushi. Amazing, and so fresh. I particularly like the tuna - so much more tender than tuna in NZ. It really does melt on your tongue. I will be keeping a lookout for "real" sushi places back in NZ - now that I know what to look for. Most of the places I've been here make the sushi fresh, right in front of you. These are guys who have trained for 10 years to know how to do it right. They told me yesterday (through translator) that there is a special way you make the rice into the sushi shapes in order to maintain the correct amount of air in it. Otherwise it ends up becoming heavy and solid. And there is a special mix of vinegar, sugar and salt that works best. Whatever... it tastes amazing.

And I can now say that I've eaten sea eel (very nice), sea urchin, sea grapes (type of seaweed), scallops (wasted on me), salmon roe, and a few other strange things. I guess things have come a long way since mashed carrots and parsnip? Still don't like cauliflower, broccoli, etc!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Well things are changing again.

I (Andrew) have taken on a temporary secondment to Japan, running anything up to nine months. This is a result of changes in the regional team, with a reduction in focus on operations and IT (my area). The Japan work is very much a temporary thing, at least from my perspective.

I will be returning to HK every few weeks. On other weeks, Sonia will fly up to Tokyo and explore the wonders of Japanese society. The apartment in HK is still home, so no changes in address or phone number (not that we ever answer the home phone anyway!). My email address is changing - for anyone who has it, just replace prudential.com.hk with pcalife.co.jp.

Coincidentally, Sonia is getting the opportunity to spend some of her time in Bangkok. Just as well we don't have a cat. Well, at least not in HK. Hope Phoebe is still ok. It does mean that we have a range of choices for where we spend the weekends - HK, Bangkok, or Tokyo.

We are off to Perth and the Margaret River region in about 4 weeks time. Holiday! We are planning to stay in Perth for a couple of nights before driving the 4 hour trip down to Margaret River. What (I hear you ask) is the attraction of Margaret River? Well, it starts it's life as a grape. Need I say more?

End of the week

The end of the week is at hand! Sonia and I are making our separate ways back to HK tonight, I from Tokyo, and Sonia from Bangkok.

Suit fitting tomorrow, plus catching up with a colleague who we first worked with in the UK, and who moved back to NZ. He is up in Hong Kong at the moment, so it will be a good chance to say hello after a few years.

Had intended to play squash over the weekend, but I found out that the guy I usually play with is planning to spend the weekend in Macau. Oh well.

Just another weekend at home, I guess. While M&D are off squandering the inheritance traipsing around Alaska, Canada, and north-western US.

Japan

Well I (Andrew) am back up in Tokyo again, and have just realised that it's two weeks since I updated the blog. I'm going to be more heavily involved in the work here over the next few months, which will be nice. Japan is a great country, and Tokyo can be a very fun place to work.

Right now it's the height of summer, and temperatures are very high. When I flew in, the sign at the airport said 36.2 degrees. That was at about 3pm. If found out in the paper the following day that some of the cities had posted 40.9 degrees.

Japan is very energy-conscious, and the air-conditioning is not used as liberally as HK. As a result it is very warm even at work - desk fans keep the air moving, but you need strong deodorant. Does not turn into a problem at the office, but by the end of the day it's a relief to walk back and have a shower.

I've just got back from the gym, where I sat on the bike and watched a traffic jam form as a result of a minor nose-to-tail accident on the motorway. The jam was still growing an hour later, and the cars had not been moved. Looking down from level 22 of the building, it did not look bad (the accident, that is), so it's a bit of a puzzle why they did not get on and clear it up. The view from the gym is pretty good and I could see the traffic banked up for kilometers into the distance.

More later.

Our first Typhoon

Well we can now say that we have survived our first typhoon. Not difficult when you realise in retrospect that the rain was heavier during storms in KL. Yesterday afternoon we all came back from lunch and found the office buzzing. It came out that the HK Observatory had raised the warning level to T3, and advised that they were expecting to raise to T8 around 3:30. That meant that HR is expected to send an email telling everyone to go home (they close the office). By about 2:30, we were still waiting. Then all of a sudden the email was sent.

The taxi ride home was fairly uneventful, although the roads were already a bit messy around the south side - leaves, small branches, etc. The weather closed as the rest of the afternoon wore on, but by 6 or 7pm, it looked like it was just a bit windy.

Sonia was flying back in from Bangkok last night, and arrived safely at 10:30. Then I eventually get a call from her saying that she'd been waiting in line for a taxi at the HK station, but there were none coming. Turns out most of the taxis take the opportunity to go home. By about 12:30am, she was still no further ahead, having tried waiting for a bus as well (they had suspended the route we use). I went downstairs and was able to get a taxi straight away, so I came into town, opened the door so Sonia could get in, and back home we went.

All a bit of a palaver - the weather really wasn't that bad. Still, if we could have a few more during work hours, there will not be too many complaints.

Summer in HK

A quick note about the weather.

As we came out of the apartment this morning, it was raining. This is pretty unusual at the moment - the weather has been fine and clear for maybe six weeks in a row. A huge change from the early days when we arrived. At that point the smog was so bad you couldn't see the Kowloon side, or out to Disneyland at Lantau Island. The only way we knew where Disneyland was was because the fireworks cut through the smog each night!

Now, it's clear and sunny every day. We get a great view across to the islands, and from the office I can see right through to the hills behind Kowlooon.

However it does get hot. Hotter in fact than KL, which was consistently 32 degrees. Now, we are facing year-high temperatures each week. Last weekend they reported we hit 35.5 degrees. Yesterday seemed pretty hot, but I doubt we got that high. Will see what the paper has to say.

Summer runs through until early September (I am informed) so I guess we'll be seeing more of this.

Wagyu

A quick note on a new Eggs Benedict place that we've just tried. Probably the best we've had in Hong Kong to date.

Wagyu is (as the name suggests) of Australian extraction. The Coolangatta Gold breakfast had been had previously, and was excellent.

Today Wendy is here, so we took her there for breakfast, trusting that the Eggs Benedict would be good. It was - the eggs were done properly, there was enough sauce (extra sauce in a little container if you want it), there was sufficient smoked salmon, and the bread (turkish) was toasted just right.

The ambience was a little off today, as the air-con was not working. They had fans going, so it wasn't bad, but not quite as good as usual.

So, the scores:

• Eggs - 9/10
• Bread - 8/10
• Hollandaise - 9/10 - was great
• Coffee - 8/10
• Ambience - 8/10 - nicely grown up (and Wendy says the company was great)
• Total - 42/50

Pictures

Here's a view of the sunset from our balcony. It can be pretty amazing... (click on the picture to get the full view in glorious "technicolour")


Dragon Boats from a few weeks back.

Everyone paddling hard as we start the final race. In the background you can see the spectator boats lined up. Some of them started getting into position on the Sunday before the race (which was on Tuesday). That's how busy the place gets. The boats form a "U" shape around the race course.

A closer view of the mad paddling that's required. We were not as good paddlers as this crew was!
Our final race - if you squint hard, you can probably see me (Andrew) last on the right-hand side of the boat.

Another Week Passes

Sonia here this time - figure it is about time I take my turn.

We realised in the taxi this afternoon that this time last year we were about to pack our house in Malaysia. It is hard to believe it it is almost a year since we left KL. It was not until the beginning of October that we actually made it to Hong Kong, but even that means we have now been here over 9 months. We are still really enjoying Hong Kong as a place to live, although neither of us will be sorry to see the heat of summer start to dissipate. Should be cooler again by the end of August, and we cannot wait. The heat is quite different than KL. We thought KL was humid but it was truly nothing compared to here. Just a couple of minutes outside at the moment has you feeling decidedly drippy, and any more than a 10 minute walk is pretty much unbearable. We are taxi'ing more and walking less as a result.

I have just finished my third week back working with Bravura, and I think it is going to work out ok - a bit of a relief really. The company has changed a little from the Tacit days in the way it thinks and operates, but the actual software product is still very familiar, and there are only so many variations on types of insurance products companies can offer so I am not too far behind the game. It is looking like I will be spending most of my time in Hong Kong with some travel to Bangkok and possibly China over time. I am pretty much ok with whatever happens - both of these are pretty ok places to travel to.

We are looking forward to Wendy coming for a quick visit later this week, and hoping to rent a car and do our first bit of real exploring outside of the city this next weekend. Hope Wendy is up for the experience of being Andrew's first passenger in Hong Kong! We are trying to decide just what to do about buying a car. If Andrew was really settled in his job I think we would go ahead and buy, but until he sorts out just what he is doing with the crazy new boss I think we might just rent on the weekends and continue to make do with taxis during the week. Even though it feels expensive it probably still works out cheaper than running a car of our own.

Wold love to have exciting news to post but there truly is nothing out of the ordinary going on here - who knows, maybe next week!!

Bye...

Where to start

Well, I see that it's been a few weeks since my last confession (I mean "post").

Sonia has gone to India, then Auckland, and is now into her second week on the job in KL. It's been interesting how much she remembers - much more than she thought (which is good)! There are a couple of her workmates here in HK - one visiting, one living here - so it's not a big team. The challenge for her is going to be bringing her experience to bear - what needs to be differently to the last project.

I had a quiet birthday, with Sonia flying back in and arriving in the country about 9pm. By the time she got to town where I met her, she was white and not feeling well. Turns out she'd drunk lots of water and not eaten anything all day. According to CSI that means her Calcium levels were way too low (I think).

Anyway, what else has happened? I got my driver's license yesterday morning, so all of the taxi drivers had better watch out. Another menace on the road (I had to say that before Dad does).

I'm off to KL for a couple of days, getting back to HK on Friday night. Then planning to go to Japan next Monday afternoon for the remainder of the week. Not sure if that means I get to see Wendy (who is visiting us on the way to the US) or not...

Time to board. Bye

Airports

An update (after some prompting, I admit). Sitting in the Tokyo airport after a week working in Japan. It's been good being back here after an abscence of a few weeks. Tokyo is very hot...

Meeting Sonia this afternoon back in HK. She is flying in from India about the same time I land. Then it's back to the house to repack her suitcase ready for her flight to Auckland at 9pm (today). I suspect it will be a busy afternoon.

Oops - the flight has just been called so I guess I have to go.

Alternative investments

Have just started an experiment with alternative investments. In this case, of the liquid variety. Or more specifically, two cases of French wine.

First case: Chateau Lynch-Bages.

Second case: Chateau Pontet-Canet.

If everything goes according to plan, these two cases of wine will sit safely in the warehouse in the UK for a minimum of 5 years, at which point they can be sold for "ginormous" profits. Both cases of wine are 2006, which has just been released ("en primeur"). They are cheap because no-one is really sure how well they will age. Except of course if you speak to the brokers who are selling the wine, in which case they will all be excellent value. Funny that.

One of the two cases did rise relatively quickly over the past week as the release sold out. We bought our case for GBP 399. The current price is GBP 420, so I guess that means we could claim a profit of 5% in a week? At this rate we'll be able to retire shortly!

We will see what happens.

Sunday night is here again...

We are getting slack and not updating the blog so often... suspect it is because there really is not a lot going on :-)

It has been a really long week for some reason. Andrew was off in Japan from Wednesday through to Saturday morning. He managed to catch up with a friend (and ex boss!) from England while he was there - I think he enjoyed being able to talk about England and catching up on what the people we worked with there are up to. I spent a rather boring week at home, but never fear, my days of hanging around HK are over for a couple of weeks at least. This week sees me heading off to Malaysia for a couple of days - should have a chance to find time to search out some mamee noodles for the nephews and nieces and have a mocha or two at Coffee Bean! Definitely looking forward to being back 'home' for a few days.

The end of the next week sees me not working anymore (yeah!!) and heading off to India to visit with Wendy and Karyn. Should be fun. We are having a couple of days in Bangalore first, and then heading back up to Ooty to catch up with the kids as well as Ian and Chris. I am looking forward to the visit with much anticipation! Then I will be starting the new job back with Bravura, and they are kindly flying me to NZ for my first week of work. It will be good to catch up with everybody again.

That is about all I am up to. Andrew is feeling increasingly frustrated at work. His new boss is a total pillock (Andrew's word not mine!), and seems to think that his primary purpose for being put on this earth is to run around after her. All is not boding well for a long and fruitful relationship!! We shall see....

That is about if from us this week, except to say that last nights thunder and ligthning was the moat amazing we have ever seen in Asia - truly majestic. Even managed to blow the cover right off the barbeque...

Till next time - be good :-)

Sonia

Langkawi

On the weekend we made it back to Langkawi to check that the beach was still ok without us :-)

Thursday was a holiday in HK so we headed off on airpoints flights to KL. A quick whip through immigration and straight onto the connection through to Langkawi, arriving just in time to get to the beach for a couple of hours before the sun went down.

Friday, sitting around on the beach and doing nothing, finishing one book and starting the next. Then Saturday the same again! Sunday we woke up, had breakfast, then caught a taxi out to the airport. The trip home was rudely interrupted by a four-hour wait in KL between when we arrived and the flight left!

Anyway, some decent photos of sunsets at the beach - will post them later on.

A New Job

Today shall go down in history as the day I signed a contract to return to my Talisman life and begin work with Bravura - the company that bought out Tacit. It is two years (almost to the day) since Tacit was bought out, I was made redundant and we lost a heap of money we had invested in the company. So why go back you may wonder? I am wondering to0, but basically it seems like the right thing to do and they have been very persistent in chasing me :-)

My contract with Pru ends in June, and I start working for Bravura on the 2nd July - I think they forgot that was a public holiday in Hong Kong when they wrote the contract, so my first day I will be paid for doing nothing - perfect :-).

Bravura has a very small office here in Hong Kong - actually in the same building as Pru, so I should still get to see a bit of my dearly beloved. I am off course going to be located on a higher floor than he is, but that is only fitting don't you think... They also have one major client based out of Hong Kong that I will spend a lot of my time working with. It will be interesting to see how another insurance company does things after being entrenched in Pru for so long.

Other than that life is really just toddling along. Really looking forward to getting to the beach in Malaysia this weekend - 4 days of sun and surf- perfect (the sun in Hong Kong is usually hidden behind a thick layer of smog, although just lately it has been real thick cloud and torrential rain that has been the problem). Jonathon has suggested some quick getaways in the Philippines as well, so that might have to be the next bit of planning I do. I am still trying to convince Andrew to commit to a week or two back in NZ (via Australia) in late September - we shall see.

We have been going to a different church for the last few weeks (after happy clappy waving to Jesus got just too much for me). Andrew is disappointed in the music, but overall we think it is going to be 'home' here in Hong Kong. The church is big - several hundred people, and meets in various different rooms at the convention centre each week - basically which ever room has not been booked by a higher paying client I suspect. We really like the signs on the 'reserved for parents' seats that have a really cute baby and the words "If your baby becomes unsettled, please step out to the foyer (and don't forget to take the baby!)" Something tells me that is the American pastors sense of humour rather than the locals, but it kept us amused.

Thats about it - will take some photos in Langkawi and post them next week.

Brunch

Today is Saturday again - this morning we managed to struggle out of bed before midday. This was an achievement for me, although Sonia was awake (too awake) at some unearthly hour - probably around 8.

We went out to have brunch and decided to try a place we'd seen on the street and in writeups - called Wagyu. An Australian bistro/cafe type of place. Very nice Eggs Benedict, with lots of sauce. The coffee wasn't bad, although not up to the standard of Zambra in Causeway Bay. The menu for dinner was very impressive, so I guess they will see us again sometime soon.

New boss on Friday. Well Thursday really, but I was in KL. It will be interesting - the rumours around HK are that she is not the easiest person to work with or for. Friday appeared to bear this out somewhat. We will see what happens. Worst comes to worst there is heaps happening in the financial services industry.

Both Sonia and I went to KL on Wednesday for a meeting with the local team. I stayed on for Thursday to meet with a few other people, while Sonia fly up to Bangkok. I managed to get home by about 10:30 on Thursday night, and Sonia walked in the door at 9:30 last night.

This coming week has Thursday as a public holiday (I think it's Buddha's birthday?), so we are off to Langkawi for a long weekend. It will be nice to lie in the sun and relax, instead of peering through the humid smog of HK to see if the sun is actually above the horizon.

Another week

Just realised that another week has gone by without updates to the blog. So here goes...

Last week was a slow return to the travel bug. Both Sonia and I attended a meeting in Bangkok on Wednesday afternoon (to get agreement to close down a project). Then I took off to Taipei (first trip in a few years) while Sonia stayed in Bangkok to spend time with her favorite Finance team...

Taipei was interesting, seeing Taipei 101 from a small distance. The work was interesting, and hopefully will result in opportunities for further visits.

Saturday night we went to the movies and watched Spiderman 3. A little long at 140 minutes, but it was ok. Just in case you've not seen it yet, he saves the day - sort of. I think I'm probably more looking forward to Ocean's 13, which comes out later this month.

Wednesday morning it's off to KL for a short visit. I'll return to HK on Thursday night, while Sonia goes to Bangkok on Thursday morning, getting in HK on Friday.

Oh, and I went dragon-boating again on Sunday afternoon. Still a little sore, although that may have been a result of the squash games on Saturday morning!

Dragon-boating is fun

Except that I've ended up a little sore. Surprisingly not just my shoulders, but also my behind! The seats are basically planks of wood running across the boat. Sitting on planks of wood for an hour and a half is not the most comfortable experience, and it is only made worse by the need to rock backwards and forwards as you paddle.

We started practicing strokes so that the leaders could work out how good we are. Then we progressed to a sequence of 10-long-slow-strokes, 20-fast-strokes, then 30-moderate-strokes. This is apparently a lead-in so that we get the hang of things. We were informed by Lisa-the-drummer that we need to end up working even faster than the 20-fast-strokes part. And we are guaranteed at least two races on the day (one towards the final, then one more towards the "consolation plate"). Great!

Justice is served

Paris Hilton jailed for 45 days. I particularly like the comment she's reported to have made that she would pay complete attention to everything from now on. I guess we all suspected that her focus on reality was a little tenuous?

Swimming in Saudi Arabia

A great article on BBC News about the first woman to swim in Saudi Arabia. Well worth a read through.

Brownies

Forgot to update on the progress of Sonia's Kitchen Aid. We've used it - twice!

The first time was to make some brownies. Water, oil, two eggs, and a packet mix. Add chopped marshmallows, chocolate chips, and cherries. Mix it up (takes about 30 seconds), then throw it in the oven. Stop to lick the beater - OH NO - it tastes of peanuts. Check the box - no mention of peanuts. Think. Check the oil - "nut oil" - must be the problem. Check the brownie when it comes out, then throw it into the rubbish bin.

Walk down to the supermarket, purchase another packet, plus a bottle of vegetable oil. Try again. Works perfectly!

Total mixing time - about 1 minute. Maybe 2 if you stretch it.

The Election and Dragonboats

In France, that is.

Is anybody interested? It would seem that this is an event of vital importance, based on the coverage around Asia. The papers and the news seem to be full of it. It's hard to figure out why - inward-looking politicians manouvering their way through a sales process, trying to please everyone while at the same time differentiating themselves from the competition. I guess at least it will all be over within the next couple of days.

Meanwhile in the real world, the first practice for the company's dragonboat tournament entry will be held at 4pm on Stanley beach this Sunday afternoon. Between now and June, we practice every Sunday. Then in June we will pit our immense collection of skill and experience against a motley collection of other teams formed from around Hong Kong. It seems a foregone conclusion that we won't win, but it should be a great laugh.

Having seen dragonboats on TV previously, it looks like we're going to get very wet (not by capsizing, although that's not out of the question). This was confirmed by Linna (the organiser), who warned us to bring a spare change of clothes to each practice.

Stay tuned - we will let you know how things go!

Musings

It's strange what you become used to and accepting of. Yesterday was a public holiday in Hong Kong (Bank Holiday for the brits amongst the audience). After a long sleep in (one of us managed to see 2pm still in bed), we dragged ourselves out to purchase coffee beans. This was important, as it gave us a reason for being out of the apartment, and therefore a reason to stop somewhere for a late lunch.

We ended up at a cafe/restaurant that we had previously passed in our meanderings through Mid-Levels. It's called Cru, and on our previous wander past the Eggs Benedict looked very good. However, we didn't go for the Eggs Benedict this time. Instead, Andrew targeted the Ham and Cheese French Toast (can anyone spell cholesterol?), while Sonia had the breakfast burger (bap roll with bacon and eggs inside).

What was interesting was when partway through the meal two persons of french extraction sat down at the table next door. To return to the original topic, what we realised after leaving the restaurant was how some of their mannerisms grated on us (clicking fingers at the waiters? really!), whilst at the same time we are quite happy to sit in a restaurant surrounded by people having a competition to see who can slurp their noodles the loudest. I guess as you age you change...