The Craziest Aunty in the World

- insists that she does not want to hear anyone before 6am
- won't hand over the ipad at restaurants when hands have been used to demolish food - well not until they are washed at least
- suggests that photos should really be of things you can identify so you can explain them to others later
- thinks that some photos should have kids in so that we can blog them and prove to the mums that everyone is alive and well
- makes us count underpants, socks, t-shirts and shorts into the washing basket
- won't let us wear the same socks two days running
- thinks that teeth should be cleaned twice a day, not once every two days

And worst of all....

INSISTS on a shower every single morning - what is with that!

We lost no-one all day....

We lost no one all day long - definitely can be classified as a success!  We did send one camera on a lone return journey on the ferry - but all is well that ends well :-)

Sunday's at our house start late (well I did not hear anyone until 6.30 this morning, so that is definitely an improvement!) and generally involve Pacific Coffee for breakfast, church at 11.30am, lunch in town, the gym for Andrew in the afternoon and then a quiet evening at home with a nice glass of red...

Today was a bit different.  We started same same.  Breakfast at Pacific Coffee was Paninis for various fillings.  Yumm.

Learning about weird Japanese inventions over breakfast (sitting monkey style on the cafe chairs!)

We then headed of to our Church Service/Rock Concert.   The speaker this morning was Greg Smalley - son of Gary Smalley of Seven Love Languages fame.  He managed to keep the boys attention pretty well through the 40 minutes he spoke.  Kudos to him!

We then jumped on the tram to get back into Central to catch a ferry across to Discovery Bay.

Braden and Jordan objecting to yet another photo to prove to their mothers
that they are still alive....

It was a real challenge to find a kid friendly venue to watch the rugby here - most often it was being played in Adult-Only Pubs.  Discovery Bay is the 'Nappy Valley' of Hong Kong, and the rugby was Andrew's version of 'Hell on Earth'.  Not only did he have to watch Rugby, but he had to watch it amongst the noisiest bunch of Aussie supporting kids in the whole of Hong Kong.  Braden  and Jordan had a couple of cuties sitting next to them supporting Aussie.  They wanted to know why the All Blacks did the haka.  We told them that it was to scare the Aussies and they came back very quickly with 'does it work?'.  They also assured us that it did not scare them at all.  Guess the score would indicate that their illustrious Aussie  Team were scared!

Braden and his Aussie buddy 'Charlie'

Midway through the pre-match ordering of a late lunch we discovered we were short one camera.  Oh dear - those cameras are going to be the death of me!  Andrew went charging back to the ferry.... where the ticketing staff said they had indeed found a camera but had sent it back with the boat that had already left for HK.  They arranged for it to stay on the boat and we collected it an after the rugby when the boat returned back to Discovery Bay.  It had an adventure!

Home early tonight after last nights ultra late one.  Boys will be in bed by nine, and hopefully jetlag is now over.  Not sure of tomorrows plans yet - will depend a bit on our unpredictable weather.

Till then...

Sonia

Macau

Well another day is over and it turned out to be a fantastic one.  After another early start (there were lights  on at around 5.00am!) we headed out mid morning to catch the ferry to Macau.  The trip across takes about an hour and is usually reasonably smooth.  Today we had the odd rough spot, but nothing too serious.

We headed into the Venetian hotel (ok - and casino -  are we ruining them for life?) to pick up our Cirque du Soleil tickets, and then got a bit of the local culture by heading into 'Old Macau' for the afternoon.  Offers of Offal Curry or Brain Ball Soup for lunch were surprisingly turned down... and much to my horror we took the easy route and ended up in McDonalds.  The boys were corrupted by Andrew...although he probably would have gone with the Offal Curry given a choice of anything we had seen.  It smelled seriously good,  and there was a long queue at the store which is always a good sign.

We then headed up to the Ruins of the Cathedral of St Paul and then up to the old Fort.  The museum trip yesterday must have been a hit coz they asked to go into the Macau Museum that has been built up on the fort.  It was not bad - especially as today was a 'no charge' day.   Museums on this side of the world really are much better than I remember the NZ ones being.  I tried to save your viewing time by instigating a 'no photo unless you know what it is' rule - it may have reduced slightly the number of photos that will return home - but not by much!  Common description will be 'another old thing' :-)

We introduced them to dehydrated BBQ pork - Jordan liked it while Braden was convinced it smelt bad,  and walked the busiest street we have had them on since they arrived.  I am not sure they have ever seen a space so packed with bodies.  We lost no-one and no-thing all day - we seem to be over the putting the camera down and walking away phase - so all was good...

4.40pm saw us entering the Cirque du Soleil theatre and awe took over.  The theatre is custom made for Cirque, and really is spectacular.  The show was great.  Jordan sat beside Andrew and they stoically sat through the show in amazed silence.  Braden sat beside me and I got the show with a running commentary.  Those two sure do have different personalities :-).  The trampoline finale took first prize as 'favorite act', closely followed by the recurring clowns and the trapeze artists.  Well worth the effort to get to if you are ever in a city with a Cirque show.

Poor old Jordan exited the theatre with a bit of a tooth ache - that slightly wiggly one that wants to come out was giving him some trouble.  All credit to him - he continued to smile and laugh at Andrews silly jokes, but was not feeling like eating, and was a bit dizzy on it - probably overtired in addition to the sore tooth.  He and I left Andrew and Braden finishing their dinner and went to find a pharmacy.  A nice does of Pamol did the trick and he bounced back enough to munch on a late night Croissant snack while waiting for the ferry back to HK.

I can now confirm for anyone who does not know that Jordan snores, and Braden sleeps with his mouth wide open like a guppy :-).  There was a bit of sleeping went on in the Ferry and the last taxi leg home, but both managed to make it up the stairs, got their teeth cleaned and were asleep within 2  minutes of their heads hitting the pillow.   Long may it last - jet lag is no fun!

A couple of photos to prove they were there - I'll get them to update their blogs in the morning before church

Looking good beside the ruins of St Pauls

Waiting at the bottom of the stairs leading up to
the Fort

Spectacular first act of Cirque - before we put our cameras down
coz you miss too much of what is going on when trying to
take pictures!

Thats it for tonight....

Sonia

It is only fair....

I guess that as I am telling the boys they need to blog regularly (I think Braden managed 2 lines - you'll get more info from Jordan!) I should do so too.... so here is our day in a nutshell

4am marked the first noises from the room next door.  They quietened down until about 6.30 but  by then excitement had kicked in and the poor cats were being subjected to their mornings harassment.  Sure they did not mind really, but hope they don't expect early morning playtime to continue once the boys are gone!

We headed out in the pouring rain to catch the mini bus into town.  The outdoor escalator and a bit of a trek took us to the ferry terminal to book our tickets to Macau for tomorrow.  Unbelievably (it was only 10am!) cries of 'I'm starving - my tummy is still on NZ time' started up.  Who can possibly want another meal 3 hours after the last one!  Pret was the answer - Jordan takes after his mother and had only to debate whether the chocolate cake or the varlhona chocolate mousse would be more satisfying.  Braden takes after anther member of the Palmer family (who shall remain nameless) and took 15 minutes to make up his mind what he wanted :-)

The rain had eased a bit, but we decided to stick with our rainy weather plan and headed off on the museum trail.  The HK Museum of History and the HK Science Museum were both amazing value.  20HKD total got the three of us in the the History Museum (that is about USD 2.50) and the Science museum was a whopping 50HKD.  They took us all day to get around, and we easily could have stayed longer than the 3.5 hours we spent at the Science Museum.

I'm sure you'll be given the full photo rundown (they could both have been born in Japan based on the number of camera flashes I saw this today!), but here are a couple of pictures stolen from Jordans camera just to prove they are alive and well

On the tram at the History Museum

I don't know what to do...'read the instructions'...what instructions - I cannot see any instructions.....'doh!'

We are now being treated to the latest lego movie (honestly - who dreams up this stuff!!) while nibbling on caramel corn and trying to get REALLY tired before bed.  6.30am just does not exist in this house on a Saturday morning - jet lag or not!  Tomorrow we are off to Macau.  Should be fun :-)

Sonia

PS - today we attempted to leave a wallet on the bus, and left our camera behind at the science museum exhibits a grand total of 4 times (yep the camera forgetter was the same culprit every time!) - the staff knew me by the fourth time and were very good about returning it with a smile!  The wallet now lives in my handbag and I'm insisting the camera lives around a little neck.  Promise to do my best to get them home all in one piece!

Melbourne

The majority of my experiences with Melbourne taxis have been fairly pleasant, with friendly drivers who know where they are going. And apart from the lunatic (last night) who bought me into town from the airport, they have been pretty safe.

Tonight, I have spent the last 20 minutes sitting in the back of a taxi while we inch forwards. We are at and intersection, trying to drive straight through. However traffic from both directions on the crossroad keeps going across at the last minute before the light changes, leaving no room for us. Whichever idiot designed this, along with whomever is supposed to be enforcing the road-rules, should be slapped around. And then send to a design course to learn how to set up a traffic system. And there I was thinking Australia was a developed nation? Faster to go places in Bangkok!

It's true and I have proof

You know what "they" say - when a man gets sick he is dieing?

Well I now know that it is true. I started the weekend with a cold, which didn't go away over Saturday and Sunday. Monday I headed to the doctor, who gave me a chest x-ray and told me I have pneumonia. So it is true - when I have a cold I really am in danger! All my demands (orange juice, etc) need to be met immediately because I could expire at any moment!

Sunday Night in Hong Kong

It is Sunday night and we are just back from having a long lunch with some friends who live on the New Territories side of Hong Kong, just about at the China border. It was good to take the car for a little spin and get out of the city - that part of HK is very beautiful with tropical forests and steep hills/mountains. Our friends have a lovely older house over four levels, with a pool in the backyard. The trade off is that it takes well over an hour to get into HK city in rush hour, and the tolls would cost over 100 HKD per day. Public Transport is not really an option, so you would need a carpark in town as well. Put that all together and it explains why we live in an apartment in Pok Ful Lam rather than a house in Tai Po :0)

Andrew is busy trying to enter goodness knows how many months worth of expenses into his works reimbursement system - never his favorite job, and definitely generating some grumps! He is off tomorrow to Japan for the week. It was good to have him home for the weekend.

Not much else to report - life is just ticking along here. We are looking forward to visitors in August, September and October, and trying to work out the best time for Andrew to take some time off and head to a beach - maybe late August will work out. We sent the plans for our house off for pricing last Friday and hope to start building pretty quickly - the slow market in NZ should work to our advantage with the builder saying he can start as soon as the permits are granted by council.

Boring news I know..... but that is it for now!

South Africa

I have just realised that I have now visited every continent except Antarctica. For the past few days I have been in Johannesburg, working with a client. So that ticks off South Africa. Last year included North and South America, Asia, UK, Central Eastern Europe, Middle East, and New Zealand. Adding in Australia last week, I think I've done ok. Since there are no IT or Insurance companies in Antarctica I probably need to forget about that. Perhaps it is time to retire?

Johannesburg doesn't feel as safe as even the worst parts of Asia that I've been to. I cannot put my finger on exactly what it is - perhaps the security guards everywhere, or the way my South African colleague locks the car doors every time we stop at the traffic lights? Anyway, I have a midday flight tomorrow, arriving back in HK at about 7am on Friday morning.

Then on Saturday night I've got an overnight flight to Auckland, leaving again on Wednesday. Just enough time to sort the car and motorbike, I think.

Well these posts are getting further apart - guess we are getting busier

Hard to believe it is two months since I last updated here. Time sure flies when you are having fun :-)

This week I am home in HK after two weeks away visting first Wendy and Ian in Missouri and then Evan and Kirsten in Edmonton. I had a great break with both families and enjoyed the 'dry' warmth of a North American spring. Quite different to the muggy and stifling weather we are having in Hong Kong at the moment. Wendy and Ian are still in the midst of raising their funds so that they can head back to India. Pray for them as they complete this task - it is sure not their favorite thing to be doing! Wendy is working as a hospice case worker, managing the home care of patients who are in the final days/weeks/months of life and ensuring they are, as much as possible, pain free and comfortable. Ian is working through vast lists of AOG churches predominately in the state of Kansas and arranging church deputation meetings. I think it is fair to say they would both rather be doing something else! The kids are happy in a new school that seems to be working out better than the last one, but are also all keen to be geting back to what they know as 'normal' in India.

Evan and Kirsten's was lovely too. Man those girls have grown up! Brianna is taller than her mother, and Caleigh is bouncing along not far behind - all legs that girl! They are enjoying a busy social life with school events, dance classes and performances and running and badminton clubs. Kirsten is still working at the book-keeping job she has been at part time for a few years now, but is looking into setting up a book keeping business of her own from home (go Kirsten!). Evan is still doing a fine job of managing his M&M meatshop - his shop consistently gets in the top 20 franchises listing from head office so he must be doing something right! As I was leaving they were busy planting new trees on their property to give them a bit more privacy from the nosy neighbours (nosy in the nicest possible way!) - I'll have to go back and visit again to see how they are growing :-)

Andrew is off travelling this week - Australia Sunday night thru Tuesday night, then overnight back to HK and straight onto a plane to Tokyo for the rest of the week. I am sure he is enjoying being back there - so many things we miss about Japan. Next week sees me in Bangkok Mon - Fri and Andrew off in South Africa. That's somewhere neither of us have been before and should be an interesting experience. The following week I think he is heading quickly down to NZ to sort getting the car and motorbike through customs and into storage. He will be ready for some days at home by the end of that!

Not too much else is going on. Sachi remains a lazy and spoilt cat, Jenny continues to keep our house running while we travel, and Hong Kong continues to get hotter by the week. We have three lots of visitors lined up for late summer/early fall this year - friends from work in Aug, Mac and Joyce in Sept and Braden and Jordan in Oct. We are hoping to get a week away at a beach somewhere in August, and then to make it back home to NZ for a holiday somewhere towards the end of the year - assuming that house building is actually moving by then (no pressure Sharon... :-)...)

Oh one more thing - we've finally got organised and bought ourselves a car here in Hong Kong. We are now the proud owners of a 2005 Convertible Mini. Not quite out normal style, but quite fun! We needed a little car coz we have a very little carpark.... not sure I am going to be able to part even the mini in it it's so ridiculously small, but I'll try! It is blue and silver and quite an acceptable little race around car. There will be just enough room for Braden and Jordan in the backseat as long as they do not grow to much between now and October (146 days if Jordan is correct!). No way we will fit anyone's luggage in the back however, so it is still going to require a train and taxi trip from the airport for anyone who chooses to come visit us. Have not taken any photos yet, but will try and get you a nice one with Andrew in the drivers seat over the weekend.

Love

Sonia

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.

Almost there....

...well I am nearly in Hong Kong. Today the motor bike and car were collected for shipping to NZ and I handed over the apartment keys after the managment company did their final inspection (I kid you not... they were on their hands and knees inspecting every inch of the wooden floors to see if we had damaged them...). I'm now at the Conrad Tokyo (yeah Hilton Honors points that have me staying here for free!) for my second to last night in Tokyo. Tomorrow I pick up the cat (expensive animal...) and after taking her on a train back to my hotel and then a bus out to the aiport, deposit her for the night at the 'Pet Hotel' at Narita airport. I'll be bunking down at the Hilton NArita Airport :-)

(Just in case you were wondering, according to the Apartment Managment Company we scratched the wallpaper once (acutally I am sure that was Sachi not Andrew or I!) and made two dents in the floor boards. They are threatening to charge us for each of these misdemeanors....only in Japan!)

Then on Monday morning, between work conference calls I will be getting Sachi quarantine inspected and then to a cargo company who will get her onto a plane. We fly to HK - me with a seat and Sachi in "cargo" - at 4pm and will meet Andrew who is conventiently coming off a plane from Singpore 10 minutes earlier than we land, at Hong Kong Airport. We then bave about a week of sleeping on an airbed, with no curtains at the windows, until our shipping arrives in Hong Kong. The joys of international relocation :-)


I have however learned some things about moving house and am happy to share:
1. Buy may rolls of paper towels. No matter how carefully you wash out cleaning clothes they leave marks on white Japanese wallpaper. Paper towels do not. Estimate how many rolls you will need and then double it.... or have a convenient supermarket in the basement of your apartment block so you can purchase more at will.
2. If you are going to hang wallpaper (and the whole of Japan does) then applying a thin bead of silicon at the skirting is a great idea - I could spray kitchen cleaner at it to my hearts content and it never budged the wallpaper
3. The person who designed skirting boards with a decorative grove mid-way up the board was a man - he has clearly never had to clean them
4. Waxing wooden floors is a nightmare. It is impossible to get the wax even. I will NEVER have wooden floors in my own house
5. Aunty Anne was right - you really do need rubber gloves when cleaning. The appalling state of my hands and nails is testament to what happens if you do not...


I guess the next post will be from Hong Kong - we'll see if we can manage some pictures of the apartment :-)

Sonia

Another Sunday Afternoon in an Airport Lounge - but it is the last one!

Another bus trip today out to Narita airport heading for a four day week in Bangkok. It has been three weeks since I was last there - I am slowly breaking out of the every second week routine :-)

The movers packed our house yesterday - all 151 boxes of it. It took them from 9 in the morning until 6.30 at night - 4 guys in the morning and 6 in the afternoon. Hard to believe we left for the UK 11 years ago with just 2 suitcases. We got rid of the couches before we moved this time - their mildew stained appearance was just not doing it for me and I wanted them gone. We'll have to go shopping in Hong Kong for a new one pretty quickly or we will end up sitting on the floor. I'll post pictures of the new apartment in Hong Kong once we move in, but it does not unfortunately have the spectacular views we had in our last HK place. We decided this time that space was more important to us than views, and so net curtains will be a must unless we want to get very intimate with our neighbours! The apartment is brand new however, so should be nice to live in. It has three bedrooms so we will once again have a guest room - will be good for when Jordan and Braden come to visit.

The biggest hassle in the whole move has definitely been the cat. She requires an export certificate to get her out of Japan and an import certificate to get her into Hong Kong. In addition she needed fresh vaccinations two weeks before we travelled and a health certificate from the vet. I have to visit the quarantine office here at the airport to get her a final check over on our way out of the country, and then she gets passed over to the cargo handling company for loading onto my flight to Hong Kong. When she gets to Hong Kong she gets sent to the Quarantine office in the Cargo building where all going well we can just pick her up. I guess on the positive side, at least she does not need to stay in quarantine for weeks like she will have to when we bring her to NZ.

Closely following the cat for sheer inconvenience have been the car and motorbike. Neither are easy to sell in Japan - Japanese do not like second hand vehicles at the best of times, and buying off a foreigner who does not speak Japanese is not their idea of fun either. So we are shipping them both to NZ. If Andrew (it has to be him coz he is the ownership papers) can make it back to NZ at the same time the boat gets in, he will be able to save us paying the GST on the car as we have had it a year and so qualify for a 'concessionary' import based on our time out of NZ. The only thing is that if we do that we cannot sell the car for two years... so it will need to go into storage somewhere. Any takers? We pay good rates :-) At this stage we are expecting the car company to collect the car and bike next Saturday when I am back in Tokyo to do the final inspection and key hand over on the apartment. They will then wait in Japan until the end of March before being shipped.

Andrew and I had a quick holiday before the move up in Niseko and Sapporo in the north of Japan. It was booked last year, and so although the timing was not really very convenient we decided to just take it anyway and make the most of the last few days in Japan. We have some photos of the skiing in the Niseko and the Snow Festival in Sapporo on the camera - but unfortunately that is in the packing so we won't be able to post anything until we unpack again (should be the end of the month). Andrew ended up having to do quite a bit of work while we were away, but he still managed a day of skiing and had a nice few days.

Time to head for the plane - better not be left behind :-)

Sonia

Musings - Cannot think of anything better to call my random thoughts!

Well Andrew has well and truly finished his job in Japan, although he does not seem to understand that this means he does not need to go to the office (I am sure he will make four out of five days this week!) . We are trying to finalise our plans for moving out - it is looking at the moment like it might be the last week in February before I get the movers in to pack us and finally depart for Hong Kong. Poor Sachi is going to have to put up with many visits from the pet sitter in the next few weeks as I have three trips to Bangkok planned in the weeks before I leave, and we have a week long trip to the snow in the North of Japan over Chinese New Year at the beginning of February.

We will definitely miss Japan, although it makes sense on so many levels to be leaving. I will have much more freedom to find a job that does not involve constant travel, and Andrew's job at Sungard gives him good opportunities to build networks back into New Zealand. It is also a challenge - something his job (although cruisey!) was just not giving him at Metlife/Alico. We will miss the ultra polite culture, the stunningly beautiful winter days where you freeze but the sky is sooooo blue and the amazing food. We are not looking forward to the humidity and smog of Hong Kong, but at least the church is 1000% more onto it :-)

Andrew starts his new job on Monday and is flying directly from here to Vietnam for a start-of-year kick off conference for his company. He will then fly into Hong Kong on Friday and begin the job of trying to find us the best place to live. Please pray for us as we balance the convenience of city living with the affordability of living outside the city. We need to make the right decision as leases in HK are usually for two years with significant penalties for leaving within 12 months. Andrew will also need to make the decision on his own as I cannot get to HK in the next few weeks so that also adds some stress to the equation. On the positive side, I think he has selected 4 out of 5 of our last apartments without me seeing them and he has done pretty well so far!

I am in Bangkok for the next two weeks working with a team from NZ on some nasty performance issues my client has. I have insisted on coming home for the weekend (could not leave the poor cat on her own for two straight weeks!), but in some ways that just makes the whole period even more stressful with an extra set of 6 hour flights to get me home and back. I will be looking forward to that week off!

We spent New Year in Seoul - predominately because it is the closest country to fly to from Japan and it was important for tax reasons that Andrew was out of Japan (and handed back his 'Alien Card' on leaving) on Dec 31 and Jan 1. This saved us about 10% of his 2010 income in tax, so was well worth doing! Here are our photos from Seoul...honestly... don't bother!

The Christmas Tree beside the skating rink in the middle of town.




















A kind of Korean Style Gate... we had to find something kind of local to take a picture of!



















And here are my favourite pictures of Andrew and Sachi this week - very typical poses in the Tokyo cold...


Finally... the view sunset outside my home office window this week - who could ask for more!

Love

Sonia

Christmas lights

Well the Christmas tree never did get any lights. It's Boxing Day today, so I guess Sonia will soon give in and dismantle the tree. Without lights. Quite an achievement, I think.

We went to a friend's place yesterday, around 1pm, for a Christmas lunch. As one of the other couples was late, this turned out to be somewhere between lunch and dinner, finishing as it did around 6pm. Turkey, ham, lamb, etc. We did dessert - chocolate cheesecake, lemon meringue cupcakes, and chocolate brownie. The baking started at 7.30am and finished ten minutes before we needed to leave home, so it was a busy Christmas Morning! Glen (the friend) had got a chimineya for Christmas, so we ended up sitting around it until quite late in the freezing Tokyo weather, talking about life in Japan and Asia. The others who were there were mostly Australians with a token American couple. It was a good Christmas.

Speaking of life in Japan, ours is at an end. I've accepted a job in Hong Kong with a consulting company - heading up the insurance business for Asia Pacific. The scope includes NZ, so there is a chance of getting to NZ from time to time. We'll be moving sometime in late January - February, although not we are exactly sure of the timetable at this point. I officially start on 17th January, but we will need to find an apartment in Hong Kong, sell the car (the motorbike will probably be shipped), and pack up the furniture (getting rid of the couches first). Life is never boring :-)

Merry Christmas

Andrew and Sonia

Everyone's Home Again - Yay!

Well Andrew walked in the door from his London flight 3 or 4 hours ago and has now gone off to the office for a couple of hours work and then a colleagues farewell 'sayonara' party. I finally made it home from Bangkok on Wednesday morning after having to extend my stay by a few days to deal with some issues we were experiencing. It is good to both be home! It does not last long though as I am off to HK from Tuesday thru Saturday next week, and then Melbourne Monday thru Friday of the following week. Andrew is also looking at needing to be in New York that same week so poor Sachi will be deserted once more and left in the care of the ridiculously expensive cat sitter. At least Sachi seems to tolerate her now and at comes out of hiding - bit hard for the poor cat sitter to 'play' with our cat for 30 minutes when she won't come out from under the couch!

Roll on Christmas when we are both likely to be in Tokyo for a full fortnight! No leave over the actual Christmas period, but we do both get a couple of days in the New Year, so that will be nice. We are staying in Tokyo for Christmas this year - guess we will have to decide soon if we are going to book a restaurant or cook in. In Asia the night of the 24th is a much bigger deal, so often there is nothing of much substance going on once you get to actual Christmas Day.

After my darling husband disposed of yet another of my Christmas Trees in our last move (it just would not fit in the shipping boxes... or so he said!) I decided that the next time I bought a tree it was going to be

a)Exactly what I wanted and not just a temporary compromise and
b)Significant enough that Andrew would think twice before throwing it away!

I can think of at least 3 that he has chucked out over the years, plus the one that lives with one of the relatives back in NZ...

So while in Bangkok I splurged and we are now the owners of a lovely 8 ft Christmas tree that is really bushy and looks great. It touches the ceiling and takes up half our tiny apartment lounge...but hey - this is the LAST one I am ever going to buy :-) It needed to fit into any future houses we may live in as well.

So here is a little picture or two for you. After spending a full ten hours believing the tree was evil and was going to attack her (she hid in the kitchen where she could not see it for most of the day - our cat NEVER spends time in the kitchen other than to eat!) Sachi has decided to make friends with the tree and has taken to curling up underneath it. Now if I could just put a 'To Paul, Love Andrew and Sonia" bow around her neck she would make a perfect playmate for Toby.

So far so good and we have had very little interest in batting the baubles off - long may it last if she knows what is good for her.






And here are my latest decorations - so ugly they are cute Make a Wish Foundation Thailand fairy/elves that my hotel was selling to raise funds for local kids with cancer. Hey it is Thailand - the don't know that fairies and elves are not really the same thing!






Perhaps once Andrew relents and buys me some Christmas Tree lights it will be time to take a picture of the whole tree and add it here for your viewing pleasure. In the meantime you will just have to imagine...

Love,

Sonia

Autumn in Tokyo

Well back in Tokyo, it's getting cooler. This weekend has varied between about 12 degrees and 18. I washed the car this evening, and it was definitely on the cold side. We went a for ride on the bikes yesterday afternoon, and while it was not hot, it was ok as long as you stayed in the sun. Speaking of which, the sunsets are getting earlier - about 4:30pm at the moment.

I go to a new office tomorrow morning. We packed everything up on Friday, and it is being shifted over the weekend. The new office is a lot closer to home, but it will still take almost 30 minutes to get to work. The train system is such that there is no direct line from home to the office, so in the end the train trip will only be about 5 minutes shorter. And because this office is right in the city, close to the palace, I won't be able to afford to drive and park. Oh well.

Sonia is in Bangkok this week. I'm heading to HK on Thursday for some meetings, back on Friday. Then on Sunday I take off to London for next week. And a possibility of another trip to New York in the middle of December. A fair bit of travel at the moment - the bummer is that it's not all on the one airline network, so the points are not consistent! The trip to London will be Virgin Atlantic - apparently their business class ("Upper Class") is pretty good, so I will let you know.

New York, Nu Yoick

I have the pleasure of participating in a "Product Conference", which is supposed to be about product strategy. However what is turning out to be the case is that I am locked in a conference room with a bunch of actuaries who are all talking in monotones and reading their Powerpoint slides. A pretty grim situation really, especially when it runs all day, and we are only about 25% of the way through but have used almost 50% of the time.

What can I say about New York? Rude taxi drivers (honking their horns all the time), dirty streets, and lots of people. Nice to be able to visit, but I will not be itching to come back. The hotel is right on Times Square, which is nice, but the price is incredible given what you are getting. Much better quality in Japan, which I had always thought was expensive. NY is much more so.

Back from Beirut

Well I am back in Tokyo safe and sound. No war breaking out while I was in Beirut. There is certainly a level of tension in the air, as I saw on Tuesday night when out with the local manager. We walked around the centre of the city before having dinner, and a few times we were passed by mini-convoys of armoured vehicles. Filled with solders with machine guns and their fingers on the triggers. The local guys that I spoke to were all optimistic, while at the same time recognising the challenges of maintaining peace.

But other than that, it was a nice city. There is a very definite Mediterranean feel to the place, and a few times I was reminded of Athens. Bad streets, crazy driving, lots of horns honking. Great food - the best hummus I have ever had, anywhere.

Well, Sunday night I fly to Seoul for Monday/Tuesday, then Tuesday night off to New York. Fun.

Lebanon

Well the flight over was uneventful - just very long. Turkish airlines turned out to be excellent - the plane was on a par with Cathay Pacific, and the food was better.

Beirut seems nice. So far I have really only seen the hotel, and the main street that it is on. I arrived at the hotel about 1230 last night, so I have only had about an hour to walk up and down and look at the shops. Starbucks, Gloria Jean's, and a couple of other coffee places. All sandwiched between a hundred shoe -shops, tailors, and brand-name clothing shops including H&M. The roads and footpaths are a little closer to parts of India, or Athens, but there are a fair number of nice cars embedded in the traffic jam that covers the main road.

I am at the gym right now, in an attempt to stay awake until closer to 10pm (it is about 8:30 now). Walking on the treadmill and trying to write this email post without too many spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. The gym itself is really nice, with lots of treadmills, cross trainers, and bikes (both upright and reclining). Lots = 20 treadmills. All facing a wall with 17 huge flatscreen tvs. A bit different to what I assumed I would find.

Well, almost done my 30 minutes so I need to move on to weights.