Need Television..

It just occured to me, since I don't watch much TV anymore, I'm afraid that I'll lose touch with American pop culture... Not a great loss one might think - but it has struck a chord with me. I came to this conclusion after the great literary journal that is the Onion presented a piece describing the negative side effects of watching less that four hours of television a day. The prose that most succintly sums up my fears is that:

'Because the ridicule of pop culture comprises the bulk of today's social discourse, a non-viewer is at a distinct disadvantage in the workplace, on campus, and in the dating scene'

I certainly don't want to be caught in that situation - I've based a good chunk of my day to day bantor around this. What am I going to talk about... books? Hah..thats ridiculous.

I'm down to watching zero hours of TV a day, I've got to do whatever it takes to get back on track. My biggest fear is not being able to understand whats happening... jokes, situations and the like if I manage to catch my beloved Daily Show or Late night with Conan O'Brien. Now, that would be disasterous

cost of living

One thing that has been at the back of my mind since I have been here is the whole situation of day to day expenditures. Coming here from New York there are many day to items seem soo cheap, for example furniture at IKEA (the one place, I shit you not, I have visited more often than the grocery/corner store - you've got to check out the cloth covered lamps that I got... if I ever get around to taking photographs of my place that is). Anyway, even though I may have thought that IKEA was relatively cheap - I just found out that I could get customized furniture made out of better materials at similar prices, my point being that its pretty hard to judge weather you are getting a good deal when you initally arrive in a completely different environment. Now I feel as though I've been ripped off a number of times but at the time of purchase I thought that everything was hunky dorey, its just that at the time I was comparing their relative prices to what it would be in the US.

For example, I used to pay no attention to the Starbucks lattes that I bought (HKD 30 ~ 3.5 USD), but thats how mych I normally pay on an average lunch - its slowly starting to look a bit expensive.. forget the occasional indian curry lunch I used to crave from La Fountaine which set me back HKD 100. After being around for a while I've started to gain a sense of the place... This is the closest I've come to admitting that I'm starting to fit in here, its a scary step.

Though price differences between here and the US seem tiny compared to the price differences in India, where my friend Hemant has been tracking prices from his move from Seattle to Bangalore.

In other news, I've recovered from a 16 km run in the hills of the new terretories that I did this weekend and I somehow feel that I'm getting more fit. I'm hanging out with these Australians more often, I really didn't expect when I was told that Aussies were a bunch of meat heads who liked to play sports that it would turn out to be true. Note: No real insult is intended, but it was a person from Oz who made the generalization (Ray Mcgregor)

grown up living quarters

My quadraceps and calfs are still sore from the run over dragon's back that I did 3 days ago ... I'm starting to get worried that I am out of shape. Not to worry, I'll test myself with another 16 km run this Sunday. I often wonder why I derive pleasure out of inflicting pain out of my body - hey, that should make me a prime candidate for some other non running activities.

Looking at one end of the apartment with the fancy flat screen tv and the IKEA mood lighting I feel as though I've finally grown up and got myself a big boys apartment with proper furniture and fittings. However, when I walk into the bedroom I see the 5 unpacked boxes cluttered in the corner. I reckon they will be in the same location when I move out of here and so at the end of the day things really haven't changed. However, the other day I cleaned the kitchen, vaccumed the floor and cleaned the bathroom without expecting guests or any sort of mold... and believe me, no one ever has ever suspected me of cleaning up on a whim - thats usually Min Wei's job. Perhaps now that I'm living alone I'm starting to get more organized about day to day chores? It could just be the exitement of living in a new place and once the motivation goes - the state of the apartment will go along with it. I'll have to get back to you on that on in a few months.

Outdoor Activities

Finally, after being here for a month and a half I had my first solid session of outdoor physical activity. People have been telling me that HK does have a fair bit to offer but most of the poeple that I know don't really get involved with too much.... shopping/hitting the bars for a couple of beers seem to be the more poplular activities, although I do partake a little too extensively in the second one mentioned.

Anyay, a couple of days ago after complaining to some of my co-workers about how I missed doing outdoorsy things one of my co-workers, Tony mentioned that he was going to do a 25 km hike of the island know as dragon's back. At the time I didn't think much of the name but as we hit the trail this morning it quickly dawned on me... since the trail descended and ascended the various peaks of the island which caused havoc on me knees. It also turned out the the hike was more fo a run than anything else, it took 3 of us and sandy the dog about 3 1/2 hours to complete it - perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned to Tony that I claimed to be some sort of runner. Anyway, after all was done I'm glad that I did it, though my quads and knees are complaing now and I'm sure they are going to complain more aggressively tomorrow.

It was a nice way to get a view of the south west side of the island, and eventhough it is winter here now the weather was perfect... warm enough that I wasen't absolutely freezing but cool enough where I wasn't completely bathed in sweat by the end of it.

After that we grabbed some good Thai food with about a ton of Aussies, uhh probably closer to seven. The food was fantastic, but I'm sure how good the meal tasted was in no small part caused by the hike. Anyway, after that we proceeded to partake in one of my more commen activites - grabbing a couple of beers at a bar on the beach of Big Water Bay.

All in all, this has been one of the most enjoyable Sundays that I have spent here... outside of setting up my IKEA furniture off course!

Chung King Mansions

In my 1 month+ here I've managed to do very little interms of exploring the more local spots of HK.. A college friend of mine was visiting her family for Christmas and we met up in Tsim Sha Tsui. As soon as we got out of the MTR (subway) station we were right at the entrance of the infamous Chung King Mansions. This place has some history... its a place where you will find all sorts of life, definately different from the sterile towers of Central in Hong Kong island.

At first I was a little intimidated entering the place.... filled with Indians and Nigerians it did not seem to fit into this predominantly Chinese city. There were groups of people forcing their flyers onto anyone coming through... I immeditately held onto my wallet in my pocket because with so many people crowding around I didn't know what to expect. My friend, being Chinese mentioned that she had never been in the place before but since I was Indian and since I looked like I fit in she wanted to check it out since she felt safer. The place to me had a very seedy feeling.. we didn't leave the ground floor but there was enough activity around that I didn't feel the need to check out the various floors. It was surprising to see Indian grocery stores about but there were a number of people just loitering around that looked suspicious enogh for me not to spend too much time mulling around. We ate at an indian resturant - the first time I've eaten at an Indian establishment since I've been here, it must be some sort of record... All in all it showed a different side of HK that I've not seen before and was excellent. I'd like to head back there one of these days to explore it a bit more and see where it gets its history from.

In other news the hysteria surrounding the tragic tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean seems to be dying down a little bit. I still find the whole thing a little bit surreal... definately something that seems that it should have taken place in a movie and not real life.

Happy New Year!

A bit bigger lul between posts than I expected... and this is starting off with the blog - I'd hate to see this 6 months from now. Its a tribute to my laziness.

Anyway, since the first and only previous post there has been a fair bit of merriment and alcohol consumption that has taken place which has left me with more hangover induced symptoms that I would have liked. Christmas was spend getting a bit to 'happy' at a co-worker's gathering but I managed to keep it in check for the New Year. A word of caution for people intending to visit Hong Kong during this period - if you like keeping the feelings in you limbs and don't want to be pre-occupied with a chance of a stampede I would suggest avoiding Lan Kwai Fong - the bar area frequented by expats, its fairly crowded on any given weekend but during New Years its just insane... at least by my standards coming from New York.

The other major developments here is that my apartment is slowly transforming itself to an IKEA showroom. Only after I bought some of the furniture did I realize that there is a very vibrant second hand market for with people constanly moving in and out of Hong Kong. It really helps to have a friend around to help you figure out with things that you don't normally think about (or at least what I don't normally thing about) when you get here.