Office Move

I'm moving offices tomorrow, taking advantage of the drop in rental prices in Hong Kong's Central District to get more space for less $$. Aside from tomorrow being the last day of the month and that I'll be kicked out of my current office anyhow, I've decided to move tomorrow because its been ordained by the Chinese Tong Shu astrology guide as an "Auspicious Day to Move Offices." See the picture above, there are a lot of days to choose from. Business could be better here in Hong Kong, and while I believe none of this hooey about my actions being dictated by star alignments, I'm also not quite prepared to go against it......when in Rome I suppose.

Mandarin tutor

Lizzie has a arranged for a local woman to hold small Mandarin language sessions at our flat for Ingrid and a couple of other kids/moms from our building. They sing songs and listen to basic vocabularly. As you can imagine, the attention level varies among the kids!

Can't Hardly Wait

You know the feeling when you pick up an exciting new book at the store and you can't wait to get home to dig into it? You might even read a couple pages in the car? Well, Elmo pop-up books have that same effect on Ingrid...

Pizza Making

Moves

Ingrid studying the moves of this Korean boy band at the local electronics store...

Out of Service

Hmmm, shouldn't this sign just cut to the point and read "Escalator Out of Service?"

More Rain

Dung juice

Those who know me can attest to my love of the show Man vs. Wild. This is one survival tactic that may lead me to choose death.

Shoeshine

Yes, it is a slow day when I am blogging about getting my shoes shined, and a clear sign that the blog has now jumped the shark if it hadn't already. "Shiny Shoes Shiny Minds" as my boss likes to say. A group of these old dudes are staked out on the sidewalk with their shoeshine kits in an alley off of Queens Road in HK, many of them looking like they've been shining since they were kids. I frequently make a pitstop for a $2 shine before meetings.

Rainy Weekend

Beckoning Cat

We have all seen these friendly felines in the storefront windows of Chinese-American owned businesses. They appear to be waving to us out of general goodwill but in actuality their gesture is a beckoning to us to come in from the streets to enter the store and part with our hard earned money.

Ingrid loves these cats and really does believe they are waving to her and her alone. We'll walk down the street and she'll wave to ever cat she sees. The video below is from an encounter today in Shanghai with a beckoning cat at a 'bargain DVD' store down the street from our hotel. One of the employees took a shine to Ingrid and put her up on a chair with the cat and took a video with her mobile phone. Then I proceeded to buy Seasons 1-3 of Dexter for $3.75, and literally every Disney movie you can think of for less than a Hamilton. I guess the cat got us good. Hopefully the airport customs agent won't beckon us as well.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone! We miss you all and wish we could take part in your egg hunting.
We put Ingrid into her pretty little Easter dress and set off on the town in search of a church service. We found the Hengshan Community Church, a beautiful ivy covered church on the fringes of the French Concession. We were on time for the service but it was a full house so we became part of the overflow crowd on the grounds of the church, listening via loudspeaker. No matter, the service was in Mandarin and the weather was beautiful so we just put a blanket on the grass and enjoyed ourselves. Ingrid was met equally with adoring looks and blank stares, but then we were the only Westerners in the place.

Shanghai Day 2

We were on the go go go today, taking in the Shanghai Museum, Renmin Square, Taikang Road and points in between. I had an 'I've been here before moment' upon entering the museum, and truly I had with my Mom, Dad and Christine on our China journey in '05. It was worth the return trip to see the incredible collection of blue & white porcelain donated recently by a wealthy benefactor. Ingrid made lots of little friends outside the museum while playing in the fountain at Renmin Square.






We were marks for the local sketch artist who made a big scene about rendering Ingrid's picture. It was 11am but he looked like he'd already had a few cocktails. He didn't want to deal with me, dismissing me with a hand motion and saying '2 meters, 2 meters,' with contempt for my height. He shouted 'Ingrid, Ingrid' and had a big circle around him as he charcoaled a pretty good likeness of the Ing. And he only charged us a single US dollar.


Ingrid was totally pooped by the time we got back to the hotel. We got into the lobby of our boutique inn and Ingrid made herself comfortable on the antique chaise lounge.
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Ni Hao

We came across this Myna Bird in a back alley in Shanghai and it had a whole vocab of Chinese words and phrases. The only one we understood was "Ni Hao," Mandarin for "Hello."

Shanghai Day 1

Hong Kong follows much the same public holiday schedule as the UK so we're lucky to get both Good Friday and the day following Easter off of work. So we've got a good amount of time ahead of us here in exciting Shanghai. Today was day 1 and we spent it exploring the French Concession and Xintiandi, our comfort zones. We'll get more adventurous as the trip wears on.

Bad Luck All Around

Cutting Edge

On the subject of The Future, I bring to you a photo of the toilet in our Shanghai hotel room. I had to have a laugh at this one.

3DTV

On a recent trip to Shanghai, Paris Hilton dimwittedly take on Shanghai was 'its like the future...' Not too far off actually. And to that end, an exhibition in town today was showing off '3D TV,' the wave of the future. But be sure to take your Dramamine, a couple minutes watching it has me woozy.

Thank You Easter Bunny

We kicked off our Easter celebrations a week early and did so in true Hong Kong style. Olivers, our local upmarket supermarket catering largely to the expat crowd had a mini-egg hunt and an in-store visit from the Easter Bunny himself/herself. Ingrid was wild about hunting thru the store for eggs but, true to form, was absolutely terrorized by the sight of a 7-foot tall freaky pink Easter Bunny. Who wouldn't be? Her safety radius was about 10 feet and anytime I inched closer to the bunny for a photo Ingrid would shreek, bury her head in my should and bear hug me. Next year.

Also, Dan and Donna sent an awesome gift basket that was very well received by the Ing. She loved all the goodies inside and she especially loved the new car.....errr, cardboard box.

Easter in Shanghai

We're off to Shanghai for the next several days. Lots of time to take pictures so check back in for posts of our trip. (I shamelessly pulled this image off Flickr.)

Almost Forgot

I almost forgot to post these pictures of the boys hamming it up in Bali, fashioning their cool new shades and trying to look as tough as one can while holding a fruity juice beverage.

Museum Crawl

London is eye-watteringly expensive but all of the museums are free of charge so I spent all day Sunday moving from one to another. I was captured by this bizarre exhibit at the Saatchi Gallery -- it was a room filled with 13 extremely lifelike old men mannequins in wheelchairs who cruised around the room occasionally bumping into each other. A geriatric version of 'murderball.' I burned 30 thoroughly entertaining minutes watching them.

London

Here's a dump of photo's from my recent wanderings around London. I bought a single day tube pass and made my way from museum to museum. Spent a couple of intense days at work and managed to meet my friends Patrick and Elizabeth for a nice dinner at an awesome Indian restaurant. A quick but productive trip, and it seems I got out just in time as the G20 madness is now in full swing.

Welcome to April

Homeward Bound

Coming to you from the Cathay Pacific lounge at Heathrow Airport following a whirlwind swing through Old Blighty. I'll follow on with pictures. I'm headed back to Hong Kong and very pleased because I was upgraded to Biz class. The counter attendant must have seen how bedraggled I am and had mercy upon me. There is justice in this world.