In the Newspaper with the Head Bitch

The local English language daily decided to do a story on our knitting group (the stitch 'n bitch) but we weren't expecting a half page photo! Kim (one of our founders or as the article says, "head bitch", which is so not Kim) and I are featured here in what may be my only permanent record of having lived in Hong Kong. Glad I was caught in photo with a friend and at a Starbucks because that is so befitting of the experience. Here is the scanned document a little larger in case anyone wants to read the text, but it may be a bit too small still.

Late Night Conference Calls Summed Up

Meet My Cousin

This is Aimee.



She lives in New York now and I am so proud of her!! She sent this photo to me today with just the line "Hello from the Office!" which is so perfect and made me laugh. She has been living in NY for over a year now and is really making her way there and doing well. She, like me, is an iced coffee addict, but she has it even better than I do in that she orders iced coffees delivered to her apartment from the corner market;-) That just cracks me up but goes to show that the advantages of living in the city are many and seldom predictable.

Brain Awareness Week

Just as in the U.S. we often get fliers in our mailbox that are distributed to all postal customers. Here though, we can't really understand them because the majority of the population speaks and reads Chinese.



What struck me as funny about this particular flier was what I could discern from the little English on it.



Apparently it's Brain Awareness Week in HK, and we are eligible for 10% off of something. Have I missed Brain Awareness Week in the U.S. all of this time? Do I need to send a card? Or flowers? If anyone can illuminate me (and my brain) on this one, I'd love to know if this is a local HK marketing quirk or something I have been oblivious to up to this point.

The Magic Kingdom

Planes Passing in the Night

Right now somewhere over the Pacific two planes are passing, one carrying Alex, Emily, and Mike on their way back to the United States after a week here and another carrying Kevin and Craig (two KC friends) to Hong Kong. It's funny to think of them whizzing past each other without awareness of the other.

Space Mountain

Space mountain brings out the best in all of us. Hong Kong Disneyland opened a few months ago and today was our first trip.

The Pogos in Town

Eric's sister and family, the Pogozelec's, are in town!!! And day 1 has come and gone. From foot massage to Stanley and Repulse Bay, they got a little introduction to HK. Check out this photo from the harbor at Stanley:



They look so great!! Really excited to have them here and to see some family again. Who knows what Sunday will bring!

Passports

I never thought what a luxury it has to have cheap passports. Interesting story from the Economist:

http://www.economist.com/markets/indicators/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5609011

Mexican, Brownies and Ice Cream

Eric and I had our best couple friends (Heidy and Brian) out for exposure to our favorite culinary things. The evening started out with some good Mexican (you can actually get pretty decent Mexican here, but it is pricey) including, guacamole, soft tacos, tortilla soup, chili, and a burrito...oh...and some margaritas. After that it was back to the apartment for some of my special brownies and a ice cream cake. Yum!!! Heidy captured us in action here.



Funny thing about these brownies was that Heidy and Brian report they are actually better the second or third day. All the more reason to make more!!

Icons in Vogue

It's amazing to me how cultural icons can be reinvented over time. We see tons of Che t-shirts here in HK and Mao has become an icon that seems somehow more like a great uncle than a Communist leader. We even have bust of Mao in our living room, granted it is a red velvet Mao, kind of Andy Warholesc.



This is a scan of a magnet that I found a couple of weeks ago and bought for some friends in KC. Translated, the Chinese means "running for the revolution," but for most consumers like myself, this product was sent not for its created purpose but rather as a piece of shic and cool China. The China that can be whatever to whomever and is the new play thing of the art world and consumer styles.

Quote from My Niece

Chris, to Jennifer (the parents): "Is there anything else you can think of that we need at the hardware store?"

Eliza, very seriously (3 years old): "We need more whoopee cushions."


Eliza on vacation.

I Met Karen Walker

Fans of Will and Grace will be familiar with the character of Karen Walker. Elegant, pill-pounding and utterly unbelievable in her brash comments and money-flaunting, she is just the best. A character for any situation and someone who always makes me laugh and has been a good friend to watch after late night conference calls as I try to wind-down and go to sleep.

Since we have been in Hong Kong, I have been a "regular" at the many local Starbucks, taking advantage of the coffee, comfy chairs, and reading environment to break from the home office. At the largest Starbucks that I go to, it takes up almost an entire floor of one of the downtown skyscrapers, “Karen” has been a fixture on one of the leather couches during this time. She can be wearing a baseball cap, hair in a pony tail, clad in enormous dark glasses, and flopped on a couch, and yet be carrying a Dolce & Gabbana shopping bag at 9am and looking like she owns the place. I have seen her take court on the couches, receiving multiple sets of visitors in a given sitting, which can last more than two hours. Today, I learned that “Karen” is really Giovani or “Jo."

My outfit was absurd today. Long-sleeved t-shirt emblazoned with logo from a college-pizza joint, khaki pants, and running shoes. If Eric had been in town, I think he would have locked the door before I could leave the apartment. But somehow I ended up at Starbucks and was set in reading my newspaper when Jo came over. After a few minutes she engaged in conversation and I learned that she recently left a job with Christie’s auction house. Specializing in diamond and gem appraisals, she has lived and worked in Hong Kong for more than 15 years, but has since going to part-timer employment with Christie’s set about writing children’s books. What a character!

I won’t bore with too many details of our conversation, but suffice it to say that Jo has been in a many-month Starbucks flirtation with a researcher from the Rand Corporation. She sought my advice because I find I am really good a providing advice to people trying to interact with intellectuals – some of my coworkers may get a chuckle out of that one. In any case, Jo, I mean Karen, no I mean Jo was as interesting and quirky elegant as I expected.