Kung Hey Fat Choy!!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone (a little late - it was last weekend, but you get 15 days to get everyone covered)!!! A time of red, gold, crazy decorations, dragons, banging drums, cymbals, orchids and flowers, new clothes, Lai see packets with coin for the young 'ins and generally a time to be spent with family and enjoy some down time. Or if you're a westerner then its a time to observe, give out Lai see, and partake in a four day weekend!!

Our weekend was partly exploring HK further and partly experiencing Chinese New Year in China. We had our first guests, entertaining Liz & Glenn for dinner on Saturday night, quite a lot of fun, our view lived up to its reputation, although it was lucky they were here at night as the fog has been dampening (ha!) it the last week or so. It gave me confidence that we can actually entertain here, even if we can only have 2 people to dinner at anyone time, but it also lit the fire to have a house warming.... although it appears to be pushing out to April once taking in everyones schedules.

We went out to Lantau Island on Sunday, the site of the largest bronze seated Buddha in the world (apparently the bronze & seated bits are critical to the biggest in the world status...) I thought it was quite spectacular, and had a lot of fun taking photos and experiencing the rituals that went alongside the temples. You can't imagine how much smoke a bunch of incense can cause but Trent and I both came out again smelling like we'd smoked a pack each!!

Monday was fireworks night, apparently HK banned crackers about the same time Australia did, something along the lines of it being a fire danger..... We decided that if we were to truly experience the fireworks it had to be out on the harbour, so we went the traditional Chinese Junk, paid a small fortune, and watched the fireworks in the rain. However, it turned out to be a wise choice, those on the HK island side of the harbour couldn't see anything once the rain came in and the smoke blew towards them, so it was all worth it in the end!!

And to finalise the New Year, we have both had dragon displays at work. According to the legend 'Nian' would come down from the mountains, hungry, and eat people. But a wise old man observed that Nian wasn't a fan of red, glittery things or loud noise, and armed with these observations the Chinese have not allowed a New Year to go by without scaring the living bejesus out of Nian (& any westerners too silly not to leave...) Holy dooly do these guys know how to make a racket!! Lots of fun, eye blinking, dancing on poles, charging around in dragon costumes to the crashing of 8 or 9 drums and cymbals!! I can assure you there are no evil spirits left in either of our buildings!!! It was a blast!!

So Kung Hey Fat Choi to you all!! May this year bring you prosperity and wealth, and fertility & virility to those who want it!! The year of the Pig is suppose to be an extraordinarily good year to have children, so if you're not up the duff yet (or your best playmate isn't) then get cracking, next year's the rat, and everyone can work out why thats not so good.... ;-)

Love to all
Nik

ps, Big Ted & co are going home, Kent Removalists have agreed to ship our unwanted possessions back for free - rather big of them, given we never wanted them here in the first place!!

wasn't quite what we'd expected to turn up, but its good to have our stuff! hadn't quite planned on my childhood toys to turn up, not quite sure what possessed the guy packing my stuff to send it to HK either..... guess he figured no one should have to leave home and all their loved ones behind...... and our place has soooooo much room to spare! NOT (think Borat) anyway, we've had a great weekend, got most of the place sorted out, had a really lovely time bowling today with a good bunch of people and are almost ready to face a new week - hell we're up for a super long weekend next week, with Chinese New Year beginning Saturday with Monday & Tuesday being holidays, so hopefully we will have some good photos for you then!!

Hump day...

Well, its week 5, its Wednesday - Hump day, and life is starting to take on some routine. I have a preferred bus route to work, and home. We've got some idea of how to keep home running, Trent is sussing out his best way to work, but generally speaking we've settled in.

Our shipment from Australia arrives tomorrow, so we've both taking some time to put everything away - the shipping company unpack boxes but don't put things in cupboards?!?! I'm excited as I'm over these clothes - 5 weeks and the one suitcase!!! It's also the simple things, an ironing board, a corkscrew, more than 1 mug..... We'll have fun re-aquainting ourselves with our long lost possessions (hehehe). We're also going out to an AustCham (Australian Chamber of Commerce - largest one outside Oz) gathering at a lovely pub that keep us rather occupied last Friday night - good Irish one McSorleys. Good opportunity to meet new people in the business world, and generally speaking, drink and be merry.

Friday night Trent's work has a function (black tie - lucky our shipment turns up tomorrow, so I'll actually have an outfit to wear), Saturday its probably tied up with sorting the unit given we will probably still be trying to work out where to put everything...... slightly worried we have too much stuff coming!

But its Sunday we're looking forward to - WE'RE GOIN' BOWLING! My boss Liz and her partner Glenn have a bowling alley at the bottom of their apartment and we've been invited to team bowling!! I'm rather excited, partly cause we get to bowl (rather sad I know, but deep down everyone loves bowling) and cause we get to meet new people again (yes, the extravert is back!)

The weather is warming up, its been between 11-15 degrees most of the weeks we've been here, and our flat isn't all that warm (then again with 35 degree summer days, we're glad its this way around), but this week its been warming up - a pleasant 17-20 degrees with the humidity lifting too - apparently it makes your hair curly, and I thought I'd need a perm..... :-)

The days are clicking over like they do at home, work is good, my team is great, my work is really interesting and I'm being given lots of new opportunities. Every day there's a new project, new people and new connections for things that are really important to EY. Projects I use to hear about in Aus I'm actually getting to work on now, and I know why they're important, how they connect to the overall strategy - its so much more satisfying!!! Although I've wanted to work overseas for a long time, its really good to know that I dragged Trent all this way for a job that is proving really worthwhile too!