Hong Kong Diary
End of Summer Ramblings

What do you do? I hear that a lot-from the super HK workaholics, to ours sons, back home. Well, in the last few months I have done the following: I�ve attended a number of courses. One was a �Jade� course by a merchant who gave us a PowerPoint presentation and some tips on how to recognize fake Jade; I have had three cooking classes-one on Wok cooking (more on that later), one on Singapore style fish and one on shopping for fish in the market and surviving. Kathleen and I have had a session one evening on Antiques-to recognize and to distinguish a fake from a good piece. We have had three Junk trips to various islands for scrumptious seafood dinners. I have attended three art gallery openings, and a pizza making session with some friends. I started a Circuit Training course to try to get some more exercise. I have had lunch out with some friends probably 1-2 times each week. Now you know why I need more exercise. The �Indian� buffet at our hotel, The Conrad, is excellent. I have gone on Wandering Wednesdays-they (The Aussie Group) pick a remote spot on one of the islands or in the new territories that is unique and go for a visit; we always eat some great meal during the day�s outing. I have been to Shenzhen (mainland China) more times than I can count. (more later) We have gone to 5-6 dinner parties and thrown 5-6 ourselves. I�ve had a beautiful tour of the harbour. This is a new venture from the company that operates the famous harbour ferries. I have attended Sundowners which is the great Aussie �piss-up� that occurs at every Aussie Embassy all over the world on the first Thursday of every month. Great party; great nibbles and a chance to meet some nice people. I play tennis on Tuesday mornings with a group. We have been on two more hikes to various islands with some terrific people.
I have a �talking� pedometer that announces the calories burned and the steps, time and distance I walk each day. I�ve been averaging 7-8 miles per day; one day it said 15 miles. Errand boy has been busy�and this is nothing compared to what is coming up. So, don�t ask that question again, what do you do? Now you know and I�m having a ball. The city is still like a new toy every day. I said it was going to start to get busy. Sunday is Convocation at the Ivey School. All the mucky-mucks from the University are coming over.
The lady has been very busy trying to arrange special dinners and tours. The president, of Western, Paul Davenport and his VP and staff from the President�s office will be here. The ex-Dean and the new Dean (Carol Stephenson) will be here as well as the Ivey�s who gave their name to the business school. We also have the CFO and the head of Alumni affairs coming. We will make a huge entourage as we all troupe from one special event to the other. This is a very �political� event and a chance to showcase the Ivey HK campus. Busy, busy, busy. The lady�s job is very social; we take everyone out to dinner or lunch. If its dinner, errand boy is always invited which is nice. Alumni drop in from hither and yon, from cities all over Asia; it�s appropriate to take them out to thank them for the good work they do for the school. Kathleen is just finalizing the details but one of them when he heard that a new campaign was being launched to raise one million said �you�ll have 500,000 HK in your bank account tomorrow�. He was in our apt. at the time. I almost fell out of my seat. He is an oil trader-with Russia and China etc. His, underlined, his, company did 1.4 billion last year-fascinating guy; hopefully, he comes through for the school. One special tour being arranged for the next few days involves a dinner on the yacht of a billionaire, Li-k-Shing; an Ivey alumnus who used to work for him was able to secure the yacht so we can host a dinner for the Ivey�s and the new and old Dean. Very posh!
Kathleen will be very busy this week prior to the Convocation. She�s in Beijing and Shanghai with the new Dean and the head of Alumni Affairs. This is also a �political� trip to introduce the new Deannyship to various Universities that Ivey works with. She will have to meet many faculty and tons of alumni who are in the respective cities doing a great job promoting Ivey. This new class which started in August had a student who lives in Beijing and one who lives in Shanghai. They fly in once a week to Hong Kong for the classes-for two whole years. That�s discipline and determination; Beijing is a 4 hour flight away.
The last novel entry suggested Kathleen was going to get very busy as she was launching the new crop of EMBA�s. Well, she survived the two weeks in August. She says they were the �nicest� group she has ever taught; she told them that as well; perhaps, one of them suggested it is because the class is 48% women and women are more nurturing. Perhaps. There were no �killers� in the class; no one who likes to attack; they were all very supportive of the faculty and of one another. I got to entertain the faculty member�s wife, Heather, for two weeks. We visited many a temple and museum. I revisited many sites but I also chose a few new ones to give myself some variety. We went somewhere every second day or so. This is the nature of the job for house husband and that is to keep the spouse or the faculty member amused. I�m not complaining; it will be fun. One faculty member, Tony, just left and I�m sorry to see him go. We had some great adventures on many days. I took him, and an Aussie woman and Kathleen (yes, the non- shopper, Kathleen) to Shenzhen. Tony had to borrow money from me before the day was out. He has three kids and a wife and he is going to be a hero-pens, watches, purses, knapsacks, shirts etc. He had to buy himself a suitcase to carry the stuff. He also bought himself 5 pairs of shoes-all black-Prada, Lois Vuitton. To give you some perspective the purses were about 20 each Can.; the shoes, maybe 40 and the kids� stuff about 10-15. There are great knock offs and bargains to be had. He got himself a good looking winter coat as well. I�m not sure why this summery place has winter coats but they do.
I�ve become the Shenzhen guide. I�ve taken many Aussie women up for the day. These Aussies meet regularly and I normally join them. I suggested in a previous diary entry that there are a few �retired� guys and we get together with the women. There are always new women coming to HK and joining the Aussie group so when they hear that I�ve been many times and have some �good� stores they don�t hesitate to ask if I�ll take them. So, what do you do? Well, the last time I got talked into a manicure. Some of you are laughing and maybe a few men in the crowd but don�t knock it if you haven�t tried it. Such pampering. I also had an upper body massage at the same time. It was heaven; I wanted to bring him home with me-one hour massage for $6. Canadian! You can�t beat that price. Interestingly enough the room was filled with mostly Caucasians and a goodly number of men. We had an alumni annual Ball last week-end. The theme was Shanghai Nights. I had a silk jacket, Chinese style, with the Chinese buttons, a silk shirt and silk pants made for the evening-very spiffy if I do say so myself-all for about $75.00 Canadian. They even ship right to your apt-for $6.00 Can.
So, what do you do? Well, the Wok cooking class was a riot. I said I�d get back to this. The course was offered twice but we will be in Canada during one of the times. So, I signed up and as I came in on the day, the Y receptionist who I�ve come to know said, �Ron, you know this class is in the middle of Maid�s Week� I said �no, what difference will that make?� She just smiled sweetly. I�ve commented on the Amah�s, mostly Philippinos; there are hundreds of thousands of them in the city. Many Chinese have them and so do a great number of ex-pats. I walked into the class-10 maids and me. Three of them I might add were gorgeous. We listened intently; I took notes and then it was our turn to man our stations and to start to cook. Instantly, the maids jumped in front of me and said �I�ll, cut that for you.� �You don�t have to do that� �I�ll mix that for you�. I couldn�t do a damn thing! They were falling over themselves to please. It was supposed to be a hands-on course and I didn�t lay a hand on an ingredient. They even insisted that I not clean up; I accepted on that one. But, it was fun and the recipes were great. I bought a number of Asian cookbooks before coming over. I knew that I would be doing most of the cooking since the lady has no time. We have had some good meals and I�m getting quite proficient with the Wok. I bought a rice cooker the other day. This instructor said when I asked her how the Chinese prepare rice, �we put it into a rice cooker��like, dummy! Well, I tried it the other night for a dinner party here for 7. Marvellous-beautiful, fluffy rice in 20 minutes-and it keeps it warm. Fabulous.
Is the end of your toilet paper folded in a triangular shape? Well, ours is. It cracks me up each day. Have I said how much we love living in a serviced apartment? Yes, yes I have. Do you still have to make your bed? Do you have to take out the garbage? Well, we don�t. Do you clean windows? Every month they send someone in to clean the insides of each window. I�m sure you clean your windows every month! We really appreciate the service after a dinner party. There are always crumbs and pate etc. on the rug. They get down on hands and knees and remove the stains. The other day I found some ginger that had died in one of our Tupperware containers. I mention that because I couldn�t tell there was a problem until I was checking for spices and I opened this one container. The smell was God awful; it wouldn�t come out of my hands or the sink. I went out and hoped for the best. When I came back there was this unit in the kitchen that looked like a vacuum cleaner with a liquid that circulated. It had a pleasant odour-it was cleaning the air in the kitchen. They didn�t say anything about my dead ginger; they just fixed the problem. Nice people. If we stay here we will have to move in probably one year; they are renovating. There is an East and a West half to the building. Once the East side is done, they will ask us (West) to move into a unit on the East side while they renovate the West side. This process will take up to one year so we will be in a smaller unit for one year. We are not looking forward to that but we love the location here, and the people. At least they pay for the move!
The apartment has become a non-issue I guess. I suppose that means we are settling in and we have just about everything under control. No more fried electrical circuits or ruined appliances. We still don�t like their living room furniture or the dining room table/chairs but we will probably live with them until we see some furniture that we like and are prepared to take back with us. The furniture has to be carefully chosen; much of the available pieces are elm, a soft wood, and it would not do well with the dry Canadian winters; of course, when one goes �up� to the hard woods the price escalates. Such is life.
I�m still having problems getting the web site up and running. My son was on another business trip to England and Ireland and he has not had any time to help the old man get his pictures onto the site. But, we�ll persevere; I�ve taken some great shots of our view and our surroundings as well as some super pics. of our hikes. You�ll remember from the last entry that in about 10 minutes from downtown you can be in beautiful mountains. It really is spectacular and one of the hidden treasures of Hong Kong. If you didn�t get the pictures of our apartment let me know and I�ll send them again. Some web addresses reject files that are this big-like Microsoft�s hotmail for example. It is for that reason that I�ll have to get the web site working.
I can just promise you that there are some gorgeous pictures to come.
So, it�s fall all ready. Well, not here. It is a pleasure to wake up each day to warmth and sunshine. It has been over 30 degrees each day for the last six months. Some would complain-it has been 32 on many days and that is hot. But, the sun is shining on most days and the sky is blue and it is really spectacular. I consulted the Weather Network the other day for the yearly temperatures; it goes all the way down to 19 in January and February. It can also be 21 or so in December and November. Now, in Canada, we would consider that a very pleasant spring or summer day. Here, they put on their fur coats. I kid you not. The store windows are showing nothing but furs for the women and leather jackets for the men. I swear I�ll still be in shorts and a golf shirt. They are going to look at me and say who is this wacko Canuck? The locals tell me that your blood thins and that I will be wearing long shirts and coats with the best of them. I don�t believe it. Time will tell. It should be interesting. We both have leather coats with us-supposedly for the trips back to Canada-not for Hong Kong.
I�m going to wrap up. My younger son complained about the length of the last diary entry. �Jesus, 5 pages!� Well, this is a shorter version. We will be back in Canada from the 10th to the 24th. The first few days are shot with Thanksgiving celebrations; the lady has work to do in Toronto, and we have to make a trip to Belleville but, hopefully, we will have time in there to see many of you. Let us know your schedules.

Cheers, ����..errand boy and the lady.

P.S. I have included some pictures of the view out our window, some pictures of the �mall� that is below us which includes every top brand name shop you can think of, and some shots of the Hong Kong Park which is less than a five minute walk away from us. Let me know if you can bring up these pictures. More will be forthcoming as I said.