Robyn has left the building

Robyn has left Honkers :(

Not quite before she dragged me out on Saturday night and left me feeling more pain on Sunday morning than I ever thought possible or experienced in my life. I think I can safely say that she felt the same way, and it is now Wednesday and I still feel terrible. I think on the tail end of my generall Sunday morning weakness I have now caught some type of bug, because my throat hurts and I feel very very sick.

All my own fault.

Things are going barmy here at the office right now. In less than 2 weeks there are 52 people landing in Hong Kong to begin a new 9 month contract with the organization. Sometimes I wonder how on earth I ended up in an office trying to make that process seem sane and controlled. I have now resigned myself to the fact that things are bound to be a little bit manic and crazy no matter how hard I try. Which actually makes it seem a little bit better.

I have now replaced a sleeping Robyn on my floor in my flat with a sleeping Nikki. She is staying for a few days whilst she looks for a flat so I am getting quite used to the whole guest house thing now. Right, I have to get back to eating my lunch now.

bx

ps. Can someone please take Robyn to the doctors when she arrives in England. She fell over 2 weeks ago and still her foot looks like it belongs to the elephant woman.

Good and Bad

Good: Robyn is here
Bad: My flat feels very small
Good: It's like she never left
Bad: She snores a bit :)
Good: we went to the beach today


Bad: It was almost a bit too hot!
Good: Robyn and I went and had an icecream
Bad: 4 hours later Robyn realized she had left her wallet where we consumed icecream
Good: We found a policeman who could help us. He said he could give us some advice.
Bad: His advice was "you should be more careful"
Good: A person had handed in the wallet to lost and found
Bad: Removed from the wallet was 4 Octopus cards, and 200 dollars
Good: The kind hearted thief did leave all cards and 110 dollars for Robyn to get the bus home



Robyn, my first ever Hong Kong crime statistic.

bx

Back in the day...

So, here is my building on the corner of Johnston road and Wan Chai road.



But it seems to have been around for quite some time before that...

Date of this picture is unknown (any estimates?)

It is weird to look at Johnston Road back in the day! Plus you can just about see my bedroom windows :)

The same place on Johnston road is also the perspective that the above artist has chosen to capture in this painting.

Johnston Road, the only road to live on.

bx
PS. Robyn has landed safe and sound. x

A secret blog keeper

Not much to report right now, Robyn arrives tomorrow and is staying a few days on my fold out spare bed. I am working 9 to 5 getting things prepared for the arrival of the new staff. That's about it really!

What I have discovered though is a friend from last year who kept a secret blog. Her name is Neela and she is annoyingly perfect and so friendly i'm sure she must have a secret life where she tips over old ladies or drowns kittens for fun. Anyway, her blog can be found by clicking here .

bx

Out and about in Wan Chai

I took my camera out with me on a wander this afternoon. So thought I would share some pictures.

First we have my new building! Still on the one and only Johnston road :)

As you can see it is a corner building. My floor can be seen if you count 8 windows upwards from the first windows you can see above the big tree. (or just look for the 5 windowed cleaner looking painted section of the building)

I took a wander through Wan Chai markets too. There is a bit of controversy because quite a few of the markets are due to be closed and redeveloped by the government. It may not happen because of resistance from those living in the area and the media.

If they do close i might have to find a new place to buy my veggies.

But I never would buy a watch from the place.

bx

Turn around-----f**k head

Starting next month I have decided to begin attending Mandarin lessons. This has been prompted by the realization that it would be pretty embarrassing if I end up living here for a total of 2 and a bit years and don't take the advantage of learning the language. So I am going back to school once a week!

On the subject of language, this is my latest discovery of dangerous Cantonese you can use in a taxi

Turn around = "Diue tow" (as in cow)
BUT!
to call someone a f**k head you also say: "Diue tow" (as in cow)

So what's the difference? Well it's all about a slight shift in tone. To say turn around you finish the "Diue" section by pronouncing it with a lower tone. To call someone a f**k head you instead go higher with the tone at the end instead.

So if I am ever attacked by a pissed off taxi driver you know what happened.

bx

Whyye?

When Cantonese people answer a phone they often do so whilst saying the following word: "Whyye"

"Whyye," basically means 'Hello', and you hear it used so often it becomes pretty normal when your friends call, to answer the phone that way yourself.

My office has a new phone system and so I have a new number for my desk. It seems that this number used to belong to a previous Chinese only speaking person. This is because I have started to recieve repeated calls from a Chinese speaking woman. After the 3rd phone in a day the conversation went like this with my mystery caller x.

Me: Good afternoon (Company name), this is Ben speaking.
Caller x: Whyye
Me: Hello?
Caller x: Whyye
Me: I'm very sorry but i'm afraid I don't speak Cantonese, do you speak English?
Caller x: Whyye
Me: I'm sorry, do you speak English at all?
Caller x: Whyye
Me: Sorry, I don't speak Cantonese
Caller x: Whyye
Me: Oh I don't know why, my parents are English for starters
Caller x: Whyye
Me: And Cantonese was never an option to study at school

Caller x Hangs up

Next time i'm going to grab a Chinese friend to translate for me.

bx