So it was the end of my second week in Hong Kong and time was starting to fly past. My job was taking me to new and wonderful places: out for slap up feeds, my first fashion show and now this – a Feng Shui class.
But the Feng Shui wasn’t just free for me. [...]
Entries from January 2010
January 26, 2010
Go with the flow
January 25, 2010
On the south side: an afternoon in Stanley
“Eeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrkkkk!”
The bus gives an alarming lurch as we swing round another corner, the driver seemingly with one foot hard onto the accelerator, the other just a forcefully applied to the brake. My hand, trying in vain to scribble in my notebook, swerves off the page again, providing another useful line of blue biro to add [...]
January 21, 2010
Fashionista
My life in Hong Kong has turned out so far to be more glamorous than one might expect of a homeless magazine intern with a pocket full of moths and exactly two contacts. The free flat, free lunches, the free drinks in cool Soho bars, the free gym membership…I was in freebie heaven even before [...]
January 20, 2010
Keeping it together
When you break up with someone there are supposedly four stages of recovery: denial, anger, grief and acceptance. After my split in November, I Googled ‘what to expect’ – a callous approach maybe, scientific definitely – but forewarned is forearmed so they say.
Bollocks. What a load of rubbish. First of all how can anyone [...]
January 20, 2010
Today I will be mostly reading…
I have just found a great online magazine for travelers, travel bloggers, travel writers – www.bravenewtraveler.com. Seems to have everything fro top tips for improving group emails home and practical gumph like what to pack for a RTW trip to funny advice on nudist beaches and dorm room sex. Love it, love it, love it. [...]
January 17, 2010
Budd(a)ing commercialism
If there was an award for the most cynical place of worship ever then Po Lin monastery would win hands down. Situated on the Ngong Ping Plateau of Lantau island, Hong Kong, it is home to one of the world’s biggest Buddha statues (over 24 metres tall and weighing more than 2 tonnes). It’s also [...]
January 17, 2010
Health and safety inspector
Hong Kong officials are obsessed with public health and safety. Every conceivable risk has been identified and then warned against. Every activity seems fraught with danger, if you take the time to read all the millions of signs dotting every public (and many private) walls.
It occurred to me today when I was on the Hong [...]
January 16, 2010
Light not so fantastic
Hongkongers call this time of year Bitter Moon as the city is at its coldest in the few weeks before Chinese New Year. So why was I perched on a wall by a very cold harbour in the path of an arctic breeze? To see the sound and lightshow, of course. Hong Kong’s unique display [...]
January 15, 2010
Learning to walk
I have decided that Hong Kong is like London, except with more interesting and effective public transport. Travel here not only includes tube (MTR) and bus, but old-fashioned trams and the futuristic ‘travelator’ – an escalator that takes people down from the hilly suburbs in the morning and takes them back in the afternoon.
Most of [...]
January 13, 2010
Apartmental
I’ve got a flat! Well, it’s not mine – just a loaner until next week – but I don’t think I have ever been happier about anything ever in my life, ever. Living in the Hong Kong hostel system had me at the end of my tether, and if I had to spend another consecutive [...]
