Sunday, September 19, 2010

Broke my food boycott, yes there are kids in HK... and yay to a 'short' work week...

Its been a pleasant 24 hours since returning to HK from Taipei... after a much needed Saturday afternoon nap, I broke my no-food Saturday plan...?? Hmmm...but i'm just tasting in moderation :)

(Stephen knows I am a travel-to-eat trekker, and less of a sight seeing person... thinking aloud... that's why 6 days of Costa Rica was MORE than enough. The meal variety was lousy after day 2 despite tons of fun activities)

So last night, I walked up the hill to Peccato, an Italian restaurant for drinks and dinner with another classmate Nick I haven't seen in YEARS... where has the time gone?  Seems like just yesterday we were comparing G-lab stories and preparing for i-banking or consulting job interviews.... we are getting old.

Anyway the service was slow but the wine and food was decent. The small place was filled with locals and foreigners, and surprisingly, even a few kids!  I haven't seen many kids until yesterday. Reminds me of China especially Beijing - where there are hardly any kids!  And any child is surrounded by 2 parents and 2 to 4 grandparents... (Apparently in some cities in China, you can 'apply' for a 2nd child permit now..... or people 'sneak' a 2nd child to be born in Hong Kong...the world is truly different here)

And being only 10 mins walk from home, it was a nice evening of catching up and sharing stories about moving to Hong Kong.  SOHO is an hilly area of Western restaurants and pubs.  The Vietnamese Pho place is next to Italian and across the street from Argentianian...and pubs all around... you get the idea!  I found a good website called openrice.com for food finds. 

This morning I woke up early, called my mom to say hello, and called Stephen to ask how his golf day went (he was at a bar ... sounded fun :P  )  Then I headed off to weekly dim sum!  This time with Ploy and David, other friends from Boston who have been in HK for years... we met at Golden Bauhinia the site of the 1997 handover from Britain to China. I am not a history buff, but this place is a bit of a trek from Wan Chai Station, and has a good view of the harbour. There are also tons of tour buses and the ferry terminal is there. Nonetheless, the dim sum was great but the conversation even better!  Ploy had similar negative experiences with California Fitness and HSBC for international banking, and she only found out they didn't have an oven when trying to cook a turkey on Thanksgiving...so its NOT just me!

Since my food boycott didn't last at all, I brought my gym clothes and went to the Wan Chai gym.. much much cleaner than the LKF location, and nobody hassled me to hire a trainer.  I stayed longer than usual doing weights and running... plus there's a Marks & Spencer food shop downstairs. I loved Marks & Spencer foods/quick snacks in the UK. However, its super expensive... bought some oatmeal and cereal then quickly left

This Thursday Sept 23 is the day after Mid Autumn Festival.  We have a holiday in Hong Kong. Oddly China and Taiwan get the actual day off (Sep 22). On Wednesday night I'll join a family dinner, then on Thursday, I'll relax, have tea with my customer (she's more a friend) and maybe do a bit of work at home in peace.  Sadly, Friday is a full work day!

Off to do laundry and errands now!  Enjoy your Sunday!

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