One week in

Well, it's been a whole week! Feels much longer to be honest but I think that's a good thing and a sign we're settling in ok - hope so anyway!

What have we been up to? On Tuesday I had my appointment at Immigration Tower - all went ok and my HKID is ready to collect in a couple of weeks, all very efficient.

Tuesday night we thought we best attempt some exercise since the general culture here is to eat out a lot and drink beer (maybe this is why we're settling in ok!). We headed down to Happy Valley Racecourse and did a lap and a bit of the track. It's really cool, there's a running track on the inside perimeter of the race track and there's just so many people running round in circles - kinda motivating. Only problem is it's 25 degree heat at night and fairly humid, still gotta be good training right?

After our run we headed down to Times Square / Causeway bay to get SIM cards. It was costing 30p to text each other via our uk numbers, now it only costs 1p. Hopefully we'll also make some HK friends to contact too...

PAYG for now, reminds me of being 15 when checking my balance!

Then it was time for tea. We wandered about for a bit, walking into some places and getting scared by the lack of english on the menu and walking out again (there is a LOT of choice here!), finally decided on this place.

It had signs on the door 'Time Out top 100 Dim Sum' etc etc so thought it worth a go. Got a bit scared when there was no english menu but fortunately one arrived. We decided against chicken feet and went for a random selection of 6 dishes, 4 of which were amazing, the other 2 just a little bit odd. Still, we had far too much food (probably only needed 3 dishes total...) and with two drinks the bill came to £12. Ace.

Wednesday back to work, starting to feel more normal. I was sat at my desk when a colleague walked over and asked if I'd like to 'grab a sandwich on the terrace'. Ooh, terrace? I didn't know of such a thing! We went out of the building, some headed for subway and one guy said 'i'll just get some chinese food from the supermarket' - I thought why not and followed him. Glad I did - check out this awesome pot of noodles for a grand total of £1.85, including my new favourite drink - weak apple squash with bits of aloe vera in. Sounds rank but it's well tasty!

Terrace on one side

Terrace on the other side

Epic Lunch!

On Wednesday evening I headed to Starbucks in the IFC mall. I hadn't been here before but it's a really cool building full of good shops and more tasty restaurants. Starbucks was exciting enough - italian sausage stick and a mango juice followed by a coffee praline twist.

As you have probably identified from the first picture, the purpose of my trip was to go to 'Knit Night'. I quite like the fact I used to knit in Starbucks in Leeds on a Wednesday night with my lovely knitting friends, and now I do it in HK too. The people all seemed really friendly and I'll definitely be back next week :)

At knit night we got chatting about yarn shops (obvs) and it transpires this is round the corner from my office, so obviously I had to have a wander down there at lunch time,

Didn't dare go in (such a wimp) but will do soon. All the wool is kept in plastic packs over here, even in the shops, random.

Ooh!

When I was at Immigration Tower earlier in the week I noticed another branch of my new favourite pizza place, so decided to treat myself at lunchtime as it's just along from the wool shop.

Yummo!

Wish these pics could show you the scale / size of the pizzas!!

And I think that's that for now. Will be back soon but now I'm at work I have less time for blogging and (even) less interesting things to say. Have managed another two laps of the racecourse tonight and now just sat waiting for Stephen to finish work, having stayed late for a meeting with people in the UK. Then we're going to sample a bar or two near the apartment and grab some tasty food :)