We have a home!

Good news - we got the flat we wanted :)

The more we go out and about the more we realise we've made the right decision with location and we have plenty of room for visitors! We've been here almost 7 weeks now living in hotels / out of suitcases and the novelty really has worn off, we just want to unpack and get properly settled!

I can share the pictures I took when we looked round now (didn't want to before in case I jinxed it somehow!), as you can see I wasn't joking when I said they come unfurnished!

Master bedroom - the landlord offered to remove the cupboards at the end but even though they're a bit ugly and dark they're massive and we're too tight to pay for nicer replacements!

One bathroom with bath (yay!) 

Spare bedroom 

Other bathroom with shower 

Main living area / kitchen (plus husband chatting to estate agent).

As you'll probably note there isn't much of a kitchen!! A hob and microwave are pretty much standard over here (+ rice cooker), ovens are rare. This didn't bother us too much - there's little point in living here and staying at home cooking (not that I can cook!!) when eating out is the culture and so cheap.

Stephen went back one afternoon to measure up - he was starting to jot down dimensions when the lady showing him round mentioned she was the interior designer and would email him the plans. Being the super nerd I am I decided to cut scale models of furniture out of the Ikea catalogue to see what would fit.

Stephen mocked this approach initially, but soon realised how useful it was!

Last night we went to Ikea to finally place an order. There are 3 Ikea shops in Hong Kong and I'm ashamed to say that we've been to all three. One is in Causeway Bay (tourist central) and is fairly horrendous, another was kind of on the way back from the golf hence why we popped in and the third is a little bit off the beaten track but because of this it is almost pleasant!

Initially I priced up all the cheap options (yes, I have a spreadsheet!) until we actually went into the shop and realised quite how bad the cheap mattresses and sofas are. It's difficult to decide what to buy when you know you're going to have to ditch / sell it in two years so it's not even like you can see it as an investment. In the end we just bought the semi decent stuff as that might even last the duration!?

Anyway, it's done now and the goods are being delivered next Friday (7th). Stephen has this day off so hopefully everything will be built by the time I get back from work / the pub.... This is a joke, I like building Ikea furniture, for a short while at least, before my concentration wanes. We get the keys this weekend but have this current place till the 8th so only the bed needs to get built really before we move.

We've got lots of room and two big sofa beds (they're comfy, honest!!) so will be open for visitors very soon - get investigating flights people!! Everyone and anyone is welcome (within reason...) we'd love to see you and show you round this awesome place!

Obviously I'll share plenty more pictures once we're moved in, can't wait!

Disneyland Hong Kong

Yesterday we went to Disneyland!! My lovely old colleagues from Leeds had bought us the tickets as a wedding gift - I'm not sure I'd have been able to hold out such restraint and waited until now to go if they hadn't booked us in on this date!

We had such a good time, it was all lovely and Christmassy and oh so quiet!! It's apparently one of the smaller Disneyland parks but as I've only been to Paris prior to this, I can't really comment. I'm not sure if it's out of season or because the weather wasn't great (no rain just a bit overcast) but we never queued for longer than 20 minutes for any of the rides and there were no queues for toilets or food or anything!

Ahhh I was so excited!! 

Woohoo! 

Cutes 

Enormous tree! Bit disappointed it wasn't particularly Disney-fied though!

Mickey shaped wreath 

Tiny, but cute castle. 

It's a small world 

Hong Kong and the Star Ferry in the Small World ride. 

This was amazing! 

Couple of cool rides in here! 

I met my hero!!! 

Somehow persuaded Stephen to have his picture taken with Pooh bear too!!!! 

All the bears I wasn't allowed to buy, apparently I have enough!?

Was allowed this little souvenir though! Comes full of sweets and I think it'll be perfect for all my little knitting / crafty bit and bobs.

Big Mickey wreath

The place even has its own MTR station. 

The platform

Mickey shaped windows! 

Hanging Mickeys to hold onto!

We went on all the rides (well the 'thrill' rides and ones that weren't ridiculously childish....), watched the shows and exhausted the shops, all by 4pm due to the quietness! The fireworks weren't till 9pm so we decided to give them a miss and headed back into town for cocktails, beer and pizza. It would have been nice to see them but I think we were Mickey-ed out by that point and I'm thinking we'll get to see much more amazing firework displays over Chinese New Year in February.

As tempting as it was to upgrade my day ticket to an annual pass for a small fee I managed to decline!

Lamma Island & The Hong Kong Open

Hello again - the internet seems to be working now so I've managed to upload the photos from Lamma Island and the Hong Kong Open :)

Saturday saw us go to Lamma Island for a short walk. We got the ferry to Sok Kwu Wan, followed a gentle trail for 4km and got the ferry back from Yung Shue Wan (it may have been the other way round, I can't quite remember!).

Arrival on the Island.

View back towards the ferry pier. 

About halfway along the path. 

Beach! 

We'll be back here for some BBQ time I'm sure!! 

The bigger place we got the ferry back from...

Ferry pier in the distance. 

If you think it looks a bit grey and overcast in those photos well that's because it was!! As the ferry approached it was starting to spit a little but we weren't too worried. About 5 minutes after we got off the boat it started to chuck it down!! The next ferry wasn't for two hours (it's a lot more regular from the place we walked to) and the only restaurants were full of live seafood and a bit creepy, so not where we wanted to sit for two hours! Therefore our only option was to follow the trail we had intended - it was so wet and we only had a tiny umbrella to share between us, fail! Fortunately it eased off after 5 minutes or so and the rest of the walk was rather pleasant. Definitely need to go back when the sun is out though.

I had a quick cider with Pip when we got back. 

We then went out to a cool American bar to watch the football (soccer), shouldn't have bothered - Tottenham lost 5-2... 

Exciting drinks are much more interesting than the football!

On Sunday we went to the Hong Kong Open, as you all know I'm a really big golf fan... ahem.

Well, no I'm not but Stephen is and I'm always up for a day out somewhere! 

Bit of advertising outside. The golf club was miles away, very close to the border to mainland China! We could have got the MTR there but they had put on a free shuttle bus from town so we decided to take that. It was free and dropped us off right outside, can't complain at that! 

Megacool!! Haha see I'm getting into the spirit of things!  

Some golfers 

One of the scoreboards 

Food tents / corporate hospitality. 

Jimenez on his way to play his winning putt.

It was actually a decent day out and I have to confess I quite enjoyed it! Super good value too, think we  paid £24 each for the tickets which included free transport there, a programme and a free cap! I'll admit to being pretty disappointed Rory McIlroy didn't make 'the cut' (think that's the correct term anyway) - he won it last year so I was hoping for a repeat victory! It also didn't rain which was a major bonus!

We got the free shuttle bus back and got off at Ikea, that's a story for another day.....

Chinese Hotpot!

Evening all,

Sorry a bit behind on my blogging, been a bit busy flat and furniture hunting. It looks promising with the flat we want but still awaiting final final confirmation, fingers crossed! Not sure if I've mentioned previously but all flats tend to come unfurnished here, which is pretty stupid in my opinion, since people are constantly coming and going. We're trying to decide whether to just put in a mega Ikea order (this was the preferred option but it seems you can't order online and the chances of everything we want being in stock are slim!) or search the classifieds and hire a man with a van and go collect a load of stuff from various sources.

Still, there's been plenty of time for fun too!

After a couple of beers on Friday night a colleague asked if I fancied going for 'Chinese Hotpot'. The old Hannah would have enquired as to what this involved but Hannah who has lived in Hong Kong for over a month decided to go with the flow (the beers may have helped).

Waiting outside... it was cheaper after 9pm, apparently!

Outside of restaurant.

Table set up

The general principle of chinese hotpot is you get a cooking station in the centre of the table for your soup base, then order as much meat and veg as you like (seriously it keeps coming in mega portions!).

Soup isn't quite boiling in the above photo but you get the idea. We got a creamy / chicken one and a spicy one. The meat and veg come raw and it cooks in the soup, sounds good right? Well it would be if the menu was in english and/or I knew what people were ordering!! It started quite well with nice bits of beef / pork / chicken.... then I saw a plate of what I thought was squid, no - it was beef stomach. Plenty more strange stuff followed, including goose intestines (seriously!?), safe to say I didn't eat much more after that!! 

Ah, goose intestines...

It was a pretty cool experience though and it's not somewhere I'd go with Stephen, due to our lack of language skills! I just wish I'd got a bit more involved in the ordering process and ensured we ordered things I'd heard of - noodles, prawns etc. One for next time!!

I was also going to blog about our trip to Lamma Island on Saturday and to the Hong Kong Open on Sunday but the internet is being strange and won't let me upload any more pictures so I'll be back to report on that soon :)

Knit Night

Home alone in Hong Kong again - Stephen has gone to Singapore today, back Friday though. I'm hoping he comes back with positive reviews of the place as I'm hoping we'll go back next year and stay here...

Infinity Pool!!!

Tonight I've been to knit night, too tired for much writing but I took lots of pics in a vague attempt to document daily life!

Waiting for the tram after work.

Taken from the top deck leaning out of the window

I'm working on a canopy a bit like this, so being the nerd I am decided to take a picture.

View down one of the main roads from bridge crossing.

 Welcome to the IFC Mall

Bridge to IFC Mall - Apple store on one side, bridge to ferry piers on the other

Starbucks (destination for the evening) in the distance

Tables outside Starbucks / Apple Store.

My first red cup!! Yes I did have a sausage roll, cake and a large Americano for tea tonight!

Knitting / Wool / People / Coffee

More of the same.

 One lady brought this amazing book to show us!

Ahhh so cute!!!

Looking back at Starbucks on my way out.

Reindeer installation in the mall, CHRISTMAS!!

Cannot wait to go here the weekend after next!!

Underground, MTR station

Very organised - entry and exit lanes!

Helpful light up display boards telling you where you're going!

Disneyland stop! (Apparently the trains have mickey shaped windows!)

Now I'm tired and going to watch a bit of this awesome DVD that Stephen brought back from England, eeee Opening Ceremony - still can't believe I was there!!