This week

Roundup of the weeks events thus far......

Monday

Got invited out to lunch by nice colleagues, "Do you like Thai food?" they asked... um, yes! We went to a little place just down the road from work and all ordered off the 'lunch set' - $38 (just over £3) for a tasty meal and a drink. I went for the spicy chicken with thai basil and rice and whilst it was super tasty I was a bit jealous of some others who'd opted for the tom yum noodle soup.... massive bowl with super tasty looking prawns and chicken in and full of noodles, I'll be back!

I then went for round 3(4?) with HSBC. Over lunch I learnt that they have debit cards with no name on that they give most people on the spot when they open their account. I went in there all fired up determined not to leave without one of these cards.... turns out my card (with name printed on!) was waiting for me, ahhh! This means I can spend my Hong Kong dollars, woohoo!!

After work I had to go back to the phone shop since my phone never did get signal... turns out they didn't actually bother to activate my contract, splendid! Never mind, it's working now and I am loving having data on the move again!! They told me in the shop it'd be working again in 15-30 mins but I didn't particularly trust them so went to the shop next door.... which just so happens to be the one with the polar bear jumper, and I had to test my card - right!?

I love it!!

The observant amongst you will note it's not the blue and yellow version I posted on Sunday, but I saw the black and white and decided I preferred it :)

I knew husband was working late so went for a bit of an explore around the area I was in, Causeway Bay. It's really nice, has loads of shops and restaurants (where doesn't over here mind) so it's now on my potential 'places to live' list, with the added bonus it's in the middle of our two offices. I also stumbled upon this place:

Think we'll be getting well acquainted in the coming weeks.... was also excited to see all their christmas stuff! Couldn't leave with nothing though so after having meatballs for my tea I came home with this little lot.

Goodies!

Tuesday

Another day another tasty lunch.... and tasty it was!! It was a little chinese restaurant near work and the menu was just like one you'd find in England, exciting! I had beef with fried noodles as was playing it a bit safe (it's also my favourite) and it was so tasty - best noodles I've had here by far!!! Colleagues were ordering much more exotic items and they all looked and smelled really good so can't wait to go back with Stephen (although do worry I've bigged it up too much and he'll only be disappointed!). No picture I'm afraid, I fear people will judge me if I get my camera out over lunch :-p

It also rained on Tuesday, a lot.

Epic weather app!

It pretty much rained all day, which is apparently quite unusual for here - it either rains solid for an hour, or not at all. I would say it made us feel at home, but you can see the above temperature and know that won't be quite true!

Stephen signed himself up for football on Wednesday so we had to go emergency shin pad shopping after work. I also wanted to show him how good Causeway Bay is, but it was just a bit wet for walking round so we weren't particularly successful. In each shopping centre we went in we were given special bags for our umbrellas, craziness.

We then went out for tasty Dim Sum, yum yum - really good place and it's definitely on the list for visitors!

Random peanut noodles 

I dare take pictures when out with Stephen! (much to his general annoyance....)

Stephen was also pretty pleased, having taken delivery of this:

Iphone5!

Strangely nobody uses a Blackberry over here since they're too old fashioned! This meant Stephen could order a phone of his choice for his work phone, think he was tempted by a Samsung for all of 0.0001 seconds before he realised he loves Apple really.

Wednesday

No lunchtime fine dining today.... I went back to Immigration Tower to collect my ID card! I'd post a picture but it's probably not a good idea. Either way it's pretty exciting - not totally sure what it's for but know I get to skip the queue at the airport, hopefully handy for any potential trips we're planning :)

I then went into Central after work to meet a girl I'd become quite friendly with but sadly it was her leaving drinks. She was only here for two months for work and was flying back to London that evening. Still, it was nice to catch up briefly and hear her tourist-y tips and even better that I discovered a new good bar! $30 (£2.50) cocktails and they were so nice!! Two mango mojitos and a strawberry daiquiri later and I walked down to the station with her and some of her colleagues.

The station / mall is the same place where knit night is held so I went up to Starbucks on the off chance anybody was still there. There were quite a few people happily chatting away so I plonked myself down and joined in. I didn't really mention I'd been out drinking so hope I didn't smell of booze and that they don't think I'm an alky.... Randomly I also met an architect who has been working at Purl City Yarns in Manchester for the last year having struggled to secure her final training there (hence her move here!) - small world!!

It was crazy busy out in Central for Halloween, police were shepherding people across the road and regulating pedestrian access to certain streets. I got the train home fine though and enjoyed seeing lots of silly costumes.

Crazy busy and the bars are a few streets up yet!

I then met Stephen after he'd finished playing football and we went to McDonalds, ha! I was disappointed to see that the wasabi 'shake shake' fries had been replaced with honey bbq, but pleased to report that they're equally tasty.

Thursday

Today I turned up to work and there were people in the lift with chunky knitwear and coats on - I walked to work in a short sleeved shirt and it's 20+ degrees?? According to my colleagues it is winter now and people will have swapped their summer wardrobes for winter clothes?!

Tonight I've been for a run! The amount of food we are eating and beer we are drinking is becoming quite concerning.... Stephen tried to sign up for the Hong Kong half marathon but it sold out really quickly. Registration opened at 7am for the 10k on Wednesday so I got up especially early to sign us up, shame the website was down until about lunchtime! I was repeatedly pressing refresh all morning and succeeded in entering us both, so that's a little bit of incentive at least. It's not till February mind, Stephens category starts at 5:30am, and mine at 6:00am - on a Sunday morning, yikes!! Slightly concerned that there was the 'elite' race (sub 50mins personal best so Stephen is doing this one) then 5 additional categories with ascending finish times / personal best records and I'm in the next category. This is 50 mins to 1hour 10.... in England the race start pens are more like sub 30mins for elite, 30-40, 40-45 etc and then anything over an hour deemed slowest category. Bit worried I've missed something like it's a crazy run up the peak or something?! But yes, managed 5.6k (4 laps of the race track) in 21.5 degree heat so pretty pleased with that, having not really done any running the last couple of months!

Friday

Tomorrow, ahhh can't wait for the weekend! Presumably we'll be having a few TsingTao after work then hopefully a boat trip on Saturday and going to see Skyfall in the evening, no doubt I'll report back!

This was supposed to be short and sweet but I appear to have written quite a lot! Congrats if you made it to the end!!

Ooh and due to having proper HK number now (must remember to cancel o2 contract at some point... might be difficult since had it since I was 17 and still in my mums name!!) my whatsapp is now on my HK number. Hopefully you've seen my tweets / Facebook with it on (rather not publish it to the world on here!), if you want it then get in touch :)