Hong Kong (3/4 - 3/8): Domestificationizing

Over the weekend I did a lot of catching up on my sleep. Friday night I got about 13 hours of sleep and Saturday night I got another 12 hours of sleep. It did WONDERS. Saturday I spent the afternoon in the office working.

Sunday I spent the afternoon cleaning up my home and also bought a TV and microwave for my home. The TV is nice as it has VGA-in as well as the standard other inputs. It's a flat screen and is 20", which is a perfect size considering the size of my living room.

In the evening Boon came by and looked at some units in my building and met with Bon, my property agent. There was a really nice unit on the other side of the building on the 43rd floor. GREAT view of the water and sunset and while it would get some summer sun-heat, you can actually see the fireworks from HK Disneyland around 8 p.m. every night. It was even the same price as mine! I learned from Boon's experience that I should/could have haggled a bit more on my price, or I could have held out for a better unit.

But I don't mind my place at all, and it's nice to have a home. Pat and Stephen's couch isn't a bad place to stay for a few days, but any longer than a week and you start to need your privacy.

Boon and I also got some dinner nearby and then he grabbed the Tram back to Central. I went back to my home and around 9:30 p.m. fell asleep. I think the benefit of catching up on all that sleep is that my body adjusted itself and went back on a good schedule. So I went to bed at 9:30 and woke up at 7:00 a.m. the next morning. I even got in to the gym to do some exercise before eating breakfast (at 8:30 even!) and heading in to the office by 9:30.

I did a few things during the week (besides buy the TV and microwave) which helped me settle in to my home a bit.

First, with Christina's help, I was able to get my internet and cable TV hooked up on Wednesday morning. I can now catch up on American Idol and The Amazing Race. Isn't technology wonderful?

On Thursday morning I had a new desktop computer delivered to my home. I have it on during the day, but thanks to LogMeIn.com I can access it from my laptop at work and I have it downloading bittorents and doing miscellaneous tasks while I'm busy at work. By the time I get home I have my programs downloaded and prepared. I also hooked up all my hard drives (except the one I use for work) to the desktop so I can access all my media and files from just about anywhere.

For example, let's say I'm at work and Pat says "Hey Mark, could you burn me a copy of Inyork Wong practicing Long Fist at Wushu West in 2000? Just like that I can FTP it from my home computer to my server and download it in a jiffy. I could do file transfer too, but I just haven't set it up yet.

The best thing is that I have a wireless keyboard and mouse and my TV is also my monitor, so I can relax on my couch, with my feet on my footrest, the keyboard in my lap and the mouse by my side, doing work on the computer in the most comfortable position possible. I'm quite happy with the set up. And as soon as I get a few last pieces of furniture in my home, I will take some pictures so you all can see what my place looks like.

During the week my sleeping hour got later and later. Monday night I went to bed at 10:30. Tuesday night at 11:30. Wednesday night at 12:30. by Friday I was sleeping at 2:00 a.m. It was looking like I would need the weekend to recover from the week again.

Oh, another milestone this week -- my return (AGAIN!) to wushu practice. It's been 2 months (since just before Peter visited me in Shanghai) since I've practiced wushu and it was ... well ... painful.

But I'll write about that one in another entry. In the meantime, here are some photographs that I took this week.

Construction worker as only seen in China and Hong Kong

The Police Station featured in the film "Sha Po Lang" which I pass everyday on my way to work.

Inside the Tram

The Tram at night

Pat when he's hungry

This is Pat's nutritious meal. This is also what happens when a man doesn't know how to order food for delivery.

And this is what happens after the sugar high wears off

Our Chinese editor, Siu But Dim

Stephen working hard