I am Indian

I can live anywhere. I can travel all over the globe. I can hold any passport. But my heart is always Indian. Love this:

http://youtu.be/sPxsf_Ib7gs

Happy Independence Day, India

HK life: impressions and facts - 1

Tomorrow is a week and a half since we got to HK. Here are some snippets of what we've seen/ done/ feel, facts and impressions from this short time. 

1. It's green. I thought Singapore was green but my goodness HK beats that one hands down. Apparently, and I read this is a newspaper magazine this week, more than 80% of HK Island is covered in greenery. The reason this seems to have escaped my sharp eyes is that we have always taken a train from the airport to Central which is the crowded heart of this city. This time however we had moving scale baggage so the train was not an option. Also we weren't going to Central where the tall buildings stand in each other's shadow and any greenery is overshadowed by concrete. We were collected by a big SUV type car and drove the 55 minutes over bridges and hills. It helped that it was a bright sunny day with very little traffic. In musical words my brain was singing 'the hills are alive with the sound of music'; green verdant and hilly / my new impression of HK. So so green. 

2. We are staying in a service apartment, part of a larger complex with many residential towers and a huge sports complex. We are atop a hill and the views are lovely, both of the pools and greenery and the hills on all sides. The complex seems very self sufficient with its own supermarket and a shuttle bus service. Our apartment is decorated a bit bizarrely for my tastes with red upholstery, fake chandeliers and top hats lining a wall for decoration. But aesthetic sense aside it is a lovely 1 bedroom place with a galley kitchen and a seperate nice living and dining room. Enough storage and space for us to play/ read/ cook/ eat. And a full hotel service of cleaning and linens and tidying and washing up in our kitchen. Now if only someone would iron I would be a happy girl! 

3. The whole of last week was busy. All the mundane administrative tasks that come with a move needed to be tackled. To be fair I played and swam and read and grocery shopped and cooked with Kid while V took care of the many details. We met him everyday, to interview for ID documents, to open bank accounts, to organise our helpers hire from the Philipines and to get mobile phones. But essentially I was just signing documents and going to meetings he had already organised.

4. Talking of meetings it's certainly my impression that men tend to ignore women when their husband is around. More than once, but never as keenly as at the bank, questions about me were directed to V while I sat right in front of them. I was SAT RIGHT THERE. Is your wife a housewife? Is your wife going to have her own account? Is tie wife going to work? I mean it was cray cray....and I almost said something but didn't because my simmering anger would have come out as rage.

5. Disneyland. We went. again. We took the train which was convenient and quick and inexpensive. We got annual passes. We got there at opening time and it wasn't too crowded. We spent a fair few hours re-living last years visit. The train around the park was open unlike last time but such a disappointing slow ride with not much to see. It got hotter as the day dragged on and we abandoned the idea of the parade and left. We were glad to get back and have a dip in the pool. 

More tomorrow.