Giving Ikea another chance & a new friend

This week so far seems to be running errands & looking for stuff. Tuesday I had a lunch date with the woman I met in the airport in Delhi. We were meeting in Central which is down the hill from our place, so I decided to explore a little before meeting her. I went to another grocery store that I have heard about from a few people. Supposed to have lots of western foods. It’s call Oliver’s & I was not disappointed. I found the long sought after Pillsbury pizza dough that we like. Haven’t really had a decent pizza since being here, so this weekend that will be at least one meal!

They also had many choices of cheese. Cheese is something you find very little of in the local stores. I don’t think the Chinese eat much dairy – the milk either isn’t very good or it goes bad in about 3 days. Mostly you see soy milk & lots of it. The one cheese I have not been able to find, even at Oliver’s or the other western type stores is Muenster. Every time I ask for it, they take me to the mustard. Oh well, we can live without that. Strange sometimes the things you can’t find. They had Butterball turkeys. It’s past Thanksgiving, but at least I know where to look next time. Oh and they had Stoneyfield Farm yogurt and Brown Cow yogurt. Nice to see some familiar brands.

Met my new friend Sarah for lunch at a dim sum restaurant at City Hall. It was very nice & will be a place I will return with visitors. It has a great view of the harbor and huge chandeliers on the ceiling. Very upscale, but not very touristy. It was mostly Asian folks with a few of us westerners thrown in for good measure. The food was good, but the company was wonderful. Sarah & I seem to have a lot in common. She is about my age and her husband works a great deal. They moved here from San Francisco, but they’ve lived all over. She doesn’t have many friends here yet, but isn’t into joining a women’s club. She also isn’t into joining any social clubs. She likes to hike and is very happy wandering around on her own. We talked for over 2 hours & had to leave because she had to meet a plumber at her house. We plan to meet again in the near future. I felt very comfortable with her and our husbands sound fairly similar as well. So just the ladies will meet for now.

After lunch I went to the office to get the address of a vendor that had asked us to pick up a check. We’re starting to get paid for all the work we had done the past few months. They volunteered me to do the pick up as they knew I’d be willing. I had to take the ferry over to Kowloon & fortunately I knew just where the building was. Got the check, then needed to get it to the bank before 4:30. You don’t realize how much time things take when you don’t have a car and you live in a city. You have to walk to the ferry dock, a good 10 minutes. Then wait for the ferry. Then take the ferry across the harbor, 15 minutes. Walk to the building – it was very close. Walk back to the ferry, wait again, ride again, walk to the MTR station – 15 minutes. Just getting from the street to the train – walking through the MTR station can take 10 or 15 minutes depending on the crowds or the station. Riding the MTR to the station where the bank is – 20 minutes. Then walking to the bank, getting the elevator. I made it in time. Just amazing how an afternoon can slip away and all you did was pick up a check & deposit it.

On the way home I needed to stop at the dreaded Ikea store to return what I had purchased last week that were not the right thing (grrrrr). I decided to attempt a new mode of transportation – the tram. These are 2 decker cars that run on electricity & go down the middle of the street on tracks. They are very old & don’t have A/C. It wasn’t a hot day, so that didn’t matter. They have very limited routes. Where I was going I knew the tram went, but I had to make sure I was going in the correct direction & on the correct tram. I just asked someone, it was easy enough. Once on the tram I noted very quickly that the stops were not marked at the little stations & they did not announce them nor did they have anything inside to let you know where you were. I got out my map book & figured out where I was & just followed where we were on my map, so I knew where to get off. Luckily the streets are well marked here. I was pretty proud of myself because I got off just where I needed to be.

I was pretty hungry by now, so I am embarrassed to say that I went to McDonalds. It thought it was really funny that I was the only westerner in the place. Now usually I assess the authenticity of a place by the number of locals compared to westerners. I had to laugh to myself that McDonalds was completely locals. It was packed with after school kids, mostly teens. Very entertaining.

I found Ikea without getting lost at all – a first. I went in determined not to get frustrated. I didn’t need to use the bathroom, so that was a good start. There is a desk as you enter & I said I needed to return something & she said that she could take care of it right there. I could not believe it. No wandering through the seemingly endless maze of Ikea to get to the customer service desk at the end. I really was in shock. It was extremely efficient. I almost lost it when she asked me if I wanted a refund or did I intend to buy something else. I wanted to tell her exactly what I thought of the store, but she wouldn’t have understood, so I just took my money & left.

I managed to find the right bus that I needed to get home. Stopped on the way to get groceries. Sophia requested an apple pie for her birthday on Thursday. I could find everything at our local store except pie crust. I know I can make my own, but then I have to buy a rolling pin & it just is never as good.

Today – Wednesday - I went in search of pie crust. I actually went back to Lamma Island to get a gift for Sophia that we’d seen on Saturday. This took a few hours as the ferry only runs every 45 minutes. I met a nice Aussie couple on the ferry who were visiting here for 10 days. They gave me some good tips, they were all in Australia. One of these days. She did tell me about a medication that you can take to prevent travel sickness (diarrhea to be exact). I will have to get some before John goes to India again.

After much searching at the City Super store I found pie crust in a box. So I still would have to get a rolling pin. As I was leaving a store clerk asked if I wanted the already made one. Well of course!! I had walked right past it in my search. It takes so long to find anything in these stores & usually they have no idea what you want.

The other thing we still can’t find is shoe polish for John’s loafers. You an find brown or black, but not cordovan (that reddish brown color). We have looked at shoe stores & grocery stores. I’ve walked the streets looking for shoe repair stores that might have it. It is a challenge. I’m going to head back to that huge store I saw last week & give it a try. I’m sure it will show up someplace where we least expect to find it. Otherwise we’ll be bringing some back after Christmas. Yes, we are coming home for the holidays. Looking forward to seeing everyone.

So tomorrow I made apple pie. I think the challenge will not be in the baking, but in the delivering. Getting it to the office in one piece AND getting ice cream there without melting. There are no grocery stores near work, so I’m not sure how I’ll do this. I did note that there is a Ben & Jerry’s across from the City Super store, but too far from work. I suppose could get a cooler, but pie & cooler might be too much. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Later - Becky