Feb 8 & 9, 2007 - Back to the bank & a new park
Feb 7 Wed – Paying bills, Chinese lunch, back to the bank
So today was another day of frustration & not enough information. John sent me off to the CSL 1010 Store, which is where we have our cell phone service through. He wanted me to pay his bill & get the charges credited to his Asia Miles account (they give rewards dollars & you can apply them to different programs). So I went armed with his company AmEx card & his Asia Miles card. I presented the bill & the first thing was that it wasn’t in John’s name. When this account was opened it was opened by the office director of the joint venture company, Gilbert. So the very nice woman explained to me what needed to be done to make the name change. She gave me a form for John to complete & said he’d need to bring the company chop (stamp) with him to complete the change. Then she gave me the form that was needed to be completed & faxed in order to get credit for Asia Miles. That was something John would need to sign. Then she very nicely explained that I could not pay the bill because the credit card was not in my name. If I wanted the charge to go on the AmEx card, Mr Riley would have to come back. Mission NOT accomplished.
Next John wanted me to go to the PCCW store (this is where we get our internet service & TV service from) & find out exactly what channels we are getting & what other options there are. He asked me to sign up for a few other options. I found the store, it was close to the other one, thank goodness. The two women working out front did not speak English well enough to understand what I needed. They called a man from the back who’d English was very good & he was very nice & patient. He printed out all of our channels & looked very thoroughly at our service. He explained that we really had all of the best channels & that since the service isn’t in my name, I could not make any changes anyway. Mr Riley would need to do that. Since I rarely ever turn on the TV I didn’t really care, but John wants some more news channels. I gathered the information & brought it back to John. Another failed mission. Does it sound like I’m getting discouraged. I understand that John doesn’t have time to be running around to do this stuff, but it is so hard when none of it is in my name & I can’t be successful with what he wants me to do.
I got back to the office in time to have a nice Chinese lunch with John. We went to a noodle place around the corner from the office. John likes their hot & sour soup & I usually try something of the set lunch menu. This time I had veggies with fried noodles. A bit greasy but very tasty. They are funny there because none of them speak English & I think they get a kick out of us coming in & just pointing to things on the menu. If we have any problems there is always another patron who speaks English & helps us out. After lunch John headed out to the phone store & the TV store armed with the info I’d gathered. Hopefully my earlier work made his experience there less confusing.
I had to head back to the bank. It seems that one of the checks that they wrote for us was not made out correctly. It had to be returned to the bank & a new one written & picked up the next day. When I got to the bank – the 9th floor – they recognized me & were very helpful. I did have to wait for the proper person to gather the check, but they were very nice about it. She did explain that it was not their fault, the info they had gotten was incorrect. I was told the new check would be ready after 9am tomorrow (oh joy, another trip to the bank, I’m becoming a regular at Bank of America, HK). I took the MTR & bus home & decided to stop at the dry cleaners to pick up some cleaning. This requires a fairly steep up hill climb When I got there it was closed & I remembered that Wed. is her day off. Another failed mission.
WARNING MALE READERS: you may not want to read beyond this point, it contains “female”stuff:
I got home & was feeling really depressed. I felt like I just couldn’t do anything right. The confusion & frustration suddenly made me feel so overwhelmed. I looked in the mirror & saw how fat I was & I couldn’t even hold in my stomach. What was wrong with me? I broke down & started crying. I wrote John a note say what a failure I was & decided to go for a walk & sit in the park at the bottom of our apartment. I couldn’t figure out why I was feeling so badly & low. John called & asked if I was at the airport heading home? He can make me laugh. Then it hit me what was going on. When I was home, I had some GYN issues (if any guys are still reading, that is gynecology, female stuff). Since I had not had a period in over a year, the doctor thought I should take some estrogen pills to force a period, just to make sure my “plumbing” was cleaned out well. I finished the 10 cycle of pills about 1.5 weeks ago & hadn’t thought much more about it, except that my breasts had been hurting. Well I suddenly remembered how much I hated having my period & those days before it started. YES guys PMS is real!!! Maybe having been period-less for so long my body was over reacting. I came home & John was very understanding & sweet, he even offered to order pizza. He watched a sappy chick flick with me & I felt better. AND the next morning, there was the cursed “friend” or whatever you want to call it. Guess I’m not menopausal quite yet. Darn!
END OF SPECIAL WARNING FOR MALE READERS:
Feb. 8 Thu – Back to the bank, Mexican for lunch, discovery of new park
I got up this morning feeling much better & understanding my issues from the day before. I had an early mission this morning – back to the bank!! Since I was going from home I decided to take the 23 bus. This is the bus I take to work, but I get off way before the end. It heads out the way toward the bank, so I figured I’d just take it until it turns back & see how close it gets me. It always enjoy the bus because I see all sorts of new areas. I was not disappointed. The bus turned at the MTR station stop before the one I usually get off at for the bank. It being a nice day I decided to walk the rest of the way. It was probably 20 minutes (longer than I thought it would be), but a good walk. They were very happy to see me at the 9th floor & greeted me like an old friend. The check was ready & I had the company chop (you can’t do anything for a company around here without the company chop). I made the obligatory chop (stamp) on the notebook, signed my name & was on my way with the check. I thought it would be fun to take the tram back to the office. This is an electric car that goes down the middle of the street. The locals use it a lot because it only costs HK$2 (25 cents) no matter how far you go. Such a deal !! The bus cost me about 90 cents to get there & the MTR is about $1.40. So the tram is a deal, but the only problem is that you have to know where you are going & where to get off, most of the stops are not marked. At least the bus stops are marked.
I waited at the tram stop with the locals about 15 minutes then gave up. It wasn’t worth the wait to save $1 & besides it would take a lot longer because of the traffic. That is the good thing about the MTR, doesn’t have to wait for traffic.
I got back in time to go out for lunch with John & James Kelly (an American living in Bangkok who Cadmus does business with). We went to the Mexican place, Coyote’s, around the corner from the office. They have very good Mexican food & it is never crowded at lunch time. The Chinese places are packed at lunch & you usually have to wait or sit with random people.
I decided it was time to me to do some more exploring of HK. I’ve been back almost 2 weeks & had only discovered a new trail to the Peak. So I decided to head over to Kowloon-side & see if I could find the Kowloon Walled City Park. I thought I’d already found this park, but it turns out I’d been to the Kowloon Park & that is a different place. I found it on the internet & had the choice of bus or MTR. Of course I chose the bus. I took the ferry across the harbor from Wan Chai & then caught bus #1 at the ferry terminus. The ride was long & much of it I’d seen before (we passed the flower market, the street market). We finally did get into new territory, so that was good. Nothing very nice to look at though. This seems to be where the local folks live. The buses on Kowloon are newer than on HK Island, so they have displays in the front that show the next stop. I was so glad to see this & felt confident about getting off at the right stop & I did.
The story behind Kowloon Walled City is that when the Brits took over HK, this area remained governed by the Chinese. So the area became a haven for immigrants from Mainland China. The Chinese government had a garrison there, but they were corrupt & more interested in importing opium then protecting the people. It became a haven for the Chinese Triad (mafia) & was extremely over crowded. There were some photos of the place in 1990 & it was amazing how packed in the building were. The story is that if you got inside you might never find your way out in the winding narrow streets. In 1994 the place was leveled & the people moved out to other locations. Most of the land was claimed & rebuilt, but a small part was kept as a park.
The park has a 6 – 8 foot wall surrounding it. There are many sculptures inside. There are various little areas with themes. One is the zodiac park. There are statues of the Chinese zodiac symbols (the year of the: pig, rat, dog, dragon, horse, etc….). There are some ponds & waterfalls & lots of narrow winding paths. There are covered walkways & pagodas with benches. It was very relaxing & quiet. I had some reading with me so after going around the perimeter & then through the middle, I sat & read for an hour or so. I could hear the birds chirping all around. It was very enjoyable. I didn’t see any other westerners there, so I don’t think most get this far off the beaten path.
As it started to get dark, I walked to the MTR station. It was about 15 minutes. At the station there was a Jusco store (don’t know if you remember about these stores, but to me they are the HK version of Super Wal-mart (without the politics). I had to go see what they had. Of course I found some Hello Kitty & Bad Batz Maru things to get. The New Years decorations were out in force & really fun to look at. If you want anything with pigs or cats, this was the place to go (the new year coming up is the year of the pig & I guess cats are just considered luck any year or time). It was fun just to look around.
I made my way home & got the dry cleaning successfully this time. John had a business dinner with some potential customers. He invited me, but I opted out. I wanted to get home & do some writing. So got the blog some updated.
Feb 9 Fri – Nothing much
Spent the day doing stuff around the apartment, going to the store & writing & reading, doing expenses. It is pretty hot outside & I worked up a sweat just going to the store & back. Not sure what we’ll do tonight. I get a newsletter from a HK Food review magazine & they recommended a Japanese restaurant not far from us. I might see if John feels like trying it out. It’s on a street I don’t think we’ve tried before. Heard from the Heifer International woman & we are going out to a school next week. I’m very excited about doing that. More later & keep the faith – peace out !!
So today was another day of frustration & not enough information. John sent me off to the CSL 1010 Store, which is where we have our cell phone service through. He wanted me to pay his bill & get the charges credited to his Asia Miles account (they give rewards dollars & you can apply them to different programs). So I went armed with his company AmEx card & his Asia Miles card. I presented the bill & the first thing was that it wasn’t in John’s name. When this account was opened it was opened by the office director of the joint venture company, Gilbert. So the very nice woman explained to me what needed to be done to make the name change. She gave me a form for John to complete & said he’d need to bring the company chop (stamp) with him to complete the change. Then she gave me the form that was needed to be completed & faxed in order to get credit for Asia Miles. That was something John would need to sign. Then she very nicely explained that I could not pay the bill because the credit card was not in my name. If I wanted the charge to go on the AmEx card, Mr Riley would have to come back. Mission NOT accomplished.
Next John wanted me to go to the PCCW store (this is where we get our internet service & TV service from) & find out exactly what channels we are getting & what other options there are. He asked me to sign up for a few other options. I found the store, it was close to the other one, thank goodness. The two women working out front did not speak English well enough to understand what I needed. They called a man from the back who’d English was very good & he was very nice & patient. He printed out all of our channels & looked very thoroughly at our service. He explained that we really had all of the best channels & that since the service isn’t in my name, I could not make any changes anyway. Mr Riley would need to do that. Since I rarely ever turn on the TV I didn’t really care, but John wants some more news channels. I gathered the information & brought it back to John. Another failed mission. Does it sound like I’m getting discouraged. I understand that John doesn’t have time to be running around to do this stuff, but it is so hard when none of it is in my name & I can’t be successful with what he wants me to do.
I got back to the office in time to have a nice Chinese lunch with John. We went to a noodle place around the corner from the office. John likes their hot & sour soup & I usually try something of the set lunch menu. This time I had veggies with fried noodles. A bit greasy but very tasty. They are funny there because none of them speak English & I think they get a kick out of us coming in & just pointing to things on the menu. If we have any problems there is always another patron who speaks English & helps us out. After lunch John headed out to the phone store & the TV store armed with the info I’d gathered. Hopefully my earlier work made his experience there less confusing.
I had to head back to the bank. It seems that one of the checks that they wrote for us was not made out correctly. It had to be returned to the bank & a new one written & picked up the next day. When I got to the bank – the 9th floor – they recognized me & were very helpful. I did have to wait for the proper person to gather the check, but they were very nice about it. She did explain that it was not their fault, the info they had gotten was incorrect. I was told the new check would be ready after 9am tomorrow (oh joy, another trip to the bank, I’m becoming a regular at Bank of America, HK). I took the MTR & bus home & decided to stop at the dry cleaners to pick up some cleaning. This requires a fairly steep up hill climb When I got there it was closed & I remembered that Wed. is her day off. Another failed mission.
WARNING MALE READERS: you may not want to read beyond this point, it contains “female”stuff:
I got home & was feeling really depressed. I felt like I just couldn’t do anything right. The confusion & frustration suddenly made me feel so overwhelmed. I looked in the mirror & saw how fat I was & I couldn’t even hold in my stomach. What was wrong with me? I broke down & started crying. I wrote John a note say what a failure I was & decided to go for a walk & sit in the park at the bottom of our apartment. I couldn’t figure out why I was feeling so badly & low. John called & asked if I was at the airport heading home? He can make me laugh. Then it hit me what was going on. When I was home, I had some GYN issues (if any guys are still reading, that is gynecology, female stuff). Since I had not had a period in over a year, the doctor thought I should take some estrogen pills to force a period, just to make sure my “plumbing” was cleaned out well. I finished the 10 cycle of pills about 1.5 weeks ago & hadn’t thought much more about it, except that my breasts had been hurting. Well I suddenly remembered how much I hated having my period & those days before it started. YES guys PMS is real!!! Maybe having been period-less for so long my body was over reacting. I came home & John was very understanding & sweet, he even offered to order pizza. He watched a sappy chick flick with me & I felt better. AND the next morning, there was the cursed “friend” or whatever you want to call it. Guess I’m not menopausal quite yet. Darn!
END OF SPECIAL WARNING FOR MALE READERS:
Feb. 8 Thu – Back to the bank, Mexican for lunch, discovery of new park
I got up this morning feeling much better & understanding my issues from the day before. I had an early mission this morning – back to the bank!! Since I was going from home I decided to take the 23 bus. This is the bus I take to work, but I get off way before the end. It heads out the way toward the bank, so I figured I’d just take it until it turns back & see how close it gets me. It always enjoy the bus because I see all sorts of new areas. I was not disappointed. The bus turned at the MTR station stop before the one I usually get off at for the bank. It being a nice day I decided to walk the rest of the way. It was probably 20 minutes (longer than I thought it would be), but a good walk. They were very happy to see me at the 9th floor & greeted me like an old friend. The check was ready & I had the company chop (you can’t do anything for a company around here without the company chop). I made the obligatory chop (stamp) on the notebook, signed my name & was on my way with the check. I thought it would be fun to take the tram back to the office. This is an electric car that goes down the middle of the street. The locals use it a lot because it only costs HK$2 (25 cents) no matter how far you go. Such a deal !! The bus cost me about 90 cents to get there & the MTR is about $1.40. So the tram is a deal, but the only problem is that you have to know where you are going & where to get off, most of the stops are not marked. At least the bus stops are marked.
I waited at the tram stop with the locals about 15 minutes then gave up. It wasn’t worth the wait to save $1 & besides it would take a lot longer because of the traffic. That is the good thing about the MTR, doesn’t have to wait for traffic.
I got back in time to go out for lunch with John & James Kelly (an American living in Bangkok who Cadmus does business with). We went to the Mexican place, Coyote’s, around the corner from the office. They have very good Mexican food & it is never crowded at lunch time. The Chinese places are packed at lunch & you usually have to wait or sit with random people.
I decided it was time to me to do some more exploring of HK. I’ve been back almost 2 weeks & had only discovered a new trail to the Peak. So I decided to head over to Kowloon-side & see if I could find the Kowloon Walled City Park. I thought I’d already found this park, but it turns out I’d been to the Kowloon Park & that is a different place. I found it on the internet & had the choice of bus or MTR. Of course I chose the bus. I took the ferry across the harbor from Wan Chai & then caught bus #1 at the ferry terminus. The ride was long & much of it I’d seen before (we passed the flower market, the street market). We finally did get into new territory, so that was good. Nothing very nice to look at though. This seems to be where the local folks live. The buses on Kowloon are newer than on HK Island, so they have displays in the front that show the next stop. I was so glad to see this & felt confident about getting off at the right stop & I did.
The story behind Kowloon Walled City is that when the Brits took over HK, this area remained governed by the Chinese. So the area became a haven for immigrants from Mainland China. The Chinese government had a garrison there, but they were corrupt & more interested in importing opium then protecting the people. It became a haven for the Chinese Triad (mafia) & was extremely over crowded. There were some photos of the place in 1990 & it was amazing how packed in the building were. The story is that if you got inside you might never find your way out in the winding narrow streets. In 1994 the place was leveled & the people moved out to other locations. Most of the land was claimed & rebuilt, but a small part was kept as a park.
The park has a 6 – 8 foot wall surrounding it. There are many sculptures inside. There are various little areas with themes. One is the zodiac park. There are statues of the Chinese zodiac symbols (the year of the: pig, rat, dog, dragon, horse, etc….). There are some ponds & waterfalls & lots of narrow winding paths. There are covered walkways & pagodas with benches. It was very relaxing & quiet. I had some reading with me so after going around the perimeter & then through the middle, I sat & read for an hour or so. I could hear the birds chirping all around. It was very enjoyable. I didn’t see any other westerners there, so I don’t think most get this far off the beaten path.
As it started to get dark, I walked to the MTR station. It was about 15 minutes. At the station there was a Jusco store (don’t know if you remember about these stores, but to me they are the HK version of Super Wal-mart (without the politics). I had to go see what they had. Of course I found some Hello Kitty & Bad Batz Maru things to get. The New Years decorations were out in force & really fun to look at. If you want anything with pigs or cats, this was the place to go (the new year coming up is the year of the pig & I guess cats are just considered luck any year or time). It was fun just to look around.
I made my way home & got the dry cleaning successfully this time. John had a business dinner with some potential customers. He invited me, but I opted out. I wanted to get home & do some writing. So got the blog some updated.
Feb 9 Fri – Nothing much
Spent the day doing stuff around the apartment, going to the store & writing & reading, doing expenses. It is pretty hot outside & I worked up a sweat just going to the store & back. Not sure what we’ll do tonight. I get a newsletter from a HK Food review magazine & they recommended a Japanese restaurant not far from us. I might see if John feels like trying it out. It’s on a street I don’t think we’ve tried before. Heard from the Heifer International woman & we are going out to a school next week. I’m very excited about doing that. More later & keep the faith – peace out !!
posted by Becky Hubbell @ 4:34 AM
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