This is without any doubt a new all time high from Matt Stone and Trey Parker; Southpark season 12 episode 11 (combined with 10 as it really is a double) - Pandemic 2 - The Startling. Without saying too much it is something of a spoof of Cloverfield and it's really really awesome.
Meanwhile Heroes is just getting weirder and weirder and it is just keeping piling up proof that the authors have issues with their parents, and probably with their children as well. And it is also kind of starting to look like some kind of metaphor for going through puberty at an unusually old age. I really like it though, can totally identify with some of those... errr... issues.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
The China probrem!
Quoting Southpark is fun but I really don't have the same problem with China as Cartman, my problem is more in the sense of my own planning this time; I arrived in Shenzhen in the afternoon and met my friend at the border we went to the train station together and she helped me buying tickets to Shanghai for Saturday. But oh see there are no tickets to Shanghai for Saturday, neither is there any for Sunday nor Tomorrow. SHIT!! Going on Monday would be too late since it takes a night and half a day to get there and I should leave on Wednesday anyway. DAMMIT!!!
Well fortunately for me when we found my hotel, which I by the way could never ever have managed without my friend's help either
* It's actually pretty amazing how much difference there is just walking those 200m across the border (YES THERE IS A BORDER BETWEEN HONG KONG AND mainland CHINA, doesn't that mean they are different countries?) suddenly no one can speak or understand English anymore. From being able to talk to most people and at least communicate with the rest to nothing at all; actually even my friend had a hard time understanding me. *
, I got online and found a cheap flight from Shenzhen to Shanghai on Sunday evening, all was relatively well again. I still started to worry about my other train tickets, would it be just as hard to get a ticket from Shanghai to Beijing and from Beijing to Chengdu? So I started to try to get hold of Wenying and Linna in Shanghai and Nini in Beijing. Beijing is actually not so urgent since its still nearly two weeks until I'm going there, but the Shanghai ticket should be in less than a week and I have hostel reservations in Beijing already so that might be a problem. But in the end that isn't the problem, the problem is instead Wenying and Linna, well not them themselves but their works; my main reason for going to Shanghai is to visit Wenying and Linna, I will see two other friends there but that is not why I'm going to Shanghai, and now it turns out that they are working really late next week, I mean REALLY late, we are talking home at midnight here. This basically means that I will be alone in their home from 7am to 12am for 2 days and from 7am until I leave on the third, great fun! - not.
So what I'm trying to figure out now is if A: I should leave sooner than Wednesday; call my hostel in Beijing and move the reservation forward one day (two won’t be possible), B: Leave later than planned; call and postpone the reservation so that I can stay in Shanghai until the weekend when Wenying and Linna are free to do something or C: leave it as it is and just live with it? Since my time in Beijing is pretty much fixed, due to the fact that I don't want to spend too much money staying in hostel and still want to have enough time to meet up with some friends in Beijing which makes 6 nights perfect, I will just move the arrival day in Chengdu, and since my departure date from Chengdu is fixed to the 21st, flight ticket already bought, I will shorten or lengthen the time there.
Well fortunately for me when we found my hotel, which I by the way could never ever have managed without my friend's help either
* It's actually pretty amazing how much difference there is just walking those 200m across the border (YES THERE IS A BORDER BETWEEN HONG KONG AND mainland CHINA, doesn't that mean they are different countries?) suddenly no one can speak or understand English anymore. From being able to talk to most people and at least communicate with the rest to nothing at all; actually even my friend had a hard time understanding me. *
, I got online and found a cheap flight from Shenzhen to Shanghai on Sunday evening, all was relatively well again. I still started to worry about my other train tickets, would it be just as hard to get a ticket from Shanghai to Beijing and from Beijing to Chengdu? So I started to try to get hold of Wenying and Linna in Shanghai and Nini in Beijing. Beijing is actually not so urgent since its still nearly two weeks until I'm going there, but the Shanghai ticket should be in less than a week and I have hostel reservations in Beijing already so that might be a problem. But in the end that isn't the problem, the problem is instead Wenying and Linna, well not them themselves but their works; my main reason for going to Shanghai is to visit Wenying and Linna, I will see two other friends there but that is not why I'm going to Shanghai, and now it turns out that they are working really late next week, I mean REALLY late, we are talking home at midnight here. This basically means that I will be alone in their home from 7am to 12am for 2 days and from 7am until I leave on the third, great fun! - not.
So what I'm trying to figure out now is if A: I should leave sooner than Wednesday; call my hostel in Beijing and move the reservation forward one day (two won’t be possible), B: Leave later than planned; call and postpone the reservation so that I can stay in Shanghai until the weekend when Wenying and Linna are free to do something or C: leave it as it is and just live with it? Since my time in Beijing is pretty much fixed, due to the fact that I don't want to spend too much money staying in hostel and still want to have enough time to meet up with some friends in Beijing which makes 6 nights perfect, I will just move the arrival day in Chengdu, and since my departure date from Chengdu is fixed to the 21st, flight ticket already bought, I will shorten or lengthen the time there.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
The Cube
For those of you how know the cube game you know it's hard to play it if you know the rules but I have been asked so many times when playing it; what my cube is like, so I have closed my eyes and thought and thought about it for long periods of times and tried not to manufacture things to be according to my will but think of what pops up in my mind; the way it should be. So this is my cube, for those who know how you are welcome to analyze it:
The cube is in the middle, it's rather big but not enormous (I would say each side is 1.2-1.4m). It's floating in mid air about half its own height above the ground and it's spinning around its horizontal axel, sometimes it spins quicker and sometimes slower but it never stops. The color cannot be distinguished, perhaps it is because it's spinning, maybe even different sides are different colors, but I would guess that it is either white or black but sometimes it seems to be a shade of blue. I think it's totally opaque, or rather it could actually be somewhat transparent; it seems you can see into it but not through it but that is really impossible to actually see, but it's probably just an illusion, it is opaque.
The ladder is along the wall to the right of the cube when seen from the entrance; it is not all the way to the wall but closer to the wall than to the cube. It is a tall ladder, actually infinitely tall. At a first glance it looks easy to climb but when then you realize it is impossible to ever reach the top anyway. Even as tall as it is it doesn't really take up much space, the cube actually seems to be looming over the ladder. There is no distinguished color or material to the ladder, just seems to be a normal aluminum or iron ladder made of rounded metal bars as thin as a thumb.
The horse is standing on the opposite side of the cube from the ladder, she is quite big, I would say bigger than the cube actually. I think she is white, but there is something black about her too; perhaps the mane and tail are black. She has big brown eyes but she is looking away so you can't see it clearly. It's a nice horse, a horse you would want to take care of; I want to make sure it's safe. And I want it to come closer to the cube, but she doesn't. Actually it seems she is an illusion and not really there at all.
The house seems to be small and hidden in one of the far end corners almost like it's been forgotten there. It is just a normal Swedish falu-red cottage with white frames and a roof that you can't really see what color it's supposed to be.
The garden covers all the ground behind the cube, seen from the entrance. It is a green garden with leafy bushes and red flowers, green soft grass covering the ground and a clear sun touching it from above.
The weather is a dark cloud looming high above between the cube and the illusion of the horse. I is not so dark that I would call it a storm, and it won't be a storm I know that, but some people might think it will and want to go inside not to be hit by lightning, it does however have a light drizzle pouring down from it and wetting the floor between horse and cube.
That's it; as clear as it comes to me. Now I should really try to fall asleep.
The cube is in the middle, it's rather big but not enormous (I would say each side is 1.2-1.4m). It's floating in mid air about half its own height above the ground and it's spinning around its horizontal axel, sometimes it spins quicker and sometimes slower but it never stops. The color cannot be distinguished, perhaps it is because it's spinning, maybe even different sides are different colors, but I would guess that it is either white or black but sometimes it seems to be a shade of blue. I think it's totally opaque, or rather it could actually be somewhat transparent; it seems you can see into it but not through it but that is really impossible to actually see, but it's probably just an illusion, it is opaque.
The ladder is along the wall to the right of the cube when seen from the entrance; it is not all the way to the wall but closer to the wall than to the cube. It is a tall ladder, actually infinitely tall. At a first glance it looks easy to climb but when then you realize it is impossible to ever reach the top anyway. Even as tall as it is it doesn't really take up much space, the cube actually seems to be looming over the ladder. There is no distinguished color or material to the ladder, just seems to be a normal aluminum or iron ladder made of rounded metal bars as thin as a thumb.
The horse is standing on the opposite side of the cube from the ladder, she is quite big, I would say bigger than the cube actually. I think she is white, but there is something black about her too; perhaps the mane and tail are black. She has big brown eyes but she is looking away so you can't see it clearly. It's a nice horse, a horse you would want to take care of; I want to make sure it's safe. And I want it to come closer to the cube, but she doesn't. Actually it seems she is an illusion and not really there at all.
The house seems to be small and hidden in one of the far end corners almost like it's been forgotten there. It is just a normal Swedish falu-red cottage with white frames and a roof that you can't really see what color it's supposed to be.
The garden covers all the ground behind the cube, seen from the entrance. It is a green garden with leafy bushes and red flowers, green soft grass covering the ground and a clear sun touching it from above.
The weather is a dark cloud looming high above between the cube and the illusion of the horse. I is not so dark that I would call it a storm, and it won't be a storm I know that, but some people might think it will and want to go inside not to be hit by lightning, it does however have a light drizzle pouring down from it and wetting the floor between horse and cube.
That's it; as clear as it comes to me. Now I should really try to fall asleep.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Stupid SEK
Almost exactly one month ago I arrived in Hong Kong, I was walking around happily with a stung currency (for the sake of calculation at least) backing me up. Counting safely I always thought 1 to 1 on exchange rate and every time I checked my bank account I happily found that I had spend about 20% less than I had counted, because the exchange rate was about 0.85HKD to 1SEK. This also worked pretty well for the CNY that was just slightly stronger than the HKD; about 0.95CNY to 1SEK.
World economy has broken down and for some reason that I has a mere journeyman cannot understand the SEK has lost an extreme amount of value against the USD, and since both the HKD and CNY are tied to the USD we have lost value to them as well, and not a little, checking today I found that the HKD has actually passed the SEK, about 1.05HKD to 1SEK, and the CNY: 1.20CNY to 1 SEK. It looks like all of Europe is on the downfall, at least it seems the EUR is about the same is a few month, and the last few years, ago; about 10SEK to 1EUR.
This hurts as I'm still living on Swedish money here and will do so for the next two months at least, on the other hand when I do start working I will actually earn 20% more instead of 20% less than what it says, and this is a very good thing.
Just to clarify (mostly to myself) when I say for example 0.85HKD to 1SEK I mean 1HKD costs 0.85SEK. I'm not sure which is the correct way to write it but in context anyone would understand anyway.
World economy has broken down and for some reason that I has a mere journeyman cannot understand the SEK has lost an extreme amount of value against the USD, and since both the HKD and CNY are tied to the USD we have lost value to them as well, and not a little, checking today I found that the HKD has actually passed the SEK, about 1.05HKD to 1SEK, and the CNY: 1.20CNY to 1 SEK. It looks like all of Europe is on the downfall, at least it seems the EUR is about the same is a few month, and the last few years, ago; about 10SEK to 1EUR.
This hurts as I'm still living on Swedish money here and will do so for the next two months at least, on the other hand when I do start working I will actually earn 20% more instead of 20% less than what it says, and this is a very good thing.
Just to clarify (mostly to myself) when I say for example 0.85HKD to 1SEK I mean 1HKD costs 0.85SEK. I'm not sure which is the correct way to write it but in context anyone would understand anyway.
Friday, October 24, 2008
China
So I have to wait for three to eight weeks to get my working permit and two birds with one stone I will save money and visit friends in China I have made a travel plan; for about 23 days I will travel around, mostly by train, and stay with friends, at least most of the time, in China.
First I will start off by going to Shenzhen, depending on any Halloween plans here, of which I think there are none for me, I will either go on Thursday, Friday or Saturday next week (29th, 30th or 31st) and stay there in a hostel until Saturday afternoon when I will take a train to Shanghai, it is probably best to be there at least a day early to make sure I can get a ticket, and I will try to meet up with an online friend there that I've missed every single time I've been to Shenzhen.
Train to Shanghai is ONLY about 13 hours so I will arrive sometime really early on Sunday morning. The plan is to stay with Wenying and Linna in Shanghai but it seems rather complicated, in worst case I will have to skip Shanghai completely. The plan though is to stay there for about 3-4 nights, hang out with the two of them and meet my other Shanghainese friend and finally catch a train in the afternoon on the 5th.
To Beijing it's a bit further and the train takes about 17 hours but arrival is also in early morning. There I will stay in hostel though for a few days, I might do a night in Tianjin too to visit two friends there, and I will try to meet up with Nini and Mei and possibly some other friends too. I will leave Beijing with a train to Chengdu on the 11th, spending six nights in the same hostel I was in January.
Chengdu is actually not much further from Beijing than Shanghai is, the problem is the mountain range that the train has to go around so that trip actually takes 25 hours, which is the fastest train they have where the slower ones take 30 and 35 hours, so I will arrive sometime in the evening in Chengdu and then I will probably stay with Li Min when I'm there, either with her or Aaron I guess but I haven't talked to him much and I like her place better actually. I will try to meet up with as many friends as possible and since I have about 10 nights there it shouldn't be that much of a problem. I might go out of Chengdu for one or two nights but we will see about that.
Finally on the 21st I decided to fly back to Shenzhen instead of taking another 30, or even 50 for the slower one, train to Guangzhou and spending another few hours and 250HKD to get back to Hong Kong, the flight ticket was only 700 Yuan including all costs so it actually turned to be almost the same price as the train ticket.
This date is set because Deming will come to Hong Kong that day too and I might go with him to Macau for a few day and stay with him and his parents there. After that I'm not sure what happens, I have been considering looking for some place to live but if the working permit application still have a long time running I might as well go back to China for another few weeks.
First I will start off by going to Shenzhen, depending on any Halloween plans here, of which I think there are none for me, I will either go on Thursday, Friday or Saturday next week (29th, 30th or 31st) and stay there in a hostel until Saturday afternoon when I will take a train to Shanghai, it is probably best to be there at least a day early to make sure I can get a ticket, and I will try to meet up with an online friend there that I've missed every single time I've been to Shenzhen.
Train to Shanghai is ONLY about 13 hours so I will arrive sometime really early on Sunday morning. The plan is to stay with Wenying and Linna in Shanghai but it seems rather complicated, in worst case I will have to skip Shanghai completely. The plan though is to stay there for about 3-4 nights, hang out with the two of them and meet my other Shanghainese friend and finally catch a train in the afternoon on the 5th.
To Beijing it's a bit further and the train takes about 17 hours but arrival is also in early morning. There I will stay in hostel though for a few days, I might do a night in Tianjin too to visit two friends there, and I will try to meet up with Nini and Mei and possibly some other friends too. I will leave Beijing with a train to Chengdu on the 11th, spending six nights in the same hostel I was in January.
Chengdu is actually not much further from Beijing than Shanghai is, the problem is the mountain range that the train has to go around so that trip actually takes 25 hours, which is the fastest train they have where the slower ones take 30 and 35 hours, so I will arrive sometime in the evening in Chengdu and then I will probably stay with Li Min when I'm there, either with her or Aaron I guess but I haven't talked to him much and I like her place better actually. I will try to meet up with as many friends as possible and since I have about 10 nights there it shouldn't be that much of a problem. I might go out of Chengdu for one or two nights but we will see about that.
Finally on the 21st I decided to fly back to Shenzhen instead of taking another 30, or even 50 for the slower one, train to Guangzhou and spending another few hours and 250HKD to get back to Hong Kong, the flight ticket was only 700 Yuan including all costs so it actually turned to be almost the same price as the train ticket.
This date is set because Deming will come to Hong Kong that day too and I might go with him to Macau for a few day and stay with him and his parents there. After that I'm not sure what happens, I have been considering looking for some place to live but if the working permit application still have a long time running I might as well go back to China for another few weeks.
The Job
I finally got a contract and I signed in last Monday, the only problem is that it's not a real contract, this gets rather complicated actually; The contract I have signed is a dummy one, that basically means it is not legally valid for anything but to get me the working permit. The contract states a rather low salary, about 15k HKD a month, and a full time workload, this is rather bad actually but since it is just a dummy contract it doesn't really matter.
Instead they will offer me part time projects, with the stated salary they need to reach at least that amount to not have to explain to the immigration office why they couldn't, this has to do with the fact that they shouldn't hire someone they can't provide for, so I feel I'm almost guaranteed that and it's only about 13 hours a week to get that anyway. Since they might not be able to fill my schedule they have also allowed me to do other part time jobs as long as I get the salary through them, the good thing about this is that it will still be completely legal; I have my working permit for this company, company A, and can only work for them, if I work for company B both me and company B might get in trouble if I don't have a working permit for them, and for company A this also helps adding up to the 15k they should pay me every month. The drawback with this is a 12% company tax that they will deduct from all my work outside their company.
I have been in contact with another company too actually and I will stay in touch with them hoping they can provide some part time job. I really liked that place and would actually have preferred working for them fulltime but they were taking too long having too many candidates to interview and test.
So with this stuff done I will get my working permit application papers and go to their office on Monday to sort that out, I was intending to go to the HKCAAVQ today but I actually overslept about 5 hours and there are some issues with payment for that. Then on Thursday or Friday I start my trip to China.
Instead they will offer me part time projects, with the stated salary they need to reach at least that amount to not have to explain to the immigration office why they couldn't, this has to do with the fact that they shouldn't hire someone they can't provide for, so I feel I'm almost guaranteed that and it's only about 13 hours a week to get that anyway. Since they might not be able to fill my schedule they have also allowed me to do other part time jobs as long as I get the salary through them, the good thing about this is that it will still be completely legal; I have my working permit for this company, company A, and can only work for them, if I work for company B both me and company B might get in trouble if I don't have a working permit for them, and for company A this also helps adding up to the 15k they should pay me every month. The drawback with this is a 12% company tax that they will deduct from all my work outside their company.
I have been in contact with another company too actually and I will stay in touch with them hoping they can provide some part time job. I really liked that place and would actually have preferred working for them fulltime but they were taking too long having too many candidates to interview and test.
So with this stuff done I will get my working permit application papers and go to their office on Monday to sort that out, I was intending to go to the HKCAAVQ today but I actually overslept about 5 hours and there are some issues with payment for that. Then on Thursday or Friday I start my trip to China.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Hong Kong
I've decided that I don't like Hong Kong very much; I can't really put my finger on exactly what I don't like but there is some bad feeling to it. It's like with Shanghai where I feel that everybody basically are rude, people are rather nice here though. There is something else, it feels like no one here is really happy, like everybody are just struggling to get through their daily life and never expecting anything to change, or at least not get better. People seem to generally dislike their jobs, be rather unhappy about relationships and not enjoying their free time at all, basically because they hardly have any and when they do they are too tired from work.
I don't think this applies to everybody here, I have seen happy people too; no one that seems happy about work but at least happy in love and stuff, what I do see more are unhappy people, and it's not only local people, it's everybody; it just feels like this city destroys everybody that comes to and lives here.
I won't give up on this just yet, I got my contract now and will probably be able to start working in about a month, it might be quite crappy and I might actually change my mind by the end of this week.
I don't think this applies to everybody here, I have seen happy people too; no one that seems happy about work but at least happy in love and stuff, what I do see more are unhappy people, and it's not only local people, it's everybody; it just feels like this city destroys everybody that comes to and lives here.
I won't give up on this just yet, I got my contract now and will probably be able to start working in about a month, it might be quite crappy and I might actually change my mind by the end of this week.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Epiphany
I had this realization last night, it's really ironic actually; I can't really say much about it since it's involves a lot of secrets (mine and others and some that I don't know so can only make guesses) but I finally realized that something I did over a year ago is having some effects on today (big surprise) and I just don't like the results. This is only one of reasons but at least it is one reason and something I can see is my own fault at least.
I have given up on Facebook; I guess it's just temporary but I deactivated my account. I'm just getting sick of it right now, too many feeds. I guess the problem is something of an addiction; I have nothing to do these days and get really bored so I just went on Facebook all the time hoping that someone would have said something to me, but of course that is just stupid.
So I deactivated it, for a while at least we will see what happens, however this means I'm not contactable through Facebook so if anyone wants to talk there is MSN or Skype.
So I deactivated it, for a while at least we will see what happens, however this means I'm not contactable through Facebook so if anyone wants to talk there is MSN or Skype.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
the destructive circles
I read somewhere that the definition of stupidity is when you keep doing something the exact same way despite that you get the same result every single time. Now the circles I'm talking about might not be the exact same way every round, but they are same enough; it is something about when you keep coming back to the exact same place and same situation all the time and you know why you got there, what is wrong and what could be done about it but still when you start your next round you don't take any advice at all, you just keep running the same endless track and wind up at the same place again not long after.
I'm doing this now; I'm right now in that low place where you don't want to be.
The one I'm doing this around does it too, around someone else.
And there are others, I think everybody does it, someone did it around me, and I would think someone does it still.
You try to pull yourself up, tell yourself it will never happen again, tell all who care that it is not like this but then it starts again, things happen and you build yourself up, or are built up by someone until you are high enough and can crash down. I don't think anyone does it on purpose, it is still very often that it is what happens.
It makes me think of the song, Buttercup by The Foundations, that we have on the Singstar party disk, the first disk I had for that game actually; the lyrics has some points.
I'm doing this now; I'm right now in that low place where you don't want to be.
The one I'm doing this around does it too, around someone else.
And there are others, I think everybody does it, someone did it around me, and I would think someone does it still.
You try to pull yourself up, tell yourself it will never happen again, tell all who care that it is not like this but then it starts again, things happen and you build yourself up, or are built up by someone until you are high enough and can crash down. I don't think anyone does it on purpose, it is still very often that it is what happens.
It makes me think of the song, Buttercup by The Foundations, that we have on the Singstar party disk, the first disk I had for that game actually; the lyrics has some points.
IMAX
My first IMAX experience! It's not that amazing actually, just a really big screen, and it was really cold in the theatre, I mean really REALLY cold. We watched Eagle Eye; it was a pretty good movie, interesting development and stuff. What was cool about the IMAX thing though, was that it was totally unplanned, there is like one single IMAX theatre in Hong Kong (and not that many outside Hong Kong, I think around a few hundred or so in the world, two in Sweden); it just happened that Ariel and I had dinner in a shopping mall called MexaBox and on the floor we had dinner there just happened to be a theatre and it just happened that Eagle Eye started showing just 15 minutes after we finished eating and that it was showing in the IMAX theatre.
Clubs in Hong Kong
After being here for a few weeks and seen much of the night life I actually had the feeling that there are no clubs here and that local people don't really go out, fortunately I was wrong though; last night I went out with an American friend that I met the first week I was here and he finally brought me to a real club, with local people. I did cost a lot though, entrance alone was 220HKD and even though I didn't really drink there I still spent 120HKD on drinks (I ordered one but for some reason got two). It did become a long night, I took a taxi back at about 4.30 or 5.00 in the morning but at least I have nothing to do today so it was pretty fine.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
what to do when not looking for jobs
Painted Skin (wa pei)
A killer that cuts the heart out of its victims is terrorinzing wang shengs territory, meanwhile his wife, pei rong, starts to suspect the new girl that wang sheng saved from bandits during one of his recent campains to be a deamon.
Not the greatest movie ever but it was quite interesting, a lot of people assume it is a scary movie but it was more like funny action, I gave it a 3 out of 5 on http://www.filmtipset.se/, after adding it there myself, that low because of the ending.
My need to see list (priority listed!!!):
A killer that cuts the heart out of its victims is terrorinzing wang shengs territory, meanwhile his wife, pei rong, starts to suspect the new girl that wang sheng saved from bandits during one of his recent campains to be a deamon.
Not the greatest movie ever but it was quite interesting, a lot of people assume it is a scary movie but it was more like funny action, I gave it a 3 out of 5 on http://www.filmtipset.se/, after adding it there myself, that low because of the ending.
My need to see list (priority listed!!!):
- Southpark S12E08 (E09 comes on Thursday)
- Heroes S03E01-04 (E05 should be available today but I can't find it so I guess I have to wait until tomorrow)
- Robot Chicken S03E14-20 (all second half of season 3 basically)
- Californication S02E01-03 (E04 on Thursday)
- Enourage S05E03-06
- Family Guy S07E01-02
- American Dad S04E01-02
Of course I only have today and tomorrow to find stuff so anything that airs after that will have to wait. Lost is also one thing that will have to wait for a while since it doesn't start again until January 2009. Apparently I missed Robot Chicken S03E14 too, the Christmas special from 2007 (S03E14) So that one comes too.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Tap Mun
As usual when I have to get up early I can't sleep at night, I probably got about 3 hours of sleep but was still quite fine, since I had actually eating something which is usually the biggest problem, when I met Joyce and Kiu Kiu at Coi Hung MTR station at about 9.45am. We took a 10 minutes or so Light bus to Sai Kung where we met up with Joyce's friends and had breakfast with them (which I didn't know so I had already eaten something but not too much). After breakfast we took a real bus for about 20 minutes to where the ferry was and went on a ferry ride for another 30 minutes or so, then we finally arrived in Tap Mun.
The harbor on Tap Mun is on the east side of the island so we walked up the hills and found ourselves on the steeper west side after a rather short walk where an amazing view and strong winds met us. We played around with kites and other stuff for a while, which was a lot tougher than you might think, and after a while we had our picnic; everybody, except me, had made some stuff and brought with them, I can't even try to explain the food but it was very good.
A lot of photo shooting (neither of nor by me) later we packed up and started walking around the island, I would give it about the same size as Pottneholmen (one of the places we used to boat out to in Blekinge when I was younger) but a lot hillier. More marvelous views and photos later and a walk through something like a cemetery we got back to the harbor at about 4.30pm.
With all the travelling back, boats and waiting and a bus that I think took about an hour, it was probably around 8 when we arrived at Diamond hill MTR station so we stayed there and had dinner, very typical Chinese dinner with the spinning table and several really good dishes.
After a very long day I was totally exhausted when I arrived at the hostel at around 10pm, but having to check my email about the interview that I thought I had the day after I met some friends in the hostel common areas. Realizing that I didn't have any interview I had a few beers and suddenly it was 4am and I had had a few beers more so I basically went up to my room and passed out from exhaustion.
The harbor on Tap Mun is on the east side of the island so we walked up the hills and found ourselves on the steeper west side after a rather short walk where an amazing view and strong winds met us. We played around with kites and other stuff for a while, which was a lot tougher than you might think, and after a while we had our picnic; everybody, except me, had made some stuff and brought with them, I can't even try to explain the food but it was very good.
A lot of photo shooting (neither of nor by me) later we packed up and started walking around the island, I would give it about the same size as Pottneholmen (one of the places we used to boat out to in Blekinge when I was younger) but a lot hillier. More marvelous views and photos later and a walk through something like a cemetery we got back to the harbor at about 4.30pm.
With all the travelling back, boats and waiting and a bus that I think took about an hour, it was probably around 8 when we arrived at Diamond hill MTR station so we stayed there and had dinner, very typical Chinese dinner with the spinning table and several really good dishes.
After a very long day I was totally exhausted when I arrived at the hostel at around 10pm, but having to check my email about the interview that I thought I had the day after I met some friends in the hostel common areas. Realizing that I didn't have any interview I had a few beers and suddenly it was 4am and I had had a few beers more so I basically went up to my room and passed out from exhaustion.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Om hästar kunde flyga...
Så skulle dom troligen inte kallas hästar längre, eller?
*
Vad vill du ha till middag ikväll?
Det va ett tag sen vi hade hästvinge!
*
Gott och nyttigt, väldigt mört ljust kött som bäst servers till ris eller potatis, passar mycket bra till vita viner och smaksätts gärna med basilika eller rosmarin.
*
Vad vill du ha till middag ikväll?
Det va ett tag sen vi hade hästvinge!
*
Gott och nyttigt, väldigt mört ljust kött som bäst servers till ris eller potatis, passar mycket bra till vita viner och smaksätts gärna med basilika eller rosmarin.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Leisure
I have been jumping around a little when it comes to accommodation actually; the first 5 nights I saved a lot of money staying in a 4-beds dorm and only paying 70HKD per night, this really sucked though and I made a friend in a travelling Dutchman who also wanted something more private, so we got for his two last night a 2-beds room which cost us 175HKD each and gave us a king-size bed each and private shower and toilet.
After he left I spent one night in Tin Shui Wai, in Joyce's home, and left the majority of my luggage with my Canadian brother (he has kind of adopted me) who has a private room in the hostel, when I came back the morning after though there wasn't any other room free, not even a dorm bed actually, so I started looking around in the building, where there are about 20 other hostels, and found a private room for 250HKD, in which I'm still staying, have 8 days in total and might extend until I leave for China. I still hang out a lot in the old hostel since they have some nice common areas (remove nice it’s just a comparison and there because it's the only place that has any common areas at all) and I made some friends there.
The first few days when the weather was better I went to a public leisure pool in Kowloon park a few times, since I didn't have much else to do I tried to spend as much time there as possible but it got pretty boring after 1-2 hours. I have been trying to meet up with friends for lunches and dinners but most of the time no one is available, I did (fail to) surprise Joyce (Man had already told her I was coming) and we had Thai food and watched a movie, Connected which is a Hong Kong remake of the Hollywood movie Cellular. No point in counting all my lunches and dinners and movies now but I have tried quite a lot of different food and met almost everybody I know here I think.
I also spent two days in Tin Shui Wai, at Joyce's cousin Kiu kiu's request I had to come back and play with him, a lot of scrabble and other word games, he is a very curious little 6 year old now and I have had good times there.
After he left I spent one night in Tin Shui Wai, in Joyce's home, and left the majority of my luggage with my Canadian brother (he has kind of adopted me) who has a private room in the hostel, when I came back the morning after though there wasn't any other room free, not even a dorm bed actually, so I started looking around in the building, where there are about 20 other hostels, and found a private room for 250HKD, in which I'm still staying, have 8 days in total and might extend until I leave for China. I still hang out a lot in the old hostel since they have some nice common areas (remove nice it’s just a comparison and there because it's the only place that has any common areas at all) and I made some friends there.
The first few days when the weather was better I went to a public leisure pool in Kowloon park a few times, since I didn't have much else to do I tried to spend as much time there as possible but it got pretty boring after 1-2 hours. I have been trying to meet up with friends for lunches and dinners but most of the time no one is available, I did (fail to) surprise Joyce (Man had already told her I was coming) and we had Thai food and watched a movie, Connected which is a Hong Kong remake of the Hollywood movie Cellular. No point in counting all my lunches and dinners and movies now but I have tried quite a lot of different food and met almost everybody I know here I think.
I also spent two days in Tin Shui Wai, at Joyce's cousin Kiu kiu's request I had to come back and play with him, a lot of scrabble and other word games, he is a very curious little 6 year old now and I have had good times there.
EFL
I had some very positive feelings before I came here, given that I already had an interview waiting for me only a week after I arrived. I got a few more calls about interviews actually and went on the first one a few days before my original first, and the first one I went to, at a company called Eureka, I got a quite good feeling for it, but the other two, including the original was not so good and finally they don't offer much money to be honest. I also got quite a lot of calls for part time jobs but as soon as I mention that I don't have a working permit yet they all say they have to talk to their supervisor about sponsoring and that they will come back to me, which they never do of course.
I have quite a bit to write about the process of getting a job and a working permit and such here but I think I will wait with it until I actually have one. I'm still in contact with Eureka and waiting for a contract with them, but they are sometimes slow to answer and I really don't have much time, this is because, from what I hear, the working permit process can take as long as 6 weeks, which is a long time and I'm not sure I can afford to stay that long. It is not all bad though as I will still have my passport during that time and can actually spend it in China, where I can live of about one fifth of the money I need in Hong Kong.
There are some additional expenses I didn't foresee; there is an institute called HKCAAVQ (Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications) that will accredit my academic qualification so that they count in Hong Kong, which they don't do right now. This accreditation costs 2160HKD though and will take 15 working days, and it needs some papers that I don't have with me here, my high school grades for one.
Still hope is left and I think in the end I will have a job, it is rather impossible for me to go back to Sweden over Christmas as I had hoped since I probably won't even start working until mid November and not get my first salary until beginning of December. Sorry.
I have quite a bit to write about the process of getting a job and a working permit and such here but I think I will wait with it until I actually have one. I'm still in contact with Eureka and waiting for a contract with them, but they are sometimes slow to answer and I really don't have much time, this is because, from what I hear, the working permit process can take as long as 6 weeks, which is a long time and I'm not sure I can afford to stay that long. It is not all bad though as I will still have my passport during that time and can actually spend it in China, where I can live of about one fifth of the money I need in Hong Kong.
There are some additional expenses I didn't foresee; there is an institute called HKCAAVQ (Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications) that will accredit my academic qualification so that they count in Hong Kong, which they don't do right now. This accreditation costs 2160HKD though and will take 15 working days, and it needs some papers that I don't have with me here, my high school grades for one.
Still hope is left and I think in the end I will have a job, it is rather impossible for me to go back to Sweden over Christmas as I had hoped since I probably won't even start working until mid November and not get my first salary until beginning of December. Sorry.
Nightlife
Already on the first night I came here I got to experience Hong Kong night life, this was actually the worst night life experience I had though. I met a random stranger from UK and we went out drinking together, soon Ariel joined us and when time drew closer to midnight we decided to try a club. The club we went to is called "Why bar" and can be found in TST pretty close to my hostel actually, we paid our 160HKD each (free for girls though) and went inside to find it... totally empty, there was not a single patron there when we arrived. Later three others came in and the six of us actually managed to have some good time, got a few drinks for free and enjoyed the night until about 2 or 3 in the morning.
Since then I have tried quite a lot of different things; One night I went out alone, since no one at the hostel wanted to go out, and managed to find some foreigners in central that brought me around in Lan Kwai Fong in Central, which is one of the bigger bar scenes in Hong Kong and is where basically all, and only, the foreigners go. Before the end of the night we had explored Wan Chai as well as central and I had seen the sun rise over Victoria harbor. This was so far the most affordable night since we just kept buying beer at Seven-11 for 6HKD a can instead of the 50+HKD in the bars and I took the MTR both there and back again.
Another night I just spent in a bar in TST, this time with more than 3 people, and talked to some old professor and got treated Bacardi 151 (which apparently is 75.5% rum) by my Canadian friend from the hostel.
I made a Greek friend at the hostel too and together we explored a more local scene when we went to an open mike night at a live restaurant, that is a restaurant that has live music by local talents, and got tipped off by that owner, who my Greek friend is out having drinks with tonight, to go to one of two towers in Causeway Bay and explore the karaoke scene; it took a while for us to actually find any lounge karaoke but jumping around on 10 different floors (which is only half of one of the buildings she talked about) we did see a lot of bars (that were basically exactly the same).
Mostly a night out has cost me around 300-400HKD, but like the longest night I only spent about 100HKD (and I still bought one beer in a bar) and another I should have spent way more but my Canadian brother is, or pretends to be, loaded so he bought a lot of drinks for us.
Since then I have tried quite a lot of different things; One night I went out alone, since no one at the hostel wanted to go out, and managed to find some foreigners in central that brought me around in Lan Kwai Fong in Central, which is one of the bigger bar scenes in Hong Kong and is where basically all, and only, the foreigners go. Before the end of the night we had explored Wan Chai as well as central and I had seen the sun rise over Victoria harbor. This was so far the most affordable night since we just kept buying beer at Seven-11 for 6HKD a can instead of the 50+HKD in the bars and I took the MTR both there and back again.
Another night I just spent in a bar in TST, this time with more than 3 people, and talked to some old professor and got treated Bacardi 151 (which apparently is 75.5% rum) by my Canadian friend from the hostel.
I made a Greek friend at the hostel too and together we explored a more local scene when we went to an open mike night at a live restaurant, that is a restaurant that has live music by local talents, and got tipped off by that owner, who my Greek friend is out having drinks with tonight, to go to one of two towers in Causeway Bay and explore the karaoke scene; it took a while for us to actually find any lounge karaoke but jumping around on 10 different floors (which is only half of one of the buildings she talked about) we did see a lot of bars (that were basically exactly the same).
Mostly a night out has cost me around 300-400HKD, but like the longest night I only spent about 100HKD (and I still bought one beer in a bar) and another I should have spent way more but my Canadian brother is, or pretends to be, loaded so he bought a lot of drinks for us.
Too much
Way too much has happened for me to write about it all, mostly because I've been too lazy to write and I don't have much access to Internet these days so I'm just giving up. I figure I should write some kind of summary though so I decided the divide it into three parts, night life (I have been going out quite a lot and been trying to experience different aspects of Hong Kong night life), EFL (basically about my pursuit of a job here) and others (what I have been doing when I'm not partying and looking for jobs.
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