I feel it is time to take this debate now, to explain myself, argue my point and elaborate how I think: I don't believe in global warming! Or rather that global warming is due to human activity.
a. I don't believe that human activity affects the weather on a global scale. I find it narcissistic to believe that we can, no matter how much we try, affect something that big. I find the arguments of proof of this to be lacking; mainly the statistics of temperature change. The thing is that we only have widespread reliable measurements since the late 19th century, i.e. less than 150 years. And the temperature of the earth is something that varies on a geological and astronomical scale, i.e. in periods of thousands or even millions of years. People today often speak of how weird the weather is and that each year has some extreme; last year for example it was the coldest winter in like ever and this year it was the warmest winter in like the same ever. For me this is definitely true, I have in my lifetime never experienced a colder winter than last year and neither have I experienced a more temperate winter than this year.
But I’m only 30 years old and I remember when I was young how people talked about the wicked winter of 1979 when snow piled up so high you could ride your sledding from the rooftops of Bjärred (in Southern Sweden). Not to speak of the winter of 1658 (often spoken of as the little ice-age) when it was so cold that the Swedish armies of Karl X could walk over the straits between Scania and Denmark and took the Danish king Frederik III by surprise.
b. And then there is the supposed relation between human activity and geological activity. I’m talking about how some people draw parallels between pollution, global warming and earth quakes. How people as soon as there is news of a natural disaster comments that there are more natural disasters these days. The hint is actually in the name, they are natural! I found it ridiculous and again extremely narcissistic that someone could believe that we humans could actually affect how the continental platforms move. And I shouldn’t even have to argue that even on as short a period of time as a hundred years the average frequency of earth quakes of various powers is followed pretty accurately. And again these are geological effects which should be viewed in periods of hundreds of thousands of years rather than decades. The only thing that is more frequent is the information we get about these disasters.
c. Notice that I’ve completely left out the fact that the ice around the poles of the earth are melting. That is because I don’t see any proof of the relation between the melting of the global icecaps and human activity. Earth is getting warmer though; there is no doubt of that. The changes to the sea-ice in both the Arctic and Antarctic region affects mainly the local fauna which is not really noticed by us unless you watch nature shows. But the indirect effect of melting sea-ice is that it accelerates the warming; ice is white and reflects sunlight while water is dark and absorbs it, basically creating a vicious circle where the more ice that melts the warmer it will get and the more ice will melt.
Directly worse for us is the melting of the land-ice in these regions. Most prominent is the land-ice of Greenland which all in all would raise the sea level of the world seas by over 7m (which would probably put my family home underwater!). And this is nothing compared to the ice sheet on the Antarctic continent which is ten times as much as the Greenland ice sheet. The Greenland ice sheet is melting/flowing into the sea at a fairly fast rate, but this process will still take hundreds of years, by which time the trend might have changed (in either direction).
Another secondary effect of the melting ice is changes to the ocean currents. The only reason the area I live in, and actually most of Europe, is at all habitable is because of the Atlantic Gulfstream. Sweden is actually so far north that it far north the American border, way into Canada by comparison, or similarly in Russian Siberia, areas that are nearly completely inhabitable. Not to speak of the Swedish capital Stockholm which is already on level with the Northwest Territories in Canada, Alaska and, well still Siberia. And Europe is still habitable even far North of Stockholm and people live far into to Arctic Circle. Southern Europe is also affected; take Madrid for example, which is on the same Latitude as both Beijing and New York, both cities with cold winters (I’ve been in Beijing when the temperature was below -20 centigrade), while Madrid very rarely have temperatures below 0 (average temperature in Madrid in December and January is just below 10 centigrade).
So back to that secondary effect, how the warming up of the polar caps and the melting ice (both sea-ice and land-ice) could potentially change the ocean currents over time. This is also very much a geological phenomenon and will most likely be a gradual change over hundreds or even thousands of years, but even small changes to these currents can cause great changes to the local climate in some parts of the world, like for example here in Sweden.
d. Having said this I still believe pollution is bad and that we should be more environmentally concerned than we are. Pollution is bad and the way I see it there are more direct effects than global warming. For example there are local health problems; I’ve noticed while living in severely polluted areas that people seem sicker, they age faster and feel worse. There could of course be other factors to this, like overwork and stress, which seems to be coinciding with pollution more often than not.
I have a personal experience however; I seem to have contracted an allergy to some kind of pollution. I noticed a couple of years ago that I had a constant cough and runny nose that I at the time blamed on a cold. After seeing a doctor who stated that I did not have a cold, that it was probably an allergy and gave me antihistamines. The drugs worked and I got better. Now that is not much of an argument that it was caused by pollution, that argument is that while I needed to take the drugs daily while living in a polluted there is no effect at all where I’m living now. This could of course also be attributed to other factors.
My main argument is then that pollution feels bad. After living in an extremely polluted area for nearly a year, where the local geography and climate made it even worse, I could feel the harsh treatment of my throat and lungs and there were few things I craved more than fresh clean air.
Even in places that are not considered comparably polluted you can feel a difference. For example while going on skiing trips to northern Sweden the air feels cleaner than it does at home in the South. The South of Sweden is still like a polished white surface compared to the sooth-black air many other places in the world.
e. I don’t believe in global warming but I do believe in local warming; I have lived in a big city where in the city itself the temperature very rarely drops below 0 degrees centigrade, outside the city, only a couple of tens of kilometers, however the temperature seems to be several degrees lower. And this corresponds to historical readings, where only a few decades before it used to be that cold where the city is too.
Another very obvious effect of pollution is sooth. When you have to wash of a thick layer of sooth from your balcony at least once per month there is obviously a problem.
f. Having said all this I think there are things we can do about it. For example when it is cold in warm places (does that make sense?) it tends to “feel” much colder. I’ve discussed this with local people and argued that where I come from it is much colder but I will still be warmer, for which I’m always (yes always, every single time) counted with that we have central heating systems. Actually, we don’t. Apartment complexes often have, but not always. We do have heating though. But, to be honest I had eating in those warm places that were cold too. The difference is not about heating, it is about insulation. Warming up places with heat pumps, infrared heaters or various other heaters doesn’t help much if you don’t have any insulation to speak of. I still don’t understand the idea to build huge buildings without any insulation, sure it is more expensive to build but you must make up for that in reduced heating, and cooling, costs. Yes, cooling costs too. When the outdoors temperature is 35 centigrade and the humidity over 98% every single household will start blasting their air conditioners, and with poor insulation a lot of this cooling goes to waste. The best way to be warm is to stay warm, not to heat up.
Like I said in the beginning, I don’t believe in global warming from human activity. Earth is getting slightly warmer though and the polar caps are melting. And pollution is still bad and we should do all we can to not waste energy or materials.
Showing posts with label Hong Kong. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hong Kong. Show all posts
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Monday, March 8, 2010
Why do I wear shades when it is raining?
To keep my eyes from being impaled on other people's umrellas...
Thursday, September 17, 2009
First day
First day of work was strangely uneventful, it was actually so uneventful nothing happened at all. My first day of work was yesterday, and yesterday there was typhoon signal 8 in the morning. When there is typhoon signal 8 everything is closed and cancelled, and my school decided to cancel all classes for the whole day. So actually my first day of work was not my first day of work, it was only my birthday, and I had the whole day off!
So my real first day of work that should have been my second day of work was today, and I must say I liked it. My school is running on 7 weekday cycles which just means that the schedule is not week based, this makes a lot of sense since there are 7 classes for each grade, 7/7 evens up pretty nicely I think. So of course missing the first day of the cycle creates some problems, the three classes I should have had that day I need to press into my oh so tight (NOT!) schedule. I'm actually only having each class once per cycle and I only have S1-S3, which means 21x40 minutes per cycle at average. The problem is that their schedule is not that light and they only have free time when I'm the most busy, this is not too bad though but next week on Friday I gotta start working at 9.30 instead of my regular 11.30.
OK so basically I have 22.5 working hours per week but only about 10 hours actual teaching, I also have about 30 minutes per day when I will be socializing with students, this is at lunch time so I don't really have any lunch. The rest of the time I guess will go to preparation. There will be other things I need to do as well, probably on a cycle basis, but it doesn't seem to be too much.
Back to second (e.g. first) day: On the second day of the cycle I have to start an hour earlier because of schedule problem, however I only have two classes that day and both are before lunch, so basically I have nothing to do from 1pm and can go home about 3 (yes normal working hours is from 11:30am to 4pm :D). The first class I had was an S2 class and I started off really well with them, lesson was too short for my plan though, or perhaps my plan was too long for the lesson, who knows... The second class was an S3 class and even though there was some items of disturbance (some students that just couldn't stop trying to get attention) it was also a successful lesson.
At lunch I went to HQ, English Land, where students can go at lunch hour or other free time to... well... practice English. A group of boys wanted to play Transformers RISK and I tried to help them but the rules are really screwed up so even they knew RISK from before it took them the whole lunch break to set up the game. After that I spent the rest of my working day to figure out the rules of the game and jot them down in (what I think) a simpler way. We will see if we can actually start playing at lunch tomorrow.
Tomorrow will be a lot longer day though, with 4 classes and the lunch thing I'm actually actively working for 3 hours tomorrow. Friday will be like that too as will Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week (because of the 3 missed classes that have to be done at some point). So well, a little bit busy am I at least.
So my real first day of work that should have been my second day of work was today, and I must say I liked it. My school is running on 7 weekday cycles which just means that the schedule is not week based, this makes a lot of sense since there are 7 classes for each grade, 7/7 evens up pretty nicely I think. So of course missing the first day of the cycle creates some problems, the three classes I should have had that day I need to press into my oh so tight (NOT!) schedule. I'm actually only having each class once per cycle and I only have S1-S3, which means 21x40 minutes per cycle at average. The problem is that their schedule is not that light and they only have free time when I'm the most busy, this is not too bad though but next week on Friday I gotta start working at 9.30 instead of my regular 11.30.
OK so basically I have 22.5 working hours per week but only about 10 hours actual teaching, I also have about 30 minutes per day when I will be socializing with students, this is at lunch time so I don't really have any lunch. The rest of the time I guess will go to preparation. There will be other things I need to do as well, probably on a cycle basis, but it doesn't seem to be too much.
Back to second (e.g. first) day: On the second day of the cycle I have to start an hour earlier because of schedule problem, however I only have two classes that day and both are before lunch, so basically I have nothing to do from 1pm and can go home about 3 (yes normal working hours is from 11:30am to 4pm :D). The first class I had was an S2 class and I started off really well with them, lesson was too short for my plan though, or perhaps my plan was too long for the lesson, who knows... The second class was an S3 class and even though there was some items of disturbance (some students that just couldn't stop trying to get attention) it was also a successful lesson.
At lunch I went to HQ, English Land, where students can go at lunch hour or other free time to... well... practice English. A group of boys wanted to play Transformers RISK and I tried to help them but the rules are really screwed up so even they knew RISK from before it took them the whole lunch break to set up the game. After that I spent the rest of my working day to figure out the rules of the game and jot them down in (what I think) a simpler way. We will see if we can actually start playing at lunch tomorrow.
Tomorrow will be a lot longer day though, with 4 classes and the lunch thing I'm actually actively working for 3 hours tomorrow. Friday will be like that too as will Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week (because of the 3 missed classes that have to be done at some point). So well, a little bit busy am I at least.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Size, population and density
Sweden is as most of us know a very big country with relatively few people. Hong Kong is, also as most of us know, a very small region with relatively many people. Actually Sweden has a population density of 20 people per square kilometer while Hong Kong has a population density of over 6000 people per square kilometer. But this doesn't really tell us very much, especially since the population in Sweden is extremely wide spread, as example the province Skåne in the south has 5 times the average, 100 people per square kilometer, and Lapland in the north has only .9 people per square kilometer.
So to make this simple we just compare:
Hong Kong has almost exactly 7 million inhabitants and Sweden has a bit more than 9 million, this is in approximation the same (10 to the power of 10), so a direct size comparison feels rather fair so: you can put over 400 Hong Kong into 1 Sweden. You can put as many as 10 Hong Kong in Skåne alone, or 100 Hong Kong in Lapland. Skåne which has one of the most populated regions in Sweden has only one million people, 10 times less than Hong Kong, which shows why the density in Hong Kong is nearly 100 times higher than in Skåne, Lapland only has a 10th of that, about a hundred thousand people.
Keep in mind though that large part of Hong Kong is uninhabitable mountains or very sparsely populated like the island and the regions in New Territories.
I think a more interesting comparison is Tin Shui Wai, where I live now, versus Bjärred, where I grew up. Tin Shui Wai is a small residential town which has been newly developed on reclaimed land (constructed land built upon water or in this case a wetland or swamp area), Bjärred is a small residential town near the University town of Lund and the third largest city in Sweden, Malmö. Interestingly Tin Shui Wai and Bjärred are nearly exactly the same size, 430Ha and 439Ha respectively, Tin Shui Wai is, however, approximately 30 times higher than Bjärred. This is quite funny because every residential building in Tin Shui Wai has between 30 and 50 floors, while the houses in Bjärred has between one and four floors, and Tin Shui Wai has around 30 times as large population as Bjärred, 270 000 (which is rather close to the population of Malmö) and 8000 respectively.
I write this because I want people to get a grasp of how insanely (in our sparsely populated point of view) densely populated this region is. Maybe you think you know the numbers and say: well what about the other Chinese cities; Beijing has a larger population than Hong Kong and Shanghai even more. But Beijing and Shanghai are huge regions, Shanghai about 6 times as large as Hong Kong and Beijing twice of that, and both those regions are pretty much flat with buildings everywhere.
All numbers come from www.wikipedia.org and are not 100% reliable, but for these curiosa I trust them.
So to make this simple we just compare:
Hong Kong has almost exactly 7 million inhabitants and Sweden has a bit more than 9 million, this is in approximation the same (10 to the power of 10), so a direct size comparison feels rather fair so: you can put over 400 Hong Kong into 1 Sweden. You can put as many as 10 Hong Kong in Skåne alone, or 100 Hong Kong in Lapland. Skåne which has one of the most populated regions in Sweden has only one million people, 10 times less than Hong Kong, which shows why the density in Hong Kong is nearly 100 times higher than in Skåne, Lapland only has a 10th of that, about a hundred thousand people.
Keep in mind though that large part of Hong Kong is uninhabitable mountains or very sparsely populated like the island and the regions in New Territories.
I think a more interesting comparison is Tin Shui Wai, where I live now, versus Bjärred, where I grew up. Tin Shui Wai is a small residential town which has been newly developed on reclaimed land (constructed land built upon water or in this case a wetland or swamp area), Bjärred is a small residential town near the University town of Lund and the third largest city in Sweden, Malmö. Interestingly Tin Shui Wai and Bjärred are nearly exactly the same size, 430Ha and 439Ha respectively, Tin Shui Wai is, however, approximately 30 times higher than Bjärred. This is quite funny because every residential building in Tin Shui Wai has between 30 and 50 floors, while the houses in Bjärred has between one and four floors, and Tin Shui Wai has around 30 times as large population as Bjärred, 270 000 (which is rather close to the population of Malmö) and 8000 respectively.
I write this because I want people to get a grasp of how insanely (in our sparsely populated point of view) densely populated this region is. Maybe you think you know the numbers and say: well what about the other Chinese cities; Beijing has a larger population than Hong Kong and Shanghai even more. But Beijing and Shanghai are huge regions, Shanghai about 6 times as large as Hong Kong and Beijing twice of that, and both those regions are pretty much flat with buildings everywhere.
All numbers come from www.wikipedia.org and are not 100% reliable, but for these curiosa I trust them.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Melancholy
Recently I've had upon me an unsettling feeling of sorrow, I don't know where it comes from and even though I have tried to blame some recent events I have concluded that the sadness I feel about other things come from this deeper feeling and not the other way around. Rationally I should be happy now; I'm in a somewhat healthy relationship, work is going OK even if it's not great at the moment, my life is somewhat stead, even my closest friend here has found a happiness that I haven't seen in her for many years and all of this should make me feel happy.
One might think that the passing of my grandmother could cause these blue feelings but I think even death is a sad thing it is in the end always inevitable and in this case it wasn't what you would call unexpected even, I think it can even be rationalized to be a good thing; the end of her pain and suffering (I still miss her though). There are always other causes for grievance; like unstable work causing personal financial instability, but work is getting better, or the loss of something, but only an illusion. There is nothing to explain my recent low mood.
No after rationalizing and over analyzing it as the true Virgo I am a have come to the conclusion that the only reasonable reason is the currently too slow pace of my life; things or not progressing as I had wanted them to and this leaves me with nothing to do a lot of the time, I do kill a lot of time and still manage to procrastinate some things that I have to do, but there are a lot of things that I want to do that I just can't do at the moment. I guess I'm not patient enough and I'm bad at waiting.
One might think that the passing of my grandmother could cause these blue feelings but I think even death is a sad thing it is in the end always inevitable and in this case it wasn't what you would call unexpected even, I think it can even be rationalized to be a good thing; the end of her pain and suffering (I still miss her though). There are always other causes for grievance; like unstable work causing personal financial instability, but work is getting better, or the loss of something, but only an illusion. There is nothing to explain my recent low mood.
No after rationalizing and over analyzing it as the true Virgo I am a have come to the conclusion that the only reasonable reason is the currently too slow pace of my life; things or not progressing as I had wanted them to and this leaves me with nothing to do a lot of the time, I do kill a lot of time and still manage to procrastinate some things that I have to do, but there are a lot of things that I want to do that I just can't do at the moment. I guess I'm not patient enough and I'm bad at waiting.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Sister visiting Hong Kong
Instead of doing a day by day posting I find it more interesting to post by activity and summarize what can be done when visiting Hong Kong.
I have divided our activities into:
Culinary Hong Kong (e.g. what we eat and sometimes cook here).
Play in Hong Kong
Tourism in Hong Kong (e.g. the obvious tourist attraction that everyone does)
Party in Hong Kong
and Shopping in Hong Kong
So far I have written part 1 only but I will update eventually and add more photos when Maja has given them to me.
I have divided our activities into:
Culinary Hong Kong (e.g. what we eat and sometimes cook here).
Play in Hong Kong
Tourism in Hong Kong (e.g. the obvious tourist attraction that everyone does)
Party in Hong Kong
and Shopping in Hong Kong
So far I have written part 1 only but I will update eventually and add more photos when Maja has given them to me.
Party in Hong Kong (part 1)
As of yet we haven't really been out partying; we had a few drinks near my home the other day and last night we drank some beer with the BBQ but otherwise we have taken it easy. On Wednesday we have plans to go out to a club with a friend and on Saturday I have arranged a big local party and BBQ to show Maja how we really party here, should be quite fun.
Tourism in Hong Kong (part 1)
So far we have hardly done anything touristy at all; we only went to Wetland Park near my home in Tin Shui Wai. But tomorrow we will go to Tung Chung and do the Ngong Ping 360 cable car and see the big Buddha and on Wednesday we will go to the peak. I also have plans to go with her to Ocean Park on Friday and we will see what we can do next Sunday.
Shopping in Hong Kong (part 1)
Maja was very eager to go out shopping as soon as possible when she came here, the only problem was that I have actually no idea where to take her to shop. We did however go out to Causeway bay and walked around inside SOGO and around that area for a while without finding anything particular, actually the main problem was that whatever she found and liked it was always too short for her. We also went to Mong Kok and I ended up buying a few t-shirts and cologne, Maja still didn't buy anything.
Today Maja is in better hands; she is out with Joyce shopping in the nearby smaller town of Yuen Long, I hope she can find anything suitable there. I think next week on Tuesday I will take her around on a shopping mall tour; New Town Plaza in Sha Tin, Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong, Telford Plaza in Kowloon Bay, APM in Kwun Tong and perhaps Mega BOX near Kowloon Bay and Kwun Tong. We will see how that goes. I will also try to take her to some outlet stores; there are some outlet sport stores in Tung Chung where we will go tomorrow and I think there are some in Aberdeen also, might go there on Sunday. Tomorrow we will also go to the night market at Temple Street in Jordan and maybe the ladies market in Mong Kok as well.
Today Maja is in better hands; she is out with Joyce shopping in the nearby smaller town of Yuen Long, I hope she can find anything suitable there. I think next week on Tuesday I will take her around on a shopping mall tour; New Town Plaza in Sha Tin, Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong, Telford Plaza in Kowloon Bay, APM in Kwun Tong and perhaps Mega BOX near Kowloon Bay and Kwun Tong. We will see how that goes. I will also try to take her to some outlet stores; there are some outlet sport stores in Tung Chung where we will go tomorrow and I think there are some in Aberdeen also, might go there on Sunday. Tomorrow we will also go to the night market at Temple Street in Jordan and maybe the ladies market in Mong Kok as well.
Playing in Hong Kong (part 1)
My main friend and contact for doing outdoor fun things in Hong Kong is my good friend and colleague from UK, Marc Rimmer, he has worked with outdoor sports in Hong Kong before and made some good friends in the field. So he arranged for us to go out wakeboarding with one of his friends and we had an awesome day playing in the water yesterday, but so exhausted now and muscle aches all over.
I think there won't be any more play like this but perhaps we will do something in the weekend and we should go to Ocean Park on Friday.
Me trying to wakeboard, I did get up on my second try
but I couldn't manage any other impressive feat.
Maja trying to wakeboard as well, and in fact she was better than me.
Marc testing out as well.
Finally Marc's friend and our instructor showing us how it is done.
Culinary Hong Kong (part 1)
Food comes in plenty in Hong Kong and so far we have managed to cover quite a few nationalities and styles; the first evening after Maja arrived we went out to a local Chinese restaurant (one of those with a spinning platform on the round table) and had a huge Chinese cosine dinner with Joyce and her family, I also got to try the weirdest Kung Pow Chicken I've ever seen, not even close to the real thing. We have also done Thai food in Thai Orchid in Langham place in Mong Kok, great spicy curry and some other stuff that both enjoyed together with Almen (Joyce's third sister). We went for an enormous lunch buffet at the Gold Coast resort hotel with one of the companies I’m involved with, spending nearly two hours constantly eating I managed to finish five plates; starters, main dish, salad, cakes and dessert and finally some more of the starters. Saturday we went to celebrate Almen's and Maja's birthdays with Indian food in Yuen Long, together with all of Joyce's family and also Ariel and Man, and after that we all went back to my place to enjoy two cakes, one that I made and one that Shirly's (Joyce's second sister) friend made for us, mine with chocolate and the other with mango and passion fruit, very yummy. Finally last night we had a huge outdoor BBQ buffet and spend about seven hours constantly eating and drinking.
This of course has resulted in some weight gain but I hope to fall back to my normal weight once Maja has left again.
We have a few more things to try out before Maja leaves; tonight we will have Joyce's own home cooked food, I think one day we will try another Indian food and probably one day for another restaurant I enjoy where you can get really nice white curry, I will post about the rest of her time here later.
This of course has resulted in some weight gain but I hope to fall back to my normal weight once Maja has left again.
We have a few more things to try out before Maja leaves; tonight we will have Joyce's own home cooked food, I think one day we will try another Indian food and probably one day for another restaurant I enjoy where you can get really nice white curry, I will post about the rest of her time here later.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Things you need for a home, priority!
1. Bed - check (had that already).
2. Internet - check (included).
3. Sofa - check (just bought and will receive on Wednesday).
4. Curtains - I will go look for that on Sunday.
5. Wireless internet - check (bought my router today).
6. Wardrobe - half check (I have one piece but it just isn't enough, I can live with this for quite a while though).
7. Entrance storage, like hangers and shoe storage - soon I hope.
8. Table - probably next item to buy.
9. Storage furniture - like more wardrobe and some other storage units.
10. Upgrade bed - you spend a third of your life in bed; the bed you stay that time in should be great.
11. TV and TV furniture.
12. Wall hangings, painting or nice photos to put up on the walls.
13. Balcony furniture - just something to sit and relax on the balcony.
14. Gaming consoles - your mandatory PS3, Xbox 360 and Wiki.
15. Workspace and stationary computer.
16. Music system - Amplifier and speakers (this stuff costs way too much though, 3-4 years in the future perhaps?)
2. Internet - check (included).
3. Sofa - check (just bought and will receive on Wednesday).
4. Curtains - I will go look for that on Sunday.
5. Wireless internet - check (bought my router today).
6. Wardrobe - half check (I have one piece but it just isn't enough, I can live with this for quite a while though).
7. Entrance storage, like hangers and shoe storage - soon I hope.
8. Table - probably next item to buy.
9. Storage furniture - like more wardrobe and some other storage units.
10. Upgrade bed - you spend a third of your life in bed; the bed you stay that time in should be great.
11. TV and TV furniture.
12. Wall hangings, painting or nice photos to put up on the walls.
13. Balcony furniture - just something to sit and relax on the balcony.
14. Gaming consoles - your mandatory PS3, Xbox 360 and Wiki.
15. Workspace and stationary computer.
16. Music system - Amplifier and speakers (this stuff costs way too much though, 3-4 years in the future perhaps?)
Friday, March 6, 2009
Buying a Sofa
I had picked out my "Karlstad" sofa, received the deposit from Gary (former flat mate) and had enough time to actually go to IKEA and buy it. So I set out in the mid afternoon with a clear goal and high spirits. However, once I had arrived at Kowloon bay IKEA and written down exactly what I wanted the woman (or I should say girl) found that they didn't have the 2-seat part frame in stock, neither did they know when they would, later it turned out that they should have gotten it last month but hadn't yet and after pushing the girl about it she guessed it would take at least another month.
So I had to consider my options; IKEA also has a sofa called "Kramfors", it is similar size and price but with a few drawbacks; 1. It doesn't come in any color that I'm looking for (closest is a dark gray), 2. It is about 15cm wide than "Karlstad", that is 15cm I don't really have and 3. It is not nearly as comfortable as "Karlstad". There is "Tylösand" from IKEA as well, this one comes in a reddish purple that is close to the brown I was looking for originally and it is only 7cm wide than "Karlstad", however this one costs 2000HKD more. Or as a final option I could look in other stores.
I set out to MEGA-BOX where they have a B n' Q, another furniture/hardware store, they didn't have many sofas to pick from though and all of them were quite bad, they did, however, have a wide selection of other interesting stuff, for later. Next we an exhibition centre near MEGA-BOX where they exhibit and sell stuff, and two floors are for furniture. Most of these are actually selling designed homes rather than separate furniture, some did though and actually the first place had these really cool luxury sofas in leather where the two side seats in a 3-seat sofa had an electronic unfolding, and these were actually price worthy; the original price ranged from 15 to 18 thousand HKD but they were mostly down to 6 to 9 thousand, e.g. within my limit. I decided against this though, it might be cool but it wouldn't really suit my home, it is something of a combination of luxury and tacky TV-comfort and it just don't go with my vision.
So after several hours of sofa searching I ended up in IKEA again and was close to buying "Kramfors" despite the negative points when another idea came up; most of IKEA's sofas are actually unit based and can be combined a little bit like you want it, this basically means that you can buy one part now and another later, and in the case of "Karlstad" it was only the 2-seat frame unit that was missing. Unfortunately the lounge part (the 'L') is an add-on and cannot be used separately, so this idea failed, but "Tylösand", which is actually slightly more comfortable than "Karlstad" suddenly became possible since I could buy a 2-seat part now and but the lounge later when I have more money.
After serious consideration I decided on "Tylösand" 2-seat unit and the footpad for it, together with a "Lack" coffee table and a knee "table" for my computer I know have what I need to survive for a while. This actually turned out cheaper than the original plan but the total cost for the sofa will be higher, e.g. today I had planned to spend about 6500HKD, or slightly more, for sofa and coffee table but finally only spent 6300HKD, I will have to buy the lounge later though for about 4000HKD more, can be much later.
So I had to consider my options; IKEA also has a sofa called "Kramfors", it is similar size and price but with a few drawbacks; 1. It doesn't come in any color that I'm looking for (closest is a dark gray), 2. It is about 15cm wide than "Karlstad", that is 15cm I don't really have and 3. It is not nearly as comfortable as "Karlstad". There is "Tylösand" from IKEA as well, this one comes in a reddish purple that is close to the brown I was looking for originally and it is only 7cm wide than "Karlstad", however this one costs 2000HKD more. Or as a final option I could look in other stores.
I set out to MEGA-BOX where they have a B n' Q, another furniture/hardware store, they didn't have many sofas to pick from though and all of them were quite bad, they did, however, have a wide selection of other interesting stuff, for later. Next we an exhibition centre near MEGA-BOX where they exhibit and sell stuff, and two floors are for furniture. Most of these are actually selling designed homes rather than separate furniture, some did though and actually the first place had these really cool luxury sofas in leather where the two side seats in a 3-seat sofa had an electronic unfolding, and these were actually price worthy; the original price ranged from 15 to 18 thousand HKD but they were mostly down to 6 to 9 thousand, e.g. within my limit. I decided against this though, it might be cool but it wouldn't really suit my home, it is something of a combination of luxury and tacky TV-comfort and it just don't go with my vision.
So after several hours of sofa searching I ended up in IKEA again and was close to buying "Kramfors" despite the negative points when another idea came up; most of IKEA's sofas are actually unit based and can be combined a little bit like you want it, this basically means that you can buy one part now and another later, and in the case of "Karlstad" it was only the 2-seat frame unit that was missing. Unfortunately the lounge part (the 'L') is an add-on and cannot be used separately, so this idea failed, but "Tylösand", which is actually slightly more comfortable than "Karlstad" suddenly became possible since I could buy a 2-seat part now and but the lounge later when I have more money.
After serious consideration I decided on "Tylösand" 2-seat unit and the footpad for it, together with a "Lack" coffee table and a knee "table" for my computer I know have what I need to survive for a while. This actually turned out cheaper than the original plan but the total cost for the sofa will be higher, e.g. today I had planned to spend about 6500HKD, or slightly more, for sofa and coffee table but finally only spent 6300HKD, I will have to buy the lounge later though for about 4000HKD more, can be much later.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
A new home.
For a few nights now I have slept on the 50th (actually 44th) floor in a Tin Shui Wai Central Park Tower One. The rent started on the 1st of this month but I got 7 days for free so I got the keys on February 22nd and on the Tuesday after (which was a day off for me) Shirley (who also was not working) helped me to buy some cleaning stuff and clean the place up. Moving went really smooth, day after Janice's birthday party (last Wednesday), which really was a lot of fun by the way; I could get help from Ariel who had taken the day after the party off. A group of movers, skillfully arranged by Man, came and carried my stuff downstairs and loaded it in a truck, 45 minutes later we arrived in Tin Shui Wai and they carried my stuff up and it was done.
Since then I have visited IKEA like 5-6 times to check out furniture I want, the only thing I can actually buy is a "Karlstad" 'L'-shaped sofa which I will buy as soon as I get my salary next week. I did buy a lot of kitchen wares (IKEA has a set called "Tillaga" start set which contains most of the basics for a kitchen) and other small stuff. I have looked at stuff and drawn plans for how I want it and calculated the total price; I will probably be able to pay back Mom and my friend within a year and furnish this apartment, excluding the very important TV, stereo and game consoles that will decorate some of the furniture.
Since then I have visited IKEA like 5-6 times to check out furniture I want, the only thing I can actually buy is a "Karlstad" 'L'-shaped sofa which I will buy as soon as I get my salary next week. I did buy a lot of kitchen wares (IKEA has a set called "Tillaga" start set which contains most of the basics for a kitchen) and other small stuff. I have looked at stuff and drawn plans for how I want it and calculated the total price; I will probably be able to pay back Mom and my friend within a year and furnish this apartment, excluding the very important TV, stereo and game consoles that will decorate some of the furniture.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Super humid
It is actually only about 85% (it can be as high as 98% in summer I think) but the whole world seems to be covered in a shade of white mist; when I look outside my window now I can't even see the water just a few hundred meters away, and just barely make out the buildings next to me. This also affects the drying of laundry; for example I haven't had a dry towel in 4-5 days now and it gets very sweaty very quickly these days.
Anyway, last week I made my final decision to move in to that great view flat in Tin Shui Wai, I'm still not entirely certain that it is a great idea but when it comes to work and transport I will be able to save a lot of money and time. So next Sunday I will put down the deposit and the first payment (I get one week staying there for free and will have the billing date on the first of each month later), get the key and I think even stay there the first night, since I work early there on Monday morning. Then over the week I will move myself and my life from Tiu Keng Leng to Tin Shui Wai.
Unfortunately it will probably be a while until I can afford furniture, but I can live with that for a month or two I think. That time I can spend planning what furniture I will get, admittedly I'm pretty excited about moving there, my own flat. I want to say that it is the first flat I will have alone, but I did stay alone in the flat in Chengdu, maybe that isn't counted though as it was a studio apartment without kitchen, and it was furnished already so I didn't get to do that.
Work is still quite slow, as it is now both February and March is around 10000 but I haven't lost hope to fill up my Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays also, When I finally do that it should double what I make now. April will be a slow month either way I think, with Easter and a long holiday I don't have many commitments at the moment so if I don't get more it before then it will be bad, still a long time away so it should be fine.
Anyway, last week I made my final decision to move in to that great view flat in Tin Shui Wai, I'm still not entirely certain that it is a great idea but when it comes to work and transport I will be able to save a lot of money and time. So next Sunday I will put down the deposit and the first payment (I get one week staying there for free and will have the billing date on the first of each month later), get the key and I think even stay there the first night, since I work early there on Monday morning. Then over the week I will move myself and my life from Tiu Keng Leng to Tin Shui Wai.
Unfortunately it will probably be a while until I can afford furniture, but I can live with that for a month or two I think. That time I can spend planning what furniture I will get, admittedly I'm pretty excited about moving there, my own flat. I want to say that it is the first flat I will have alone, but I did stay alone in the flat in Chengdu, maybe that isn't counted though as it was a studio apartment without kitchen, and it was furnished already so I didn't get to do that.
Work is still quite slow, as it is now both February and March is around 10000 but I haven't lost hope to fill up my Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays also, When I finally do that it should double what I make now. April will be a slow month either way I think, with Easter and a long holiday I don't have many commitments at the moment so if I don't get more it before then it will be bad, still a long time away so it should be fine.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Apartment search
I've been looking for a place nearer to my work and there is a new estate in Tin Shui Wai (where Joyce lives) that I'm extremely attracted to, it happens to have exactly the same style and very similar layout to the place I'm staying in right now. So over the last few weeks (first time was actually in early December) I went to see different flats in those buildings. There are two very different sides to the buildings; at the North side they are still building club facilities for the estate and three more towers, this won’t be complete until sometime and 2010 so living on that side pretty much sucks (once the construction is finished the higher flats should be ok as it will give a kind of sea view), on the South side however is Tin Shui Wai park and most of the flats have a really nice view of that, especially the Easternmost tower is very close to the park centre and even the lower flats there are nice.
I have basically discarded all flats on the North side despite them being slightly cheaper and when I finally got to see a bigger selection of South flats this week when I went with Shirley, one of Joyce's sisters (not to be mistaken with Almen). I saw a really awesome 3 bedroom flat, quite high and in the easternmost tower, this one is way too expensive for me though. After that I saw three other flats, all 2 bedrooms and pretty decent layout, I didn't like the last one because it is quite low and located by a busy street, it will make it pretty noisy there especially in day time. Unfortunately both the other two was lost to me before the evening was over; I found out the owner had rent the second one out already and the first one was under negotiation and if I started to bid I would just push up the price.
That's when they told me they could show me a fifth flat. So Shirley and I went back again and we went up to the 50th floor in the Easternmost building and was suddenly enchanted with this amazing view that is very hard to describe but I will try my best; just below you is a big green park that extends to a small (small as it is very far down) stadium in the East, but when you lift your eyes a little you reach above all the other buildings in the region and you realize that you have a view of the mountain range around the town. When you start looking around you realize that you have a panoramic view of the landscape stretching all the way to the sea in the West and mountains and sea in the South. And of course I got there in the evening so we got to watch how the sun was sinking down over the sea.
I want this flat! The rent is reasonable, 6500HKD for about 666sqf (70sqm), two bedrooms, a decent bathroom and a kitchen, compare with I’m paying 4500HKD now for the smaller bedroom in a similar apartment with one and a half hour travel time to work instead of 30 minutes and 10HKD instead of 60HKD per working day. The one drawback is that the kitchen is one of the smallest in this estate. However 6500HKD is just the rent, before I can rent it I must put down a deposit of two months’ rent and pay the agent one half rent for their service, this adds up to 22500HKD, which is a lot. They also want me to make a quick decision, have me put down some money (just a minor amount) to not show it to more prospectors. I don't know what to do but I know I want that flat.
I have basically discarded all flats on the North side despite them being slightly cheaper and when I finally got to see a bigger selection of South flats this week when I went with Shirley, one of Joyce's sisters (not to be mistaken with Almen). I saw a really awesome 3 bedroom flat, quite high and in the easternmost tower, this one is way too expensive for me though. After that I saw three other flats, all 2 bedrooms and pretty decent layout, I didn't like the last one because it is quite low and located by a busy street, it will make it pretty noisy there especially in day time. Unfortunately both the other two was lost to me before the evening was over; I found out the owner had rent the second one out already and the first one was under negotiation and if I started to bid I would just push up the price.
That's when they told me they could show me a fifth flat. So Shirley and I went back again and we went up to the 50th floor in the Easternmost building and was suddenly enchanted with this amazing view that is very hard to describe but I will try my best; just below you is a big green park that extends to a small (small as it is very far down) stadium in the East, but when you lift your eyes a little you reach above all the other buildings in the region and you realize that you have a view of the mountain range around the town. When you start looking around you realize that you have a panoramic view of the landscape stretching all the way to the sea in the West and mountains and sea in the South. And of course I got there in the evening so we got to watch how the sun was sinking down over the sea.
I want this flat! The rent is reasonable, 6500HKD for about 666sqf (70sqm), two bedrooms, a decent bathroom and a kitchen, compare with I’m paying 4500HKD now for the smaller bedroom in a similar apartment with one and a half hour travel time to work instead of 30 minutes and 10HKD instead of 60HKD per working day. The one drawback is that the kitchen is one of the smallest in this estate. However 6500HKD is just the rent, before I can rent it I must put down a deposit of two months’ rent and pay the agent one half rent for their service, this adds up to 22500HKD, which is a lot. They also want me to make a quick decision, have me put down some money (just a minor amount) to not show it to more prospectors. I don't know what to do but I know I want that flat.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Omelet
Last night I had a small "Spring Festival" dinner with Joyce and Ariel and I came up with the, according to me, great plan of making omelets. The great idea about this is that we could do several omelets with different ingredients, satisfying everyone's wants and needs. With my small frying pan two eggs is more than enough for one omelet, still I tried with four in the first one and that was simply too big. I made spicy omelets, which I like but Ariel don't like, Ariel made one with mushrooms, which I can't eat, and Joyce did a rather normal one.
Museums
With the Spring festival holiday and more time on our hands Ariel and I decided to check out some of the museums in Hong Kong. So on Friday we went to Tsim Sha Tsui and to the museum of history and the museum of science, which are in adjacent buildings in TST east. We did go about it in the wrong order but basically had to since the history museum closed earlier; first we did Hong Kong's history and then the very boring French revolution part that is visiting until next month. The science museum was a lot more fun; they have loads of stuff you can play and at the end of our visit we found a section where you test your health buy doing simple tests like blood pressure and jumping as high as you can and stuff. I don't think the tests are very reliable but it was still fun too.
Since we had bought a one week ticket for all the museums in Hong Kong each and Ariel work the whole next week we figured we should do one today as well. We went out to Sha Tin in east part of New Territories and visited the heritage museum there. Some of the things there were very similar to the history museum in TST but a lot more focus on culture and especially Cantonese Opera, which sounds really boring and I think it is, but I tried out a costume and took some photos.
I will check out the space museum and also the art museum in TST by Victoria harbor someday next week, since I have the one week pass and quite a lot of time to kill still.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Pancake workshop
Finally I got to make pancakes in my new flat, or actually it was the second time since I did a trial run last weekend. We were only three people, Joyce, Almen and I, because all others invited were busy with other things or too tired, but that is all right, two to three (or maybe four) is the appropriate amount of people for pancakes. Joyce also made some paste that turned out really great and the pancakes became desert. Also as appropriate we watched a movie, Beerfest, which turned out to be really fun.
All in all it was just as it should be! And the leftover pancakes, because there were quite a lot. Well they became a very steady Sunday breakfast :D
All in all it was just as it should be! And the leftover pancakes, because there were quite a lot. Well they became a very steady Sunday breakfast :D
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