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.

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?)

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.

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.

A brief stay

So the second and last night in Hong Kong I was out with Joyce (again of course), Man and Janice. We had HK style hot pot first and then we went to see Joyce's office, it was really messy. Joyce stayed with me in my extra bed in the hostel and we had dim sum breakfast this morning, you can't really go to Hong Kong without having dim sum so I just had to do that. Now I've spent most of the mid-day/afternoon waiting for my passport to get back so I've basically just been walking around shopping for souvenirs for my friends in Chengdu, I hope they will like what I found for them, it's really stupid though.

On Tuesday night I was out for dinner with Joyce and Almen, Joyce's sister, we had Chinese, HK style, food, like sweet and sour meatballs and some other Hong Kong-ish dishes, and after that we walked around the avenue of the stars and took some photos, it was actually the first time Almen had ever been there, which was kind of weird.

Now if I do get the visa I'm expecting, there really is no other option than getting it actually since I have flight tickets and hostel reservations and stuff, I will meet an online friend in Shenzhen before I fly out to Shanghai, in about 10 minutes I should go out to the visa office again to see if they have it for me.

Drinking up vaccation

It is fun but rather stupid, I have been partying for 6 nights straight and my sleeping rhythm until this morning was basically 6am to 2 or 3pm, or even later, it is as I said fun though, a new social experience of staying in a hostel and getting along with just about any type of person, even managing to get a few out to clubs once in a while, and I have managed to keep the spending down after the water incident last Thursday and the Whiskey incident the night after. This has actually not been my fault, both on Saturday and Sunday I really wanted to just rest and go to bed early but one of the weird Manchester guys forced me to join them drinking (not that it's hard to force me to drink).

Today I'm in TianJin though and here is no partying, I forgot my camera when we went out so there are no pictures but I think I can get some tomorrow. Next week I will try to get to the Great Wall again, do the trekking this time to really make up for what I missed out the last and also the Summer Palace would be fun to visit in winter.

I went to the Silk Street market yesterday afternoon too and found my helicopter and finally bought it, I was hoping to get her down to 350 or even 300 and my hope grew when she started at 500, I said 200 and she said she knew that I knew how much it cost so she started reasonable and I gave up and gave her 400 for it, which was my budget for it anyway. I bought a pair of class A fake Diesel jeans too for 210kuai which I think is ok and I tried to find some nice silk underwear like some I bought last summer but I couldn't find anything like that at all.