White Christmas

I may be a day late and a dollar short, but MERRY CHRISTMAS!
How lovely it is to be home for a white Christmas in the Virginia countryside!

Oh Holy Night

After three connecting flights on two airlines and one night in the shadiest Shanghainese hotel EVER, I have arrived. And it is great to be back! It is 4 am here in Virginia. I already attempted to rewrite the words to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" to describe my journey for you, but jet lag seems to have the best of me.

Nonetheless, this poem seems more fitting for tonight:

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

"Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

Leavin' on a jet plane

Welp, today is finally here, and it's time to go home. All packed and ready to go. The route today goes HK>>Shanghai>>New York>>Home. It will be a long few days on China Eastern airlines. My US telephone number will kick into gear Tuesday afternoon.

See you on the flip side of the globe.

Feliz Navidad!

Fa la la la la

Fa la la la la,
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. It may be a warm 70 degrees here in Hong Kong, but I am super excited to be home in Virginia one week from today!  When are you planning to get home for Christmas/the holidays?

Here are pictures of my dream Christmas house (that leave to your imagination the friends and family inside):

Woo!
-LizARD

Rudolph in Richmond

Hope this brings a few laughs to your day. 

http://perezhilton.com/2010-12-07-rudolph-the-red-noise-reindeer-balloon-delates-in-holiday-parade

Temple Street Night Market

This weekend I ventured over to the Kowloon side of Hong Kong to attend Rob's softball game.When the game was over, (and Rob's team had won!), we picked up some oat sodas at the nearest 7-Eleven and strolled down the road to explore Kowloon. We stumbled upon an outdoor night market, which turned out to be a great source of fun on Saturday night. We found inexpensive spicy crab restaurants, souvenir shops, Chinese calligraphy booths, tee-shirt stands, sunglass huts, and all sorts of knick-knack heavy pagodas. While sifting through the goods, Rob and I casually drank beer and talked to some of the locals. Our attempts at haggling prices down were not as successful as at other markets, but none of the items we purchased were more than a few US dollars, anyway. Since visiting the market, I have learned that this was the Temple Street Night Market on Kowloon. It opens at 4 p.m. and closes at Midnight. I highly recommend visiting the market if you are in the mood to go off the beaten track for a just-fun, no-frills Saturday night.

Robert and friends, just before the game begins

Gearing up for the road...

Approaching the night market

Temple Street Night Market! Notice the outdoor restaurants to the right. Very few Westerners in this picture.  

Gloves for tinies. Not sure if it ever gets cold enough here for these.

scanning the goods

Tam, the sweetest man at the night market. He does GREAT calligraphy work. I mean, I think he does...I can't read Chinese.

After talking to him, Tam asked me to take a picture with him. Here we are!
Note the basketball painting (yes, painting) in the background. Maybe I'll commission some Carolina bball art.

We wanted to dine at this cool-looking seafood restaurant until he saw this on the menu. Fish of the Dog Style, Goose Leg, and pan-fried air bladder. No, m goi sai! We left after taking this picture.

Rob, on our way home from the night market. Christmas decorations over the highway cross-walk.

Happy Friday--Real Estate!

Happy Friday. Hope you've had a solid week. Things in HK have been dandy and very busy. I've begun looking at new apartments to rent in the new year, and I can tell it may be a long process. So far the search has been fun and has made me realize that I LOVE real estate, even when the real estate is a 13 X 18 ft. box called an apartment. I love touring apartments and homes and seeing how people live. That said, I've included a few pictures of various apartments in Hong Kong--both the good and the u-g-l-y. Here goes nothin':

...This is a typical Hong Kong kitchen (without the expat package). Notice the bite-size fridge and visible air vent.
 

I thought this arched doorway was charming. While the walls and floors were nice, the kitchen needed work.

Traditional windows on old buildings in HK.

Large and IN CHARGE

Cultural dissonance: before viewing this apartment, the agent warned me that it was not as nice as the others. When we walked in I said, NO NO, this is much nicer than the others! I like this! He later told me that this apartment is in the "Colonial Chinese" style, which he thinks is not as "nice" as "Western styles." I think this is much nicer than the "Western styles" we saw. Funny that we Westerners think the inverse.

Apt. 3: this place was awesome, but way too much of a bachelor pad for me. I can only imagine how much two guys would love this place. It was the nicest apartment and a total steal for the square footage. See next picture below

Another shot of the sweetest apartment ever. If you only knew how huge this is for Hong Kong....it even comes with that leather couch and gigantic tv...bar and barstools in background included, too. What you see here is 50% larger than my current apartment.

This apartment had two furnished bedrooms (ex mattress). It was so awesome, I was wishing I were a  guy while viewing the apartment.

Storage extraordinaire, an endangered commodity in this neck of the woods! Might I add, this apartment is just off the escalators!

All of the excitement caused by looking at apartments left me exhausted. I went home and found this little guy there to greet me:

Pretty picture

Fun times in the humidor...

This past weekend my friend A and her husband J decided to take me and the bf out for a night on the town to celebrate employment. It was very nice of them, and we had a blast. A few margaritas and sangrias deep, we thought it would be a good idea to go see J's cigar locker...yes, you heard me correctly, cigar locker. He was talked into being a member/holder of a locker one night when he was having a great time puffing cigars  in the humidor at a swanky hotel restaurant. Needless to say, the cigar room is a great place to entertain friends.

The humidor culture at this hotel felt to be part of a scene untouched by recession. To enter the room, one walks through the fancy restaurant and knocks on the unmarked door. An attendant greets you and guides you through a humidor and into a cozy, little lounge with plush leather seating, elegant Asian businessmen and their Herve Leger clad companions. Rather than speaking softly to the attendant in the next room to order your drink, you pick up the old-fashioned rotary phone and ring the bar directly. A few moments later, your drinks arrive through a trap-door within the wall. We had fun putting on voices and ordering drinks.

After the men enjoyed their Cubans and scotch, we all decided to take the high brow down a few notches and end the night with a jello shot from an outdoor street bar.

A few pics below:

When matches just won't do: Use a tiny blow-torch to get your cigar going.

Ordering drinks

Rabbit Rabbit

While I intended to say "rabbit rabbit" upon awaking this morning, I think I actually said nothing. I can hardly believe it's December! It is 70 degrees outside, and I feel like I arrived in Hong Kong a month ago. In all honesty, today's date should not be that surprising; Hong Kong office buildings and malls decked the halls and began playing carols weeks ago. Despite the tropical weather and concrete jungle, the malls are helping usher us into the holidays....

I always welcome the Christmas season, complete with festive decorations, talk of plans with friends and family...and most importantly discussions about presents what Christmas is really about.

I think it's time to go to Church.

Hope you have a great Wednesday, Dec. 1.

P.S. Speaking of rabbits, 2011 will be the Chinese Year of the Rabbit! Because of this, when I was out and about today, Rob purchased this little critter for me:

Bugsy, sitting on top of my phone, is supposed to bring good luck in the new year!