First Impressions

We are now in Hong Kong living in two serviced apartments (sheltered housing!) in the middle of this crazy metropolis waiting for our sea freight to arrive so we can move into our house on Shouson Hill. It's all a bit surreal. Whenever we step outside there appears to be a tidal wave of Chinese people coming our way and I feel every bit of my 3% minority status as a European. When a proportion of the tidal wave stops to point/giggle/aahhh/ruffle or photograph the Little Ones' blond hair it all becomes a bit overwhelming.

I've had a few forrays out and about to research a new lap top/phone/TV and order curtains for the house. It's incredibly safe on the streets and everyone is very helpful and friendly and it's all fascinatingly different from London. I feel like such a novice that I might as well have "new arrival" stamped on my forehead. Am thus far pretty baffled by the currency, my 15 times table not being up to speed, and realised that I'd managed to spend about £13 on a salami yesterday which none of the children then liked.

So far the kids have spent most of the time in either the hotel pool or the Shouson Hill Road pool and are totally sold on the place but this morning we woke up to typhoon level 8 and the place was like a ghost town with no public transport, shops all shut up and very few people turning up for work. All the while a gale raged outside and sheets of horizontal rain blew past our 13th floor apartment. Nothing I've not seen in the Hebrides but it seemed to bring HK to a standstill. We decided to see how far we could get from the apartment without emerging onto the street and did pretty well since all the shopping malls appear to be interconnected by covered walkways and tunnels but the game palled after a while since most things were shut. We were lucky to find an open HMV outlet so stocked up on DVDs and spent the afternoon watching Indiana Jones.

Grocery shopping is a challenge to say the least. I can either read nothing on the packet so am inclined to buy the wrong size of nappies or end up washing the clothes with fabric conditioner or else I'm getting Waitrose own brand which is comfortably familiar albeit rather out of place amongst all the dim sum and noodles. I am missing the British media and find that just now I am not very interested in reading the South China Post. The Pioneering Accountant is away in Vietnam and I've borrowed his laptop which is a lifeline. Without email and the internet I would be feeling very isolated. Am terribly jetlagged which doesn't help anything. Being tired puts me in bad spirits and I have had moments of intense homesickness, not helped by late night reading of Jilly Cooper's "The Common Years" about her time living and dog walking on Putney Common.

The kids have been great and think this is all a huge adventure. They even took the 12 hour flight in their stride and there was only one borderline moment when I realised the two year old was rubbing her breakfast butter into her arms like sun cream! Morale among the troops is high and we'll be fine once we're in our own place.