Moved Again

I was growing tired of the old flat and decided to move to Ma Wan - a man made island trying to be, and largely succeeding in being, a 5-star resort.  The island is 15 minutes away from a big MTR train station.  Buses run every 5 minutes during rush hour (which seems to include weekends)  and every 15 minutes outside of those hours - 24/7.  There is a ferry which takes 25 minutes to the heart of Central that runs every half hour to every hour. 

 The walk to my apartment above

My view of the tennis courts - not quite as nice as before but between the two buildings I get a sea view - my HTC camera phone is responsible for all these photos and it's not as good as my main camera as you can see.  Still for a camera phone it's not too bad.

 This is called the Green Green club - and it is one of the two main clubhouses on Park Island (Ma Wan).  Inside is a nice indoor swimming pool with hot tub and sauna.  Their is a large gym, and various activity rooms to be booked.  Volleyball, table tennis, billiards, study rooms, squash etc.  I have not been to the other clubhouses yet but they offer more again - there are four swimming pools and I believe two are indoor.  They run from 9am to 11pm with lifeguards. It costs about $3 Canadian each time or you can buy monthly.  They also have a video movie box rental machine (in English yippee)

A kitchen with a double sink - a three tier fridge and the washing machine is the cabinet next to the fridge.  Three burner stove this time.  It doesn't look it from the photo but it's bigger than my last place by a fair bit. It's all just newer - Ma Wan (Park Island) is about 7 years old - my last place is 23 years old. 

 The landlord left some cabinets so I have since put them in my second room - it's nice to have a second room.  This is much wider than my last place.  This apartment is about 700sqf while my last place was 393sqf

 The second room - you could fit some bunk beds or a single bed in here - that's about it.  I'm such a guy - this is a walk in closet at best right ladies?

The bedroom is quite large for HK and I will be able to get my bed in here and even a TV stand if I put my wardrobe in the second room.  And I will so do that!

 It's a fairly big place but it only takes about 15 minutes to walk around the whole main living area.  There is an escalator for the upper level apartments and kindergarten and primary school.  The island is somewhat tailored to expats.

This recycling hub is right outside the exit to my building - glass, metal, plastic, paper.  Excellent!

A nice stroll and no a billion people like usual.  Many dog owners on Ma Wan

A view of the Tsing Ma Bridge - Bigger than the Golden Gate!  Looks kind of the same too - they love copying - maybe they ran out of red paint.

My lunch - here's a random picture but since it's here I will keep it.  You see in Asia - everyone loves taking pictures of their food.  And then apparently they will look at the food they ate - later.  I think this is the TRICK to staying skinny.  The Chinese have figured out that you eat one meal, take a picture.  Then when you are hungry just look at the picture of the food you ate and "imagine" you are eating it again.  Anyway - at lunch I usually head to the mall to have my lunch at one of three restaurants.  This lunch set runs me $60 HKD ($8 Canadian) including service charge.  The miso soup is rated best in town apparently as it has salmon in it.  It is usually quite good.  Real ginger on the green plate - yum.

 A vending machine for umbrellas.  About $10 each in a subway station. As you can see it is very important to match your umbrella to your outfit.

Move over Hello Kitty there is a new fur-ball in town and this cat has a heart shaped nose.  Just one of those random things you will see pop up in a mall for awhile and wonder what is going on.  I like being out of the loop - I can create my own story line as to what this is about.  HK is a choose your own adventure story.

 I have a full time class this year.  Here is my form 1 class (Grade 8) doing their discipline lessons after school every Monday.  Now if only they could bring that discipline into the classroom - which umm is the intent of the whole thing.  argh.  Still they're a nice class - MOSTLY!!

So we save the desert for last.  For about $1.25 the take a lemon.  Cut out the inside and fill it with lemon sherbert.  They then stick the top back on and freeze the thing to a rock hard levels.  Man I love this thing.  See it's healthy because you're eating a lemon.