Memories of a life once lived

I haven’t written in a while--I know this is fairly self evident and stating the obvious is not always the best approach in writing--but, I have not written because I am in the midst of everyday life in the UK and I am once again doing all the things I already wrote about as I anticipate moving more definitely to Hong Kong. I have been in the UK now since September working at the University for one last semester before I go on leave of absence. I briefly visited Hong Kong in October for Simon’s birthday, but that was literally a flying visit sandwiched between a visit to my best friend from forever (Merry) in the Netherlands, where she has been for the last year, and a trip to Brussels to do some work for the European Commission--grant reviewing, nothing glamourous. Mostly though I have been in Sheffield and I have been doing what I do in Sheffield, which is largely teach or mark papers. More recently though I have been planning for the end of the term and all the things I must organise in order to more fully close down life in the UK--sell the car, rent the flat, arrive at a more permanent solution for the storage, which also involves relocating my personal stuff from the flat and my office to either the storage or working out how to ship my things cheaply across the globe. Besides all this worry, I have also broken a tooth--but I will solve that problem when I get to the other side. I’ve also been worried about what the kids have been up to, or not up to. But I have written about all this kind of thing before and it gets boring upon repetition.

What has inspired me to write is an e-mail that my mum forwarded to me from my half-sister Jennie. Jennie’s father, my step-father, Drake is married to my mother. They got married when I was in my mid 20’s. Jennie was just a little girl then (about 4). She lived with her mother and I, most of the time, lived with myself, or Adrian, while she was growing up. I was an adult and she was a child and I don’t really know her all that well, but we have a family connection through Drake. Sadly, Drake no longer realises this as he has Alzheimer's disease. Ironically, it is our memories of him that unite us and link us together even when those memories are not shared memories. They locate us in relation to him. It is an important and powerful force. It is these memories that was the subject of Jennie’s email.

One of the ways that we demonstrate our connections to others is through gifts. Anthropologists have long argued the importance of gifts in cementing and thickening social bonds. They help to ground memories and act as surrogates for us in our absence (which is partially why it is difficult to rid ourselves of gifts that people give us). One can tell when the effort has been made to give something someone wants and that will be emotionally useful to them (and money can fit this bill as a suitable gift as the event around spending it on something one wants can hold great pleasure, which may in turn also materialise itself into some object that triggers memory). One of the problems with being related to someone with Alzheimer’s is that gift giving is difficult, because people with Alzheimer’s are not able to recognise the objective usefulness of objects, nor are they able to form memories around the object and link those memories to past memories of the giver. If you know that the person receiving your gift is not also receiving that bit of you it seems a wasted act. Gifts need memory. But if you give nothing, then the bond seems weakened and by association, the connections we have with others though that person also seem to weaken. They move farther away from us in existential time and space.

The solution is not to give nothing, but to find something that may spark meaning for the Alzheimer’s patient, but if not that, then help to make more solid the memories that help link that person to others in the network and in a Heideggarian way make him present in the world. This is what Jennie’s wants. For Christmas she plans to give her dad a book of photographs--not a lot of words as words are difficult for Drake--but photographs that illustrate his connections to other people throughout his life. She wants something that he and others can look at and remember--even for a moment--even if for Drake it becomes a new, fleeting memory. A book that documents his time and extends the dimensions of his being in the world. It is a lovely gift to give as it also affords Drake an opportunity today to be a node around which connections are reformed through the making of this book. In a sense it enables our own being in the world as well.

I have begun to think what I would contribute. Because I was an adult when Mom and Drake married and because I have spent most of their married life living a long way away from them, my personal memories are limited. Those I do have, however, are sharply focused in my mind as they correspond to a time when I lived with them because I had cancer. I was 27. They had just moved to Seattle and I joined them. They did not even have a place to live yet, so we stayed with another relative for a while until we found a flat in the suburbs that was partly below ground and looked out--eye-level--onto a car park. The bus service was limited and I had no car, so I felt stranded and alone. It was a grim time, but all of us knew this was a temporary arrangement. I think this might be an important distinction between the working and middle classes--the belief that there are resources that can be mobilised to move out of bad situations. Drake took me to Chemo at the Hospital and he stayed with me. Sometimes after check-ups he would go with me to the brewpub in the University District and we would have a beer. It tasted wonderful. It enabled some social and everyday aspect to my life, which was dominated at that time by tumours and doctors and drugs that made me hallucinate or stay awake all night or feel weak or vomit or sleep. I don’t have photo’s of that time, so I think my first picture would be of a beer.

My second photo would be of a computer. When I finished Chemo I moved out of the flat that I shared with Mum and Drake, eventually to a small studio apartment, which also looked out onto a brick wall. I loved the flat anyway, because it signalled a reentry into the world. I was poor, but I was also working at a restaurant to pay the rent and I was working on finishing my Master’s thesis. Drake gave me a computer. I spent many hours in my small apartment with my cat working on constructing some sort of narrative around industrial decline and employment restructuring in the American midwest. The thesis may not have had an intellectual impact on anyone, but without it I could not have gone further. The prospect of finishing the degree enabled that hope than makes present circumstances bearable--that signals this moment is a stage, not the rest of ones life. Drakes computer was the key to that hope.

My final photo would be of a whale. Around the same time that I started seeing Adrian, Drake started a job at a recording company that was located on San Juan Island. One of the characteristics of the island is the fact that killer whales swim very near the shore. Drake lived in a lovely house on the island and would either commute back to the house that he and my mum lived in (they moved out of the horrible flat) or my mum would join him there. One visit that Adrian made to Seattle, early in our relationship involved a trip to the Island to visit. It was a lovely time--such a stark contrast to the previous years of difficulty--and we went whale watching.

Gifts matter because they enable giving and receiving, which are practices that must be repeated to facilitate our social selves. The thing is, the gift needs to be emotionally useful. So perhaps if you searching to give someone who has everything a gift, perhaps something small and personal (not necessarily expensive), that will, if they are very lucky, trigger those memories of a life once lived. Then, with what you have left make a donation in their name to the Alzheimer's Association (www.alz.org) or the Alzheimer's research trust (http://www.alzheimers-research.org.uk/) or some other similar organisation. And if you don't have someone to give for, then give for Drake.

Life in a Northern Town

It is a lovely day here in Sheffield.  The temperature is in the low 20's with a few high clouds. As warm and pleasant as it gets.  The students are all getting settled in and Sheffield has a real buzz about it.  I enjoy the quiet of the summer, but this early term period, before everyone is ill and grumpy and down from the rain, is lovely. Actually, I am probably enjoying the autumn start of term more than usual this year because I am not responsible for anything in intro week for the first time in quite a number of years. This is despite the fact that I have a lot of new teaching in the first three weeks. It is nice not being in charge of things.  I'll have to remember this.

One thing I was doing in anticipation for the start of term was go through some of the accumulated junk in my office (Yes, we are touching on the ridding theme again! A lot accumulates over the course of 10 years).  I found a glasses case and when I opened it I found a pair of sunglasses that must have belonged to Simon when he was about 3 or 4 years old. It made me a bit sad. I can't throw them away, but it seems silly to move them to Hong Kong at Christmas.  I may have to add some things to the storage stockpile that we have from the house. I definitely, however, will be getting rid of the accumulated piles of journals that I have collected over the past 20 years or so. (If anyone is interested in old copies of Economic Geography, Area, Regional Studies, The Annals of the AAG, Transactions or The Professional Geographer please let me know).

Another activity I have been involved with is getting things here in Sheffield organised so that I can work productively over the next 4 months. I have very particular needs around the aesthetics of work spaces and if they are not right--lighting levels, warmth, feelings of coziness, tidiness, noise, and usually view--I find it really hard to work.  This may sound like procrastination, but experience has shown that a good working environment is key for my ability to think and produce what I hope is insightful writing. A few books need to find homes but I am confident the flat is nearly there and once I finish tidying the office it will be more or less ready as well. I have a good view from my office window of the tennis courts, but the view from the flat is of a car park, so it is imperative that I make that comfortable. I am also determined not to live like a student too much, and though there is a lot of Ikea in the flat I have also tried to hang pictures on the walls that are not posters but actual photographs or pieces of artwork.

While I am busy organising and starting the term here in Sheffield, my family has managed to unpack the remaining boxes that were left from when the movers arrived on the day I left Hong Kong. Adrian tells me I did not leave enough in storage, but unlike him, I gain comfort from having my things around me. My place comfort arises from the familiarity of my things, even if the setting is new. I feel grounded if I can see and touch my things. He gains comfort not from the things in the house, but from the familiarity of the place. While I nest, he return migrates--kind of like the swallows or the salmon do--always returning to the place where he grew up. At the moment we are both feeling far away from home--he because Hong Kong is not Kent, and me because my family and my things are in my new nest far away.

It is the Mid-Autumn festival in Hong Kong at the end of this week. This is a bit like a harvest festival. It is quite an important event lasting three days over the full mood--in the 8th month of the lunar calendar.  The festival is has a very long history. One aspect of the festival is to observe the full moon, as the festival is linked to the worship of the moon goddess Chang E (alternative sources list her name as Chang O), the moon goddess of immortality. Unfortunately, this year, there has been a typhoon 3 warning with lots of rain associated with Typhoon Fanapi, which is not expected to clear until the day after the the moon is at its fullest. I don't believe there will be a lot of glimpses of the moon this year, but as there are also parties and everywhere there are lanterns it should be quite festive anyway. Hopefully the dragon will still wind its way through Tai Hang near Causeway bay. Our compound where we live is even having a party. A key food at the mid autumn festival are moon cakes. These are traditionally pastry filled with lotus seed paste and a salted egg yoke (to signify the moon), though there are many other varieties including ice cream. I really like moon cakes, but they are one of those foods that one either loves or hates as the combination of the flavours and textures are unusual (salty egg, sweet, stickiness of the lotus seed paste, chewiness of the pastry).  People buy moon cakes and give them to friends as gifts. I gave a box to the people who watch the gates at the flat in Hong Kong before I left, and Adrian has given some to the people with whom he works. I have also brought several back to England with me. If I can't be with them on the festival day, at least I can eat what they are eating. 

Jetlag, socks...and did I mention it is cold?

I am back in the UK. Sheffield to be more precise. Sitting in my office. I've been up since midnight (it is now midday). I have jetlag. It was just two days ago, or Tuesday whenever that was, that I was welcoming the very efficient Hong Kong members of Crown Relocation into our flat to deliver our things from Ilkley. By the end of the day, most of our stuff was unpacked--at least in a way that is livable--and I was heading off on a plane to England via Bangkok, Dubai, and Manchester (It was a VERY long flight).

I have two things to say about the transportation systems that I engaged with. Firstly, Air travel is not what it used to be. I flew with Emirates, which was fine, though the longer portion of the trip involved a plane set up for shorter passengers. I got to the airport, passport etc. in hand only to be asked for the credit card with which I purchased the ticket. I bought this ticket quite some time ago and of course the correct credit card is sitting safely in Sheffield, far, far away. I had to purchase a new ticket for about £100 more than the original, and I have been told that I can get a refund for the original. I think the £100 is a penalty for being stupid or disorganised or whatever. No doubt I will be writing about the saga of getting the refund at some point--I am still waiting full satisfaction from the Ash Cloud incident with KLM and once had to take Expedia to small claims court, so I am sure that element will not be uneventful.

While this aspect of the travel was new for me and caused quite a bit of initial anxiety, there were other things that let the experience down a bit. Firstly, when I booked the flight I had not realised that the first leg stopped in Bangkok, rather than flying straight from Hong Kong to Dubai as the outward journey had done. This stopover involved sitting on the plane while those stopping their journey got off, the cleaning crew cleaning around the remaining onward passengers, having to remove cabin luggage so that the flight staff could ensure that every piece of carry on baggage belonged to someone, and then waiting while the Bangkok to Dubai passengers boarded. I guess, given that by this time it was about 1 am Hong Kong time, I should be grateful that we were made to remain on the plane and could watch the movies, instead of being required to disembark and re board. We did get all loaded on the flight, and then were delayed because one passengers luggage had to be removed because they did not show up at the gate. The flight from Dubai Airport, which does not appear to shut down at night like North American airports--you can buy anything you want at 4am--was similarly delayed though this time by a person who was drunk and had to be escorted from the plane and the luggage off loaded. I guess what is so disappointing was the change in attitude that passengers have of air travel. It has become so ordinary. When I was a child and flew to California to visit my grandparents and father in the summer holiday I used to get dressed up in my best clothes. Air travel was something you did in a formal way as it was special and to be taken quite seriously. Now people, probably sensibly, wear sweatpants--EVEN IN FIRST CLASS--because they are comfortable. I guess if you are spending that much on a first class ticket, you can wear whatever you want, but the pageantry and specialness becomes tainted a little. It is all a little more ordinary.

Secondly, the first major thing I noticed when I got back to the UK was that the North of England is worlds away from Hong Kong with its public transportation. I had to take a train from Manchester Airport to Sheffield. This is all fine and there are such trains. However this particular station has no signs that indicate destinations. Just information about the trains. As a traveller you must be aware that the train to Cleathorps is the one you want to catch if you want to go to Sheffield. As I was trying to work this out, I kept thinking how difficult it will be for all the Chinese students who were on my flight to find the relevant trains to take them to their new universities. Nightmare. To top it off, they changed the platform and provided no announcement about this. You just had to know to look at the signs. It was probably a good thing that there was a 40 minute wait for the train as the time was needed to sort out where to go and to unpack jumpers from the suitcase (did I mention that it is quite cold and rainy here just now?). In Hong Kong, the same distance would have cost a fraction of the £18 that I paid for my one way ticket and there would have been trains every one to three minutes. Arriving in Sheffield I then had to wait a further 10 minutes for the tram to take me to the flat. It is no wonder the English are so good a queuing. There is plenty of time to practice and the stakes are high if you miss what you are queuing for. No need to que in Hong Kong as another train or whatever will arrive at any minute.

What is nice about the return is the fact that the leaves are beginning to turn and they are pretty. It is a bit cold here (did I mention that?) and so there is a feeling of autumn. I have had to put on socks for the first time since early August today. One of my workmates said thy put the fire (heater) on last night for the first time. People are wearing coats. There is something quite business-like about having to wear socks and put the heater on. It marks a transition from holiday to work time. Of course I can imagine other ways of marking that transition as well, but this is what I have to work with at the moment, and as I have much work to do I must pull up my socks and get on with it until I can go back to the warmth of Hong Kong, see my family and leave my socks at the door.

Home and Work

I realise it has been a while since I've posted anything. This is not because we have been sitting on our hands at home doing nothing worthy of writing about, it is just that I have been having difficulty thinking how I would organise this post. I've decided on a geographical organisation (rather than chronological or topical), though like most things geographical there are certainly instances where spaces fold on themselves, making linkages between non-spatially proximate places...

Starting farther away, we were recently visited by some friends from Ilkley who had been travelling in Australia and were on their way home. Simon and I were quite pleased to spend a Saturday afternoon with the Pattersons who had flown in early in the morning. I think the heat might have been a bit of a shock, as was the speed at which storms move through Hong Kong. As it is currently winter in Australia, the 34 degrees (C) and high humidity was a bit different than what they were used to. They were staying in the centre of Mong Kok in Kowloon and so we got the 7 bus from across the street (after an unusual bit of a wait) and rode it down to the ferry terminal at TST. Rather than jump on the ferry we went into Star House and had lunch at a Viet Nameese restaurant called Rice Paper, which has pretty good food. This proved to be a good decision because a cracking storm came through, complete with lightning, while we were eating. The storm soon passed, the weather cleared, the sun came out and by the time we had finished eating and looked around the mall a bit, we were able to get the star ferry over to central. We then took the train to Admiralty and walked through Hong Kong Park to the Peak Tram and went up to the top for a reasonable view. It was still a bit of a hazy day, but one could still see the sights. We then went back down and said goodbye in the late afternoon at the Mong Kok station. I am pretty sure they made it back to their hotel as I did receive a text. They were off to UK the next day, but it was great to see them. I hope they liked Hong Kong.

The Sunday saw a return visit for Adrian and I to Mong Kok. Mong Kok is in the centre of Kowloon and is where all the markets are. Our purpose was to go and find some cooking supplies. We were out and about in the early afternoon and it was surprisingly quiet. Mong Kok gets so busy and full of people that often one cannot see anything but crowds of bodies moving against each other. Think busy disco on a Saturday night. This particular Sunday, however, it was like a quiet street in Ilkley. We could not figure it out and thought is may have been due to the T1 warning. A T1 is the warning that is hoisted when there is a Typhoon in the area that could possibly hit Hong Kong. It did not come to HK in the end and we subsequently learned that the only people who pay any attention to the T1's are nervous expats and tourists. Everyone else doesn't get excited until the warning level is at 8. We still don't know why it was so quiet, but we did find a very interesting building on Reclamation street housing a market, which looks like it has been there since before Hong Kong was a British colony. This old, labrintine building with its corrugated roofing and dilapidated walls is surrounded, of course, by high rise buildings, but by squinting one might imagine what things were like before all the high rises came. We were able to buy a cast iron wok for about £4. There are much more expensive wok's but we have been informed that the best are cast iron. These are thinner than the heavy cast iron skillets that one gets in the US. Like the skillet, the woks also need seasoning before use. Properly seasoned, cast iron is great to cook on as it is non-stick but you can use metal cooking tools. We were given instructions to use pig fat and red chilli's to season the wok. You heat the wok on the stove and put the pig fat and chilli's in and stir them around for about a half hour ensuring that the pig fat is fully melted and the air in the house if full of smoke. Then you let this sit for 24 hours. Wipe out and you can use your wok. it works wonderfully and we have made a number of excellent meals since. We also purchased a fish knife made in Japan that has just one side of the blade sharpened and is perfect for cutting fish into sashimi, a very large cleaver and cutting board. The cooking supply shops make the cleavers and the woks right on the premises and you can see the shop owners pounding away in the back. On our way home we stopped off at the market in Sui Wo Court (just below where we live) and showed the wok to the butcher who immediately gave us a piece of pork fat for our new wok. A very successful outing!

The children have been fully engaged in activities much closer to home. Both are settled into their school, which is just across the road from where we live. Both have commented on how friendly all the other children are to them. Indeed Simon has been to a birthday party of one child already and Grace was invited to a movie last weekend and for a sleepover this coming weekend. Both are also finding the volume of homework something of a surprise. The expectation is that they spend 1-2 hours a night doing their work. This is involving a change of focus for them after school. No longer can they lay around or play on the Xbox, but must get right on it if they don't want to be up until 10:30 at night finishing writing tasks as Grace was the other night. They seem to be rising to the challenge and Grace in particular has distinguished herself having had her poem chosen by the teacher to be read out. She read it to us and we were similarly quite impressed. She will be very embarrassed at these comments, but it really was quite good. Simon has been selected for the school football (soccer) team and may actually end up playing for the age group above his year. He was a bit worried about the try outs, but as he scored two goals within about two minutes it turns out he needn't have been. He also is learning Mandarin chinese at quite a pace.

We had an interesting outing to Sai Kung this weekend. Sai Kung is in the New Territories and while boasting a Starbucks and quite a few ex -pats who are "escaping" from central, it is still quite rural and chinese. There main attraction is the seafront with its boat rides and seafood restaurants. You can either purchase fresh fish directly from the boats and have the restaurant cook it for you, or you can buy from the tanks that are at many of the restaurants themselves. The guidebook we had indicated that one could get a ferry from the pier out to one of the outlying islands where there is a golf course, a temple, and some ruins. It turns out that if you want to go to the south side of the island, not the side where the golf course is, you have to get a separate ferry located at some unknown (at least to us) place. We got the ferry to the golf course and discovered, once there that all that can be done from this ferry is play golf. So that is what we (Simon, Adrian, and I) did. We actually practiced hitting balls from the practice range. Neither Adrian nor I have played golf in years and years (and even then I was pretty rubbish) and Simon had never played, but we all agreed that the practice hitting we did was pretty fun. The practice range was in the shade and we were able to get a family pass for about £20, which included 1.5 hours on the range, unlimited balls, and the rental of two 5 irons and some other smaller club for Simon, and the ferry trip. By the end we were all able to hit the ball out toward the 60 yard marker. I think this is something we may do again. It was certainly something different than what we normally do on a Sunday afternoon. Moreover the setting was absolutely stunning. I've taken some photographs, but as these are on my big camera, rather than my Iphone they will have to wait until I get back to Sheffield before I can upload them.

This week is a busy one for us as we have several social obligations and we are hoping to go to Macau at the weekend. The boat with our things should also arrive in Hong Kong on Friday, and if we are lucky should be at the flat on Monday or Tuesday--just in time before I leave to go back to the UK on the Tuesday night.

Lost in the mall beyond ordinary life

I got lost in the Harbour City Mall yesterday. Actually I got lost twice. The first time was on the way to the mall when I got confused about which train stop to exit. I first left the train at Yau Ma Tei when I should have gone on to Tsim Sha Tsui. Those who have been to Hong Kong will know that confusing the two is a fairly glaring mistake--one you notice immediately once you've made it. Yau Ma Tei is at the top of Nathan Road and is where all the small stores and markets are. Indeed, there is a Jade market just off one of the subway exits. It is also the area where regular Hong Kong people shop--the operative word here is regular as in those who do not tend to spend a month's or even a year's wages on a pair of shoes. There are enormous differences between those at the top of the pay scale and those at the bottom here in Hong Kong and while the average wage is about HK$224,000 ($28810 (US) or £18,500) there are those in employmnet who only make $HK5000.

At the other end of Nathan Road and at the tip of Kowloon is Tsim Sha Tsui. This is where the designer shops are located as well as The Penn, the White Star Ferry to Central, and where the cruise ships dock. The Penn, or the Peninsula Hotel, was built in the 1920's and still exudes that old style British elegance that one might expect from a hotel that was the final stop of the Orient Express. It is in the same league as the Taj, the Ritz, or the Savoy. Ordinary mortals can have high tea in the lobby at the Penn, but be warned that they do not take reservations and while tea is served from 2-7 seating is first come first served--meaning that the que at 4pm is quite long. Along the waterfront, on what is infill (the Penn used to be on the waterfront but is no longer) and to the right of the Penn a couple of blocks is the new Harbour City Mall. This is where I got lost the second time.

According to the information produced by Harbour City, this mall is "the largest shopping mall in Hong Kong with an area of 2 million square feet." The mall itself has over 700 shops, plus there are several office towers reaching at least 50 stories and a hotel. The mall is actually 5 buildings comprising of the Gateway Arcade, Ocean Centre, Ocean Terminal, Marco Polo Hotel Arcade, and Star City. You will not find the equivalent of a Pound shop or Dollar General Store in this mall. Instead there is Gucci, Prada, Armani, Louis Vitton, Chanel, Ferrigamo (that is for you mom), Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo...I will stop here as the list of designer names goes on and on--remember there are 700 shops. Firstly these stores are also not small. The Vitton store covers three levels. Secondly, these are also not just the high street versions of these designer brands. While you can, for example get the Anglomania brand of clothes by Vivienne Westwood, you can also buy Red. Perhaps more illustrative of the designer availability is that while I was having a coffee I looked through a Vogue. In Vogue there are always lots of adverts for about a million different designer labels with young, attractive and extremely skinny models in impossible positions wearing the most fantastic clothes--clothes you see on the catwalks but that never seem to make it into the shops that purport to sell these designer items, at least that is my experience. I now understand where they all are; they are all here in Hong Kong at this mall. If you see something in Vogue, have enough money, and want to buy it, you now can. All you need do is go to the Harbour City shop of that design house. Even in New York and London I have not seen this sort of display (no I did not buy anything). So while Yau Ma Tei and Tsim Sha Tsui are only three subway stops from each other, they are worlds apart.

While some of you won't question my presence in this mall at all, others may be wondering why I was in such a place in the first instance. I was there because for our 15th anniversary Adrian purchased a spa afternoon for me. I got lost trying to find the Oasis spa, which turned out to be on the 10th floor of one of the office towers at the Gateway Arcade part of the mall. Because the spa was not in the main shopping mall it was not listed on the map. Because the office towers are not officially part of the consumption experience either, they are similarly not shown on the map, so I got lost trying to find tower 2. I found the elevator eventually next to the HSBC and just up from the Emporio Armani.

The spa itself was lovely. Not like European Spas that, to my mind resemble a doctors office more that a place to relax. This spa was all sliding doors, waterfalls, soft music, dim light, neutral colours, subtle tropical smells. Adrian had purchased for me a triple treat that included a whole list of things from which I could choose. I opted for the rose body wrap, the Hot Strap slimming treatment, and the Parafin Hand treatment. The Rose body wrap was first and it was wonderful. I was led into a room and laid down on a bed. The lights were low and I was covered up in towels. Soft Zen music played in the background. The lovely women who administered the body wrap spoke not a word of English. She was wonderful. Getting the body wrap involved having first some type of scrub rubbed all over my body--this is all done very discretely and is not embarrassing as I was covered the whole time by towels that are strategically folded back to reveal the portion that is being worked on at a particular moment. A sort of oil follows the scrub and then a kind of mud stuff follows that. It is both warm and cool at the same time. Then once covered in all these layers of stuff and strewn with rose petals, I was wrapped first in a kind of plastic wrap, then towels, then a sort of heavy blanket to steep for about 20 minutes. This sounds not particularly nice, but it was great and very relaxing. The lights are turned down low and it is calm. I think I must have fallen asleep because I woke with a start and scared both myself and the technician when I lurched awake. Once I was done stewing I was unwrapped, covered in towels and a robe and led to the shower which had both a normal shower head and a rain head. It was really wonderful. I shall leave the description of the slimming body strap to your imagination, but I will say it was also not embarrassing and quite nice, though I am not convinced I am any slimmer as a result. The whole event took about 2-2.5 hours. I felt pampered and it was something I would certainly do again. This particular spa offers other treats as well such as the Red Wine Rosey Fantasy and the Chocolate Cream and Ginseng Powder Body Wrap, as well as Stone Massages and Facials. The best thing is that they have offers so one does not have to take out a bank loan to participate, and even at normal price, the cost is comparative to what one might spend on a nice spa treatment in Seattle or in England. One need only put aside the guilt of participating in class privilege.

It is the little suprises

It is the little things that make living in Hong Kong so great. Here are just a few:

1. Bread. The bread products are absolutely wonderful here. Not really what I expected. Today's selection is a wonderful crusty loaf that is pretty much dripping with butter, a walnut, hazelnut bun, a fruit loaf that is similar to the crusty loaf but with fruit bits in it, and something referred to as a Mexican bun (though we saw nothing like this in Mexico--it has some sort of custard in the centre).

2. Juice. I have taken to buying the Wheat Grass drink. I prefer this to the stuff with Aloe in it as well as when one drinks the Aloe version you end up with bits of Aloe pulp, which is a bit off putting. The plain wheat grass drink, however is really yummy in its vivid greenness.

3. Octopus cards. I have mentioned these before, but they are worth including in the list. You can go anywhere with them and quite often use them to buy things as well. Starbucks, for instance, has a card reader to you can pay for your drinks with the card. Simon has one with his picture on it and will use it to sign in to school.

4. Transportation system. The trains go most places, the buses make up for what the trains won't do, and there are Taxi's everywhere and they are very cheap. it is HK$18* for the first couple of Kilometres and then HK$2 for every Kilometre after that. Then there is an army of delivery people. When I purchased the plants for the flat at the market, the woman who sold them to me made a call to a man with a van who showed up in about 10 minutes, loaded up my plants and transported both them and me to the flat--all for $HK82. We can then add in all the public escalators, elevators, trolleys, cable cars, and ferries. And what is more, they are really frequent. I have yet to wait more than 5 minutes for anything.

5. Variety. It seems that whatever you want you can get here, and if it is not readily available it can be made for you.

6. Friendliness. We have found most people to be both friendly and helpful. It is really wonderful. People explain things to you to make sure you understand but in a way that is not patronising. I really appreciate this. M-Goy and Jo Sun are key phrases (M-Goy is thank you/please and Jo Sun is good morning--I've not learned good afternoon yet). At times this helpfulness can be a bit overwhelming--for instance in shops where shop assistants follow you around suggesting things that would be more suitable for you than what you have selected or if you have not selected anything. But overall, and in most other situations the friendliness is really nice. Some of the younger people want to try out their English with you, which can lead to some strange conversations at times. We find that the people at the front gate to where we live are particularly friendly and each of us has our favourite. Mine is the woman who opens the car barrier for me so I don't have to walk around. I was quite sad to learn from one of our friends here that a number of the residents just ignore the gate people. Don't really understand that behaviour.

7. Weather. I think the weather is wonderful here and we are supposed to be in the season that has the worst weather. It is hot, but what we find is that there is one day a week or so when it rains all day. Most days start warm and sunny and then mid morning a storm will go through and then the sun will return in the afternoon. I might sing a much different tune when I live through my first real storm, but so far nothing to drastic yet. Simon is getting quite tan from all his swimming. I love being able to wear all my summer clothes that I have not had opportunity to wear since I think I lived in New Orleans--I only wish I looked as good in them now as I did when I lived in New Orleans...

8. Opening hours. We still do not have a TV--though Simon has one for his XBox (complete with XBox live). Instead we can choose to go out in the evening and do things because everything is open quite late. In fact, while the Starbucks opens at 7 in the morning, most things do not open until 10 or 11 but they stay open until 10:30 or so at night. This means that we can meet somewhere for dinner and then do errands after--including visiting the dentist or doctor, getting one's hair done, going to the bank, etc. etc. And this is 7 days a week more or less. There is none of that mad dash to get everything done during what would be called "working hours" in the UK. Mind you these are "working hours" for some other poor person who has to stay up late serving in a shop or looking at people's teeth.

9. Scenery. It is beautiful here. Every day when I go to bed and when I get up and look out the window I am reminded of how lovely it is. We are, of course, lucky that we live where we do and can see nature as well as city. I think that might be different in some of the High rises in Hong Kong and on Kowloon. Particularly on Hong Kong Island where there are so many very tall buildings that one could find oneself looking at the wall of the next building over and never seeing the sun. But, no matter where one lives, there are opportunities for finding nice views very easily. There are so many parks and beaches that one can visit.

10. English. While a lot of people do not speak English, many do and all the signs, labels, etc are in English so it is fairly easy to work out what it is that you are getting and how to work it. There are also English films at the cinema and several English bookstores. There is one bookstore called PageOne in the Festival Walk mall that has probably the largest selection of cook books I have seen in one place as well as a huge selection of architecture and design books, as well as the usual popular books. The bookstore in our mall appears to have academic press and education books, so I will have to check that out soon.

This is just a short list, there is much more that I could add...

* Broadly the exchange rate is 1£=HK$12 or US$1= HK$7.

32C and 78% humidity

I think I could get used to this life quite easily. This past week has been busy getting the children settled into school (not quite achieved yet but we are hopeful for Monday), securing additional furniture for the flat, buying plants at the flower market, visiting stanly and generally beginning to settle into a more ordinary existence.

Adrian took two days off at the beginning of the week as holiday, which was nice though we were a bit jet lagged and overwhelmed. Simon Adrian and I went up to the Peak on Monday as it was a beautiful day. We got there by taking a train to Admiralty, which has some extremely nice shops and then walking through Hong Kong Park. The park is a real urban retreat. There is a glass house, which is kept cooler than the ordinary outside temperature housing exotic plants and birds. There are over 200 different birds in this house, and they are really lovely and exotic. You walk through and then at the other just a bit further on the path there was a restaurant with Thai and Italian food (sounds a bit weird, but the food was good and the setting was lovely). I had a nice salad with seafood for lunch, Adrian had some other salad and Simon had BBQ ribs, which he enjoyed. We then rode the tram up to the peak to look out at the stunning views. On one side you can see Hong Kong Central and Kowloon with Lion Rock in the background. On the other you can look down on Stanley, Repulse Bay, and Deep water bay. Really nice. There is, of course the usual assortment of shops etc as well. Simon purchased a watch that he is very proud of. We learned that one can bypass the line of people waiting to get a ticket if you use your octopus card. Another reason anyone visiting Hong Kong should buy one of these very handy things. We then walked back down from the Peak on the path, which took us about 45 minutes. We were quite sweaty by the end.

The next day was not quite as good as both Simon and I lost our wallets. Fortunately mine was found as it was lost just outside the gate of where we live. I must have dropped it when I got off the minibus. Simon was not so lucky as he left his somewhere in the mall and someone picked it up. It could have been worse as he did not have all his relevant cards etc yet so very little was lost. Just a bit of money, but not a nice thing to happen none the less.

On Wednesday we went to the school to discover why they did not yet have Grace on their system. This is a situation that did not set well with her. Apparently they sent info to us in early July, but to our old address in the UK. We were able to get all of Simon's items. They both will be taking an English exam on Monday to determine if they are able to keep up with the other children's English skills. I don't anticipate a problem. Then on Wednesday Grace will have an orientation with the other children who are starting in her year group--there are 10 mostly from the US but one from the UK. I think she is hoping that she will make some friends. Unusually it rained most of the day, but cleared at the end. Grace, Simon and I finished the day by meeting Adrian in Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong for a dinner out. It was a nice end to the day.

Friday represented what I hope will become a more normal routine. I went with Adrian to the coffee shop in the early morning and did some work. At about 10:30 I went to the shops and got some food for us for dinner, then got the bus back home. My groceries included some wheatgrass drink that was really good and some soup mix that is supposed to improve your liver and eyesight. When I got home I made up the soup and started some laundry then went for a swim while the laundry was washing. After my swim I met one of our friends here at the flats and had a cup of tea and arranged with her to go out this morning to the plant market. A bit more work in there somewhere, but the lunchtime swim was wonderful.

Also wonderful was the plant market today. We now have a full complement of greenery for the house and the deck. I shall elaborate on this later as it is now probably time to sign off...

Lift off and landing

This has been an eventful week. Perhaps this is an understatement.

This week we sold our house (finally--long and very stressful story), got on a plane, and arrived in Hong Kong as residents. I am now sitting in the lounge of our flat at about two in the morning local time--Jet lag takes its toll. The flat is great. It has a wonderful view. There is a balcony and a large glass window across all of one end. Looking out one direction we see mountains and out the other 50+ story housing buildings. Our building is located near the top of a tall and steep hill and the housing we see is located below us about half way up the hill, but the tops of these buildings extend higher into the sky than our building. Looking out between these closest buildings we can see the bay. As it happens, the area we see is called Fo Tan and it is built on reclaimed land as the valley was once part of the bay. In fact, I learned recently that this bay is on a fault line. I will try not to think about that too much.

We've been here two days. In that time, we have visited the IKEA to buy hangers (it is in the mall that is at the bottom of the hill, so very convenient), seen (by accident) a light show of the buildings on Hong Kong Island from the Kowloon side, ridden the ferry across the harbour and the mid-level escalator up into SOHO, visited the markets in Kowloon, watched a thunder and lightning storm from our flat, witnessed the domestic helpers on their day off and had glorious, sunny weather (yes, with blue sky). It is warm, but it is also easy to escape this as air-conditioning is readily available, all one need do is enter a shop or jump on a bus. There are wonderful smells here and great fruit, fruit juice, tea, and fish to be had though I do not feel hungry. Today I had a green tea frapachino at Starbucks (yummy) in a shop on the mid-levels and a lemon grass and green tea drink at the RBT in Mon Kok. We had intended to buy curtains for the children's rooms, but we ended up with a TV for Simon instead. I had promised him the TV for doing well on his exams (Grace got a trip to Rome). The man will deliver it on Wednesday and another will come and set it all up.

The TV is Simon's and will live in his room for his xbox. He has xbox live, so should be able to meet up with his friends once we figure out how to make the broadband wireless. The TV is all Internet based here, so I am not sure how that will work. To be honest, I have not missed watching it. There is so much to do here in the evenings. Shopping centers are open until 10:30 at night and there is a pool here in the compound. The pool is open from about 7 in the morning until 9:30 at night, with closure during meal times, and also has a life guard. Simon has taken full advantage of this facility. He is using it as a way to meet people in the compound and to "get fit". He has decided that he will be swimming to exercise. He has actually jumped into the life here with both feet. There is a confidence about him that I did not expect or even that one would not normally expect from an 11 year old. He is happy to go to the pool by himself. I can see him making his way down the hill via the minibus to the mall in no time. In six months I expect him to own this city.

Grace has been somewhat more reluctant. She spent the first day locked in her room refusing to talk to anyone--she is a bit angry about having to move and wants to make sure everyone knows. We did manage to wedge her out of the house yesterday. By the end of the day there was enthusiasm. I am sure she has come to realise that the opportunities here are endless and that it is not difficult to get around. While it is certainly very Chinese and nothing like Ilkley, it is also not too hard to navigate. People are friendly and speak English so she was able to manage much more than I think she thought she would be able to do. She, of course won't admit finding Hong Kong to her liking though. She continues to behave as a 14 year old in the extremes of selfishness that only 14 year olds can manage.

As a family, we have pretty much decided we prefer the buses to the trains. The trains get you to where you want to go much more quickly, but they are crowded and you have to stand. The buses afford a view and so far we have been able to sit. We all have Octopus cards that allow us to ride the transport without having to dish out change each time. Much easier. I would recommend this as a first purchase for anyone visiting Hong Kong. One can even ride the ferries with this little card. Our little bus is the 69K, but there are others that will be key--the 7 goes along the bottom of Kowloon down to the Star Ferry.

In an early post I indicated that I was quite worried about how I was going to manage the shopping. I am now less worried about this. In the housing half way down the hill there is a small market with fresh veg and a small Park and Shop (kind of like Tesco or Safeway). The Park and Shop is pretty basic, but very cheap. In the big mall there is a very fancy--kind of like whole foods--store that sells groceries and also ready made food. Simon and I had Sushi from there for dinner tonight. Everything is available from this store from Belgian beer to designer chocolate to tortilla chips to American peanut butter. It is more expensive, though some things are very good value. The sushi I had tonight was wonderful and fresh with about 9 pieces for about £4. There is also a Taste in the big mall near where Adrian works. This store is somewhere between the Park and Shop and the fancy store. It sells Waitrose branded food and has a stunningly deep fish section and fruit and vegetable section. I think I could quite easily live off the fish and fruit with a bit of rice thrown in to bulk it out (Adrian bought a rice cooker and we are making rice in volumes--everyone should have a rice cooker as they are great).

While people do speak English, I realise I will need to expand my language skills fairly quickly. I have learned to say the name of the bus stop where we live: Souk Say (it means quarters). One can throw in a "m-goy" at the end sort of as a please. This is important to know as you have to shout it out to get the minibus that brings us up the hill to stop where we live. No bells to press, so shouting is necessary. It isn't actually the end of the world to go beyond the top as it is only about a 10 minute walk down from the end of the line. Felix, one of my work colleagues in Sheffield said numbers would be useful and he is right. The way the numbers work is not difficult as it is all base ten. To say twenty, for example one would say two tens; twenty two is two tens two. A bit like listing out the units on an abacus. But one still has to learn the basic numbers to begin with, which I have yet to do. Also, you bargain for about everything apparently. Even in some of the big shops--though not in places like IKEA. This will be a bit hard I think.

There are stores for everything here. Adrian got some coffee for us at a shop that sells only Egyptian coffee beans. We went into a place today that sells only orchid plants. There is a chain of English language book stores here that we went into today and I was able to buy a Big Red Book, which is sort of a directory of places to purchase things that is indexed. As a listing it feels a bit to focused on Ex-Pat folk, but it does provide a listing of where one can find Louis Vitton handbags at 50% off and purchase hand made shoes and tailored dresses-- The tailors will even copy a picture for you or work from your own designs. I can't wait to visit these places!

I have now been up about an hour in the middle of the night. I am off to fix myself a cup of tea and try to go back to sleep. I have brought my camera, so in some future post I shall try to upload some photos. It is really lovely here and exciting. I look forward to some opportunity to just rest a bit--Adrian has taken some days off work so we are being tourists quite a bit. I am also looking forward to a chance to do some exploring on my own. There is so much near by, but getting further afield is not difficult to do (the 80M bus that leaves from Sui Wo Court goes all the way into Kowloon Tong). So far, I am glad we've come.

Family in transition

It is Sunday and I am sitting in bed in Ilkley. I am the only one at home. Simon, my 11 year old son is camping with a friend. Grace, my 14 year old daughter is at a birthday sleepover. Adrian, my husband, is already in Hong Kong. He phoned me from the Star Ferry, returning from Lantau Island where he has a meal of oysters in the sunshine. He said it was beautiful and clear there today. He said the views are stunning.

I am very envious. It is windy, overcast, and cold here. I continue to discard and sort. Moving seems to be about discarding and untangling. I have been trying to slowly turn things off, but nothing seems to work. This could easily turn into a rant against the inefficiencies of the utility companies, the council, the bank, the NHS etc., etc., so I will stop with this line of discussion.

I am trying really hard to do things that I know I won't be able to do once we move. Here is my list so far:
1. Go to the pub with friends--there is a school leavers mum's night out on Tuesday so that should happen.
2. Eat English cheese-- better yet have a plowman's lunch--the red Lion in Burnsall would be good for this.
3. Visit Saltaire and Salt's mill and look at the great art books
4. Drive out into the Yorkshire Dales--I did this the other night when I dropped Simon off to go camping.
5. Visit Bolton Abby and eat ice-cream by the river--maybe next week when the weather improves.
6. Go to Harrogate and particularly see my friend Julie's shop-- Rose Velvet. Not that I need or can afford any more clothes, but her shop is beautiful
7. Breath in English Lavender
8. Eat wild raspberries from the moor-- I may just manage this if the weather improves
9. Eat the Turkey figs from the garden--may not manage this one as they are still pretty green (as are the blackberries).
10. Drink Pimm's in the sunshine -- while I could have Pimm's in Sheffield upon my return, Pimm's is a summer drink and then weather in September would have to be just right. Hopefully the sun will come back
11. Go to the Lido -- one of a few remaining outdoor pools (unheated) in the country. It was featured in the observer last week.

There are other English things I could add to the list, but this list is an Ilkley/summer focussed list

Trash, rubbish and the pre-move practices of ridding

The moment is getting closer and closer for our move. In anticipation of this we are continuing to clean out and rid. At the same time, I am working on a research grant application that is about how food things become rubbish--or how food un-becomes food. In preparation for this I have been reading about rubbish, trash and the governance of the practices around ridding; about things and their ability to enchant or disgust (seems a bit strong); and about how we practice self making (and the making of others) in the ways that we accumulate and discard. This scavenging in the academic literature about such things is interesting, but made more so through the engagements and reflections I have had to undertake while getting ready for this move.

Particularly, as we spend the weekend going through the loft sorting piles into things we don't use but can't bear to discard (and so will pay a storage company to hold for us) and those things we can get rid, I find myself considering the importance of this move as a moment of disruption in my relationship with these things. I can no longer just ignore them in the loft. I must think about these things that I was once compelled to acquire and actively consider what value they have to me--are they worth paying the storage price for? Or what value they may have to someone else--should the item go straight into the bin or the back of the car to take to the tip or do I think someone else might want it and is it worth the effort to find buyer. I am forced in this sorting to think about how the items came to be in my house. I am resentful of some of the items, while I don't like them, I feel compelled to keep them because they were once cherished belongings of a relative now dead, or (and this has less hold on me) the item was a gift. Other things filled a purpose long since past (e.g., baby carriers and a roasting pan that is fine for a US oven but too large for anything I have had in the UK). So we spend the day sorting and ridding and piling and selling and then ridding some more.

At work the same process is going on. I have to decide what books and papers to move now and what to move later. I have money to move things now, but I might need the works in the autumn while I am in Sheffield still. I also have to decide what to keep and what to just get rid of. I feel guilt over the piles of paper to go into the recycling. I find it very difficult to get rid of books but I know I won't use text books that I had when I was a student all those years ago. I read paper titles of papers photocopied from journals and think, "Oh I liked that paper, I must keep that." But I also know I won't read it again, thinking has in some cases moved on--but I do have some papers that were written in the 1960's that are still fresh today. I am also forced in this process of ridding to think about what I want to do in the future. This is not just the past that I am disposing but also areas of future work. Should I keep the labour market materials or not? Do I want to teach or do research in this area again, or do I want to do the work I am currently doing? Have I moved on? Is there a chance the two will dovetail one day and I will regret this process of ridding? I am torn.

I am finding that moving makes one face oneself and consider not just geographically where one wants to be but where one wants to go and also what one wants to remember. Some of this involves imposing material value onto the things that we rid; It certainly involves a process of considering the emotional value of this wasted material--guilt, longing, sadness, reflection, fear, regret. While the process of ridding is not entirely a pleasant task, it is fairly cathartic if unsettleing.

Looking forward to the heat

It is a balmy 52 degrees today and looks like rain here in Ilkley. It is 82 degrees in Hong Kong and while it looks like it might be raining there as well, somehow 82 and rainy seems so much better. I am a bit tired of being cold.

Quite a bit has happened since my last post. Things are beginning to fall into place. For example, we have sold our house, thought I hesitate to say this as the contracts have not been exchanged yet so things could still go wrong. I think we may have gotten lucky with that as there seemed to be a bit of a flurry of activity in the housing market in April and then it slowed down again around the election. Unfortunately the buyers do not want the refrigerator, so I have to figure out how to get rid of that before we move. Small price to pay if it all goes through.

I also have been granted leave of absence from my job starting in the winter term next year. This is a huge relief as it holds my job for me for 18 months. Related to that it looks like I will be granted Adjunct status at Hong Kong University in Geography. This visiting status is quite an honour as the university has quite high status on the world stage. In addition to being ranked the top university in Asia, it is ranked 24 on the world stage (for reference Sheffield is 82, Leeds is 99, and Columbia is 11). I will also be able to do a bit of teaching and postgraduate supervision, as well as use it as a base for writing and doing research. I am very excited at the opportunity for doing some food research in Hong Kong. I am working on a book prospectus at the moment and writing time will be really useful--I have got to be careful not to pack in too much though as I do really want to spend some time enjoying the region, taking photographs, and learning Cantonese.

I have been trying to learn a bit more about the culture as well as get the kids excited. We have discovered that our new favorite breakfast food is Nan Wong Bao (a steamed dumpling with coconut filling). They are really good with strawberries and a bit of bacon on the side. The salt of the bacon and the tarness of the berries offset the sweet coconut inside the Bao. I have dreams about eating this. I have also purchased a number of films by Wan Kar Wai, who is a favorite of Quentin Tarantino. The films are not the usual Jacki Chan kind of film that one usually thinks of with regard to Hong Kong Cinema. We also have the film Infernal Affairs, which is what The Departed is an American copy. It is pretty good. We've also been listening to the music of Faye Wong. She does a cover of a Cranberries song that is absolutely lovely. I prefer it. Of course I have also been reading everything I can get my hands on about Hong Kong. There is a book by McDonogh and Wong (2005) called Global Hong Kong, that is informative, though not without its flaws. The first aim is seceding, the second not so much.

Finally, we got word the other day that our visa's have been approved and are on their way in the post. Lets hope things continue to progress as they have been!

stranded in a foreign land

It is early Sunday morning and I am on hold (for 20 minutes now via skype) trying to reschedule a flight back to the UK. I have spent the last week in the US at a geography conference. It has been a good conference for a number of reasons, which I will elaborate in the moment, but let me first tell you why I am on Skype hold at 1:30 in the morning. You will probably have heard about that volcano? Well it has demonstrated once again the absolute importance of the material world-- life is not all social construction and discourse--the texture and composition of the ash, the force of the pressure in the volcano, the inability of human form to teleport themselves or to fly on their own like the birds, the proclivities of upper air currents, and the limitations of aviation design have conspired to ground me effectively in Washington DC. It is a powerful lesson in the importance of the material world and the limitations of human being in the world, but not human compassion, ingenuity, and scope for caring. Indeed, as I hear about a people being told by their airlines (and some are worse than others) that they will be stuck in the US for several days even once flights resume, I also hear stories of generosity of strangers offering their floors and spare rooms in the US to those who cannot return to Europe. While I have discovered that my "ethical bank (the cooperative if you are interested) has decided not to cover this event in the travel insurance that I have with them (while those "bad" banks like Barkleys are covering people albeit minimally) I benefit from the efforts and generosity of my mom who has spent hours trying to rebook my flight for me. While my airline, knowing full well it would cancel my flight within an hour of my mother's finally getting through (KLM is my carrier) I am offering space on my mum's floor to other British folk I meet who I also know will be stuck as I am. People are great that way--humanity is contradictory.

I have tried for several days now to do something about my flight so that I can get home. For most of the time I have been unable to get any access to any human or any hope of access to a human at my airline (I have hope now because I at least am on hold and not immediately cut off, though it has now been 43 minutes. I recon I can stay on the line for 400 before I must disconnect because I have run out of call credit. I do know of someone who was on hold for three and a half hours). In an amongst these efforts I have conferenced. I have learned that there is quite a bit of regard for Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) by many in American Geography who have managed to garner esteem. I have learned about people in Hong Kong that I now realise I should have known about. I have discovered and been able to consider how urbanisation in the Pearl river region is linked to declines in agricultural land use and how soya is no longer a major crop in China despite having a history there for several hundred years. Maybe because cattle are not as important there as elsewhere and so the US is now the largest producer of soya. At least with this flight delay I will have time to think about these ideas and write them down. Something not really available to me at home.

But now I sit here after an hour and a quarter listening to the soundrack of Evita while the person (some real human answered about 15 minutes ago but then put me on a different hold again) is checking to see if I will be able to go back to the UK sometime this month. There is something ironic about being asked not to cry because she never really left. I also contemplate the fact that I cannot go to any embassy to become repatriated because I am not patriated in the UK in the first instance.

I now know I will be travelling home on Friday and will arrive in Leeds on Saturday afternoon. Better than I thought... Better than some.

Got the tickets.

Cost of the tickets to go on the 5th of August: £1180. Feelings of excitement: priceless. Thanks Emerites (which paticularly makes Simon happy as they sponsor Arsonal).

Disengagements and divestments

It has been just over a month since we were in Hong Kong. In that time I have been to NYC and am planning another trip in just a couple of weeks to Washington DC, and the clocks are now on BST. I am not sure whether I am coming or going or what time it is.
I do know, however, that moving is a lot of work. We are getting our house ready to sell, which seems to have involved me painting about 4 rooms, hiring a man to pain the hall, stairs and landing, and Adrian painting 6 drawers. You do the math on this one.

The actual institutional process of selling ones house in the UK seems a radically more complicated affair than it seemed when we sold our house in the US 11 years ago. First thing is that you have to get something called a HIP survey done. This involves a man (I could only find men who did this) doing a bunch of searches on your property that the solicitor of the buyers will eventually do again. He then comes to the house and measures up and looks at the windows to determine what energy rating is on the house and what it could be if you ripped out all the leaded windows and replaced them with uPVC (plastic) windows. There are all sorts of assumptions about how people will use the house, of course--e.g., that they will leave the heating on all the time, unlike us leave who it off as much as possible. Plus, there is not any consideration of the types of light bulbs used, what the rating of the appliances is etc. etc. This all costs about £200 and is required before anyone can come look at the property. Some estate agents will also do this for you, but the one who came last week to value our house charges £300.

Another element of complexity here is the difficulty one has getting rid of stuff. Actually it is easy to get rid of if you don't want any money for it. I have so far managed to rid the house of an exercise bike, a piece of furniture we no longer wanted, and a bail of straw left over from when we had chickens through freecycle (freecycle is a yahoo group organised by area where you offer things and people email back if they want them--great for circulating goods at no cost. As we live in a fairly affluent area the freecycle stuff tends to be pretty good and so the group is large and as a result it is easy to get rid of things). The exercise bike is now helping a family become fit and the straw is keeping some strawberries warm. I have more hopes for the long term usefulness of the straw. But, if one wanted to sell things like old books, cd's, etc. typically you have to pack all this in your car and go to a designated car boot sale, where you are charged £5 to have people look over your things and argue with you about the price. You don't, as you would in the US, put your stuff in your driveway and advertise as a yard sale. This means that you can only sell what you can bring in your car. As we have a smallish car this means nothing larger than a box, so no furniture. Furniture, it seems, must be sold via posters at the post office or on the community boards at the local grocery store. So what might have been a morning sitting in front of the house selling off everything we don't want to move now involves several car boot sales, the production of posters with photo's of items that are too big to put in the car, and several trips to various places in the hope that someone will be willing to buy. It may be a bit crass, but if you ask me the good old yard sale is a whole lot easier and much more efficient--and you get to keep all that you earn. But this is England, if you can make it more difficult to achieve, then by all means do so, at least you don't embarrass the neighbors. .

On the positive side, the estimate for moving our stuff to Hong Kong is only about £4200 or about £5.60 per cubic foot. When I tried to ask ex-pats in Hong Kong how much they paid for their own moves via a forum, no one wanted to say. I found this very odd. The cost is calculated by the volume, so if you make a guess of approximately how much you want to move, you can work out how much approximately it will cost, no biggie, but apparently it is something one keeps as a secret. I've now probably blown any chance of having friend amongst the ex-pat community in Hong Kong...

It is about 70 degrees (F) in Hong Kong today. It is 43 here with a chance of snow. Despite the effort, I can't wait to go.

The visit

What a great trip. What a great place. When can we leave???

It will be hard to write this in whole paragraphs as I am still processing the visit to Hong Kong in flashes of impression. As just a bit of context Adrian and I when to Hong Kong for a few days. We left on Tuesday last week. Arrived sometime on Wednesday in the evening. We then returned on Sunday, leaving quite early in the morning, so just three whole days in the city.

I guess one of my first impressions is that to call Hong Kong a city is really not right. It is more like a region. Hong Kong island itself is not a city as there are quite large areas of non-city and if you travel around the island to Stanley, one feels quite in another place. It takes very little time on the bus to do this. The bus ride involves traveling through a tunnel to get to the other side, rather than following a coastal path. Kowloon, across from Hong Kong, is connected to HK in that there are any number of ways to cross over--ferry, train (under the water), by car/bus over a bridge, but it is also quite separate as in Kowloon you must make a change to another train or bus that will transport you around this side of the water. Also, there are different colour taxis for this part of HK than for the island. Kowloon provides a very impressive vista for those on HK island, but this is mutual. In other words, incredibly tall buildings on both sides. The waterfront on the Kowloon side is a lovely place to walk around--day or night--and there are some wonderful restaurants and museums. Then there is the new territories, which we really did not get into that much. But because of the really great public transport system in this city/region the ability to travel quite far into them is not difficult to do rather quickly.

Second, unlike many other cities I have been to in countries where English is not the first language, I felt very comfortable and confident in my ability to get around. I think this was partially because there was enough that looked familiar, pretty much most things were written in English as well and in Cantonese, and there are enough people around who understand English and can tell you what you need to know if you get lost. So the infrastructure for people who are not Chinese is there. I wouldn't put this down too much to the fact that Hong Kong is a fairly recently former territory. The bodies are very much largely Chinese bodies walking around. I did see a few non-Chinese people, but this difference was not something that was foregrounded. Indeed, I notice the difference much more when I have visited China Towns in the US or UK much more than I did in Hong Kong. This might be the result of apparent middle-classness, though a large proportion of the city does not earn enough to be required to pay the 15% income tax. Moreover, one is aware that Hong Kong is not American or European. It is its own city, but it is a comfortable one to be in. At least it was for me. It is a place that puts you at ease, while at the same time is exciting.

Third, while Hong Kong is very full of people, this again is not the overriding impression one gets. There are amazingly tall building, and looking at them you know the population density is incredible. Some of this housing is quite grim, but that is the same in all cities. So much of Hong Kong is new build, however, so the decay that comes from prolonged use, high humidity, and so forth is not a present. Plus, there is a lot of green space--not really grass, but green: Trees, tropical plants, etc. Quite a bit of Hong Kong is not built upon, probably because the landscape is so steep. Incredibly steep. At times overwhelmingly steep. Exhaustingly steep.

Fourth, this is a very efficient place. I understand that there is as much bureaucracy here as one might think given that it has its roots in the UK and its crown in China, but there is a work ethic and a competence I just don't find in the UK. Maybe this is linked to some degree to an overall culture of humility rather than arrogance and an ethic of consideration for others and open friendliness, rather than a selfishness that seems to permeate British life. I can't comment on the potential differences/similarities between HK and China. While we were there we were able to get octopus cards, which get you on to the transport system kind of like the pay as you go sim cards for mobile phones (you can also buy coffee at Starbucks and groceries with your octopus card and the school uses them for registering the children and for paying for school lunches and printing). We also got a mobile phone that we can use in HK, a bank account, an apartment, almost a school for the children, an amazing amount of intelligence about how to work and live in the area, and some new friends. Adrian and I both commented that this just would not have been the case in any other place were we have lived.

Fifth, Hong Kong is en engineering wonder. Not only are there some (several) of the tallest buildings in the world here, but they are build on some of the steepest terrain. In Hong Kong itself, you see buildings being built and wonder how in the world they got the equipment up the narrow and winding roads to the site. There are tunnels cutting through mountains and under all this there is an underground transport system that is not only extensive but very reliable. Just about every form of transportation is available here--buses, ferries, mini-buses, trams, funiculars, elevated cable cars, subways, trains, and even an outdoor escalator. This last transport mode is particularly incredible as not only can you travel around most of the second and third stories of the central part of the city via passageways through the buildings, which you access via escalator, but you can also travel from the ferry terminal to the upper part of the mid-levels via a half hour escalator ride. This is covered and runs down hill for the morning commute, but up hill most of the day. Not only does this mean that the thing is reversed every day, but because of the high humidity and rain one would think that it would always be broken down. But it is not. Stunning. We noticed advertisements in estate agent windows that there is a rent gradient based on distance from these escalators. Given how steep it is, this makes a lot of sense. We did walk up through a residential neighborhood and this is something one would not want to do out of necessity. Added to all this is the fact that while the tram is several blocks inland now, it once ran along the waterfront. The amount of reclamation is amazing. You would not immediately understand that so much of what is the present day commercial Hong Kong is on reclaimed land, but once you know this you understand why the area where all the tall commercial buildings are is also quite flat.

Sixth, the food is great. Not only is there really good Cantonese food (my favorite type of Chinese), but you can get every other cuisine you want at about any price range. While we were there we ate Cantonese food as well as food from other regions in China, Vietnamese, and Japanese. We had coffee in an American style coffee shop (at 7 in the morning at the nearby mall). We also learned that the restaurants located in the big shopping malls are not to be avoided. Indeed, the Japanese restaurant we ate in was located on the the tip of Kowloon in a shopping mall that was focused on the eating, with shopping interspersed between the restaurants. It was great. We also went to one of the grocery stores. Admittedly this was the posh store--for those of you in the UK it was like Waitrose, and indeed there were Waitrose branded products on the shelves. Prices were largely similar to UK prices, with the exception of things like cheese and yogurt, which are imported from Australia. The equivalent to £6 or $8 for a large container of yogurt. I don't really like yogurt that much so this won't bother me too much. I guess I shall have to learn to enjoy my coffee with soya milk instead of cows milk. I can adjust. I like soya milk. The cheese will be a bit harder to go without, but I am thinking that my waistline could benefit from this. Thankfully, and contrary to what we expected, wine is not more expensive.

While these impressions are largely positive, I don't want to sugggest that everything was rosy. I did learn that it will be quite difficult for me to get a job. I met with one of the heads of department at one university and learned that not only would my research never fit with their idea of sensible and useful work (quantitative, rational choice models, neoclassical), but also that I was not chinese enough and too old! The Chinese bit I may or may not be able to overcome by learning the language, but age is someting one cannot mess with. No such thing as age discrimination there. There were some gender issues at another university that will make it difficult for me. But the third place I visited was very welcoming, and even if I don't get a job with them, I feel that there is the possibility for connection and collaboration. I am very excited at the prospects of doing research in Hong Kong. There is a lot of work that I can envision doing that builds on my existing research and which focuses on sustainablity issues.

Most of the people we met also have some form of domestic help. This can range from what has historically been referred to as an Amah, a term that is now not considered politically correct. Flats for middle class people all have an area off a laundry room off a kitchen consisting of a bedroom and a bathroom for the helper to live. This room in the flats we looked at, but which appear to be equally as small elsewhere was miniscule. Just enough room for a narrow bed and not really anything else. In fact, the room in our flat has no window. There is a window in the bathroom, which has a shower, toilet and sink. I can't imagine living there, so I guess no Amah for us. Others have helpers come once a day or a couple of times a week. Some of these women are doing this work illegally as they are Amahs for another family already. Some are Chinese women. Many people I spoke with said that the helper would do the shopping and cooking for you, which is an advantage because the helpers have the skills to bargain at the wet market, thus saving money on food buying. The wet markets are less expensive than the grocery stores. I shall just have to learn enough cantonese to do this, or pay more at the supermarket, most of which will deliver dry goods to your home for you. I was also told that while some locally produced food is available, culturally the imported food is considered better food, and this is not just because it is more expensive. I expect some of this is linked to the recent health scares over things like tainted milk and beef products.

Overall a brilliant trip. I am really looking forward to going back. I hope something works out for me on the employment front as I am having some difficulties with getting leave from my current employer. I think I just must be patient and keep trying. I will keep updating...

Prelude to transnational encounters: After Dinner

The food was great, although we got way too much. I felt a bit like a dumpling afterwards. There were many dishes that we had never tried before. My teenaged daughter, who previously announced she will not be eating anything other than pizza and chips no matter where she lives, has now decided there are foods that she likes available to her in Hong Kong. A result on that level at least.

When setting out this meal, I carefully cut out the lables from the packages so we would know what we are eating. This was fine in that the lables all had english writing as well as chinese charactors. As I cut, I was thinking, how will I ever know what is what, when I have to rely on charactors alone? I also had to abandon the idea of saying out loud what each item was, as I had no idea how to pronounce the various charactors--there was just no clue to me how something that looked like a little house would sound. Clearly I need to think about that some more...

We are off to Hong Kong later this month for a couple of days. We will get to visit the flats where we are to live and also the school. We got the schedule for my husband and what he is supposed to do. They have booked every minute of the friday with meetings for him, so it looks like he is going to have to start working right away. I am quite excited about going. Not least as it will be considerably warmer there than it is here in Yorkshire at the moment.

Prelude to transnational encounters

On the advice of a friend (isn't it always on the advice of a friend) I am writing this blog about the upcomming move that my family will make to Hong Kong. The idea for the move is not all that new as we decided before Christmas and now it is February. I think it might be the realness of it all that has now compelled me to write.

My husband is taking a much better paying job in Hong Kong. I also have a career, which is currently looking like it will stangnate and disappear. I may have this feeling because it is early February and everything looks a bit gloomy at this time of the year. Alternatively, I may just be relistic. Lets just say that this is how I am feeling at the moment and it is not a particularly positive approach. Everyone has said I should have no difficulty finding another academic job as 1)I am already an established academic with a publication record and 2) the higher education sector in Hong Kong is expanding. Indeed, I have already applied for two jobs, but there are only 8 universities, and if I strike out, I am not sure what I shall do. I am only 44.

To overcome this current feeling of depression, dispair, gloom I decided that I needed to manufacture some enthusiasm for the new culture I will be joining. To that end I got on the internet and discovered that here in the North of England there is a terrific chinese grocery. I got in the car and went there. I must say that I found myself thinking as I looked at all the new foods (thankfully described in English as well as Chinese), "how will I manage to feed my family" once we move. After the job issue, this is my second greatest worry. I don't mean how will I afford to feed my family, because we will be able to do that. I mean, how will I know what to buy to feed my family. It was all so diffent and this is like the nursery version of buying food. What will I do when I have to go out and select things that are not labled in english as well?

I guess I will have to learn. So the lessons started today I purchased a bunch of stuff: raw things, premade things, vegetables, sauces, etc. Tonight will be the first family lesson. Before anyone takes a bite we will have to make some attempt to pronounce what it is. (Hopefully there is a pronunciation ap that I can type in the word and the helpful voice speaks it outloud. If not, there should be.) This should be made all the more interesting with the consumption of a very large bottle of Chinese beer that was also available at the shop. At least my husband and I should enjoy that component.

More later on how this went and the other anxieties associated with moving half way around the world...