A hell and a heaven of a day.
The early morning with the landlord did not go
well, as I have scrimped and saved just to get Two Months Rent.
Remember Joe and I paid 25,000 HK for only TWO
MONTHS in our first Chamma Tau apartment, and lost our last month deposit when there was the sudden return of Joe to Canada
after failing at 50 job interviews to come up with a corporate computer job.
I was looking at the apartment, rather proud that
I could bounce back with two months rent, and having suffered a month in a grungy cramped Nathan Road place - the
same price as my beautiful homes in Montreal, and Shenzhen, and saw the garden was pretty, trees on one side, a ten minute
walk from the ferry boat, though not one speck of furniture, and the smallest place I would ever have rented - a one
bedroom - without a spare room to rent out in case of emergency.
Then the husband and wife had a slight argument.
They were arguing about what to charge me.
The first price quoted more than tripled with government
taxes tacked on to a now THREE MONTHS rent, and I was also fibbed to about the last month of rent, which was now not to be
returned during the last month - at the end of the last month!!!
Of course, this is all to make interest off the
bank deposits, a business technique carried out en masse, and I have never encountered this anywhere else in the world.
Not in England, America, Canada, or China.
What this means is that this place will now sit
empty for a few months, as Christmas and Spring Holiday are coming up soon.
There was no stove, no bath-tub, and no washer-dryer
outlets, or hook-ups, so it is not really suitable for themore rarified taste of The Corporates, and I too do like not to
have to walk along the local alleys with bundles of bedsheets in my arms.
Later at the hotel, while grumping
about this. I was surprised at all the backpackers and young travellers who do not care for Hong Kong one bit, based on prices,
and more suprisingly, the claims there is little to do here.
************************
I would like to take up new hobbies such as scuba diving or
even learning how to fly an airplane, and thanks to the Internet, I have found it is quite cheap to study things in
other parts of Asia...even computer courses such as learning how to make children's cartoons.
I have found the battery is kaput on the second hand computer
which means no Starbucking with this laptop till I find out what a computer battery costs.
It sounds terribly expensive: computer battery.
*****************************************
With what was left out of my money and my mind, I went out
with Laura, my good friend here.
Her fatigue has turned slightly with thetaking of selenium,
and her blood tests back from her doctor show nothing seriously wrong.
She came gliding towards me as I sat watching the ferries coming
in and out from Chamma Tau, as place that increasingly is unhappy as I am now about to lose the $2000.00 USA in furniture
my friend the Other Landlady, not my own, gave to me.
Still no Internet.
We went by tram to Causeway Bay and were delighted by the great
free-for-all on the sidewalks, with many locals selling jewellery and a second-hand clothes and even used Christmas decorations.
This place is called Victoria Park and there are even portrait artists, some of them passable, with rock-bottomprices; these
talents work from photographs as well, and I think these hand-created items make a better gift than something plastic and
packaged.
The hotel was calming and luxurious and they are getting quite
friendly though I don't think they read my website, with the favourable review I wrote of this place.
We started with British tea, which I usually avoid in favour
of coffee, because I think tea goes down better with all the sugar we were about to consume: mango cheescake, whipped
cream scones, raspberry jam, whipped butter, mango puddings, large flawless strawberries with even more whipped cream.
Laura did a hilarious and awkward interview with me on the
subject of parent-child relationships - this is part of an academic project, and goes to show what little academics know about
some things.
Trying to get a good interview that lasts ninety minutes as
a truly professional skill, and the subject is not paid or reqwarded at all!
Her questions were too large or too personal.
People that answer intreviewers on tv are motivated by
career publicity, or community good will.
We switched around, and I did the interview with her.
This went better, though it was still liking pulling teeth,
bit by bit, and the time did not fill up quickly enough.
Ths pianist started playing, and of course, he played Happy
Birthday to Laura.
She was happy though mildly embarrassed, and I said,
Don"t worry, we are in Hong Kong, no one will ever notice.
And they didn't.
******************************************
We went home later again by tram, and I went back to the cramped
quarters that will make me ill again, unless I get the money to get out of them;
Laura has offered to help and told me she would have given
me one of her rental apartments but her sister arrived from England, and when she goes back there may be an opening there.
