7.1

Ah, what a wonderful morning. I told about the crappy construction work on Hong Kong housing in my last post. Well, last night I got the full joy of it. I woke up a few times because it was cold in my apartment. Cold. Inside. At a weather above zero. I need to buy that damned radiator.

Here's the local temperature-chart from this morning:


You can see that 7.1 there, in the left end of the map. That's me. That's where I live. It's the coldest place in Hong Kong, and ,in fact, the only place under 10 degrees. Well, I still claim it's not too cold but I'd be a hypocrite to say it's not 'cold'. This morning the temperature inside my apartment was quite enough to convince me put on a t-shirt under my long-sleeve one.

I really, really need to buy that radiator. Even if I need to use only a few months per year. It'll be a good investment.

Just realized today is the last day of this year. So, I suppose a farewell to 2007 is in order. Fare thee well. Maybe in my next post I can write up some summary of things, but now I just can't be arsed.

No plans for today nor for tomorrow. I will probably continue my game of the world's most boring strategy game Master of Orion 3. It's so damned boring I can't really understand why I bother playing it so much, but for some reason I just end up pressing that "TURN" button over and over again - waiting for something new to happen. It never does.

Master of Orion 3 is a game which is kind of like Civilization 4 without all the cool stuff and more of the boring ones. It's a game where nothing dramatic happens, except you never really know why the other Empires suddenly go to war with you without any potential for gain. Or why the balance of power is such, that even with the mightiest of armadas you can successfully attack maybe one star system and then get stuck there. To actually win over even one star system takes such an effort and hours of time that you wonder how you could ever conquer an entire Empire of dozens of star systems - or how to win the game and conquer all the several Empires of the game.

When I played Civilization 4, after playing one (or two at maximum) days, I would know if I was winning or not. I've played Master of Orion 3 for five days now, and I have no idea how I'm doing. For all I know, I maybe the scum of the universe right now and it takes another four to five days until someone just suddenly comes and conquers my systems. I don't know. There's no reward in that game. Yet I still play. I don't really understand myself.

The Meaning of Life

Today, I can to the office to finish one simple task. The one and single reason I got out of bed early today. Can I do it as I planned I would? No. The one person I need help from is not in the office today. Not yet, at least. Damnit. Well, at least it gives me time to scribble something here.

I've mentioned it before, and I'll mention it again. The weather in Hong Kong is getting cooler - and I love it! It's quite funny that everyone else (with a few exceptions) seems to think the 'cold' is somehow really 'cold'. So, let's have a look at the 7-day forecast:


We are closing in to the minimum temperature of 10 degrees Celsius. And you see right, the picture is that of a sweater and a scarf to warn us all that we really, really need to dress up warmly. I, personally, will be wearing my normal shirt and a jacket. I mean, sure, it's not warm but it definitely ain't cold either.

I wonder if someone gets lost in the forest here, and has to stay a night out, would that person be in mortal danger of freezing to death as one would be in cold winter of the north. I mean, of course for someone like me who is used to colder climate it's not so dangerous, but talking about a local person. Would this coldness be enough to kill just because it feels cold to them. I mean, seriously now, it's not really, really cold! 10 degrees above zero won't freeze a body; it'll just be uncomfortable.

Of course it's different if your body is weak already from some other reason. Then the stress can be too much for the body to handle. I hear in Hong Kong some elderly people, for example, living in poor conditions can actually die of the cold. Same applies probably to the homeless who haven't had proper nutrition in a long time nor have proper shelter from the night temperatures.

Anyways, it never stops to amuse me to see the locals dressed up for nuclear winter in 15 degrees above zero.

I also will restate my claim that the only place in Hong Kong where it actually is cold is indoors. Reasons for this are two-fold. Firstly, for some reason public places have to have aircon on even during winter when it'd be perfectly sufficient just to keep the air circulation going without freezing the air. Secondly, the construction work for housing is pretty much as impressive as a bag full of plums on table. The apartments have no central heating, and the windows are single layered - which results that there's nothing to make the apartments warmer nor anything to keep the warmth in. So, if it's 10 degrees outside, it's mere 12 inside. And that's a fact. I have now both indoor and outdoor thermometer and I have had the luxury of following this development.

Now, in Finland houses are built so that there is a central heating and double or triple layered glass with proper wall insulation. In Finland even if its 20 degrees below zero, it's still warm inside. You can take a shower and have no cares of freezing once you turn off the water. In Hong Kong, you'd rather skip shower if it was possible.

Well, luckily it's not so bad yet here but it's getting there. I'm seriously considering to purchase a few radiators for the two winter months. That'd make like a lot more enjoyable. However, I worry over the electric bill once all that warmth generated by the radiator starts fading out through the single-layer windows.

Oh, and I'd like to remind that this of course goes like this during summer too. If it's hot outside, it's really hot inside too. And while the aircon can cool down the apartment, the moment you turn it off all the cool air has evaporated through the crappy insulation. I wonder how much this place would save in energy if they just bothered building their housing properly.

I'm sure I can blame the British for this stupid way of building somehow. Those annoying gits.

Well anyway, life goes on. Weekend is up ahead and I've no plans what-so-ever. Don't really need plans either. I'm beyond the need to 'experience Hong Kong'. Live it, love it - sure, but maybe for just a few months a year.

My parents are coming to Hong Kong in late February so I need to start planning something to do for that period of time. I've been to the classic locations so many times now that I just can't be arsed to go again. Well, maybe my mind changes once I start acting a tourist guide again. Anyway, my plan is to come up with some other stuff for them to see. Sure they can go see the tourist areas if they want, but there's much more to Hong Kong you can't find from the guides. Only lately I've started to learn that.

Comparing my two brothers' experience in Hong Kong while I was just newly arrive a few months before to that of my sister and brother who came here last summer and I had lived here already for over a year. Both, I know, had a great time here but as far as experience go, I'm sure the last party to visit got much more out of the two weeks in HK. Now, when my parents come, it ought be even more spectacular as far as cultural and special experiences go.

With my level of knowledge and understanding of this place increasing, I can honestly be a better guide. And I must say, this place is a lot more interesting when you do things a bit off the book (the tourist guide). What the guides offer are the peak of the iceberg, so to say, and are usually packed with other tourists who follow the guides so blindly.

Person A: "I went to Hong Kong last month."
Person B: "Oh, really? It's a really nice place, I went there last year."
Person A: "Yes, I liked it a lot."
Person B: "Did you go to the Peak?"
Person A: "Yes, I did very nice view."
Person B: "I know, isn't it just amazing. Really nice."
Person A: "Yes, really nice. We also went to see the big Buddha."
Person B: "You did, I saw it too. It's very nice."
Person A: "I know, isn't it just amazing. Really nice."
Person B: "Yes. What about Ocean Park or Disneyland?"
Person A: "Oh, we went to both. Really, really nice."
Person B: "I know, isn't it just great. Really nice."
Person A: "Just amazing. Really nice."

Person A: "Look, here's a picture of me at the Peak."
Person B: "That's so very nice. Look, here's a picture of me at the Peak too."
Person A: "Looks like fun. What about this picture of me beside the big Buddha."
Person B: "Really nice indeed. I have one from there too. Look, me and Buddha."
Person A: "Really, really nice. Here's me at the Ocean Park cable car."
Person B: "Oh, I have one too! Look, here. It was really high, kind of scary."
Person A: "I know, it was terrible but fun too! Here's a picture with me and Mickey Mouse"
Person B: "I had a picture too with Mickey. Isn't he just the best!"

What's the point of going somewhere and doing exactly the same things as everyone else? Why do you even bother. You can just ask someone who went before if it was nice. "Yes it was." Well, Ok then. No need to go. I know it's nice.

Besides the places in the guides are more or less rather boring. Better take an attitude of adventure, and try things that are not safely explained in a leaflet you buy for HKD 11 at the local bookstore.

And the meaning of life, as a one crazy Dutch musician so well puts it, is to give life a meaning. Now we got that sorted out too, ain't that nice.

What's the meaning of a life you just do everything like everyone else does? How was your life at all meaningful?

Haha, this is getting too philosophical. Maybe I better end this post with a cute picture so you can all feel a bit better.

Thirteen Revelations of Evolution

I'm currently reading part 5 of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. It's a good book, it's called Memnoch the Devil. Highly recommendable. Of course I recommend to read all the books prior to this one, but only so all references could be understood. As such, reading this book requires no knowledge of the books before. Anyway, it's a good read. Interesting points-of-view.

My reading hobby has taken me to read the Vampire Chronicles exclusively. As said, I'm now in part 5 (and almost done), and I've read all the previous parts too: Interview with the Vampire, Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief. Next it'll be Vampire Armand. Albeit they are popular books among young, they are gothic and about vampires, they are still very, very good. I doubted them myself at first, but so far they haven't let me down.

The reason I started reading these was actually Bram Stocker's Dracula. While reading the book, I remembered once seeing a vampire-movie that I liked. That of course was the Interview with the Vampire. I also had a small recollection that it was based on a book. And I liked the characters of the first book so much that I'm still reading about them. Simple as that.

But enough about books. Read some if you want, don't if you don't want. Simple.

Christmas was and is no more. I'm back at office for the day to do the daily necessities and work on a few projects that need to be finished. Because they're truly hyper ultra important.

Christmas was quite nice even without the atmosphere we have in Finland. I got plenty of presents from back home and a nice watch from Chi. I had time to meet friends of Chi, and friends of my own. It's been really nice to have more free time since lately I've been doing a bit more work than I'd like. Got to do some cooking (though not Finnish Christmas-foods) and light some candles. Hah.

Also made a phone call home after such a long time since the last time. Now I even bought myself a nice microphone headset so I can call more often. My excuse so far has been my crappy laptop microphone that doesn't really work well for internet calls, and that I don't really want to make such calls from office. Well, the time of excuses are over.

Ah well, so life goes on. Now we wait for the changing of the year. It'll be 2008 soon, and I'll be 26 years old. Damn.

More to come later.

Have a happy one

Hereby falling into the cheesy standard of everyone else in the Western world, I wish you all a merry Christmas. Period. Have a happy one.

Plans for today are to have dinner with friends, and just basically socialize until evening. Then evening is for giving out presenst! Hurrah. Even being 8,000 kilometers from home I managed to get a good pile of stuff. Ha! Fun.

Gotta go now, however, before too much time passes.

Have a nice Christmas.

Christmas at 20 degrees Celcius

It's Christmas time in Hong Kong and the skies are white and the earth is green.
It's Christmas time in Hong Kong, it may not be right but I'm happy as a bean.


It's been a while. I've been working like a mad-man to get as much stuff off the way as possible so I can take the holiday season a bit easier. Next week I still have to go to work, but thanks to my extra-effort, I don't have too much stuff to do anymore, so I can pretty much take it easy for the whole next week. Nice.

This is my first Christmas not being at home. Feels a bit strange. But then, everything has changed since last January when I moved to Hong Kong, so why would this be any different. It's just a matter of circumstance. I did hope to have enough money at hand to visit Finland, but well, that never happened. Doesn't matter that much, I suppose. I can go during summer, and I still got some visitors coming in before that - bringing some fresh air from home.

There's not much of a "Christmas-mood" in Hong Kong for a Finn, I must admit. While the locals seem to be more or less committed to their local way of celebrating this religious spending-fest, as I Finn I just can't find "Christmas" from Hong Kong. I'm not saying it's very important to me right now, but it's just a notion I've made: It's Christmas but it just mostly annoys me here. In Finland, even if I didn't really care for Christmas, it still has that special little atmosphere. Oh, and I do like the atmosphere in Finland during Christmas - religious or not, commercial or not; it's just a nice season.

Well, have to make the best of it here. I was planning to buy some Christmas decoration to my apartment but finally voted agaist it. Too expensive, too much of a fuss to arrange everything. I will, however, probably try make-shift some food. It may not be traditional Christmas foods (I mean, ham is the only really good food during Christmas) but at least something Finnish. I can get ham of some sort from a few supermarkets, and maybe I can do some simple dishes to accomodate it. Since it'll be just me and Chi eating then, however, I need to keep everything to rather simple level not to exceed my budget and buy food that'll just end up in the garbage. I must think of the kids in Africa. And my wallet.

Sign of the times

Christmas is coming. In Hong Kong that is clear for anyone with functioning eyesight and hearing. This means, if you're not blind you can't miss the cheesy over-done Christmas lights and decoration; if you're not deaf you can't miss the cheesy Christmas tunes playing everywhere.

The irony is: the more they try to 'create' Christmas, the further they stray from what would be more authentic.

In fact, the only place in Hong Kong that even slightly has a 'Christmas'-feel to is the decoration outside one big office building, The Centre. There, simple layout of lights, white light in the trees, blue lights in the bushes, and no damned pictures of Santa Claus everywhere with his merry faggoty reindeer, and no damned "Christmas cone" (a Christmas 'tree' so overly decorated that it just looks like a cone with flashing lights and shiny decorative balls). Yes, The Centre is simplistic and hence much better than anything I've seen so far.

And that's all about that.

I made some rice porridge yesterday. I wanted to try how it comes out with the local rice and local milk. Albeit I probably kept it over the stove a bit too long, making it a bit dryer than it should be, I think it came out alright. The taste was good, and adding some sugar and cinnamon made me feel almost like home. A warm and fuzzy Christmas feeling. Add some cookies and a Christmas ham and you'll have all you need for a Merry Christmas.

Anyway, I offer some to Chi too. She, at first, is worried I'm again trying to poison her with the exotic foods from Finland. However, having a small taste of the porridge, she finds it surprisingly eatable, and even familiar in taste to the rice buns locals eat during Dragonboat festival. Then she added some soy sauce and tuna to the porridge. Come again? Yes, soy sauce and tuna.

Next time she cooks, I'll add ketchup to everything.

And to stop you wondering what's so awfully wrong about having some Christmas lights around, gaze upon the picture below and tell me it's not wrong, wrong, wrong.

Is it safe?

"Oh, we have one more here."
"Hmmh, ok."
"Yes, we need to fix that one up too."
"Hmmh, ok."

Drilling. Slight pain.
"How are you doing; does it hurt too much? Should we give you a shot?"
"Hmmh, no need, it's ok."
"Ok."

More drilling. More pain, not too bad though.
"Oh, this is a bit worse than I thought."

A bigger drill. Pressure. The familiar sound of a mosquito. Pain.
"There, that should do it."

I went to the dentist today. On Monday a filling chipped so I had to get it fixed. I can't honestly even remember when I last went to check my teeth but I know it's been a long time. I'm quite sure I've been at a dentist at least once after the army, but I've no recollection when.

It was a private clinic I went to. A really nice setting, as likable as any clean medical clinic. No fuzz. I signed in and waited for to be called in.

The experience itself was ok. The above conversation took place. Two cavities were found to company the chipped filling. Awesome. The ultimate dentist-drilling-experience was on its way. I never thought it too painful when they operate the drill, but I never liked it either. It's not of my favorite things, you know. I'd rather have my face put into a basket full of angry cats.

To those who are interested, the pricing of dental procedures is as follows:
- HKD 100 for a check-up
- HKD 500 for a filling
So, my little adventure cost me HKD 1,500. Nice.

I forgot to mention a few interesting things from my yesterday's post!

During the 10th anniversary ceremony, 10 young couples were also married. It's one of those group-wedding things I've seen in the Chinese media from time to time, but never saw it before live. And I suppose the number of the couples wasn't an accident either. They just wanted to do some silly gesture the Chinese love so much too. Stupid symbolism. It's their style though, so I let them have it.

During the Chinese banquet, a number of interesting foods were served. My policy towards exotic food has been such that I allow myself to try anything - as long as I see someone else eating the stuff before. A kind of a safety procedure to keep myself at bay from jokes on the stupid gweilo.

Anyway, among the interesting stuff at the banquet, I faced a new delicacy: Roasted sparrow fledgling. Yes, it was the whole small bird, roasted dark with its head and everything. Tasted like chicken.

Below some new picture material of the Christmas campaign of that local electronics store, Fortress. I know now it's not just in my head; there is something awfully wrong going on.

So, I was in China again....

So, I was in China again. Doing stuff. Being important. Doing my thing.
I honestly never liked going to China much. It's ok of a place, but it just doesn't feel comfortable to me. Maybe if I spoke the language more it would better, but as it is now, I just find it too alien. And yes, it's a lot different from experiences in Hong Kong.

First of all, China is gray. Actually, it's not gray but more like a khaki color. You know, the kind of brown-greenish color. No matter what time of the day, it just seems depressing. Ok, the nights are a bit better because you can't see so clear what a dump the place is. And I'm not saying this because I'm cruel - I'm saying this because that's how it seems to me.

This is probably a phenomenon in the "developed" parts of China where they are in a hurry of destroying everything in the way of progress, and investing only to the core structures - not cleaning up the mess. Maybe the best description of China is that it looks "unfinished". It's going somewhere but it ain't just there yet.

Second, the fact that the only Gweilo around gets staggering amounts of attention might sound like fun at first, but walking alone in the streets at evening makes you really of aware of the fact, that you're also making about 100 times more money than everyone else around - and you stick out like an albino black bear in a black bear convention. And you're basically inviting all the attention, both good and bad. Not a warm and fuzzy feeling, not feeling like a bear at all.

Going around in a group, of course, is ok. There's power in numbers.

Anyway. I received a good collection of funny memories from China again. It's a place where you never know what you'll get.

I saw three different Chinese men, who all looked and talked like Timo Kahilainen would, if he wanted to do a funny Chinaman character.

I saw a man, wearing a shirt that said "Sell the children for food". I don't know why, but I found that amusing.

I saw a car in the highway that had the Nazi coat of arms and a big black swastika painted at its door. I wanted to take a picture so bad but I was too late with my camera.

I saw many funny Japanese people, and they always do make me smile. Japanese are a completely own race of people, you know, they have a completely different way of going about.

Also, I went to a rather big celebration of a manufacturing company's 10th anniversary of operations. I went there with a few representatives of an partner company of ours who are one of the manufacturer's biggest clients. So, we were one of the honorary guests. That was fun albeit of no real benefit. Anyway, there was a big banquet again, like it is tradition, with lion dancing, singers, traditional dancers, musicians, and all sorts of performances. And a lot of food, of course (including one of my favorites, which is a small complete pork that is roasted and still has its head on and everything. And to make it less gruesome, they put cherry halves to cover its eyes), I really honestly like the banquet food.

I like China. I like a lot of things about. I like the idea of China. I just don't like the reality of China. Hong Kong is better, much better.

For me anyway.

Coming back to Hong Kong is always like coming back home. The streets feel safe, I know where I'm going at every turn, and I know I can survive with English if need be.

Oh, it's already December. I need to do some shopping for Christmas next weekend so I still have time to send the stuff to Finland. I don't yet know what I'll buy, but just walking around should give me good enough ideas. This place is full of stuff you can't get in Finland.

The Christmas-thing is actually quite interesting here. In America the politically correct way to say well-wishes is to wish "Happy holidays" because Christmas is a Christian holiday, and wishing Merry Christmas could offend a non-Christian. Silly, in my opinion. I never really understood the big issue of political correctness.

Anyway, in Hong Kong and also in China Christmas is Christmas. They don't give f*ck about it being a Christian holiday. They just want to spend money and give presents to everyone. They like the decorations, they like the theme of Santa Claus, and they like holiday spirit of Christmas. Of course despite the name, the Chinese don't consider Christmas being the birthday of Jesus our savior Lord. They don't give a rats ass about that either. It's just another shopping spree.

This is for the privileged of China, of course. Try wearing a Santa Claus costume in China countryside and ho-ho-ho! the people into Christmas spirit and you'll probably just get shot for being an annoying asshole.

If you got the money, you can have your spending experience that is called Christmas.

It's actually funny. I think many Chinese don't even understand the meaning of the word Christmas and it will probably end up a synonym for spending - perverting the original Christian idea completely. Ha, that's some anti-Western-culture-influence at works there.

So, let's all get our biggest Christmas socks, shove them up where the sun don't shine, and go out for a shopping spree! Christmas is here once again!