Last weekend I pretty much wasted all of Saturday laying in bed because, once again, I drank too much on friday. Needless to say that won't be happening again on this visit. In fact I haven't even had a beer (which is typically as cheap as water here) since then.

I made up for my wasted Saturday by filling Sunday with activity. First I headed down to Tsim Shai Tsui (TST) to see why my new custom shirt hadn't been delivered. Thankfully I did because it was too small. So I had them remake it along with a couple more (only $40 each). They were delivered on Tuesday and they are very well done. I actually have to go back because 2 of them still seem a little tight around my shoulders to me. While the tailors ability to measure seems to be lacking his ability to make a nice shirt is not.

After leaving the tailors I jumped on the MTR (train/subway) and rode out to Lantau Island to visit the "Big Buddha." The Buddha stop is actually the last on the line. Once there you have to take a bus for about 20 minutes, over a mountain, to reach the Buddha. The mountain road was very narrow at times and our bus nearly got into two head on collisions on the way down the backside with other buses that were coming up. The turns were all narrow and blind so our driver had to be quick on his break then backup the mountain a little to let the other bus get past. It was crazy. However, we all survived and arrived at the Big Buddha. And it is BIG.

Making the Buddha seem even more impressive is the fact that he sits on the top of a hill that you have to climb to get close. There are 250 stairs (plus 22 we couldn't climb) to reach the Buddha. While most of the people there, such as myself, just walked up the stairs there were others who stopped on each step, kneeled, and did a little hand flipping motion. Every step! The guy I saw doing it looked pretty worn out by the time he reached the top.

The Buddha is actually semi-surrounded by 6 smaller bronze statues who look to be offering him gifts. After I walked around there a little I headed inside the base of the statue where there is a small, unimpressive museum. However, you can, and I did, buy a vegetarian meal ticket which you can use to enter a special part of the museum and see a "RELIC". The relic is some kind of bone or rock (it's white) that supposedly was left behind when the Buddha entered some kind of nirvana (it started with an S.). The relic was very, very small and was recessed back a ways from where we could stand - plus it was embedded in some kind of container where it rested in a little bowl. Basically all we could see was the alter that held the relic. I'm not even certain a relic was there.

Finally I left the Buddha and walked down to the main temple area and watched some Monks do some praying and got smoked out by some insane quantities of incense. I was told not to take photos of the Monks and I couldn't take photos in the museum or of the Relic. There seems to be a real aversion to photography at all of the big tourist places. This has to drive the local tourists crazy because they all have amazing camera's that they are basically denied the ability to use. I don't understand it.

I never did use my vegetarian meal ticket to actually get food; I just bought it so I would be allowed to see the Relic - I'm a sucker. Finally I hopped on a bus and rode back to the MTR station (it was much less eventful on the way back) and started the long ride back to Hong Kong. Except I decided to get off at Sunny Bay and switch MTR lines from the Tian Tan line to the Disney Express line. That's right, I went to DisneyLand Hong Kong.

If you have been to a Disney before (California or Florida for instance) you have seen all that Disney Hong Kong has to offer and then some. It is very small. The entire park is about the same size as main street at either of the other two. It was very, very small. However, at the same time, it was kind of neat. They have a Main Street that looks just like a mini-main street Disney World. They have a very scaled down facade of Cinderella's castle and they have a tomorrow-land and an adventure-land. Inside adventure land they had a "pirate land" too which seems to be a capitalization on the recent Johnny Depp "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise.

I spent a little time in each part of the park. I bought the girls some Hong Kong "anniversary" pins (1st and 2nd anniversary of the park). Then I rode space mountain which, just like the rest of the park, seemed a little smaller and less impressive than it's US counterparts. Finally I went and watched a live Lion King show over in adventure-land. The show was actually pretty well done and was, surprisingly mostly in English. There were two guys who played odd little "monkey" type characters that would occasionally interject some Chinese (I would suspect Cantonese since it is in Hong Kong but I'm not certain). There were two guys who spun flaming batons which seemed to really impress most of the crowd and the singing by the main characters was pretty good. I thought the stage itself was the most impressive as it incorporated these big animal things that moved all over the place plus the stage changed height a few times during the course of the show.

Finally, I left and headed back to my hotel room for some sleep. It was a long day and I was pretty tired. I took a ton of photos (many of which are linked throughout this post) plus I have a bunch more I didn't put up on the web.

This weekend I plan on going to Macau and the worlds largest Casino. My original plan was to go to Beijing but there are no flights returning to Hong Kong on Sunday so it made my choice of weekend activities pretty easy. So to Macau I go! I'll try some Blackjack and keep the legend of "mobile gambling" alive.

#MyLife #Travel #Photos

Yes, I have been remiss this past little while in not posting an update. I apologize. However, I will try to make up for that by posting today (along with a lot of photos)and again early next week. Hopefully that will appease the angry masses who clamor for more news of my adventures in SE Asia.

While I can't really talk much about work - and you would be bored to hear about it - I can say that things seem to be going pretty well. I will be having my first delivery, if all goes well, tomorrow afternoon. Then I will have the next two weeks to finish up the second delivery before heading home and doing a major overhaul of the underlying framework. It should be interesting and should prove to keep me very, very busy.

I ended my last work week on an interesting note by heading out to a local bar called "Stormies" with a bunch of the other people who really work here. Stormies is a popular Expat bar that plays a bunch of 80's music and has decent prices on beer. We stayed there for a while and then four of the people I was with decided they wanted to head to Wan Chai to troll the bars there for more activity as Stormies was too dull for them. So in a cab we hopped (all five of us, four uncomfortably wedged in the back seat) and we headed to Wan Chai.

I had been warned about Wan Chai not only being the seat of some exciting bar/dance action but also as the home of the Hong Kong island Red Light District. Now, I have been to a few different seedy locations in my time but I wasn't fully prepared for the aggressive onslaught of the prostitutes of Hong Kong. I would guess that few of them were actually Chinese - they appeared to be more Indonesian or Filipino. Some were even very, very attractive; however the overall overbearing nature of the legions of prostitutes was really just too much. It got old very fast. However, I was the only sober one of the five of us and I had told the others, before we left, I would look out for them. Eventually, I just got too tired to wait for the last of the bunch to decide to call it a night so I hailed a cab at 3am.

It turns out over the course of the night I had actually drank quite a bit of gin so I wasn't as sober as I thought by the time I got back to the hotel. I went to bed pretty quickly and then woke up a few times before finally falling into a restful slumber at about 7am. I woke up at 11am when the hotel called and told me they wanted to deliver my laundry and again at 2pm when they called to ask when they could clean my room. Clearly the "Do Not Disturb" sign on my doorknob wasn't very effective. Finally I got out of bed, showered, and headed out for some food. I didn't really do much of note on Saturday except walk around some new parts of Hong Kong near my hotel.

Sunday was a more typical weekend day for me here. I decided to do two things. The first was to visit Stanley which is a town on the south side of the island that is sort of famous for it's market and some beaches nearby. In order to get to Stanley I headed downtown and hopped a double-decker bus and rode up on the top in the very front which proved to be a great place to sit and get some photos.

It took a while but eventually I reached Stanley and for the first time since I have been here it was very sunny - no clouds at all. Of course I don't own sunglasses and I hadn't brought sunscreen to Stanley so I had to stop off and buy both. You can't buy cheap-o knock of sunglasses where I was at - at least I couldn't find any (until later) so I ended up buying some ridiculously expensive sunglasses - I think the most I had ever paid for sunglasses before was about $15 - these were ten times that. It was stupid. The pharmacy where I bought the sunscreen was a little local thing and after I bought it the clerk gave me a free sample bottle of the same sunscreen. Why did I have to buy the bottle then? Of course I couldn't return it.

With unnecessary expenses out of the way I started to walk around Stanley and one of the first places I visited was the Hong Kong Maritime Museum. It was pretty cool and they had some amazing scale models of various ships throughout the history of Hong Kong. Another cool feature was this screen that displayed the Hong Kong harbor from way back in the early 1900's all the way to today sort of morphing gradually between different periods. I actually managed to take a few photos in the museum before someone there told me I wasn't allowed to take photos. That seems to be a pretty normal restriction around here - heck I couldn't even take a photo of a neat lobby in an office building I walked through. It is crazy.

After the museum I headed over to the market and the coast line. First I walked out on some rocky outcroppings (almost killing myself in the process thanks to some being exceptionally slippery) and then I headed down the alleys that make up the market. I was unimpressed so I worked my way back to the bus station for a ride to stop number 2 of the day - The Peak.

Before I could get to the Peak let me just remind you how rich people here are. As I was riding around on the bus I saw one Bentley drive by, 4 Ferrari's and a Lamborghini. I have now seen around 10 distinct Ferrari's, 4 Bentleys, and on Lamborghini. I think I also saw an Aston Martin but it was a little far away so I'm not sure. The Lamborghini was the first I have ever seen in person. I actually managed to get two photos of it as it drove away from me.

On the way to the Peak I again sat on the top level but someone beat me to the front seat. About halfway there the couple in the front had to go downstairs because the girl had gotten sick (motion is very exaggerated on the second floor) so I took her seat. True, there was some vomit on the floor next to it but the view was substantially better. Finally I arrived at the Peak and had a nice middle-aged Canadian woman give me some guidance when I arrived so I wouldn't waste too much time wandering around looking for the lookout points. The Peak, by the way, is the highest point on the island (I'm not sure it is the absolute highest but it is the highest point I could get to on this side of the island and still have a great view).

The view from the peak is very nice - however almost as soon as I arrived a cloud bank did as well - I had clearly left the sunny skies back in Stanley with the $150 I dropped on sunglasses that I probably won't wear again while I'm here (sensing buyers remorse? good!). I took a bunch of photos from the Peak and even a little bit of video of the clouds sweeping around me. It was cool it was just like I was walking in the clouds.

Finally I rode the tram (a cable supported box) back down the mountain to the main part of Hong Kong (but a part I hadn't been in before) and then I walked back to my hotel stopping on the way for dinner (and some more of that Death By Chocolate dessert - yum!).

Last night three of the guys I work with and I headed out across the harbor to Tsim Shai Tsui (TST) for sushi. I have had sushi just about twice before (once a long time ago in California with my friend Chuck) and the second time on a cruise with Lisa. Neither time really prepared me for the sushi joint we ate at last night. First off the sushi was far more varied and secondly it seemed expensive because of the HK pricing. In the end the four of us combined ate for just around $100 so it wasn't bad at all - but it seemed like it was as we went. I ate a lot of salmon, eel, and a little bit of shrimp. I also had some "Fatty tuna" which is supposed to be really good but I thought it was over powered by the soy sauce and wasabi.

After separating from the other three after dinner I wandered around TST for a bit and encountered yet another of the thousands of tailors in the area. This time, however, I actually ordered a custom shirt be made. I paid in advance (apx $44 US) and it is a french cuff shirt, with a pretty nice blue/white checkered pattern (I normally don't like checks as they are too busy but this one is more calm). It has a standard "italian style" collar so I can use my fancy collar stays, and a front pocket. I also had the guy install a little innovation I thought of between the top two buttons. Basically, I don't like how a non-buttoned down collar shirt flares open enough to show my t-shirt. So I had him install a little hook that should be invisible when it is in use halfway between those buttons that will control the collar flare. He will be delivering the shirt to my hotel tomorrow morning so I'm pretty anxious to see how it works out. I'll take a photo for you.

This weekend I plan on going to see the Giant Buddha which is on a small island near here and trying to visit the China Visa office to get a tourist Visa so I can go to Beijing the following weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for me because I would love to see the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and the Summer Palace to name a few things. I think it is a 3 hour flight from here to there so I will end up spending a night. I really hope I can do it.

#HongKong #MyLife #Travel #Photos

So, today I walked all along the antique street in Hong Kong - Hollywood Road - but most of the shops were closed. At the end of the road I encountered a temple, the Man Mo Temple that is dedicated to two different Gods and is responsible for raising charity money for hospitals - it's like the Chinese version of the Shriners! The temple was cool though the air was thick with incense that worshipers had burned in offering. After I left there I wandered around a bit more and witnessed some other ritual on a street that involved incense and a dead pig. I'm not entirely sure what was going on but I believe it has something to do with the fact that this month is the Ghost Month. There are all sorts of little offering places setup along the buildings on the sidewalk.

After wandering around the area of Hong Kong known as Sheung Wan I took the HTR down to Causeway Bay and discovered yet more high end shopping. As it turns out I needed a couple of things so I searched for collar stays and undershirts - real fancy eh? Well, on the flight over I read all about collar stays and it turns out there are more than just your garden variety of plastic collar stays. You can get all sorts of different kinds - most of the time I would think, "Why" but fortunately the aforementioned article anticipated my question and answered - If you forget a plastic one in your collar it can melt when you iron your shirt. A metal stay is a better choice - they won't bend or melt! So, I bought some fancy gold collar stays. Gold you say? Yes - Gold. A bit frivolous for sure but they were only about $60US and now I should never have to worry about ruining a $60 shirt by melting a collar stay in one. Seems like a decent investment when I look at it that way. Of course, my co-workers will give me shit over it but oh well.

I actually had a really hard time finding t-shirts that were white and my size. There were plenty of black ones - but I really didn't want a black undershirt. Finally I found a place called Marks and Spencer that had plain old normal white crew neck undershirts so I bought a pair. They were far more reasonable at just under $20 for the pair. Then I headed back to the central area to have dinner.

I took a different set of trains on the MTR than I normally would because I accidentally got off at the Admiralty stop (one before Central) and it actually worked out well because I was able to go straight up to the Central building instead of IFC mall which is actually out of my way. However, once I got there it was a bit too early for dinner really so I walked around and then stopped in Lan Kwai Fang at a British pub called Bulldogs where I watched Liverpool play some soccer and I had a 2-1 Guinness draft. Afterwards I was debating on where to go to dinner - a Scandinavian place called F.I.N.D.S. or an Australian joint called Wagyu which is actually named after the type of steak it specializes in [[Wagyu]]. Wagyu is basically Australian Kobe Beef. Now, I have never had Kobe beef so Wagyu won out even though it was expensive - $480HKD for an 8 oz filet (the exchange rate is about 7.75HKD-1USD). It turns out it was worth every penny. Not only was the steak ridiculously tender and flavorful - it basically just melted under the knife as I cut it - but it was just the right size. After I ate dinner I decided to further indulge myself and have dessert via "Death By Chocolate" which, while it didn't kill me did let me visit heaven just briefly. This was, by far, the best chocolate dessert I have ever had. "Death By Chocolate" is composed of a layer of thick and rich chocolate mousse on top of which rested the absolute best Chocolate Ice Cream I have ever had, and then heavy rich chocolate brownie chunks and strawberries. It was really exceptional; however it was so rich I couldn't finish it all - so I ended up leaving just a touch of the Mousse behind. All in all, after tip, I had finished the most expensive dinner I have ever had (just around $100). It was fabulous. This whole pretending to be rich thing was fun!

Because I had over indulged at dinner I walked back up the stairs (instead of using the escalator) to get back to my hotel. The dinner was so good I had a smile on my face the entire walk up the hill, a hill which probably involved 300 stairs to ascend.

As this is the first day of week 2 I am starting a new web album for photos. I'm starting with 16 from what I saw today ranging from the temple, to the pig ritual thing, to some interesting parts of a market. Enjoy!

#HongKong #MyLife #Travel #Photos

Yesterday was a rough day for me in Hong Kong. To start with I woke up very tired. I think the prior 15.1 hour work day may have taken it's toll on me. However, I got up and did my normal morning routine and, if I do say so myself, was looking really good in this new shirt we bought in NY, and then headed out. It was my first day where I was going to get to the office after 8 - I got here at about 8:10 but I was the third person here. At about 9:30 I was feeling pretty hungry so I headed across the street to Starbucks to buy a scone and a hot cocoa. This was my first mistake of the day.

The Hot Cocoa must have been loaded with sugar because my body almost instantly became unhappy. My stomach was cramping up and, just what I didn't need in hot and humid Hong Kong - I started to sweat. Sure, you may be thinking why did I order a hot drink in hot Hong Kong - well chocolate sounded good and I'm a sucker for chocolate sometimes. Anyway I just soldiered on and ignored my bodies complaints until lunch time. I figured I could get something solid to eat and everything would be fine. I asked my local manger for a recommended place for lunch and he suggested a joint called "Cosmos" - some kind of "healthy food" place. They have these take out "box" lunches that are sitting in a fridge and that they will heat up for you. I picked a chicken and brown rice combo and was lured in by the big menu board behind the cashier hawking their smoothies. I really like smoothies so I ordered the 4-fruit smooth; strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and banana. Mistake number 2!

My stomach was in fits at this point so I decided to head into a little pharmacy that sat between my building and Cosmos to get some [[loperamide]]. Now, cosmos gives you a really nice bag for "take away" orders. Its got a cardboard bottom and nice rope handle. Inside there rested my box lunch (in a cardboard box) and my drink in a plastic cup with a plastic bubble lid that was sealed shut. The cup was actually in a cardboard thing-a-ma-jig that helped keep it from falling over in the bag - a pretty nice setup really - except that as I entered the pharmacy the cup fell over in my bag anyway. It only spilled a little - a few drops really before I saved it and stood it back up. Then I just carried the bag at an incline so the cup couldn't fall again. With my immodium in hand I headed back to my desk to eat and treat myself.

The food was pretty good and the smoothie was nice too. I threw the trash away and then addressed my keyboard only to spot, out of the corner of my eye, a big red splotch right in the middle of my new shirt. A shirt I was really admiring earlier in the day because it was cut so much better than the rest of my shirts. Dammit, now it had a big red stain! Some of that spill from when the drink was in my bag had crept down the cup and fallen on my shirt. Too top it off my stomach still felt like crap. So back downstairs I went to the pharmacy in hopes I could find a stain stick. Of course I have both immodium and a stain stick back at my hotel room and the pharmacy didn't have a stain stick. My room is about 30 minutes away and at this point I was feeling so sleepy I thought if I went there I would just go back to bed - not a good option. So, instead I headed upstairs and asked if there was somewhere nearby that might sell a stain stick. My manager sent me down the road to a small grocery store.

Grocery stores here are small - it's part of the nature of the beast that is Hong Kong - space is limited and the only stores that are huge are big name brands like Versaci or something - not grocery stores. So of course the Park and Pack I was in didn't have anything even remotely like a stain stick. However, there was an older French lady shopping there who was kind enough to tell me about a nicer grocery over at the International Finance Center (IFC) called city super. I was there! Except I didn't really know how to get to the IFC - but how hard could it be, it's the tallest building in Hong Kong.

As it turns out it is pretty hard. You can't see the tallest building through all of the other tall but not tallest buildings. However, I'd been there twice - both times while I was working so all I had to do was backtrack to my office and follow the path we had taken the on the prior two trips. Good idea in theory but in practice I had to have actually paid attention to the path we had taken on those two trips. The thing is I have been in constant catch-up mode in learning about all the technologies I have to work with since I got here - and on the trips over to the IFC I've been talking to the other team members about various topics - focusing on their answers and not on the path we took. So, basically, I had no idea how to get to the IFC.

That didn't stop me from trying though. A neat feature of Hong Kong is, because it is so hot, humid and rainy, you can get from one part of the central area to another without ever going outside. That is basically how we had gotten to the IFC before. You enter one building and then just cross over streets into others via overpasses. I had a basic idea of how our trip to the IFC started but before long I was in a huge square building with a one or two major entry points at each corner. I was pretty sure I didn't have to go to a different floor but I had no idea which cardinal direction to travel in let alone which of the exits at each corner I should take so I just started going down each to see if any felt familiar. The problem was none of them did. Finally, some Australian guy walked by and I asked him where to go to get to the IFC. At that point I was in the exact opposite corner from where I needed to be. He told me to just follow the signs to the "Airport Express" and I couldn't miss the IFC and sure enough he was right. About ten minutes later I was at the entrance to the IFC.

The first two floors of the IFC are a big mall full of fancy name brand clothes and shoes. Name brands here aren't "Levi's" or "Nike" they are "Prada" and "Tiffany". Somewhere in this mix was the City Super that, hopefully, had my stain stick. The floor layout is sort of circular so I just picked a direction and started walking - of course, from my entry point I picked the "wrong" direction as I had to walk nearly 3/4 of the circle before I reached the store. Not to be anti-climatic or anything but they did have a Tide to Go pen which took the stain out of my shirt without a problem.

Now all I had to do was find my way back. Not a big deal until I got back to the square that caused me all of the problems in the first place. By this point my stomach was in agony and I had no idea which way to go. However, I knew I was in the Central part of Hong Kong so I just headed to the Central Building and sure enough it got me close enough where I could find my way and I started to recognize parts of the hallways as somewhere I had been before that day. Eventually I made it back to the office. However I only stayed until 6:30 because I wanted to do 2 things that night; 1. go back to the IFC and make sure I could complete the trip without difficulty because that is where the traders for my Client work and where I may have to go by myself for work at some point and 2. Eat an early dinner and get some sleep.

The IFC trip at this point was a no brainer. So I completed it and then headed up the escalators to the part of town called "SoHo" for dinner. Most of the restaurants there are European and feature pretty similar meals. I wandered around for a bit looking for one that seemed a little better, saw a Lotus (car) for the first time, before settling on "Boca" because there were more people there and I thought it would be nice to hear voices. However, I had to wait about 15 minutes for a table and then, after I ordered, I found out it would take 30 minutes for them to make my meal - clearly I had picked the wrong place. My meal finally arrived and it was huge - way too much food. So I ate about 1/4 of it and then waited patiently to catch the eye of a waitress so I could get my check. Eventually I did and I left $350HKD (or honkies!) lighter. By the time I made it back to my hotel room it was 10:30. So much for going to bed early.

Fortunately, I slept well and I woke up today feeling much better - both my energy and my stomach.

#HongKong #Work #MyLife #Geekiness #Travel

Yesterday I finished my first official day of work in Hong Kong. It was fairly uneventful and kind of boring. I spent the majority of the day getting my machine setup and configured so that I could actually start working today. However, there were a few things about the day that stood out. First and foremost is how quiet everyone is here. I had thought perhaps I experianced an anomoly on Sunday because it was a weekend but Monday was no different. The full 1million+ people were downtown at lunch time but it was pretty quiet. The office I work in is a microcosm of the greater silence. There are about 40 people here and the loudest sound I hear is the clacking of my keyboard. I enquired with my local project manager and sure enough he said this is pretty typical of working in China. This phenomena was further exemplified by my visit to the trading floor where I met with the lead end user of the software I'm working on. The trading floor was full of traders and all of them were busy working but their was almost no sound. There was no yelling or waving of hands with paper. People were moving around in a hustle - they were all just sitting in their chairs and getting work done. Granted, this wasn't a stock exchange trading floor but the banks private trading floor so that should explain some of it but with that many people on the phone and working you would think there would have been a bit more noise.

I did get to have some good food yesterday which was a nice change of pace. I started off with a pretty good Kebab lunch. There is a little street near here called "Rat Alley" with a bunch of small eateries and right around the corner was this little Kebab place. I had a mixed lamb/chicken kebab - spicy - and it was very tasty. Much better than the "Pita Pit" back home. Once I got off work (after about 13 hours) I was hungry but very tired so I was going to just skip dinner but as I went back up the cities escalators I came across a small section of town called "SoHo" that my PM told me had some good restaurants - I had tried to eat here the night previously but nothing was open when I thought of it. This time I stopped at ate at a little mediterranean join that sat above a bar. I had Paella with Seafood (mussels, shrimp, clams, salmon, and tuna) and it was really really good. I will probably end up eating there again before I leave.

The crazy thing is I still haven't had any good Chinese food. So far the two best meals I have had are greek and spanish. What's up with that? I just need someone to direct me to a good Chinese place.

I need to remember to bring my camera to work beause my view from the office is even better than my view from the hotel. I'll try to post that as soon as possible.

#HongKong #Work #MyLife #Travel

I left on friday morning flying out of the Charleston WV airport at 6:30am. I arrived 50+ minutes later in Chicago at 7:30am Local time. The wait in Chicago was long. My flight left there at 12:30pm which, while waiting for, I upgraded to Economy Plus on my flight. I couldn't upgrade to business class because I didn't have any frequent flyer miles with United. On my flight into Chicago I sat besides a friendly and chatty guy from Wyoming then on my flight from Chicago I sat beside a friendly and chatty guy from Kansas City. The guy from Kansas City travels to Hong Kong about 5 times a year so he gave me a couple tips on how to navigate the airport upon arrival and he told me that I can actually visit a lot more of China than I expected. He then took some sleeping pill and slept for most of the flight. He was kind enough to let me know I can get beer/drinks for free on an international flight - so I had a bit of gin and orange juice with my first lunch which was a "Southern Beef BBQ". We were fed three times on the flight. The first meal (the BBQ) then a snake of chinese noodles (alot like Top Raman) and a cookie, and then a a hot turkey and cheddar sandwich.

The flight was seemingly endless. I slept for about 2 hours after the first meal then watched the following movies "Premonition", "Shrek the Third", and "Next" I also read most of a book, a newspaper, and three magazines. However, eventually we landed in Hong Kong at about 5pm Saturday without incident.

The process getting off was pretty smooth. I found a place to convert my money and get an "octopass" which you can use to ride the public transportation or to buy things at alot of different stores. I then went through customs which involved them stamping my passport and sending me on my way. I had to take my hat off when I went through security and they scanned everyone who walked through with a heat sensor. The terminal was really large - and really empty. It has clearly been built to support far more traffic than I saw coming in. Finally I had to take a small train to the baggage claim area and then I was off to the train to ride to the Hong Kong Island. Once the train arrived at the "Central Station" I had to get a cab. I gave the cabbie my hotel's address (written in Cantonese) and I was off. $24HKD or about 3.25 US later and the Cabbie dropped me off on the wrong side of the street for my hotel (The Bishop Lei International House) so I had to navigate the traffic with my bags. Check-in was uneventful and I am very happy with my room; pleasantly surprised with it's size. I have a small living room with a tv and minibar fridge (which I will use to store some of my own stuff in, a nice, but small, bathroom, and a bedroom that is almost filled by the bed. However, the room feels far larger thanks to the floor to ceiling windows and the great views. After I had gotten all of my clothes unpacked and stowed away I headed to the hotels restaurant for dinner then I came back to my room and went to bed at about 9pm.

Today I woke up around 7am and got ready for the day then I just started to wander around Hong Kong. To be honest the fact that I am here is just starting to sink in. The air stinks and my breakfast was really bad. I think I ate at something like a Hong Kong version of McDonalds. It was very cheap (about $3.50 US) but it wasn't worth that much. The air is not only smelly it is also very humid. The organization of this island is pretty windy and there are a bunch of hills. My hotel is in the "Mid Level" and all of the business stuff is down on the lower part. There are actually covered escalators to help you get between the two but they only travel in one direction and today they were going down. Perhaps in the evening they go back up? I was pretty comfortable walking around in my jeans and shirt but they were too much on the walk back up to the hotel. The hill is pretty steep and I was sweating really heavily by the time I got back. During my walk around I did find a bunch of pubs and other places to eat and I found where I will be working starting tomorrow; so it is nice to have that out of the way. This afternoon I'm going back out and I am going to try and find a grocery or market to buy some water for the room and maybe some bananas. Hopefully my next meal will be better as well.

It rained a bit earlier while I was sitting here and now the sky has really cleared up a lot and my visibility is great. I can see all the way to Kowloon (mainland Hong Kong). Each week I am going to upload photos to a new album on the webpage. Here are the first of this weeks photos.

My Menus So Far

Dinner Last Night

Pan fried Duck with a sauce
Apple Salad
Ox-Tongue Salad
Beer: Tsing Tao

Breakfast today
Scrambled Egg with tomato, corn, and onion (didn't taste right)
Toast (OK)
Chicken and Mushroom Sausage (not good)
Tea (very bad and I like tea)

#HongKong #Work #MyLife #Travel

I have been remiss in getting information on this blog but that is due, in large part, to how incredibly busy I have been the last couple of months. As you may already know our house was hit by lightning and our front tree was knocked down. However, we also took a trip to my mom's house for her commitment ceremony in upstate NY and then we swung by Hershey Park in Pennsylvania on our way home. Once we made it back to the familiar territory I was deluged with work. Our company has never been so busy - and thus - nor have I.

While I can't say much about the work I am doing I can say that I have been very busy. I have been doing some normal annual work for one client, building a totally new product for another, helping finalize and tweak another product for another client, and now I am also learning about a homegrown finance application used by a big banking institution. I have been learning about it in anticipation my going to Hong Kong for about 5 weeks to work directly with the end users in the client's offices there. It is pretty exciting but also a touch stressful. It seems like it is a huge opportunity for both myself and the company so I really want to do the best I can. I'm pretty stoked about going and think it will be both challenging and fun at the same time.

I don't know how often I will blog while I am there but I hope to get one post in each week to kind of sum up what I saw and did. I am hoping I get a little bit of time to be a tourist but I'm not currently planning on having much. I will, however, take as many photos as I can and, as usual, I will share the best with you here.

Once I have a bit more time I will blog more fully about the trip to my Mom's and provide some photos for that as well. Who knows, maybe I will get to at least write the rough draft of that post on the flight to Hong Kong. I'm only going to be in transit for about 20 hours so you never know. I have to read a book and do some work for one of those other clients while on the flight.

#Work #MyLife #Travel

Joe and I, along with a group of guys assembeled from the Charleston-Huntington corridor, have been playing Ultimate Frisbee in Hurricane every week. The overall level of play is much higher than what we dealt with in Huntington and it has been pretty fun. Not only do most of these guys play better than the guys in Huntington but they are more committed to getting out and playing. In fact, a few weeks ago we played in the snow when it was 26F outside. Therefore, it came as no surprise to me when one of the guys, Mike, scheduled a mini-tournament for us in Morgantown, WV against WVU, Marshall, and maybe some schools for PA. Nor was I surprised that most of the guys were willing to head up there (where it is typically colder.)

The mini-tournament took place last Saturday but ended up being just a scrimmage between us and WVU as both Marshall and the PA teams back out (probably because it was only 29F and snowing). We played two games against the 'Eers. I had expected the matches to be really close but it turns out we had a better day and won both games 13-3 and 13-5. I think, without Nate, our games would have been much closer. However, I also think that once we start using actual offensive strategies, that we will be much better as an offensive team - our defense was pretty good.

I'm hoping we can get involved in a few more contests with other people, though, preferably, in better weather next time. If you live in the area (Cincinnati - Columbus - Pittsburgh) and would like to play then let us know - we may be willing to travel or host you here for some Ultimate fun.

#Sports #MyLife #Travel

As you may know we went to Disney World last week. We were there for about six days and did a ton. Amazingly, we still didn't do everything and we only rode two rides more than once (both of those were during "extended hours" we paid extra for); however, we did have a lot of fun - especially Shannon. This image of Shannon links to about fifty of the 400 plus images from the week.

The trip started out smoothly with a flight from Charleston, WV to Atlanta where we caught our connector and headed south to Orlando. We actually had a delay in leaving Charleston (about 30-45 minutes) but it wasn't important because it just reduced our layover in Atlanta. Emily slept on both flights but Shannon had some issues going into Orlando and suffered some inner ear pain. She dealt with it pretty well (though I'm sure the guy right in front of her probably disagrees. We then shuffled through the airport to baggage claim (where Disney had already claimed our bags) and then loaded on a shuttle bus we had to wait about five minutes for. The bus (a rather nice one) took us to the hotel (All Star Music) at which point we unloaded, checked in, and then had our first meal at the All Star Music Cafe.

The food was barely passable. I had spaghetti and, while it was decent, it was barely enough and made me nervous about our dining plans for the trip. Lisa had done her homework and had bought our park tickets in a package that included a meal plan, hotel accommodations, and park tickets. It was a great deal but I wasn't really thrilled with the meal plan. Each day, on the plan, we had a "counter service", a "sit down service", and a snack. We used our "counter service" for lunch (except that first meal and our "sit down" for dinner. A counter service meal consisted of a main course, a dessert, and a drink. You must select all three before you go to the checkout (you can't get the meal piece-meal) or else you miss out on whichever parts you had not decided on. Of course, I didn't know this when I arrived. I was taking care of Emily and our meals. I grabbed some food for her and my spaghetti, a chocolate milk for her, and planned on getting a fountain drink. I didn't bother with dessert selection because I was hoping to have ice cream and didn't want it to melt while I ate my dinner. The cashier, William, was less than friendly and basically told me I was out of luck on the dessert plan. Had I had dessert the amount of food would have been fine (as it was the rest of the week) but that night I wasn't very happy. Fortunately, my later experiences with the food plan were better.

After dinner we headed to our room which was a family suite; a new concept on the Disney properties that took what was formerly two separate rooms and combined them into one. The room was nicely sized. Half consisted of a living room and a bathroom while the other half held the bedroom, a small kitchenette, and another bathroom. The living room had a couch, a large chair/love seat, and a very large ottoman. Each of those three pieces folded out into beds (a queen, and two singles respectively). There was also a 27" tv and a small "bistro" table with two chairs. The kitchenette had a microwave, a dorm fridge, a small sink, and some paper dishes (Disney themed of course). Considering the room was barely more expensive than two rooms and we had the kitchenette I was pretty happy with the accommodations. However, our bags hadn't arrived from the airport yet and the girls pj's and all of our toiletries were in them. We waited up until nearly 10 with the girls before we gave up. Lisa and I stayed awake until 11:30 but the bags still didn't arrive so we decided to go to sleep. Lisa had called the front desk earlier and told them to deliver the bags regardless of the hour which, unfortunately, meant I was awoken at 3am by the guy with our luggage. He had knocked a couple times before I got out of bed then tried to open the door to the room (which we had latched) so, for a second, I thought someone was trying to break in. The door to the room enters into the living room and, amazingly, once all the bags were in and the bellboy was gone, the girls were still asleep. I took their cue and went back to bed myself.

The next morning we got up, got dressed, and headed to the Magic Kingdom. Shannon and Emily were very excited! We got into the main gate and immediately found some characters who were signing autographs and getting their photos taken; starting with Chip and Dale. At this first stand there was a professional photographer who handed out a "photo pass" card which you could use all over all of the parks. Basically, all of the Disney photographers would scan your card and then the photos they took would be connected to your account; later you can view those photos online and decide if you want to buy the whole package ($99 for up to 300 different photos on one CD). We then went around the first building, rented a stroller (about $100 for the entire trip; but well worth it for reasons I will explain later) and then got in line so the girls could meat Pluto and Daisy. Once we were done with that we headed down main street, checked out a couple stores, saw a small "Oklahoma" type rendition on a street car, and then saw a neat musical thing involving dreams and nightmares on the patio in front of Cinderella's castle. Once that was over we called Ted (my older brother) who was also coming to Disney with his family. They were nearly at the front gate so we headed back up main street and joined up with them for the start of a fun filled week.

Now that we were all together (Lisa, Me, Shannon, Emily, Ted, Cyndy , Austin (11), and Heather (7)) we headed for the first set of rides which included "It's a Small World" and "Dumbo". The girls (Shannon, Emily, and Heather) really liked all of the rides in that part of the park. Then we headed off toward "tomorrowland" where we rode a ride just like "Dumbo" but with Rockets and then Space Mountain!

Shannon is a little timid about rides and had, earlier in the day, waited in line for the haunted house before backing out at the last second so I was pretty sure she wouldn't want to go on Space Mountain. Heather, on the other hand, wanted to go on every ride and had no hesitation about the Haunted House or Space Mountain. If you haven't been there before Space Mountain is a roller-coaster, but it is inside and isn't an obviously "scary ride" so Shannon wanted to go with Heather. I looked at her surprised but didn't disillusion her - I wanted her to go on as many rides as possible. We waited in line (for about 10-20 minutes) listening to very mellow mood music and looking at peaceful holograms. Finally, when it was almost our turn on the ride I saw that Shannon would have to sit alone (I had thought it would be like the rest of the Disney rides were you sit two in a row). Shannon decided the order of seating would be Austin, her, Heather, me, Ted, and Cyndy. We piled in (I was pretty nervous for her) and the ride took off. The first few turns were cool and you could hear Shannon saying "Wee!!!". By the way, this ride is mostly in the dark so you can't see what is coming. Shortly after those first two turns we hit the first "drop" and the wee turned into a paniced scream for me. I yelled back that she was alright, I was there, and that the ride is fun. I repeated my mantra "This is fun Shannon, I'm right here" until the ride stopped. After I unloaded she staggered out of the ride and walked/stumbled with her arms outstretched in, what appeared to be, a state of shock, until I picked her up. Then she cried briefly until I told her how brave she was and that she did something even her mom wouldn't do. That perked her up and she seemed to recover well. She wasn't interested in going on it again but she spoke positively about the ride the rest of the week.

Later that night we headed to the Contemporary Hotel via the monorail and had our first "character dinner" at Chef Mickey's diner. There we ate from a decent buffet and the girls got the chance to meet Mickey, Minny, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy. Shannon really enjoyed it and Emily started to warm up to the idea of giant stuffed animals wanting to hug her. She still wouldn't do it without me holding her but you could tell she was loosening up. Shannon, on the other hand, needed no encouragement and would run and hug the various characters. She also took a book with her that she used as an autograph book. Over the course of the week she must have gotten close to fifty different signatures from various characters (some of them more than once). She really, really, enjoyed meeting the characters.

The second day we went to the Animal Kingdom where we saw some cool creatures, dinosaur bones, and shows including a 3-d movie involving "Flick" from "Ants." At some point during the day we had to split up so that Ted, Austin, and I could go on the Mt. Everest roller coaster while the girls went to see Rafiki and another show. At the show Shannon and Heather were pretty outspoken and drew the attention of the singer/songwriter who was leading things. He then changed up a song to be all about how the two of them Invented Everything! From that point on if you asked Shannon she invented whatever you had in your hand ranging from the stroller to the chicken we ate for lunch. We also went on a safari ride were we saw a bunch of animals roaming around including a pride of Lions. At some point during this day Emily started to feel a little funky and didn't really have much energy. At this point the stroller came in very handy.

We had considered bringing our own stroller to Disney with us but it had a couple drawbacks. First we would have to lug it around on the buses between parks and secondly it could only hold one of the girls. The strollers at Disney are pretty low to the ground and you can get a double wide that both girls could share. Even better the foot area was so big we were able to push all three (including Heather) at times. However, the best part of this stroller became evident once Emily started getting sick and wanted to sleep. We had Heather and Shannon get up and walk and Emily could sprawl out and crash. For the next 2 days she was either sleeping in the stroller, on my shoulder, or in a high chair with her head on the table. On the second day I stayed back at the hotel with her until her temp (which seemed very high) broke and she regained some of her energy. She was never 100% on the trip but she still had plenty of fun.

After Emily started to bounce back we met the crew back at the Magic Kingdom where we went to "Frontierland" and "Adventureland" were we hit a few more rides and then had to cut out so the girls could get dressed for their dinner at Cinderella's castle. Emily dressed as Snow White and Shannon dressed as Tinkerbell for the meal. Earlier in the day they had gotten their photos taken with Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Belle. At the enterence to dinner they got to meet Cinderella again who assured them she remembered them from earlier in the day (a nice touch) and they had another professional photo taken (this one was delivered at dinner as part of the meal package). We then headed upstairs to the main dining room of the palace (I wasn't sure there was an upstairs). We had a decent meal (though the prime rib was overcooked) and the girls got to meet two of Cinderella's mice and her Fairy Godmother. At the end of the meal the nights fireworks (Disney does them every night) started to go off. It turns out they use Cinderella's castle for a launching point for many so we had a good view out the window for the lights. Emily really digs fireworks so she fully enjoyed that part of the meal.

The next day found us at MGM Studios were we saw two really cool stunt shows (Raiders of the Lost Ark and a Car Stunt Show that even had a few tricks that impressed Ted (who has been trained to do a lot of wild driving stuff). Ted, Ausin, and I went on the Tower of Terror and the Aerosmith Roller coaster. The Roller coaster is cool simply because of how fast you start the ride. I also had a really good strawberry Ice Cream snack over near the Tower/Rollercoaster part of the park. Overall I think my favorite part of Disney to walk around is MGM Studio's because each part is so well done you really feel like in your different areas/time periods. It's pretty cool.

Honestly, the days are blurring together in my mind so I may be messing the order of things up a bit - so I apologize for any inaccuracies at this point.

We ate a late dinner at MGM at a 50's style "Mom-n-Pop" type place. The food was OK (we almost all had fried chicken) but the price was crazy. OUr food was covered on the meal plan but Ted and his group had to pay over $100 for a fried chicken dinner. I was pretty disgusted at how expensive it was. I was feeling pretty wierd that night so I gave Austin my dessert which was a brownie sundae that looked really, really, good. I'm still partially regretting that bit of generosity on my part!

The next day we were at Epcot where, I have to say, I was the most disappointed with the entire park system. Epcot has some cool stuff (including my favorite ride Mission: Space) but it is also the most blatantly commercial part of Disney. I know Disney is a big commercial for Disney - but Epcot is more than that. Everything we did was sponsored by one company or another. In the imagination place there was thing sponsored by IBM, another by HP, and another by Microsoft XBoxs. You could rent a Segway there (which I was tempted to try) but I decided against because I figured it would be exorbitantly priced. We went on a ride with Lisa's favorite Epcot character "figment" which was kind of neat but then when we got off we were injected into a live infomercial for Kodak digital camera's and printers. Even the end of Mission: Space had a room filled with activities that were sponsored, once again, by Hewlett Packard (I think). I understand people need to advertise but I thought the gross commercialization cheapened the Epcot experience.

Not all of Epcot was bad. In fact two of my favorite parts of the trip took place there. The first was the ride Mission: Space. I really wanted to go on the ride and I was not disappointed. It simulated a couple g's of force as you take off in your X-2 rocket, slingshot around the moon, avoid asteroids, and then perform a crazy landing on the surface of mars. I would have gone on that one again if I had the time. The second thing we did was go to a German BeirGarten for dinner in the German part of Epcot's walk of nations. Our waitress was from Germany (as were most of them) and she had lived about 30 miles north of where Ted was stationed when he was there. Ted and I each had a huge stein of Franziskaner Hefeweizen (one of Ted's favorites and our waitress's favorite). The glass was huge and had to hold close to half a gallon of beer. There was live music performed including two guys who played the bells (that was very cool) and they both played the alphorn (a really long horn made famous in the states in Riccola commercials). I had a huge plate of Schnitzel (I love Schnitzel) and a bounty of desserts. We had a blast but had to end the night early.

That night we had to cut out and head back to the Magic Kingdom for our night of extended hours which was part of a Christmas party. Mostly the party consisted of free hot cocoa and a parade. I'm not much of a parade person but Lisa, Shannon, and Emily all really enjoyed the parade. The weather at this point also took a turn south and dropped from the mid 70's to the low 50's (wind chill into the low 40's). We, of course, weren't dressed for the weather so I bought the girls a really nice soft Tinkerbell blanket. After the parade we went on Dumbo and "It's a Small World" again before deciding we were all too tired to hang out any longer. We headed back to the bus for the hotel where we ran into a huge group of young (7-15 year old) cheerleaders from Dracut Mass. My father is from Dracut and his part of my family still lives out there. One of the girls (an older high school aged "chaperon") actually dated my cousin Joey Huntress (a WR for the Dracut High football team). It was pretty crazy. It really is a small world? On a similar note Ted ran into his across-the-street neighbor at every park we visited and they didn't even know they would be at Disney at all before the trip.

On Friday the temp stayed cold so we headed to downtown Disney to do some shopping. Earlier in the week Lisa put Emily's hair in pigtails for the first time ever and I commented that I thought she looked a lot like Boo from Monster's Inc. At an art store at Downtown Disney we found a small statue of Boo that captures Emily nicely so we bought it along with four small Tinkerbell lithograph's for Shannon's room. They paintings are really pretty and Shannon is very excited about hanging them in her room. They are about 8x11 in size so it should be cheap for us to frame them for her.

That night was our final character breakfast, back at the Magic kingdom, this time with Pooh and company. We were joined by Pooh, Tigger, Eyeore, and Piglet. Emily, at this point, was fully comfortable with the big characters and hugged each of them when they came up. Shannon, of course, continued to enjoy herself. After dinner we walked around the park a bit before heading back to the hotel to meet up with Ted and Cyndy for a final night's hangout. They had spent that day relaxing back at their condo. The next day was our flight home.

The flight home was even smoother than the one down there but the temperature was much colder here in WV than it was in Orlando. Both girls were great and had a fantastic time. Amazingly, with everything we did, we didn't see everything. We didn't go to portions of the Magic Kingdom, we didn't go to either water park (Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon), and I'm sure we missed a bunch of the Epcot bits as we went through so fast. I am not sure how much the trip, in total, cost but it was not cheap. However, based on Shannon's and Emily's reactions to everything it was worth every penny. We will probably end up going back again one more time when Emily is close to 6 but I'm not sure when we will do it considering school etc kind of gets in the way.

#Family #FunStuff #MyLife #Travel #Photos

Well it is October and our home is full of activity. To start with Lisa and Shannon went on a vacation to Hilton Head starting last friday. They should be coming home this weekend. Lisa's parents rent a condo down there once a year so Lisa took advantage of the chance to let Shannon go to the beach. Lisa has been looking forward to this trip all year so I hope they have had a great time. This morning Lisa called and told me Shannon got a bit of a sunburn yesterday. I think it will always be hard for that side of the family to understand how easilly we burn and thus sunscreen will never come out as often or as fast as it needs to.

While Lisa is in Hilton Head I had to drive to Charleston WV and pick up my brother Joe who moved her on wednesday. He is living on our third floor while he experiments with life and tries to figure out what he is going to do with himself. He is 19 so now is as good a time as any to explore before committing himself to any one path for the rest of his life. He is currently looking for work so if you live around us and need someone who is willing to work hard let him know!

I have been really busy with work lately and have actually be working overtime. However, I have tried no too work too long this week because It has just been Emily and I playing together in the evening which has been a blast. And boy, can that girl sleep. She has been sleeping, on average, 13.5 hours a night. I'm jealous.

Shannon is playing soccer again this season. However, I haven't been doing the Shannon soccer updates like I did last year. Mostly because while Shannon said she wanted to play soccer she hasn't shown any interest at all while we have been there. This is probably her last season for a while until she decides she really wants to play. So next spring she is going to try out gymnastics. I am her coach again this season and I still suck at teaching these kids how to play Soccer. In fact, last night, I either showed up too late for practice or none of my team did. We play again this Saturday (minus Shannon who will still be away). Last week we lost 11-2 to a very competitive and agressive team. The game before that we won but I had no fun as both the parents and coach from the other team took everything WAY too seriously. Hopefully, this week will be a fun game.

The two big wisteria plants are finally out of the back yard so I can start the major renovations back there. Plus, now that Joe is here maybe I can get him to chip in with some of the labor. I would like to finish that up this month before the ground freezes and digging becomes impossible.

We had given Corky (one of the dachshunds) away to an adoptive home but he is coming back because the couple couldn't handle his energy. So we will be back to having 3 dogs. I really hope we can find a home for at least one of them as I don't really enjoy having them here. Claire refuses to become housebroken and who knows about Corky. I'm pretty tired of cleaning up after Claire though so she had better figure things out soon or I will insist that she leaves. I have enough to do without messing with that dog. Last night she did great and didn't pee in her kennel, so I took her out first thing this morning quite happy with her. Lance did his business and then we waited around for Claire. I hoped she had gone while Lance did since I didn't witness it. We sent about 15 minutes out there though so I figured she was sure to have done the deed. Instead, when we came back inside she ran upstairs and let a puddle all over the carpet. I was not happy.

#Family #Travel #Doxies