I've locked my keys in the closet

How do you explain this one to the locksmith? It is, however, logical in Hong Kong. In every apartment every door has a keyed lock. I had asked my realtor about this when we came last year. It is done so that you can restrict access to parts of your flat from the hired help. (Again reason number #497 on why we don't have a helper) Why should you hire someone - and let them live with you - if you can't trust to clean your house?! But back to the point, my storage/coat closet accidentally got locked during a clean out yesterday. Now Tom and I can not get to the set of keys that opens all of the doors and more importantly, our coats. The good news is I hadn't put my purse away last night. The bad news is I can't read a phone book to find the locksmith.....

My Door Girl judges me by our toilet paper

Florence is the sweetest Cantonese lady I have met. She truly takes an interest in what we are doing, where we are going, etc. However, this week we ran out of TP and I had to bring some home. (Typically that is something I have delivered out of convenience). Little did I know that my selection would become the topic of conversation in the lobby waiting for the "lift". It seems us Americans spent a lot on this disposable product in her eyes. She really wanted to know how much I spent on eight rolls of Andrex! (kimberly Clark product packaged as Cottonelle in the States). I guess the Chinese don't value the same things we do!

Red letter holiday

We've made the best of being on the other world for the holidays. And I have to admit we didn't have much to work with. First of all, no one would be visiting from the States. And with an impending accreditation visit, Tom could not get the time off to make a good quality visit back. Second, there is no snow in Hong Kong. Matter of fact, there aren't even temperatures below 50 consistently. Third, I brought nothing Christmas from home -- not even stockings!

So with none of the comforts of home, we set out to make due. First we have always had a real tree, or none at all. An American Douglas Fir could have been purchased, but really who wants to spend that much money on a resource that should not be exported! So artificial would be our new tradition and, of course, we should celebrate the plastic-ness with a different Christmas color (like RED)!


With a few beads, string, and paper, I had probably the cheeriest flat in the block. Not to mention a quilt in the making thanks to a stash of fat quarters shipped from Mom.


It's been fun having it all up, even if Sarah said it "didn't smell like Christmas." But now the New Year has started and it has all come down again. Too bad I couldn't convince Tom that it needed to stay up until Chinese New Year!

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