Everyday

I admit I even surprised myself that it's been two weeks since I last wrote. But look at it this way: how often do you write postcards to people about your daily life? What we live in here and now in Hong Kong is our daily life. September 2 marked six months' passage since we arrived, with undefined expectations, our luggage, and an abstract awareness of a two year time line ahead. One quarter of that line is behind us already, and some moments passed slowly while overall, time is flying by.

I guess it's easier for me to feel the time move because I don't spend it in an office. Funny, nobody from home has asked me if I miss my job. I'll tell you anyway. Not really. It doesn't help that I ended it in a place that felt like a step backwards from where I started, blah, blah. What I do miss is the group of individuals I enjoyed working with for quite a few years (longer than I spent at any previous job). I miss access to unlimited books, CD's and DVD's (especially when you remember to reserve them before the Zuks did). I miss the wackiness of the regular "clientelle" and the lunchtime stories they provided us with. I miss the paychecks. Some days I miss the routine, and some days I can't be thankful enough that I lack one. I have a love/hate relationship with routines. I would say I miss the occasional mental challenge, but I think Mandarin lessons fill that void and then some.

I planned to look for work when I got here. At first, I didn't have the internet as a job search tool. Then when I got it, I found something else... people to do things with. They don't pay me, but they're fun. Here are my other reasons that you could read as excuses or valid and logical - your choice. First, I would have to speak fluent Cantonese to work in the field I have experience in, libraries, so that's out. If I found something else, let's say teaching English, I would not have the vacation time that Paul has already earned so it would hinder our freedom to travel, and travel opportunities were one of the reasons we chose to move here. We are only here temporarily so I don't plan on attempting some new career at entry level either. Maybe most of all, I want to use this time as an opportunity for exploration. It was an unexpected change, but it's not likely to occur again, and as long as I'm allowed (as in, until we run out of cash???) I just might milk it.

It's true that it has been a refreshingly social time for me, and I know quite a few people who don't work, so it would be difficult to give that up (wow, you get used to it soooo easily). But I am not without a goal! I am serious about the wine courses and I consider them an entrance to a new career path, an investment in the future, that I'm fairly excited by. Ideas are, I might say, fermenting. I did leave behind a career that I enjoyed, and I can choose to pick it up where I left off when I return home, but moving here and having free time denies any excuse I may have had for not trying something I have wanted to try.

I realize that none of this search for enlightenment and enrichment - or my carefree social outings - would be possible if one of us was not here to get a job done and get paid for it. You could say that Paul gave me a sort of gift. I do feel thankful for this freedom, and when I feel guilt over not contributing a paycheck, I tell myself that he's happy that I'm happy. (I tell him that too.) Maybe the gift I can give him in return one day will be a more knowledgeable, contented, fabulously fascinating spouse. He'd probably also accept a good bottle of wine.

So, I intend to write often but let it slip more days than I should because even life in an exotic locale becomes simply life. It's more difficult than in the beginning to find things "worth writing home about" though a real or imagined obligation to report does encourage me to keep my eyes open.

A lot of it comes down to choice of movement, with space for the daring and the mundane. There's comfort in the mundane, but if you don't pay attention, you let slip the daring. You can create a routine anywhere (Even an electric hot plate for a stove becomes routine, possibly even comforting in its role as a nuisance). You can travel a great distance, try a green tea and red bean bun, as I did tonight, and still long for Cool Whip on your Jell-O Pudding Snacks. You can create a new life where you live now, or you can drag everything with you and try to force it into the shape of the new place you're in. If you dare to make a new life, you'll find the keys in the same place you left them, in the details of the everyday. There's still intrigue to be uncovered around any random corner, but we've come to the point at which we're comfortable enough to almost miss it.

Almost, but not quite... Stay tuned.


Happy birthday to Joseph, Jessica, and Tom.

De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da

Looks like only one bold person will be getting all the prizes in the contest. I have faith in you, Sherri, and who knows what further prizes we'll accumulate by next year. Shame on the rest of you non-adventurers.

The T8 last week was upgraded to a T9. I didn't know there were T9's. But all it did was reinforce our arrogance in the face of Hong Kong typhoon signals. There was some rain; there was some wind, not a lot of either. That was the end of the story. Paul was home working as we kept waiting for the hour the storm would really seem scary. We're still waiting. I guess it was kind of like a snow day when the snow doesn't amount to much. Some one I know went out in the neighborhood for dim sum that afternoon, though businesses are supposed to close.

I'll tell you what was scary...

Saturday morning Paul woke up early to draft a football team with friends participating on the other side of the world. Don't ask me about his picks; I was sleeping. In the afternoon we both went to the gym upstairs (my first time using the facility). When we came back, I noticed a problem. The flusher on the toilet produced no flush: not a little whush, not even a tiny ineffective swirl, just a demoralizing clink. Paul fiddled for awhile - where's a good plumber when you need one?- but it wasn't operable. He went down to the front desk and was handed a notice saying that the flush function was suspended throughout the building due to emergency repairs "until further notice."

I will not provide nauseating details. I will just tell you that Saturday night we went out to a very nice French restaurant, Petrus, to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary. Then we went a few floors down to a beautiful art-deco designed bar with a 40's style singer and good martinis and it was really enjoyable except for the detail in the back of my mind: We just ate an eight-course French meal and we can't flush our toilet. It proved traumatic, indeed, over the next few hours.

The next day we had scheduled massages at the Landmark Hotel and it was lucky that we had a place to go, for obvious reasons. We arrived an hour early, for obvious reasons. We ate lunch afterward and when we arrived home, the person at the desk told us that it still wasn't working but it should be in an hour or so. He wasn't lying, and it was the happiest I ever was to hear a toilet flush. It had been about 24 hours and I never want to experience that again. I spoke to the girl I met a couple of weeks ago who lives in the building, and she was just as horrified as I was. Just imagine all aspects of the situation in your own homes.

On our actual anniversary, Monday, we went out for some pasta and then we went to the Tastings wine bar and we each had a half glass of a very good wine we've always wanted to try. Then we went home because we couldn't afford anything else.

Speaking of wine, I signed up for a WSET Intermediate Certificate in Wines and Spirits course. Paul had taken this same course a few years ago in NYC. It's a U.K. based program with world-recognized professional qualifications, and there's a place here that offers all levels up to the diploma, which is the big-time. I skipped the one-day Foundation course which is really basic, and I don't foresee any major difficulty with the intermediate certificate. My course runs every Tuesday night until the end of October with an exam on November 1, so we thought it was a good time to fit it in since we will likely go to Australia in November. Then, assuming I like it enough to continue, I'll try to fit the advanced course in amidst our travel schedule. I always wanted to take the course back home, but the Library wasn't cool with things like, "Hey, I just have to leave early every Tuesday night for a wine class." Anyone from the Library who is reading this is laughing out loud at that thought. So, this is the perfect opportunity. You didn't think I would stop at only three different careers already, did you?

My first class was last night, and tonight is our second Mandarin lesson. Since the company pays for language instruction, an instructor comes to our place every Wednesday night for 90 minutes and tortures - I mean - teaches us Mandarin. Yes, I know they speak Cantonese locally. We are a little spoiled by not needing to speak the local language because, as I said, everybody speaks English or speaks enough to get the idea. I thought Mandarin might be slightly easier because it has fewer tones (and it's spoken everywhere else in China outside of HK). I figured learning either language was a way to make an effort to embrace the cultural surroundings. I did waiver a few times over which language we should choose to learn.

After our first lesson last week, I'm starting to think that it really doesn't matter what we chose. I can't even explain how hard it is. We must sound like complete fools. I don't even remember the meanings of any of the words we learned because I was concentrating so much on trying to get the tones right. It's like learning something musical. The teacher said goodbye and expected us to respond and I just froze. So between tasting on Tuesdays and word-tripping on Wednesdays, my brain might explode. The most mental activity I've have since we got here has been scanning new menus.

(On a congratulatory note to myself, the title is ingenious, in case you didn't realize its potential double meaning.)

Fortune Cookie Prize

Another T8 approaching tomorrow, our third. I'll guess that this will be recorded as the T8iest year since the beginning of recorded weather just like it was the rainiest June on record, simply because we're here. It would be cool though if it really turns out that way, and they actually use my term 'T8iest" in the records.

So we're getting tired of hearing from people we know about their visitors to Hong Kong. Brothers, sisters, in-laws, friends... some people have so many guests that they have to check their calenders for overlap. And then there's us. We don't have to worry about any of that because airplanes don't fly that far from NY, do they? I mean, it must be nearly impossible to get here otherwise, surely, somebody would have tried it by now, as we approach six months here visitor-less. We might be the visitor-lessiest people in Hong Kong.

Then we started thinking. How about a contest? First prize to the first visitor is a brand new Samsung 8 megapixel digital camera. Second prize is a brand new Lexma wireless keyboard and mouse. Third prize is a bottle opener key chain from Singha Thai beer. No kidding.

You think I'm bluffing? When we signed up for our HSBC credit cards, the welcome gift, if you spent a minimum amount within the first month, which we probably spent in an hour, was the digital camera. When we signed up for the internet service, the welcome gift was the keyboard and mouse. When we ate at Thai Paradise, there was a basket of key chains next to the door. If I were you I would try to be first or second, though we'll even throw in a beer with the bottle opener.

Any takers? We're not proud. We're willing to offer bribes so we can tell people, "Oh, that's the week my _______ is visiting."

Yes, that's all you get today. I'm not writing anymore until we get confirmed flight information. Alright, I'm exaggerating a little, but it is a serious invitation.

Sports and Wine

Apparently Paul learned Cantonese while I wasn't paying attention because I didn't understand a word of his last post. Oh, I'm joking. I was there when they won and it was exciting. And there were lots of snacks at the party. I may not care about sports, but I was moved to hear that a girl from Plainsboro, NJ won an unexpected medal in a swimming event in those Olympic games I keep hearing about. She reportedly trained at a Rutgers facility in Piscataway. Go, Jersey Girl.

I've been asked about Olympic fever here in HK, and it does exist. In fact, the equestrian events took place here, but from what I read and heard from eye-witness accounts, they were incredibly boring. What is 'dressage" anyway? Otherwise, the city has been very pro-Beijing and there are displays everywhere of those happy little Olympic mascots. I went trekking with a couple of people last Wednesday (in painfully hot weather) and took some photos of the hubub. We also watched the opening ceremonies with some people we know in a bar in Wanchai. So, I guess it's just an added interest to be here while the Olympics are taking place. Our building has a schedule of live broadcasts showing up in the lounge, which brings me to another detail of city living...

Last Tuesday night, J Residence had a free wine tasting thing-a-ma-jig up in the lounge. We're not about to pass up such a thing (and the potential of such a thing was one of the main reasons we chose this residence) so we went. It was mellow, only about a dozen or so people passing through at a time, but it was entertaining enough. We met a guy from Dallas, TX. And we drank some wine. The lounge itself is actually quite beautiful, with stunning views of the city. I'll try to take some photos, but after the pool photo crackdown, I'll probably have to do it on the sly. Though, I did notice some staff member taking a photo of me looking up at the big screen TV while holding my wine glass. I should have stopped him and said, "No photos of me allowed, please." I'll have to check the J Residence web site soon to see if they try to promote their residence with photos of the glamorous residents enjoying themselves in the lounge. I'll consider autographs when the time comes.

Earlier that same day, I went to a gathering of the American Women's Association at a little restaurant in Soho. The woman I first met here, Kathy, who is a wife of a coworker of Paul's, asked me along. She was back in the states for most of the summer but she just returned. We're not members or anything, but it was something to check out. I will admit that I wasn't completely comfortable with meeting the first dozen or so of the 'American Women' because they were all about 50+ and I don't have grown kids to talk about. But about 25 gals turned up and some of them were more in my age range, and I heard one of them, a San Franciscan, telling somebody that she just moved to Wanchai into a place called J Residence. I flagged her down from across the long table and told her I lived there also and I gave her my email but I haven't heard from her as of yet.

We are about to expand our minds this week without drinking wine. We start Mandarin lessons on Wednesday. An instructor will come to the apartment every week from 7:30 to 9:00 and try to enlighten us. I presumed we would want to learn Cantonese upon arrival since that's the local language and this is where we live. The reason we chose Mandarin, besides that it's much more widely spoken outside of Hong Kong, is that I thought there might be a greater hope of grasping a language that only uses four tones rather than the seven that Cantonese does. Really, you don't need Cantonese to get around here since English is commonly spoken or at least attempted. It would be nice to communicate with the locals in their own language, but seven tones?! I am good with languages, but I don't have high hopes. Even in Mandarin, the word 'ma' can mean four different things depending on your tone. Oh, headaches to come.

Well, I didn't really know where I was going with this post, I just thought I would get something out there. Photos are always fun, so here are some of the Olympic stuff around town.

And happy birthday, Mom.

We Are the Champions!

Due to some inclement weather, virtually shutting down Hong Kong (including the exchange) and an actual request for a sports blog it appears the planets have lined up.

One note here: I started this blog at work during the week but did not have time to finish it until today so a few things may have changed. Also even though it is a very high level analysis if you have no interest in the Giants you may just want to skip this and wait for Lisa's next entry.


Before I get to my thoughts on the up coming Giant's season let me just start by congratulating the Jets on signing Favre. The news just broke mid day here, so getting ahead of that story has been about the one benefit of being a sports fan on the other side of the world. I'm sure he's going to go right back to MVP form in that line up and the Jets aren't just wasting another two years to start rebuilding for the who knows how many times since 1969.

Some quotes since the trade that should have the Jet fans excited:

"To a certain degree I don't know what I'm getting myself into"

"There's no guarantees. There have never been any guarantees for me. It's football and anything can happen."

Just what you want to here from your new $12M + quarterback - who only a week earlier had no desire what so ever to play for your team.



Now onto the up coming season for the 2008 Superbowl Champions New York Football Giants. I fully admit I have flip flopped more times then I could count reading articles over the past few weeks in regards to how this up coming season will turn out. In emails with friends (because no one out here is really a sports fan - most just know enough to keep up a conversation if their clients start talking about it) I have predicted everything from no more than 5 wins to an 11 win season seemingly possible.



THE BAD

• You can not replace a player like Micheal Strahan. At best you hope as a team you can pick up most of the slack left behind as a player and a personality - and teams are rarely successful at this when they lose a player of his caliber. Even after all these years he continually drew double and triple teams and opponents devised game plans around him. When teams like Philly decided to play him one on one with All Pro lineman Runyan, McNabb ended up on his back 6 times a game. You've got to love what Osi is bringing to the table - but Strahan is the biggest loss of the off season bar none and even in a hopeful and optimistic fan frame of mind there is no arguing that his retirement is going to hurt.
  

• Shockey. Though many may say this goes into the good side of the balance sheet, I'm simply not in that camp. Yes they won the SB without him - but there's no question he was a big reason they got there. I argued they should not have traded him and I realized after they probably had no choice, so I'm not blaming management (though they should have realized this before the draft). I'll also agree that he could be a distraction but I truly believe it was because he wanted to win. This paragraph could be its own blog but what he did was:
  


• Always played hard - yes he complained about blocking - but then he went out and did it and did it well.
  
• Destroyed Dallas twice a year - trust me they loved this trade more than anyone.
  
• Brought life to an offense that was dead for years. Eli will go down as a NY legend but he is a blank slate on the field and off. And I have a feeling we are going to see what a real selfish player looks like in Plaxico this year.
  
• The worst part is we all know Payton is going to use him as an offensive weapon like he wants and he's going to be in the pro bowl at the end of the year. My only hope is seeing him drop one or two key passes in someone else's uniform.
  

• The let down. It is very difficult to repeat a championship season and since free agency it is becoming more and more of a challenge. It's easy to say you are not satisfied in the pre-season, but once a few bad games happen it's also easy to write this season off. Does Plaxico play though injuries like he did last year while he still has a nice new shinny ring at home - we'll have to see.
• 
  

The GOOD

• Low expectations. By the time the season starts many analyst won't even pick them above 3rd in their own division and it is always easier to get motivated from an underdog role.
  

• Experience and confidence. Never underestimate a champion - this team figured out how to get it done in the most unlikely of scenarios and no one handed them any of the games. They didn't win any on bad calls or fluke bounces - there was one amazing play and they can't even refer to it as "The Catch" because that was already used. Meaning most teams do at least one or two great things along the way to win it all and the Giants had enough talent to get the job done.
  

• A fairly decent schedule. Last year I believe they had the second hardest strength of schedule in the league. If they step up like a champion and at least win the games they should and hang around in the end - then anything can happen.

• This front office can draft. Last years class not only all stayed with the team but contributed in some significant way during the year. They were also smart enough not to let Osi go to bring Eli in, even though almost everyone thought they gave up too much. In hind sight if they kept a few of those picks but lost Osi I think we would have ended up much worse. So we'll need to see if they have been able to do it two years in a row.

• Eli. I stood up for him long after most people jumped ship but I'll admit without the miracle run at the end of last year I would have definitely been in the water with everyone else this upcoming season. Now he has a new life and a chance to develop into an elite leader in the league. The rule of thumb is that quarterbacks continue to develop for about seven seasons - after that it's about as good as you are going to get out of that player. With that said even if the Giants stumble the next year or two, Eli should be at peak performance when the new stadium opens and I'm back in the house.

THE UNKNOWN

This could also be referred to as the Tiki Factor. With last years schedule and the fact that the person responsible for half of our offensive output over the previous two seasons retired, not many people had this team winning more than 5 games (myself included). Only later did we learn what a distraction he was - a player who should have been fondly remembered and revered (and the name of our first born) has been vilified and all by his own doing. (Armani has a better ring to it anyway).

But the bottom line is that you just never know. We read articles and watch news casts but it's all just a guess as to what is going on inside the locker room. Which is why I may go to work during Typhoons but will be taking off September 12th and getting up at 7:00 am to sit down with Scott's sling box, while Lisa lays in bed rolling her eyes and sighing in disbelief.

THE WORST PART of the Upcoming Season

Missing the games - winning or losing I am going to miss tailgating and hang out watching the games on Sunday. Fortunately my fantasy league is working around my schedule for the draft so I'll be able to discuss this season somewhere. I have feeling I'm going to be blowing up the message board this year.

THE BEST PART of the Upcoming Season

Until February of 2009 the Giants will be known as the defending Superbowl Champions and its always fun to refer to them as such (particularly to Jets, Patriot and Dallas fans).

THE PICKS

Starting this blog I had no plan to make any predictions because I'm completely at a loss as to what this season is going to bring. I won't complain (too much) either way because we got to see the team win one of the greatest Super bowl upsets in history before I left the country a few weeks later. So like I previously wrote if they work out some kinks over the next two years I really have no issues with that.

Of course if my picks below are right - I'm heading straight to Macau to roll my luck - if I actually hit a score I'm taking the helicopter over.

9/4 WASHINGTON WIN 31 - 24

9/14 St. Louis WIN 28 - 17

9/21 CINCINNATI WIN 24 -21

10/5 SEATTLE LOSS 28 - 13

10/13 Cleveland WIN 20 - 13

10/19 SAN FRAN WIN 35 - 14

10/26 Pittsburgh LOSS 28 - 10

11/2 DALLAS WIN 20 -19

11/9 Philadelphia WIN 24 - 21

11/16 BALTIMORE LOSS 34 -10

11/23 Arizona WIN 27 - 24

11/30 Washington LOSS 28 - 13

12/7 PHILADELPHIA WIN 10 - 9

12/14 Dallas LOSS 35 - 14

12/21 CAROLINA WIN 21 -17

12/28 Minnesota Loss 31 - 13

So I have us at 10 and 6 and stumbling into the playoffs as a wild card. After last year I'll take that and be happy with anything short of complete collapse (though in reality every loss is going to kill me).

Anyway feel free to argue any and all of the above and I'll blog ya' later...

Greased Lightning

Trapped indoors due to another T8 and heavy rain. Here's some information from The Hong Kong Observatory because I like reporting the weather.

July 2008 was wetter than usual. The total rainfall in the month was 471.1 millimetres, 96.7 millimetres above normal. The accumulated rainfall since 1 January was 2382.1 millimetres, about 67 percent above the normal figure of 1429.1 millimetres for the same period. It was also the second highest for the same period since 1884.

Lucky us. Paul went to work even with the T8 signal. I'm catching up on laundry - and blogging.

Saturday night we ate dinner in a new Japanese place that just opened and it was pretty good. After that we tried a bar that also just opened. Things just open a lot here. But the bar, called Tastings, was very interesting. Here are parts of descriptions from a couple of magazines because it's easier than me trying to explain it.

Tastings...newly opened in July, is a wine-lover’s haven, with a vast selection of 160 fine wines, 40 of which can be rotated for tasting in an Italian-designed wine-serving system. Surrounded by fridges displaying over 900 bottles of wine, guests can choose a quick taste, a half glass or a full glass, at the press of a button. To complement the wine, Tastings also offers a snack menu of cold cuts, cheeses, and olives.

and,

They’re all over Rome’s train stations, but Tastings has Central’s first Enomatic wine-dispenser, an ingenious decanting method that means you don’t have to uncork the entire bottle to enjoy a glass of rare wine. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it—with over 40 varieties of boutique wines on tap, you’ll be like a kid in a candy store.

Get a card, insert it in the slot and serve yourself from a boutique selection that changes regularly. Introduce yourself to the less well-known Burgundies, Italian and South African wines. Try a dry Riesling or the multifaceted Pinotage. They also stock digestivos like Limoncino and grappa. Heretics can have vodka lime sodas.

So we purchased a card and pushed a few buttons. It's not as unsophisticated as it may sound. I think the concept is really quite ingenious. Hey - Da Vinci drew up plans for a flying machine; maybe they recently found some of his previously undiscovered sketches of the Enomatic. The place itself could use a more comfortable atmosphere as it's a little stark and very small, but the staff were nice and we chatted with one of them for awhile. Of course, he's a Londoner who's been here for several years. The system has its advantages and its drawbacks - how you view them depends on how much you know about wine, but we'll be going back since we still have money on the card we bought.

I am quite curious if this is something popping up in major cities like NY since we left, or if NY is behind in the Enomatic scene. I don't know if it will endure, but certainly a city like NY should participate in the experiment. If you hear anything, let us know (maybe somebody who is up on NYC food and drinking news, say, someone who reads eater.com often).

Oh yeah, I kept singing "Greased Lightning" to myself the whole night. Unless you're Paul and you haven't seen Grease 74 times, you'll get the reference. (and you thought the title was related to the weather)

This car is automatic
It's systematic
It's hyyyyyydromatic

It's Enomatic!

Take Me Home, Country Roads

It's been pointed out by more than one reader that my posts have dropped off month by month. I have been very, very delinquent and I apologize. I have planned many attempts at writing, and then... things come up. There is no writer's strike. No summer reruns. I hope you'll take me back.

Meet George Jetson: I had my first Skype phone call last week, and it happened to be with one of my favorite people, Kristen. It's really amazing to sit at the computer and talk to somebody across the world. But the video! I can't help it - I'm just so amazed that it's possible and so easy (and free). My Mac has a built-in camera so it's really simple. I don't even know where my microphone is, but apparently it works. The sound quality of the calls is actually quite decent in my opinion too. I am not really thrilled by seeing myself talk, but I'll get over it. I'll have to keep the place tidy too.

I don't know if I'm more excited about Skype or this bit of news: in addition to the morning and nighttime hours, our pool is now open during the day as of August 1. Finally, some justice for the decent, non-hard-working people. Paul and I went up there Sunday evening and the novelty must be wearing off somewhat for the residents because we were the only ones there for about an hour before a handful of other people came in.

So one example of something that came up and took me away from writing was another junk boat expedition. I know a girl named Sheyla whose husband is working here at a law firm for just three months before they return to London. They go out in a large group after work on Fridays and once, since I was with Sheyla, this somehow led to Paul and I eating dinner in a local restaurant with 14 people. They're a pretty easy-going bunch. This Friday they invited us to tag along on the firm's private junk for a BBQ. Slightly different than our Lamma Island seafood trip last weekend, this boat just cruised out a bit and then dropped anchor out in the open water without any destination. The point was to eat and drink, and the food was quite good. We brought some wine, though the beverages of choice seemed to be champagne, sake, and beer.


There were about thirty people so I didn't meet everyone. I suppose some must have been local, but most seemed to come from Singapore, Australia, or even London. This made for interesting music choices. I had no idea how much 80's Australian pop existed. They all knew the songs and sang them and danced as if they were world-reknowned. Sure, there was an occasional Erasure or New Order song, but Australia dominated. Oh, there was also "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver. You never know what people will bring to this country.


To make it seem like the good old days, I'll throw a few more things out there that I'm missing:

1. Sephora. It's like a candy store for cosmetics and I miss browsing for candy (and typically spending way too much after walking in for one planned item).

2. Zappos.com. Shoes, glorious shoes. Free overnight shipping. Free returns. I return the favor with free advertising; they deserve it. It's instant shoe gratification.

3. 20% off. While we're talking about shopping, I really miss walking into a certain department store knowing that anything I buy will be discounted by 20%. We have Mom's 20 years at Macy's to thank for that.

4. Italian Ices. It's not that they don't make 'em like they do back home. They just don't make 'em. There have been days of walking around in the heat here when an Italian ice would seem like the ultimate thirst quencher, but I can only fantasize about Ralph's of Wanchai.

5. An Oven. I have become remarkably adept at cooking absolutely everything on a stove top. Not even a real, gas-lit, 4-burner stove top, but a two-burner electric plate. Placement and heat control is harder than you would think. I impress myself, but I'd love to just broil a piece of meat.

6. NY Accents. I know people from most corners of the world here. The closest I've come is somebody from Boston. English and Australian accents are fun, but somebody reading this, please, just say "water" right now. Say it again. Do you hear it? Ah, sweet music.