Settling in...

Our stuff made it! We thought for sure our container would fall off the ship; luckily it didn't. We packed our belongings in New York on July 20th - they arrived in our new apartment on September 24th. As we started unpacking, the wonderment of how all of these things fit in our NY apartment seized us. We now have a 3 bedroom and as soon as the boxes were unpacked it was filled. Amazing how that happens. Next blog update will include some pictures of our apartment.

Our apartment feels so much nicer with all of our belongings - pictures, cookware, more clothes, etc... Why did I pack so many long-sleeved shirts and heavy pants? Denial. We recently had the hottest week we have experienced here yet. At 11pm weather.com said it was 84 degrees with that lovely little statement afterward "feels like 94" - at ELEVEN PM! This past week thought the weather has been cooler - very breezey and nice. The pool actually felt cold this morning. Is this a fluke? Is this what the winter monsoon season is like? Stay tuned...

We celebrated the end of Ramadan. The holiday is called Eid Al Fitr; here in Singapore they call Ramadan Hari Raya. If you meet someone who celebrates the holiday wish him/her Eid Mubarak (that's a sort of congratulations for the holiday). In Singapore they say Salamat Hari Raya. To celebrate, we went to Geylang Serai, a.k.a. Malay Village. It is a 5-minute taxi ride from our apartment. Tent upon tent was set up for the holiday - it was a bonanza of fried foods and shoes. We restricted ourselves from eating too much but we did try a fried shrimp donut (if it is round, fried dough - it's a donut) and had a fresh coconut juice to wash in down.

A few weeks ago (ok , a month ago now - we've been slackin' on the updates) we celebrated Mo's birthday. We went to brunch at a nice restaurant, went for a swim. Pretty low key. No dancing and partying like Mo really wanted.

We tried a new dish - it is called carrot cake. Don't be fooled - it isn't a sweet dessert. If you are familiar with the Chinese dish we know in the U.S. as turnip cake, it is a variation on this. It is made with egg and radish (or turnip) and has the consistency of an omelette.

Love,

L & M

Hong Kong - Planes, trains, boats, buses, and funiculars!

Where have you seen this before? And since when do zipper companies, especially those that have cornered the market, need to advertise?

We recently returned from a week in Hong Kong. We were both there for work - Mo running between a conference, filing stories from the Hong Kong office, and building sources. I attended many school visits with one of my CB colleagues from New York. Despite all the shopping…ahem working, we found time to explore the charms of the city.

We loved our time in Hong Kong. Mo had never been there, and I had not been since our Griswald -- I mean Herko -- family trip there in 1985. Boy has Hong Kong grown up. There are skyscrapers, high-rises, and malls galore. Unfortunately, there is also terrible pollution. For the first four days we couldn't see the sky, and our trip to Victoria Peak to see the harbour views was disappointing as we couldn't see a bloody thing (although the tram ride (aka funicular) was fun and we had a great brunch with lox and eggs! See the pictures below). At night however, the skyline is beautiful. Every evening at 8pm, the city lights up - literally. They have a light show with lasers and lights covering all of the office buildings.

One evening we got tickets to see Shaolin in the Wind at the Cultural Center. With all the programs in Chinese we didn't know what to expect. It turned out to be a highly entertaining ballet! This is a picture of the Cultural Center at night.

Wandering the streets of Hong Kong is one of the best ways to see the city. We especially loved the hilly climbs in Central where there are a lot of art galleries, antique shops, and boutiques interspered with wet markets and locally made junk. We did some shopping, I got a great haircut (flying to Hong Kong for haircuts is going to be expensive), and we worked our buns going up and down all of the steep hills in the city.

One of the highlights of our trip was dinner at the Peking Garden in Star House (which we took the Star Ferry to get to). This is an old Herko family favorite and it has stood up over time. The specialty of the house is Beggar's Chicken - the chicked is wrapped in tea-soaked leaves and baked with onions and mushrooms until it is delicate and tender. Absolutely de-lish! We also had gorgeous peking duck among other tasty courses. We're renaming the blog, by the way to http://www.watchmogetfat.blogspot.com/.

A friend from SIPA took us to the Foreign Correspondant's Club for dinner one night - it is a members only club where journalists used to go to get a break from covering the war in Vietnam.

More fish heads....
We are excited to go back to Hong Kong, although when we landed on the peaceful tropical island we call home we were very happy to be back! C'Mon - being away from our pool and tennis courts for a week was really tough!

OH – and our stuff arrived from New York. As for what kind of shape it was in….

well judge for yourself……

but more on this next week or whenever we get
around to writing again.

love,

L&M