Lei ho!

And then it was Friday. So I have survived a whole week at work. Tomorrow evening it will have been one whole week since I arrived. Time really does fly. I am slightly concerned that at 5.30pm tomorrow (the time I landed last week) I will be arriving at an ex-pat bar for eight hours of drinking pre England world cup match kick off. Not quite the lifestyle I imagined!

So, what have I learned so far. Well, in Hong Kong I am not funny. This may well come as a shock to those of you who are routinely reduced to tears of laughter by my general humour and hilarity but genuinely, not funny at all. Imagine being somewhere where no matter what you say no one ever laughs. Ever. Every word taken literally. Very odd. And for me, potentially disastrous. Apparently if I slip on a banana skin, that, now that would be funny.

You cannot drink the tap water here and have to boil it first as it contains a number of chemicals used in the processing, um, process. I am told that as a result there are less bald people in HK than elsewhere in the world. I do not wish to learn the exact composition of the chemicals involved.

You cannot send food in the post.

Post takes a l-o-n-g time to arrive here (have I mentioned that already ;o)

My office, to their amusement (laughing at me does not count) are attempting to teach me Cantonese. I have 'mastered', "hello", "thank you" and "I eat vegetables". This last phrase apparently conveys that I am a vegetarian. I have not dared try it in a restaurant. I have no idea how you spell it by it sounds like this "auw sek-sai". Put on your best Chinese accent and try it out...

So HK and I are starting to understand one and other a little better. Being honest when I first arrived it was not quite as I had expected. I assumed we would fall in love with one another instantly, be like old friends, easily familiar with one another. It was difficult and disappointing when this was not the case. But already, just one week in I'm starting to feel we may get there. We may not ever be best friends, but I think we're going to be friends, and I think it will be fun.

Now where did I put that banana skin...