Construction Site

Since I've moved back to HK working as a freelance designer, i've had the luxury of working my own hours, I can crawl out of bed whenever I like,even noon if i like.....but it all changed 2 weeks ago.

So what happened a fortnight ago? well the answer is power tools! the construction site that's less then 10 meters from my room window had started working on a lot of exterior work for that house. They start work around 8am most mornings, 5 days a week with only Sunday and Tuesdays off... The noise for a construction site as you can imagine can be rather loud but that i can deal with, if i blast my speaks on loud I can drowl them out.. but not when they started using power tools, digging parts of the wall and ground up! Just imagine it's 8am, you intending to sleep for at least 2 more hours! The dreadful sound of power tools suddenly fill your room to a shocking waking!


Fine, I admit it's just me not being more disciplined to be sleeping that late, so i try make peace with that working as a freelancer mean i work from home and working under these conditions are very difficult, every now and then the tremendous roar of a circular saw or deafening thunder of a power drill does wonders for ones concentration.

I am mighty annoyed about it all, but the truth is, I really am not mad at the workers. In fact I rather admire their hard work, I literally saw them add a tile at a time onto the wall, painstakingly remove all the old pipes using drills, hammers, chisels and brute strength. I personally already find the weather here unbearable while sitting of a 20" fan. How these 40 - 50 yr olds climb up the bamboo scaffolding like 10 year olds on a monkey frame for hours at a time, in blistering sun with temperature reaching 32C is beyond me!

I respect them so much for their professionalism and craftsmanship for their job. now i know they're only doing it as a job for the money, a case of if they stop, they stop getting paid, but it still require a shit lot of will power to motivate themselves not to just call it quits and live on benefits. I have to also admit i've been fascinated by how things are put together.

Saying that, i can only pray they finish their job SOON and that they do not move on to the next house... now that would really drive me crazy!

HKPA 飛躍道 Workshop

Steve, Louis you should be happy to hear, i finally had my first Parkour session, it's such a shame i never had a chance to train with you two, but my first experience was damn GOOOOD!

I ache all over today and man does it feel good! It's been more then a month since i last had a proper training session and the guys at Hong Kong Parkour Association does not mess about! I admit, my lack of training meant I'm not as strong as I was in London, but i didn't expect my legs to be shaking so badly from exhaustion at the end of the 2 hour session!

I've known about Parkour for quit a few years now and I have always been interested. I remember looking around a few years ago for a place to start Parkour but unfortunately that's when i fractured my right foot, taking me out of training for 9 months. Once i was fit enough to train i focused on TKD and gymnastics and didn't really have enough time and fully functioning limbs to try Parkour. Now I'm finally in HK, I'm so glad i can finally try this out for my self.

I've seen countless videos on Parkour over the years and I've certainly known about HKPA, I know what's it about and the kinda things they do but i never really looked into the believes behind it. Fung our main instructor on Saturday explained Parkour was more about improving oneself then to compete with others... to progress at your own rate and not get overly worked out on others progress, afterall we are all different with different strengths and weaknesses.

Another point they made was the sharing of knowledge, to help each other advance. When i left London, some of my good friends got me a really good book and it said:

Don't Covet your ideas
Give away everything you know, and more will come back to you

It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be by PAUL ARDEN

I was reading the book from a designer's perspective, so to see this being adapted in physical training was a nice surprise to me.... guess i have a lot to learn.

Can't wait for my next class! Need to get stronger!!!!

Herbal stuff

I've lost count how many doctors, osteopaths, podiatrist, chiropractor and physiotherapist I've seen to try to fix my feet.

For those that don't know I've been suffering from pins and needles on the sole of my feet for around 2 years. I walk for 5 mins, they start hurting, i stand for 5 mins they start hurting. Its really annoying when i'm trying to enjoy TKD and gymnastics. Before someone suggest i should try resting, I HAVE! I've rested months at a time, but it doesn't work!

So now that i'm in HK, i thought i'll give the eastern medicine a go. So last friday I went to see "Synthetic Manual Physiotherapist". As I was waiting in the already packed room on a Saturday afternoon, i noticed there's a woman in the room currntly under going acupture, the left side of her arm, leg and face were covered with needles... I'm man enough to admit panic a little. it didn't look very painful and the fact that she didn't seem entirely comfortable didn't help.... it was my turn and luckily I was told i won't need acupuncture, that he would like me to start on some herbal medicine, he also gave me some exercise to do. All fine, until i got home and actually cooked the stuff!

Chinese medicine is suppose to work by tracing back to the root of the problem and fixing that as oppose to just blocking out the issue itself, sounds good in theory but does it taste NASTY, i miss my sugar coated ibuprofen! Drug me up baby! I'm going back tomorrow, let see what happens

Yum

Anyone been to HK would know how good the food is here. There's so much to choose from and so convenient to just go out to grab a bite to eat. Within the last week, I've had Japanese, Italian, Chinese (old - Yum Cha and new - Cha Chan Ten style), stakehouse and Thai food! I have to admit, not all of them were brilliant, but the majority were very nice!



There's also all the lovely road side snack I used to have as a kiddie, Its hard to resist a 雞蛋仔 (wuffle like snack) when you can smell the gorgeous aroma!



Everyone reading this should know me well enough to know I tend to eat more or less non-stop throughout the day (and the sandwich i just had at 1am would re-enforce that), and since I live a good few miles from civilisation (I mark this by where I can get milk, bread and a flithy McD) It's just all too easy to eat out all the time, amazingly it's often much cheaper to eat out then to make your own food, which sounds pretty good until I start noticing my weight.... When i was in London I used to train up to 6 times a week, which is safe to say I burn a lot of calories justifying why i eat so much. Since I STILL don't have a bank account to join the gym with, I'm hardly exercising as much as before... with so much food, that makes a very bad combination. I've already noticed how weak and sluggish my body is :( The heat makes it hard to train much at home without the risk of drowning in my own sweat



Whenever I'm home, I do try to eat good, but eating good the way I did at UK is fairly difficult here. For a start it's hard to find the same food, I had to walk around 4 shops in 3 towns before I found a bag of cous cous! Then there's the slight problem of price "western" food are like 3 times the price here! little pot of rosemary - £3, red pepper £1.50 each! For the sake of my wallet and my jeans that might or might not be on a cargo ship right now, I really need to find how i can eat healthy with all the local food.

Jen: it took me 3 shops to find some tinned tomatoes at £1.2 a can for the chili I'm planning to try to make this weekend.

All suggestions on how i may healthy here are welcomed!

From London to HK

It’s been just over 1 week since I’ve arrived in HK. This strange place which once I called home and now seem all so alien to me.

The last time I was living here I was 8 years old, all that was important to me were cartoons, transformers and comic books! All I knew is I was going to be living with my parents in UK after not seeing them for 2 years and that they have lots of fancy sweet and chocolate there (because my parents often sent fancy sweet and chocolate to me and my brother) I knew they speak English there, but never really comprehend just how difficult it would be to communicate. For the first year or 2, I used to cry nearly everyday because I didn’t know what the hell was going on around me. Fast forward 17 years, there I was at the airport saying good bye to my parents with my mum's eyes red to the very place they left 20 years ago to provide a better standard of living for us. Even when I bought the tickets some what 2 months ago the actual day came much faster then I thought it would.

I’ve been preparing for live here for some time now and even so, I think I was still very ill prepared. I knew about the inhuman heat and humidity, the insect bites, the rudeness and even the tropical thunder storms. Even though all those things still bother me a lot, SPECIALLY the heat. The hardest part is going from how well I knew London to how little I know this place that was once home. Living in London for almost 4 years, I’ve grew to know it reasonably well (I might have got lost a few times recently). I knew the transport system can be a pain and had to plan ahead just in case there’s more engineering work! I knew where to go if I want to eat or buy something, I knew to stay away from Lewisham if Its past 1am. But in HK I don’t have the comfort of all those local knowledge yet. There’s no TFL I can look up to plan my! The hardest part to adjust to it’s the life style so far. I no longer have the luxury of being able to see all my good friends. They say You never know what you've got until it's gone. Even though I knew what I was leaving behind, not being able to see any of you in the near future still pains me.

On a more positive note the food is FANTASTIC! so much to choose from but unfortunately in this part of the HK most of the menu are in Chinese using ingredients I’ve never heard of and because of that I have no idea what’s healthy and what’s not! As a result I’ve managed to put on a fair bit of weight in just 1 week! Since I’m “Fresh of the boat” here, they won’t let me open a bank account until I have proof of address and until I get a bank account I can’t join any gyms and that’s driving me nuts, is so hot in my room already I’m struggling to do the little bit of exercise I force myself to do. Chances are, if you’re reading this you would know how much I used to train in various sports. I miss it all so much!!!!!!

I’m now together with my girlfriend Pauline, and I can not thank her enough for all the help and support she’s been giving me. Without her help I really don’t think I would be able to start work so early, After a very painful sleepless flight to HK I knew I had to sort out internet connection ASAP so I can start work, if she weren’t there to help me translate what the sales person was saying(from super sonic sales pitch to normal chinese), I might have just sign my life away without knowing about it. It’s amazing how they can explain the same thing in different but just as confusing ways! The sales person really tried, my brain just wasn’t getting into gear in the heat. Oh well, at least I'm finally up and running now!

I’ve already done my first week as a freelance designer for Cashcade. It’s difficult working as a freelancer. In this house with my Grandad and his carer. Most of the time there’s not really anyone to talk to, have banters with or play pranks on, when you’re working by yourself in a all too hot and humid surrounding, having a construction site 10m from your window can also make it hard to concentrate. I also worry my office might not believe I’ve put in the full amount of work hours I’ve promised as a result I’ve put in more hours here then I would in UK, but that is also partly because I don’t really have a social life here yet. I’ve booked in intro classes to Parkour and Capoeira so hopefully I’ll be able to make some friends there while getting some training in!

I really do miss uk. Today on my way home there was an English chap sitting behind me and as he spoke on the phone with a cockney accent, I realise just how much I miss London. Part of me still having trouble adjusting to the fact that I no longer living in London, I still consider that my home and HK to me feels like a place I come for a holiday. Guess I'm not really ready to let it go just yet. I know it’ll take me a few more weeks to get used to how things work here and hopefully I’ll be able to settle in to call this my home one day.