While we were living in Thailand we got used to the saying "T,I,T" which literally means This is Thailand, but translated means "oh that frustrating thing has happened because we live in Thailand and only in Thailand would that be at all acceptable"....like when millions of tiny winged creatures burrowed under the wall into our two bedrooms and took up residence in our guests beds - T,I,T!!, and when we were walking home from watching the rugby one night and about 20 rats ran out from a pile of garbage bags right between our legs - T,I,T!!! Or when the maids came to clean our bathroom after the toilet had got blocked (they kept suggesting we stop using toilet paper, another T,I,T moment) and when they had left we wondered why the ceiling was dripping wet - T,I,T!!!! - but the best memory was when I tried to hit the fire alarm on our floor of our apartment because the stairwell was filled with smoke and there obviously was a fire in the building, and I discovered that the fire alarm didn't have a button!!! After smashing my way through the glass I frantically searched for a button, of course when you are searching a 5cm x 5cm area it shouldn't take too long but I was in a panicked state so it took a while to dawn on me that they had forgotten to add a button to actually sound any alarm, so I had to run down the smoke filled staircase to alert the concierge - you see how T,I,T could be used to describe that situation!
So anyway fast forward 5 years and here we are in Hong Kong. Now they don't have an international saying to describe all the wacky things that happen here, but our family has adopted some sayings that work in frustrating Hong Kong related moments - its the Chinese way, or as Noah puts it "Chinese people just love doing it that way".
So this blog is all about the things that Chinese people do that let me know we are definitely in Hong Kong.....
The need for very specific signage is a favourite pastime of bureaucrats over here. They must have such fun (although I am sure sense of humour is not part of this job description) coming up with the most pedantic, impossible, contradictory and confusing signs ever. Here is a photo of one I saw today:
This is just one of the many signs that I think is great
It always makes me think, who will tell me off if I break this rule? The police? Is it their jurisdiction to apprehend fence leaners??? Will a Chinese person nark on me if I lean on the fence, or do they secretly want to do it to? Do the Chinese admire our blatant ignoring of their signs or are they offended that we like to analyze whether the sign suits our purposes, and if it doesn't then we figure it doesn't apply to our family. Its kind of a challenge trying to teach Noah about sign reading when we say things like "oh yeah don't worry about that sign, that one and that one, those are just special Chinese signs, but obey this one, this one, and this one"...not very consistent. Anyway to coin a phrase - T,I,H,K!
I made this list the other day when I was in the supermarket, its when I got the idea for this blog report....here I was buying our family groceries when some hilarious things happened and I just chuckled to myself and thought, yep you know you live in Hong Kong when that happens...so here they are: revelations from the supermarket.
When you start to view Made in the USA as the safe and healthy food choice you definitely know you live in China!!! When American bacon is considered by my family to be a better option than eating Chinese bacon you know there is some really horrible options because quite frankly American meat wouldn't even make it to a NZ supermarket much less be chosen over NZ meat. So it cracks me up (in a sort of manic, freak out, way) when I talk to Row, who lives in Texas, and she tells me why she just won't eat American food because of all the stuff in it....well, I say, you should try the Chinese stuff and your perspective could change.
Just a small thing, but you know you're in Hong Kong when people can just fart in public and its no problem...you know, just bending down to get your can of tomatoes and whoops out pops a big old fart, but never mind, no shame here because apparently that is totally ok!
You know you're in a Chinese supermarket when there is a whole aisle dedicated to soya sauce options...so hard for someone as uninitiated as myself....I don't know, umm can I just have soya sauce please....
And my final laugh on that trip was the fact that no one else thought bottles of Clam juice was a joke, I should have taken a photo - is that a yummy drink you have there? Oh I see, the latest bottle of Clam juice, yeah have you tried their carbonated one??? Ohhh so gross!!!
So anyway out of the supermarket and onto the footpath....while out power walking the other day it occurred to me that Hong Kong is brilliant for singing out loud when you have your ipod going full blast...the traffic is so loud that you can't hear yourself, and no one else can either!!! I loved it, I was singing my heart out really badly, and no one was any the wiser. Had to take a happy photo to prove it really happened...
What a geek, singing away at the top of her voice, very freeing!
Also while on this power walk I happened upon another T,I,H,K moment - you see we live in this new area, it used to be called Junk Bay because 15 yrs ago it was all rural with junks moored in the harbour, now it is full of high rise apartments and dredgers parked in the harbour. Well anyway, one great thing about this area known as Tseung Kwan O is the amount of paths they have put in so people can walk everywhere. They go under roads, around stadiums, through parks and up sides of hills. It is really lovely that you can walk for 2 hours with only small bits of traffic (important if you have a great song you want to do karaoke to!). So I am trying to walk as many of these paths as possible and just basically allow myself to get lost in Tseung Kwan O knowing that I can grab a taxi home really easily. It is great fun, not quite Venice, but a similar feeling if not a similar environment.
Well I was out on one of these pilgrimages and I found this great path that was hugging the hill. It was amazing, the views were lovely - right out to our apartment block actually.
View of Lohas Park where we live
I was storming up the hill, the only whitey among lots of Chinese families. Slowly it dawned on me that they were all carrying bags of stuff. I wasn't sure what they were carrying but I was thinking it was kind of weird to be going up such a steep cliff side walk carrying shopping bags....until I rounded a corner and realised that this wonderful scenic path had been purpose built to lead them to the cemetery! ha ha....I was chuckling to myself about how I must have looked to them, power walking along to their family cemetery.
So this is where everyone was heading....the cemetery
Well I didn't let that put me off, I went right up to the top and it was very interesting watching what they did at the cemetery. For one thing it is a real family affair, you would have at least 3 generations usually traipsing up this really steep hill to pay their respects to their dead relatives. In the infamous bags were a variety of items. Some things to burn (hope they were light to carry up), food for themselves and to leave at the grave and other mysterious things that looked like bedspreads but just couldn't have been. There were a couple of old ladies hiding under umbrellas who obviously had some sort of job but I couldn't work out what it was - security??? Anyway it was a great walk as I love to see new things and I wouldn't have normally headed off to a cemetery as a tourist thing to do....and boy they sure give their dead prime real estate!!! Sea views galore....
So there you have it - hope you got to laugh at all that, you see you have to laugh because there are a number of things that just drive you nuts (like you can't ride your bike in any park, you can't kick a ball in any park, lifeguards must all eat lunch at the same time in the whole of Hong Kong so you can't swim between 12-1pm or 5-6pm, you must not park your car on the street unless it specifically allows you to pay for the privilege etc etc....)
......and laughing is good for the stomach muscles and laugh lines are attractive, so hope I helped you out :)
