Keeping things simple...

Lunch set A : Mini spring rolls, beef noodle soup and coffee/tea.

My brother's office & the view over the harbour : note the plastic dinosaur holding a pen in it's mouth on his desk...I think I was also nauseus from watching the chopping waves in the ocean - it felt like I was on a ship. Note the polar fleece jacket on the chair - he was given this when he started this job...because the air con in the office gets really cold!

Groceries : wholewheat bread, milk, camomile tea, hand wash, ginger, lemon, bananas, chocolate...all for $12.

Well, I've been in Hong Kong for 4 days now and the past 2 days I can't keep anything I eat down, except for simple things like toast!

I'm in the city where you eat and shop and I can't eat and haven't felt like shopping.....I felt like wandering around this afternoon but the nausea is getting the better of me.

So my simple pleasures today were:

- meeting my brother for lunch at his work and getting a glimpse into what he does at work. He is the director of planning at a marketing firm. Just like you see on TV he had lots of butcher's paper up with ideas drawn all over them, the staff were all pretty trendy and casual and they had break out rooms with beanbags and a pool table etc. Funny to think my little brother is a director and has staff under him! I met some of his staff - totally weird. Needless to say I felt very old with his staff averaging in age 23 years old.

- buying a bunch of groceries for HKD$103 which is equivalent to AUD$12. There is no way you could get all these items in Sydney for that much. I made a chicken, fish cake and vege stiry fry the other night for $7 and I had also bought mineral water. And this is from the Welcome supermarket downstairs, not the cheapest of places to buy things from.

- I almost forgot one not so simple pleasure : I had a 75 minute massage for $44. I had a really interesting conversation with the masseuse - she told me the minimum age 'young people' are expected to marry in HK is now 35 years old, HK people really have a problem with mainland China people, she has friends who have been to Australia and love it because they aren't rude like mainland Chinese people and there are not so many of them there, rent is very high in HK usually 40% of one's salary and therefore it is very hard to save money, that I can get 3 t-shirts for HKD$10 (AUD$1-2) if I go to Causeway Bay and that food is very cheap in Jordan. Candy also explained to me the typhoon levels - 1 being light and kids in creche have to stay at home, level 3 means high school kids go home (which is what today is) and the highest level above that is people don't have to go to work. I'm not exactly comforted by the 'typhoon warning system' and that it is a 3 but family assure me it just mean it's raining! I tipped the lady but my brother reprimanded me for tipping as 'Asians never tip asians'. But I wanted to give her a HKD$40 (10%) tip - it is nothing for me but seemed to have made her day.