Monday 14 September 2009: Hong Kong: G-Force and Hello Typhoon

I’m troubled by the quality of grouting in Hong Kong. It's simply not good enough. They spend heaps on high quality fixtures in shops and eateries, then stuff up on the grouting. The compensation is that Hong Kong PSV bus drivers must be the best in the world. The things they do with those buses on all those steep hills and bends, the caress of the brakes, the hugging of the curves. I wonder if it makes them good lovers?

To the outsider like me it seems that whatever it is that represents ‘sophistication’ to Hong Kong locals has changed over the years. One constant is that with real estate so uniform, small and so oppressively expensive it cannot be done via your choice of abode unless you are a tycoon.

But the advertising of off-the-plan real estate gives insight into the local mindset. I got used to new estates (i.e. new tower blocks) being called “Grovesnor Heights”, and “The Waldorf Apartments” which are invariably on rocky crags with precipitous drops as Hong Kong has no flat land. But then one day I watched the TV ad for the new apartment block whose sophistication knew no boundaries. “The Belchers” (sic) was advertised with content people sitting on soft lit balconies adjoining endless green vistas, looking into the distance to capture that marvellous view; a deft mix of the brush on easel before the daubing on palatial canvas. All true. No exaggeration at all. That was an advert circa 2003.

Hong Kong seems to have matured a little since then. Everyone can afford the latest consumer electronics so there is no point in competing there. However, western, and especially Euro things still seem to represent sophistication to the locals. The reams of fifth rate Bordeaux wine, Waitrose sausages, and Valronha concession stalls in glamorous food halls. And the English language per se. Wing Hei can recognise written English such as ‘elephant’ at 22 months of age, though I’ve not heard her say one word of Chinese.

Anyhow, the typhoon was coming in today, so we had to cancel arrangements to take Indigo to Ocean Park, or to go Tsim Tsa Joi. So we ended up at the Cyberport to watch ‘G-Force’. Enjoyed it. Ate Shanghaiese afterwards. The siu long bao were fantastic. But the show was stolen by the braised Chinese cabbage topped with top grade Chinese ham. Great stuff. Raided a supermarket on the way back and found Waitrose Cumberland sausages. Crickey! We both went into a lather on the spot. It is strange the things you end up pining for when in a new country. We really miss the English sausages from the better end of the quality spectrum. But not as much as I am pining for Melbourne coffee. The stuff here is lame.

At the MIL’s place we let Indigo choose what to eat as it is her birthday tomorrow, and she chose dzam liu food (dzam liu is the person in Chinese restaurants who roasts the meats). So we had roasted duck, belly pork and char siu. MIL did a cabbage dish with those dried prawns. I had forgotten how good they were. We drank the Frog’s Leap 2006 Napa Valley zinfandel, which was very acidic and had it not been for the fact that drinking zinfandel is a bit of a novelty for us nowadays, would have priced at AUD15 not the stupid amount we actually did pay for it at Berry Bros the previous day. Went back 'home'and polished off the 2007 Casablanca, Chilean pinot. Overrated. Hong Kong seems to specialise in sub-rate wine from all over the world.

Tonight the severity rating of the typhoon has been raised to 8.