5 days ago I met a lady named V who had been abruptly told to pack her bags (literally) because she's a live-in domestic helper.*  She was fired on the spot without the severance payment and plane ticket home that she is entitled to by law. V has worked for 7 years as a domestic helper in Hong Kong (only the past 7 months were with the bad employer ( Read more... )

Today, I discovered a giant roach legs-up on the kitchen floor.  It was 1.5 inches long, 4 inches if you count full antenna-extension.  *shudder*  Conveying the corpse to the garbage without touching it was not easy.

I am focusing on the things that I don't have, such as: live roaches, STDs, a stalker (that I know of), BO, a mortgage, malaria, food ( Read more... )

I don't currently compost (due to a wholly justified phobia of giant HK roaches), and I don't currently recycle (partly due to roach-phobia, and partly due to contrarian grumpiness about recycling as a license to consume with abandon).

Each week, my little one-person household generates 2 or 3 grocery bags of trash, a third of which is spoiled or ( Read more... )

At 9:38am today, I saw 69% of an eclipse.  In typical HK style, neither the HK Space Museum nor the HK Observatory even noted the event on their websites, so finding protective eye gear was a total fail.  Instead, we used a digital camera to track the moon's progress (via the LCD display, not the viewfinder).  Fortunately, a nice fat cloud passed ( Read more... )

Today at the pharmacy in Hong Kong I noticed that not only are the birth control pills sold over the counter, but also that the cheapest brand only costs $5.25 per month.  This shit isn't expensive to manufacture, so why does it cost $30 a month in the US?  Furthermore, in the US, women have to pay for a doctor visit to get the prescription renewed ( Read more... )

Today was an inexpensive day in Hong Kong.  First I went to the public library, one of my favorite places (cost: $0), and noticed that there was a larger mass of people about than usual.  Surprise, it was the annual flower show (cost: $1.80).  I walked in thinking I'd gawk a bit, and I walked out with 4 orchids, a cherry tomato, a marigold, a viola ( Read more... )

I was feeling pretty good about work while on vacation, and it was good/relaxed for 2 weeks and then good/busy for 2 weeks, but now it's just you-are-fungible.  I want to leave HK, and I want to leave before the year is out.

Sundays are full of Filipinas on their day off.  They camp out in central HK thusly, right outside the tropical wall-of- ( Read more... )

I've been to-ing and fro-ing between HK and Singapore this month.  They sound like they ought to be neighbors, these two tropical city-state urbanopolises, but it's a 3.5-hour flight, like NY-LA.

Death penalty notwithstanding, it's a nice change from noisy HK.  People speak English, and they are not as hard on the eyes.  I could get my hair cut here ( Read more... )

Friend: "What kind of soup is that?  Looks different from mine."
Me:       [Pokes] "Clear broth, plus some sort of frilly jellyfish or seaweed?"
Friend: [Watches me decide whether to spit or swallow]
Me:       [Pokes more] "I think I see a chicken foot.  It's like the ocean bottom down there!" [Puts soup lid back on]
Friend: "You'd better defile it so ( Read more... )

It's Hong Kong's fault that I'm malnourished, so starved that I am even deficient on sunshine.  I went grocery shopping today.  The produce is wretched.  Everything is overpackaged.

Store brand pasta from Whole Foods shows up in random grocery stores, giving the impression of dollar-store leftovers.  In the nicer stores distrustful of China, ( Read more... )