Monday May 8 2006

You know, those two years working in Austin out of my home turn out to be very good preparation for being a lady of leisure in Hong Kong! I learned that I could budget my time and didn’t need the pressure of working in the office to feel productive and successful. I found that if I was at home I could get a lot done, with less stress. I LIKED being home and had to guard against being a recluse and make sure that I got out of the house on a regular basis.  I had been worried that moving to HK might feel like Nashville in any way. In Nashville I became tired of piano-tuning and I wanted something more fulfilling and interesting as a job. I was bored. Sometimes I was lonely. Of course, I wanted a boy friend, and that was part of it, but it was also the time of my life, a restless time.

But here…I don’t seem to really care that much if I’m being “fulfilled” or not. It sure seems like just getting to know this city will be plenty fulfilling for quite awhile. And, when that is no longer sufficient I have other ideas. But I’m not worried about it.

Take today for example. My morning appointments (furniture repair, jewelry maker, both coming to the apartment) got pushed to later this afternoon. So here I am, hanging around until the mysterious-non-English-speaking-maid shows up at 2:30 PM. It’s a beautiful day outside, but warm (mid-80’s) and very humid, of course. So its fine, to just look at the vistas from my dehumidified, air-conditioned splendor!

It’s just funny. I’m not bored, but I almost think I should be! I’m just not restless anymore (and hey, I’ve got a GREAT boyfriend!! ;) ).  I’m happy to be writing now, maybe reading in a little bit, putzing around the apartment, filing things, putting stuff away to make it easier for the maid to clean. When I DO get bored, I just pick a task from the endless list on my phone/PDA and off I go again. A lot of my tasks that can be done from the apartment involve writing someone, or doing internet research, or conducting confusing phone calls with people that can speak English but whose fluency often leaves something to be desired…challenging tasks in more ways than one.

I had the funniest exchange with a taxi driver yesterday. I flagged him down and when I got in the cab and told him the address he said “You show me. I from Kowloon side.” At first I couldn’t understand him….cowoonsi? what? But then once I understood that he just wasn’t that familiar with Hong Kong Island I started my “do you know this road?” routine and fortunately I only had to go 2 roads back from ours – more than that and I’m in trouble! So we’re driving along and he is trying to make a phone call. He says “I try call my friend. I very hungry!” Immediately Jill’s “I was hungry” incident popped into mind. Was I going to end up feeding the cab driver??? But we just kept talking. He was very talkative! He said “this area, not much traffic, no good business”. I said, “but its very pretty, nice place to live.” (by the way the traffic thing is EXTREMELY relative!). He said “yes very pretty (he said verrrryyyyy prrrreeetttttyyy and laughed), but very expensive.” I said, “well my husband’s boss pays for our apartment”. He says, “oh your husband has a verry nice boss!” When we got to the apartment I gave him a nice tip and told him to go eat lunch! He was just very entertaining for a taxicab driver!