Our Apartment

Our apartment is beautiful. I am dreading the cost of outfitting it with the necessities. Corey has started this process. Do you remember having to outfit your kid’s apartments (or your own) with kitchen basics..food condiments, etc.
You enter the apartment through an impressively large wooden door. By habit, our shoes are taken of there. You can take the people out of Seattle, but you can’t take Seattle out of the people…and I guess this DOES go foot in foot as to where we are. We are going to have to buy a container of some kind to hold them.
The first thing you see is the view of HK. I will come back to that.
To your left is our dining room table and some kind of picture. The table is a dark wood, oak maybe (the apartment came furnished). The table seats six, snugly. Corey has two places already set with the dishes and placemats we purchased when I was here in November. The placemats are red to compliment the dark wood. The plates are white with red and black. Lovely. I am very pleased with this choice two months later!
Again to the left is the door to the kitchen. It does not stay open for some reason. Sigh. Kitchens are small. Food is expensive. (Corey and I are having an intellectual discussion: eat in v eat out) They have little to no storage (What am I making for dinner? Reservations!). Ovens are a novelty. This was a deal breaker for me. I’m not a creative cook anyway..but no oven?
Off the kitchen is the bedroom for “the help” Everyone has help. Well, anyone who has kids has help. And actually, most of everyone else does too. It is very inexpensive. The room for “the help” is very very small. I mean, crazy small. Maybe 6 x 6 with an “all in one” bathroom attached. Not sure where “the help’s” clothes are supposed to be stored. It is not something I need to worry about b/c when I asked Corey when our help arrives he answered “it just did” Alrighty then.
Back to the living room where there is a nice flatscreen (you know, this is the second place we have chosen where the TV has been integral in the decision making)
The couches are two pieces in a beige tweed looking fabric. Corey and I have already staked out our places.
So, the view. Well, where are the words? Someone needs to find me a Roget’s Thesaurrus quickly, because I am not equipped. I won’t say that the lights are as impressive as Las Vegas, but it is pretty impressive. HK is home to tall buildings that boast advertising. The colors are amazing and every night between 8 and 9 there is a light show. A full on, lasers included, light show. The city celebrates its’ events by stringing lights on the buildingsl At Christmas it was Christmas stuff and now for Chinese New Year, the two buildings across the harbor have animated rabbits (care to guess what year this is?) The harbor is bustling at all hours. I have seen two boats go by even as I type this, and that is at 5 am! The city skyline is dark now (must save energy and let everyone get some sleep) Out my window I can see the HK convention center (holy heck batman is that thing huge), and now that it is dark, I think I can see the escalator that takes you up into Hong Kong (to an area called the mid levels) In the morning the escalator goes down, at night, up. I will try not to use the escalators ever…but this city is a sea of people and sometimes being a salmon is not for your own good.