HKG008: Victoria Park, IKEA, Ice Cream, & an APARTMENT!!!

our offer on our favorite of the apartments we saw in the mid-levels was accepted, and we close the deal on the 10th! that's just five days away...only five more days of living in a closet!! wooooo hoooooo!

today started a little slow and lazy. 3 of the 4 of us are dealing with a mild cold, it was cloudy and cool today, and hey, it's SUNDAY....it's supposed to be a quiet day :-) and quiet it was....walking down the street around 9 was a very quiet and almost lonely experience...nothing was open and very few people were out and about. we headed to the park to play for a while, and there were lots of families there, so it wasn't quite so lonely. after a little bit of play, we hopped on a tram to head to causeway bay to check out the IKEA there. guess what? it's pretty much exactly like the IKEA in round rock....just smaller and with slightly higher prices. there was a cafeteria there, and it offered the famous meatballs, which we ate with relish. after finishing our lunch of champions, we headed over to victoria park.

the scottish expat we met earlier this week warned us that sundays at victoria park were a sight to behold. sundays are the only day full-time aiyahs have off, and victoria park is where all the off-duty aiyahs like to gather. it was a pretty amazing sight to see thousands and thousands of young women gathered in groups chatting, laughing, singing, eating, and just enjoying themselves. the energy was high and it was cheerful to walk through that gathering. we found a couple of pretty amazing playgrounds in victoria park, and let the kids play for a bit. we also saw the remnants of what looked like a pretty amazing flower show. that sounds weird, right? you have to see it to believe it, and unfortunately i left my camera at the apartment so you can't see it...so just believe it :-)

after a little play time, we swung through a hagen daaz and headed for the tram stop. so, in case you were wondering, hagen daaz is apparently made of gold here. our four individual scoops of chocolate and coffee ice cream cost four times as much as our hot dogs and meat balls and bottled water at IKEA. crazy, eh?

it is now just about 4 p.m. and we are all rested and ready to tackle another adventure and some dinner before closing out this pretty amazing day. tomorrow begins josh's first real work week here. he gets to stay in the HK office this week except for a day trip to guangzhou on friday. i think it's next week that he will begin his 3/2 work week where he is in guangzhou 3 days of the week and in HK 2 days of the week.