Quick Update

Sorry I am such a bad blogger. We have been so busy that it's hard to motivate myself to chronicle anything in what little down time I have. Although my work here is not as varied or interesting as the kinds of cases I dealt with in Manila, we are a smaller operation so there is a lot to be done by just a few people. Last weekend was a long holiday here, so several of my colleagues took some additional holiday, plus one ended up going on paternity leave a few days early, which added up to a serious workload for those of us left behind. Regardless, I can't complain even on those days when I'm working like a mad woman. I mean, we're in freaking Hong Kong! I continue to find this place absolutely amazing, and I can't ever imagine not loving it here. I'm sure we'll hit a slump at some point, but for now we are just really enjoying our lives here.

The weather over the holiday weekend was phenomenal, so we spent several days at the beach. What's that? You didn't know Hong Kong had a beach? Actually it has far more than one. Several on Hong Kong Island itself, and a whole bunch more out past Kowloon on the peninsula. We've only explored HKI so far because we're still getting used to driving around here. Oh, did I forget to mention we got a car? Actually, we bought a car from the Consulate auction, so it's rather old but very low mileage, and it only ended up costing us around $500USD total. Can't complain about that! We still mostly walk or use public trans to get around, but there are places that are either more difficult to get to (e.g. not on an MTR line) or it's a painful experience getting there with a one year old who doesn't like sitting still for long. Having a car means we can join the American Club out in Tai Tam and not have to catch a taxi or the bus and endure trying to contain N for 20-45 minutes. Now we just strap him into his car seat and go. Plus we can park at the beach and then just leave when we please without fighting the 10,000 other people trying to flag a taxi. And we can even go to those far less crowded beaches off the beaten path, which is more up our alley anyway.

Anyway, to catch you up a bit. Husband is still waiting on his clearance to start work *sigh*. So, we got season tickets to Ocean Park (kids are on Spring Break for 2 weeks) so they have something to do. We had already gotten season tickets for the museums here (there's abut 7 that participate, including the hands-on Science Museum), which gives you an additional 10% off of your tickets to Ocean Park. So paid about $350USD total for 4 gold pass tickets, that's less than half the cost of Disney season passes and waaay closer to us. Plus, pandas! A pretty good deal, I think. C came and went for her Spring Break. She'll be back this summer and working at the Consulate (paid, too!) as an intern. I went to Korea of a week to transition into my new Reserves gig with 7th AF, which was a lot of fun. It's always nice to get back into uniform, and I love the work I do. I'll be headed back there for my three full time weeks in June, so this was just a chance to get all of my accounts set up and take care of the administrative stuff like getting immunizations, a new id card, etc. Definitely looking forward to going back!

Yesterday Husband and I went to Macau for the first time. I had a work event to attend, and then he and I hit the blackjack tables (would have been better off if we enjoyed Baccarat, which appears to be the game of choice here) and got some dinner before heading home. Macau is part of our Consular district, so I will be back again next week for a full day of consular outreach. Next weekend is also our 10th wedding anniversary, so Husband and I are going to celebrate in the City of Dreams with Two Chainz. Hard to imagine another venue that would be so fitting ;)