Gary and Stef in Asia: Update 8 - Back to Europe for Christmas

Lounge and study

It’s time to fly back to snowy Europe on BA for Christmas with our families in the UK and France. In our final week or so we’ve been Christmas shopping for our families – that’s 16 parents, brother and sisters and 13 nieces and nephews. Not to mention dogs, boyfriends, girlfriends and other friends. Now every year I write all the Christmas cards and Stef wraps the presents - seems fair… so this year I created an e-card and emailed it out ;o) – job done! Stef on the other hand has wrapped around 50 presents – still I’ve been writing this blog haven’t I?

We finally got the flat as we want it and will stay here until at least the end of April, living above my brother and family. We like the quiet and rural life here, but still only 30 minutes regular boat ride to Hong Kong. We cycle or walk everywhere in Mui Wo and it's surrounding area. Additionally it's 30 minutes taxi ride to the airport for our many excursions. Above the flats lounge, study, kitchen and bathroom with, out of picture 2 x single bedrooms and 1 double bedroom.

View from the bathroom window

Buffalo roam wild on Lantau island and we frequently have to navigate past them on our bikes..

We prefer to shop in Hong Kong’s many markets such as Mong Kok, Yau Ma Tei , Stanley, Sham Shui Po and Temple St Night market, they’re a lot more animated than the many shopping centres and you can interact more with the people on a personal basis.
A number of agencies have called us about work since we've been here. We purposely haven’t contacted any, but as a few of them confirmed it’s a relatively small market for skilled staff and just posting your CV on sites such as ‘LinkedIn’ and ‘eFinancial Careers’ with location Hong Kong, has led them to us very easily. Most assured us that it’s a good time to be looking around for work and that they expect us to have a choice of jobs when the time comes! We’d still like to hold out until April before we start and the work visa taking 4-6 weeks to process means we’ll get an early warning of impending employment. For tax reasons, its better that we start in April and we’re not done travelling yet! In January we’d like to visit, Melbourne, Sydney and Cairns for the Great Barrier Reef and in February we’ll take some extended time out in China.

Today is our last whole day in Mui Wo and it happened to be the ‘2009 Silvermine Bay Carnival’ in Mui Wo. My 3 year niece was appearing singing a song in Chinese (none of us can understand her these days) along with her play school class from the Lick Hang Kindergarden. They were all asked to dress in their national costumes, hence Isabella is wearing Phillipino dress (my brother didn't have time to get her a knotted hanky and wellingtons..) and Mika, Japanese. As one parent told me the school really is like the United Colours of Benetton. It’s been a dry bright day today and 16c and the wind has dropped so it felt quite warm.