HOT!!!!

isn't the ifc nice? it's certainly cool for that matter.

note: i didn't get a chance to publish my blog from yesterday, so there's an extra one below in case you missed it.
i just checked the weather forecast for hk and it's going to be insanely hot. highs of 92 degrees F for the next three days, with wednesday's kicker at a mild 90 degrees F. so yeah, it's going to be pretty fucking hot. it's actually a little warm today as well, but the high's only at 89 degrees F. my final week in hk, and it'll be a scorcher. many thanks to the weather god. thankfully, the humidity isn't too high.

yes, finally, the ending is in sight. next saturday, i'll be on a flight to japan and the saturday after that a flight back to the states. i want to say that i won't miss hk, but i probably will. probably miss my parents, my sister and other relatives as well. i'll miss having dim sum with my mum and grandma after morning exercises. i'll miss watching the hilarious detective sitcom. i'll miss my mum's homecooking. and probably miss doing nothing all day. i think i'll miss taking the mtr and walking around the stations because it's so clean.

speaking of the mtr, in between my last trip and my current trip (probably around 3 or 4 years, though i can't be sure), they installed protective plexiglass dividers on the edge of the platform in the majority of the stations. i guess they were a little afraid of people accidentally falling down or getting pushed into the subway tracks. it took some time for me to get use to the fact that there are plexiglass (or maybe plastic) dividers with sliding doors. i guess i don't like change much.

you can still see the adverts on the tunnel walls across from the platforms in each station. but now they actually have some flatscreen tvs on the walls displaying adverts with the sounds coming out of speakers placed directly overhead of the platform. i'm really a big fan of the mtr. one of the thing i remember most about my youth spent in hk is the smell of the mtr. it was and still is so sterile.

yeah, i think i came down with something. either that or the air's been so bad that i'm producing a lot of phlegm that i'm not getting out. the air in hk is pretty bad in the summertime depending on where you are. along the coast it isn't too bad. and air conditioned buildings are always good. but it's down on the busy streets where the air could be pretty bad.

even though the high-rise buildings in hk create one of the most gorgeous night skyline in the world, when you have so many high-rise buildings, they act like insulators, keeping the exhaust from cars, lorries, and buses down on the streets. mix in the heat, humidity and muggy weather, you have air that's not exactly clean or crisp. i think it was worse several years ago when the smog started killing people. it's pretty bad, and i live in la.

last monday, when i was visiting with father michael, he was telling me about the real estate bubble bursting and the housing authority. i thought it was pretty interesting so i'm going to write about it now. granted, this is something i heard from a 73 yr old man, and it's being reproduced via my memory and translation, so take it for what it's worth.

years ago, before the economic down turn, when everyone was happy and was able to work for a living, people purchased flats either for residence or to let (rent). all was good and well. but then, the real estate bubble bursted, flats were depreciated several times their initial worth. for instance, a HK$500,000 flat was able to devalue to HK$200,000 overnight. unfortunately, people still owe the bank or lender loans on the flat, which most likely were much more than the value of said flat. in addition, the economy turned bad and people started losing their jobs, which created the problem of them not being able to pay their mortgages. good times, eh?

then there were the real estate speculators. oh, poor, poor chaps.

the housing authority. many of hk's residential high-rises are grouped together in what can be described as villages. some are owned by real estate companies while others are owned by the hk housing authority. back in the old days, housing authority homes were pretty wretched places to live. the housing authorities' mentality at that time was to put as many families into shelters as possible, which meant that several families shared communal bathrooms and kitchens. so privacy and any sense of human dignity were thrown out the proverbial door.

but now, a more modernized and humane housing authority have homes which are incredibly nice according to hk standards. families don't have to share kitchens and bathrooms anymore. at least in most cases. there are your backwatered housing authority homes that still subscribe to the old way of living. how sad is that?

father michael lives in a flat that's a little more than 600 sq. feet in size. it's basically a typical american bachelor's pad (layout-wise) with a bathroom and kitchen. in hk standards, it's a pretty good size flat for a family. you can of course, build partition walls to make separate bedrooms. hk is a small place, so it's people are used to being squished close together.

i went to jusco (a shopping center) with my mum yesterday. that's why i didn't have time to publish my blog. anyway, the first floor of this shopping center contains a market (just like the westernized ones), a food court, and a electronic dept. after having a quick lunch at the micky d's there, we went up to the third floor (toys) to use the facilities. one of the displays in the toy department had a mannequin of a little girl with her eyes closed, slanted head tilting upwards, and her mouth open. i don't know if it's just me being really disgusting, but if she was on her knees, it would almost look like she was...

hey, i'm not too far from bangkok. who knows.

anyway, so my mum and i were walking through the market and the smell of durian permeated throughout the first floor. in the produce section, they had a worker opening durians, taking out the meat, and putting them on a styrofoam plate, wrapped in plastic wrap. oh, but the smell is much too powerful to be held in by just plastic wrap. so it was all over the place. and i LOVED it. arrgh.... forbidden durian.

okay, i have to run. mum just rang. hugs and kisses to all.