Spreading the CRAZY!

Hello my peeps! I really have become quite lazy with blogging!! I let the updates add up and then I post one big update! lol!

To begin with I had a FANTASTIC birthday. Actually this was my first birthday away from home and I wasn't really excited about the whole thing. I didnt wanna plan any parties or anything - mostly because although I have met many people here in HK really and truly I only have a couple of good friends. A couple of night before my birthday I was at our neighbourhood pub with my ex-colleagues who also live in the area and they were getting all excited about my birthday and insisting we organised something crazy. So we planned to have a 'knick-knacks' party and meet up at one of my favourite bars in HK called 'feather boa' which is very loungey and parisian style and have the BEST drinks = strawberry daiquiris (real strawberries) and the glass is dipped in chocolate!! ok ok i know i constantly rave about this place! - it's divine! So the eve of my birthday I got home to find a card in my letter box - perfect timing! A cute card from my parents full of sweet words and of course the tears flowed (happy ones! lol) The next day i awoke to GORGEOUS weather so I headed out around noon and met up with Paulina and Candace for manicures! After that we headed to a bar with a huge terrace overlooking HK harbour and had some late lunch and a girly cocktail! I really enjoyed the afternoon with my ladies.

For our night out I wore the most gorgeous dress which I fished out from a boutique shop in the city. As my knick knack I opted for a bright blue wig which matched perfectly with my dress! ;-) My ladies geared up with some very cute accessories - fufu headbands, wands, tiaras... bring on the bling! We really had a fun night at feather boa - i must say that my friends really made it special for me! I was also particularly excited because I have a new crush and I knew he was going to be there - actually I thought he wasnt really interested in me but my FBI detective Candace did some investigative work and discovered some interesting things! :-P











Last wednesday was a public holiday and once again the weather was great so I was up early and a group of us went hiking. YOu might be surprised to hear that 60% of HK is actually green area, so we headed out into the hills for a 9km hike. The trails are properly marked and easy to follow without getting lost! Needless to say it was a tiring hike but it ended on a beautiful beach. We spent the rest of the afternoon lying in the sun and swimming followed with dinner on the beach! It's funny how at home we never go hiking - we usually walk for 10 minutes and then sit down and open up our picnic bags and thermos! lol! So this was pretty new to me.







This weekend was really fun. I had a date with my crush on friday night and i realised i have no idea how to date.. i haven't really been on many official dates in my life! It's really a lot of pressure. He likes me for the way i look but now he is getting to know me so will he like me for who i am... and i like him so i want him to like me.. woooow so much pressure. I noticed that when i'm nervous i make jokes.. and i'm not really sure that works well for everyone. Well at least he seemed to laugh at my jokes! lol. Saturday was a beautiful day so Paulina and I headed out on a tanning mission. We went to this beach about an hour far but it was worth it! The sea was perfect.. the day was perfect! I actually haven't done much swimming this summer so I really appreciate a day at the beach. We also noticed that this is the poser beach in HK... don't show up unless you have DIOR sunglasses, a six-pack and some serious beach style! Otherwise you can hang out in the reject section with the rest of us *sigh*!

Paulina is leaving HK!!! This is really sad for me since she is a special friend and since we were neighbours i saw quite a lot of her. This is one of the few things that i hate about HK.. people are always coming and going. The good news is that she is moving to Thailand so i'm pretty sure i'll be seeing her again soon enough. Yesterday we organised a farewell dinner at my place with a 1920's theme and things got pretty wild! I'm really gonna miss my polish vodka queen!!

What's in a name??

Life has been pretty full on in the past 2 weeks. I've slowly been getting into my new job and I have to admit its been going quite well!. I'm definitely happy to be out of the kindergarten and into primary school! Waaay better! I'm teaching P1 and P2 classes so the kids are really active and also quite smart! I teach a total of 10 classes - 37 students in each class - 10 classes - NO WAY of remembering their names but I have made a list of the most amusing names i've come across till now.

Whatever happened to the good old days when we gave kids normal names like Peter and Jane? What followed was a craze on naming kids after famous people - Elton, Shania, Brooke and the inevitable Britney. Here in Hk it seems like the fashion is to actually MAKE UP kids names - the more exuberant and unpronounceable the better!!! Here are the names of some of my students, which I tried to organise in order of retardedness but they are all way to quirky to organise!! -

Girls=
1. Cherry
2. Godiva (chocaholic?)
3. Melody
4. Shania (wow..here too?)
5. Yoyo (somebody please tell her parents this is NOT a name!
6. Tango (you lost me here)
7. Jainta (huh?)
8. Querida (?!*%$)
9. Eunice (ugly)

Boys=
1. Pelton
2. Sunny
3. Enoch
4. Nathaniel
5. Jasie (JayZ?)
6. Dickson (wot?)
7. Lordman (double-wot?)
8. Shneider (saved the best for last!! hahahaha)


In other updates - I've signed up for a half marathon in aid of UNICEF happening on the 2nd December! So as from next week starts my 10week intensive/bad hair running program, with my only rest days being the 2 days i'll have evening classes at UNI. I've been getting back into running for the past 2 weeks and it hasn't been too bad so far. The hardest thing has been coordinating my meal times and my running times, so I have invested in a very untrendy but lifesaving THERMOS!! He is my new lover and he goes everywhere with me! thanks to him I have nice wholesome lunches at school and am not starved for my run. He also has his own bag with little handles so I can carry him around like a purse and nobody would guess whats in it! He's quite a stylish man! ;-)

Greetings from six floors up!

It's official... i made it! :-)

After a gruelling two days of going back and forth from old to new apartment carrying countless boxes and suitcases, I finally completed the move. Since then I've pretty much been trying to recover from it - my aching, sick and bruised self was physically and mentally stressed out. My colleague Paulina was an angel sent from above - she helped me paint, clean, carry .. pretty much everything. I think I owe her dinners for the next year!

Once all my stuff was in, the place was a total mess - boxes and bags were scattered all over the place - and just looking at the mess I thought i was gonna have a panic attack. Those of you who know me well are aware that i'm a serious neat freak - and I have to admit that I scare myself sometimes - this case in particular i needed to close myself in my bedroom so I wouldnt see the mess in the rest of the house! hahahaha! *sigh*

Over the weekend I got myself organised. Sorted through my stuff, did more work around the house, and the most exciting part - bought a tv off the street!! Here in Hk you can see people sitting on the corner with 2nd hand appliances lying around closeby. There is one guy just 2 blocks away. I had been keeping an eye on him for a week or so - one day he had a washing machine, another day a monitor, then a tv but far too huge, until BINGO, there lay my TV looking fairly abandoned and lonely on that cold pavement! So after agreeing on a price the man picked up the bloody thing and carried it to the fruit shop across the street and plugged it in so we could check that it worked! LOL! hilarious! After that he carried it to my place and for the humble price of lm20 i now have a tv! lol

Today I started my new job but I have nothing exciting to say because i pretty much did nothing all day. However, from today I am officially a commuter and I must say, i quite like it! :-)

SO here are some BEFORE pics of my apartment although I had already done some work when these pics were taken. Most doors had been painted although you can still se one hideous brown door so just imagine all doors in that colour! AFTER pics to follow soon!


living room...my bedroom right inside and spare room on the right. P.S... BROWN door! ugh


other end of living room


my kitchen!! more BROWN! If youre wondering where the doors lead to - one is a mini terrace (about 1m by 1m lol) the other is a back exit which isnt used anymore.

Hi! It's me!



Ok Ok! I know! It’s been forever! I actually had to send out an email to let you all know that I’ve updated this space since I was convinced everyone had stopped checking for updates!

So where to begin? Holidays are over – and frankly I feel like I need a holiday!! Tibet was probably one of my favourite trips ever although it was a pretty rough holiday. You can’t say you’ve backpacked until you’ve roughed it up in Tibet! The first part of the trip was spent in the capital city of lhasa – acclimatising to the altitude, visiting temples and monasteries and just taking in all the culture in general. After that we took a 5 day land cruiser trip to other towns and places of interest outside of lhasa. This is when the trip got harder – the further away we went from lhasa the more uncivilised things became. We found ourselves peeing in bushes, going to sleep and waking up in the same clothes for 3 days, ordering a safe egg rice twice a day… sigh.. The list is endless. Nonetheless we survived the holiday and I must say I have the fondest (scariest and happiest) memories from this trip that I shared with my one and only Lilly. We swore a lot back then but now we just look back and laugh at the hilarious situations we found ourselves in!! :-P

Here are some of my favourite/unforgettable moments:
1) Waiting at the airport for our plane from Chengdu to Tibet. Our plane delayed by about 3 hours and Candace and I still found it to be a little surreal that we would soon be in Tibet so we made up this whole story about Tibet being a fantasy land and our plane was delayed because they hadn’t finished painting the mountainous backdrop.
2) Trips to public toilets: Communal squat toilets with no doors and as you squat and do your thing Chinese lady tourists walk in and stand in front of you waiting for you to finish!
3) The higher we went the colder it got! We slept fully clothed…very often with our woollen hats.
4) The Heidi-style tea flasks available in all hostels! Nothing felt better than a hot mug of tea before bed!
5) I laughed so hard watching Candace transform into a REAL backpacker: she filled our empty bottles with boiled water, she collected extra tea bags from our hostel rooms and kept them for future use, and even stole a roll of toilet paper once! Hahahaha! I’m proud of you babe!
6) By the end of our trip we had become pretty oblivious to all things strange – we happily peed in bushes, we walked past meat stalls in full view of pigs heads and goat cadavers only to think ‘oh look it’s a pig/goat...’, I even got a fly in my water flask once and I simply poured it out, gave the flask a shake and took a sip! Hahaha!

You may check out my photos on www.flickr.com/photos/tsotsa/ I will have more photos on there eventually but there is actually a maximum amount you can upload each month so more to come in September.

In other news, as most of you know I will be changing job soon: from kindergarten to primary school. My current employers provide my current apartment so by the end of next week I need to be out of there. I’ve been house hunting since getting back from holidays and it was literally a nightmare. I saw tuna can size apartments with cupboard kitchens, no shower, and one entirely covered in mickey mouse wallpaper!! I was getting desperate until I saw a flat in an old Chinese building: really spacious with lots of light. Rent is also reasonable because it’s on the 6th floor and there’s no lift! I figure I’ll be fit in no time. It will be stressful moving all my things in and I also need to furnish it but once it’s done I’m sure it will look great! ☺ I also really like the neighbourhood: Its very typical Chinese: they have little shrines with burning incense on every landing, and my apartment is no.6 and next door is No.8 = there is no 7 because they believe it’s an unlucky number. Also unlike the new buildings this one has no security officer downstairs: but I do have an old man who sells buttons and I hear he keeps and eye on everything that goes on in the building! He also giggles at me every time I go by! CUTE!

I’ve signed the lease and the past week I’ve been busy getting things done! Right now I’m painting the doors because they were a horrible dark brown!! I will also visit ikea in the next few days for some hard-core shopping! I promise to post some pics of the place in the next few days.

ALSO!... more news! (Has anyone had the patience to read this far?? I doubt it!!) As most of you know I’ve been soul searching to find which career would be suitable for me. A couple of months ago I started to look around at some universities here in HK and before the holidays I gave in my application for a part-time course starting in September. WELL… 3 days ago I received my letter of acceptance so next month I’ll be starting my studies for a diploma in fitness and exercise! ☺ I’m very excited about this and hopefully I’ve made the right decision!

Ok that’s about it for now!! Look out for pics of my new place coming VERY soon – I’m gonna have some ‘before and after’ pics … and oh! I forgot to mention!... I have a 2nd bedroom so you are all welcome to visit me!! (if you can handle the stairs!!) ☺


Leaving for holidays! ... I go nowhere without my huge stock of cereal!


My backpacker babe!! *mwah*


Weird street food = Chengdu - Sichuan Province - China.


This little cutie was hugging me after I gave her a bottle of milk and a red rubberband for her hair!


Potala Palace - Lhasa - Tibet.


"Darling!...I got us a nice pot of tea and potatoes!!"


Everest Base Camp...fooling around with my oxygen tank!

Toothbrush…. check
Mosquito spray… check
Sleeping bag… check
Nibbles… check

Yes my dearest ones… its about that time again! Time to wear my backpack and head off on the next adventure. My bag is packed, my fridge is empty, my plants are doomed… bye-bye… see you when I see you!

Mmmm…China! Our first meeting 2 years ago was quite a shock. I thought I was going to die on the Great Wall and everyone thought I got lost on a never-ending train ride. You were full of surprises! Perhaps this time will be better? It’s only fair to give you a second chance! This time round our trip starts off in Sichuan Province in the city of Chengdu. We’ll hang out with the pandas for a couple of days and then hopefully make our way to the highest plateau in the world: Tibet. So high we could probably touch the clouds…but first we’ll concentrate on keeping our feet on the ground without falling over from altitude sickness.

This is going to be an interesting trip…

Raincoat… check
Camera… check
Socks… check

Sunny Days!!

My Sunday morning goes something like this – get up and head out to buy the newspapers, cold shower and back to bed! There’s nothing better than chilling in bed, eating cereal, reading the papers and catching up on emails/blogs etc! I guess it’s always a time for reflection over the week gone by. My usual reaction is ‘Has another week really gone by so fast?!’ Summer holidays begin in less than 2 weeks and our travel plans seem to be pretty airy-fairy right now. We’ve been in the process of planning a trip to Tibet but it has turned out to be much harder than we thought. It’s been so boring doing all this research on travel permits, visas and entry requirements that I’ve almost lost my buzz. Now I find myself eyeing my dive bag stored away under my bed and dreaming of a holiday with my fish friends.

Anyhow…the big news of the week is this… Christina Aguilera’s concert was FANTASTIC!! I love love love her!! Actually it was my first ‘big’ concert, topped with the fact that I absolutely adore Christina… it couldn’t have been better. The whole time I just seemed to sit there in amazement. I guess it felt quite surreal to actually SEE her on that stage. I could have just sat there with my mouth hanging open the whole time – the music, the visuals, the dancing, the atmosphere – it was just one huge party! :-D

Yesterday we went on a boat trip organized for two friends who are leaving HK next week. The weather was perfect and it turned out to be a fabulous day! There was a constant flow of food and drinks – perfectly combined with sun and sea! What more could anyone want? We left from Hk harbour and sailed to the quieter beaches in the north of Hk. The boat stopped close to a sandy beach that we could swim to. Anyway – here are pics of the day! ☺


bye-bye civilisation!


Hello paradise!


chinese junk-boat


they've just spilt beer on me! waaa


Cute Lilly!


new friends!


click-click!


bye-bye quiet beaches - back into the city!

Summer's in the Air!

You know you have a problem when you’re physically exhausted and yet you still force yourself to go out after work! I think I’m trying to make up for what I missed out on last week because of my flu. My week has been busy but the here is the big news: my ipod is back to life!!! It died about 6 weeks ago and things didn’t look promising! When I was almost resigned to letting it go my friends told me about a certain ipod guru who would definitely fix it and sure enough yesterday Mr.Lau brought my beloved back to life! *Sob* For all of you sniggering and wondering how hard could it be to live without an ipod you are seriously mistaken! In a city where noise is the rule of the day, where people chew loudly and scream into their phones so everyone can know whats cooking for dinner, who is sleeping with who, and where to get a ‘good’ perm (at least this is what I think they talk about) trust me you’re gonna want that ipod! And speaking of music – some of you might know that I’m a huge Maroon 5 fan and I’m currently hooked on their new album! So get your ipods updated! ;-)

Last weekend the weather was gorgeous! I had to work Saturday morning and I spent the entire time staring out of the window at the blue sky and white fluffy clouds! At noon I flew out of the door armed with bikini and packed lunch and practically raced to the beach to get some much needed sun! As I lay on the beach people watching I came to realize that the locals have little beach sense. People swim fully clothed (I swear I saw one swimming with socks too!) I think I might be missing something here! The highlight of the day was seeing the lifeguards in action when a teenager started drowning in the shallow part. Seriously …he was knee-deep!

Late afternoon I got a call of distress from my Lilly who was having some boy-trouble so I ran to the rescue and we drowned our sorrows in some perfectly amazing cocktails! There seems to be a serious outbreak in Hong Kong - we haven’t concluded if it is air-borne or water-transmitted- but there are serious consequences – perfectly amazing and lovely girls such as lilly and myself are getting dumped! What is wrong with men around here? And more importantly…How is this possible?.. seeing that we are just so damn fabulous! I rest my case. Needless to say – we had a fantastic night, which just proves that there is nothing more fabulous than a date with your mates! ☺


The other day we had school graduation… umm..yes…. children ‘graduate’ from kindergarten and apparently people here make a big deal of it because if their children don’t get to college or uni this is their only graduation! Isn’t that tragic? So we’ve been preparing this show probably since we got back to school after Easter holidays. The children have been learning these dances and speeches ad nauseum and everyone was sick and tired and dying to get the whole damn thing over and done with. Tuesday rolls around and the Chinese teachers and all anxious and nervous (they’re a serious bunch) while us foreigners sit around enjoying the panic. They made us do absolutely useless things like get the kids ready by applying their makeup at 11am when the show starts at 4:30pm… ummm.. they’re kids… they’re going to eat away their makeup within an hour! We spent the whole day bribing the kids to good behaviour with sweets and stickers. When it was all over there were almost tears of joy that we wouldn’t have to practice any more horrid dances! Hallelujah!

Weekend is almost here and it's even more exciting cos it's a long weekend!! Monday is the 10th anniversary of the handover! Hopefully it will be nice n sunny so I can beach again.. possibly with my socks on! ;-)



Our 'mean girls' impersonation! One of my crazy kids - Jeana



Cute!