Bigfooterella - a "short" story

So, I tried to buy some shoes the other day. All I brought for work was my normal 2 inch heels and with all the walking / commuting / not having a car-ing, it was getting old really quickly. My feet are killing me by the end of the day! Tons of blisters and hurting spots. I really only like wearing flip-flops or sneakers, but even in business casual, they don't make the cut.

So, I went into this mall and tried three different stores, on a quest for some nice flats. Luckily they are still in style so there were plenty of designs and colors to choose from. I saw some I liked in one place and I asked the sales person (a 5'2", 90 lb, asian woman) to get me "bigggest size" in a couple pairs of flats...she brings back the "biggest size" and we proceed to try to shove my feet into them, while all the other shoppers (all 5'2", 90 lb, asian women, with size 5 feet) watch this 5'10", 100-some-odd lb honky trying to fit her monstrous size feet into the "biggest size", which, sadly, does not fit!! The sales woman was trying to convince me that they were OK even though half of my heel was hanging off the back of the shoe. I think she felt badly, because she told me I had to go to Central (another part of town) to buy "bigger" sizes.

So, instead I bought some make-up at another place to make me feel better (granted I do not need any more make-up, but when you are in the mood to buy something and then can't buy what you want, you still have to get something at the mall or else the entire mission is a failure!)

The next day, walking home from work I saw a big department store in Time's Square that was having a shoe sale. The name of the place was Lane Crawford, which although I think the name sounds like a fat woman's store, it is actually a pretty nice department store a la Bloomingdales. There I was again, amongst the petite ladies, scavenging thru the sale merchandise, shoes flying everywhere, slipping on, taking off, asking for other sizes....

Does this story have a happy ending? Will Bigfooterella finally find a fitting flat?

Yes! Lane Crawford had size 40 (size 9 in the US) shoes for Bigfooterella! And even better, similar to a shoe sale in the US where all that is left are the small size 5 and 5 1/2 in the good shoes, here in Asia, since everyone has the pretty petite small size 5 feet, so there are plenty of size 9's to go around! You just got to find a store that carries shoes that big!

In the end, I bought some pretty gold flats...going back tomorrow to search for more in other fabulous colors. My feet are smiling me right now.

Nothing to do with this story, but a really funny sign outside of the drug store in Lan Kwai Fong. Can you read the captions?

It says "We have BEER for you to drink, CIGAR for you to enjoy, PERFUME for your girlfriends, VIAGRA for your 'banana' become 'cucumber', Don't forget CONDOM for your safe sex, Otherwise.....DRUGS to heal you, If she insits 'No'....MELATONIN for you go to sleep. ENJOY YOUR NIGHT"

LOL! Love you & Miss you!

Househunting & Hiking

Greetings from Hong Kong! On Friday we went to look for apartments all afternoon. Unfortunately right now there is not a lot of availability in the neighborhoods we are interested in for our price range that we have been given, so we were only able to view three of them. We may have to either wait and stay in the hotel for another month, Tony and I sharing essentially a "Studio" with no kitchen, or, keep looking into other neighborhoods. We are going out with the realtor again towards the end of this week...wish us better luck this time!


On Friday night we went out on the town with some friends from work. We ate at this delicious Thai restaurant in the Soho area on Elgin street. We shared a bunch of dishes and one of my favorites was a spicy fried soft shell crab dish. I never ate much soft shell crab in the US mostly because the "skin" creeped me out, but this was very good. Nothing too exotic otherwise, but the food was delicious. Then we headed into Lan Kwai Fong to see what was going on. We bar hopped a bit and got to see a group of 14 year old girls (they had to be!) get kicked out of a club, the drinking age here is 18. But, they didn't seem too phased, just waited outside for a while and tried their luck at another place. A man could get into a lot of trouble with 14-year-olds out and about! Geez!



We couldn't stay out too late because we had a whole weekend of hiking planned. We woke up early Saturday morning and met up with the team at 8:00 AM in an effort to beat the heat. It didn't work! It was already 90 degrees out, mostly because it has been extremely clear for the past week and the sun was just beating down on us. We had a tough hike that day, called Jardin - Mount Butler. It was about 5 miles of up and down (felt like mostly up) steps with the blaring hot sun. Tony and I each drank three bottles of water on the hike! he had a tough time with this one mostly due to the fact that the sun was pounding on us and he was overheating. There was one part that was a straight shot up a million steps with no shade whatsoever. The last part was very nice and dropped us off near a reservoir where we saw lots of turtles swimming. We all hoped in a cab and went to the beach at Stanley Market. A swim felt great after our sweatfest!

After a nice lunch, we had to head home for a nap. I tell you, nothing makes you more exhausted then a three hour hike in the blaring sun. Saturday night, Tony and I went out to a Spanish restaurant called "El Cid" and shared a great bottle of wine and a variety of tapas: Asparagus wrapped with Spanish ham, Shrimps Allilo (with garlic), Baby Quail with tomatoes, Clams in white wine, and a salad. It was Delicious, not to mention that it had a very cool name, even though they spelt it wrong.


On Sunday, we had an easier hike planned. We started at about 9 AM and headed to Dragon's back. This was a bit tough in the beginning with lots of steps, but the trail took us through some shaded areas and offered an amazing view of our end goal, the beach at Big Wave Bay. Supposedly this is one of the only beaches in Hong Kong where they actually get waves big enough to surf, but the tide must have been out or the moon must have been int he wrong phase, because I didn't see many tasty waves. You can rent umbrellas, boogie boards and floats. The people here like to rent floats and sit on them in the ocean, like five people to a float, and just hang out. We purchased some straw mats to lay out on, the hotel towels weren't cutting it. The sand at Big Wave was a lot finer and more what we are used to in the US where the beach at Stanley was more rocky / shelly. After the beach, we headed back to the hotel and ate at this delicious Australian curry buffet. They have a special every Sunday for an ll you can eat buffet with all you can drink beer or bloody mary's for four hours costing $198 HKD (about$25 USD). Dangerous!

All in all it was a fun weekend once again. We are really getting to know the area well and have enjoyed our hikes, even though they kick our a**es.

Write back soon and have a great week! Love you & Miss you!

Dragon Boats, and Dumplings, and Apartments, oh my!

Greetings from Hong Kong! Back with Blog entry number two. Thank you all for the comments on the first posting, it was most fun to read them - keep 'em comin'!

On Tuesday we took a trip down to watch the Dragon Boat races. The best spot from Hong Kong island is down in an area called Stanley Market which is a beach area with sun and swimming right next to a jam packed market filled with every souvenir under the sun. The races were attended by countries all over the world. Each team had on an elaborate uniform to identify themselves, for example, these dudes from Scandinavia with the viking hats. There was another group of guys that all had on baby bonnets, bibs and pacifiers, and another one I saw that was all in black and white striped jailbird gear with ink (tattoos) up and down their arms. The races are done in heats of six teams at a time and then the winners go up to the semi-finales, etc. etc. There are awards for most team spirit, thus the elaborate costumes. As you can (maybe?) see from the picture, there are yachts that line up in the harbor to watch the fun as well. I need to make friends with someone who has one of those for next year - the beach was so friggin packed with people and unbelievably hot, it wasn't too long before we found ourselves in a air conditioned pub having lunch and a beer (shocking!)

After lunch we hit the market to see what we could buy. I believe our first attempt at bargaining failed when we made an offer on a new backpack to bring with us on our hikes and it was accepted right away, without a fight - so much for being good sales people! Gotta get back to work on those negotiating skills...weren't we not supposed to make the first offer??!? Oooops. But it turns out that everything is negotiable here, even your gym membership!

After the Dragon Boat races, we headed up to the Lan Kwai Fong area of town. We wanted to scope it out because we are going on our first apartment hunt with the realtor on Friday afternoon. Lan Kwai Fong is the bar & restaurant hot spot on Hong Kong Island. They have every cuisine from Lebanese to Italian in all these really cute tiny places all stacked up on the street. And after the dinner crowd leaves, the place turns into one big party where you can bring you drinks outside and bar hop. See for yourself at http://www.lankwaifong.com/

We ate dinner at this hole in the wall dumpling place where we ordered pork & leek (my fav), pork & celery, and pork & cabbage dumplings. For $3 USD you got a platter of one kind, freshly made by the little Chinese woman in the back. They have four large tables where you grab some wood with strangers and munch on these little bites of love. I took a picture of the place from the outside, I hope I can find it again (did I mention we started drinking at 11:30 at the races?!?)

Right up the hill from there is the neighborhood called SOHO which stands for South of Hollywood Road. This is the area where we really want to live! There is also a NOHO (North of Hollywood) and a BOHO which I can't figure out what that means...

Work is going great. I got to meet the Pres of AP today at his staff meeting. I also have gotten my account assignments realigned a bit and have started to get the details downloaded from my boss. It looks like our first trip will be to China at the beginning of July!

Fun Fact: The traffic lights here are Red to stop, then Turn Yellow (similar to a drag race) right before they turn Green to go. Maybe that is why we don't have a car : )

Till next time...Love you & Miss you!

Tony & I eating Dim Sum for lunch

Arrived safely and started a blog

Welcome to my blog! Aren't you impressed that I actually set this up? I am : )

Where do I begin....Well, we made it! After 16 hours of flying, we arrived in Hong Kong safe and sound. Our hotel is wonderful, right on the water with a view of the Harbor, right in the middle of Causeway Bay. Check it out! http://www.mandarinoriental.com/excelsior

On Saturday morning, we met up with some fellow Expats, some who have been here for one year already. They showed us around town and we went out to a delicious Dim Sum lunch. One of the most delicious things we had was a fried turnip cake...yummmy! The grossest thing, which I did not eat (but of course Tony did) was the fried chicken feet. Maybe by the end of this I will have changed my mind about them, but I doubt it!

The city is truly beautiful. The streets are spotless and everything is in both English and Chinese. The people are a wide mix of all Asian cultures with many Australlians, Europeans, and Americans thrown in. To my surprise, they are tall, especially the men, and I have not felt like the 6 foot beast I thought I would...not yet at least!

The shopping is everything you have ever heard about in Hong Kong, stores on top of stores, three levels high on every street you turn. I have not tried to buy anything yet, but I am hoping that they have size 9 shoes for ladies available!

The only complaint so far is adjusting to the time difference. We are trying to flip 12 hours from the east coast, basically becoming nocturnal. For example, yesterday, I woke up at 6:00 AM after going to bed at 12:30 AM, then we walked / hiked for three hours, got back after lunch and passed out at 3:00 PM, slept until 9:00 PM and then couldn't fall asleep until 3:30 AM, and had to wake up at 6:30 AM for work. Not good. A little cranky.

On Sunday as I said before, we woke up early and met up with our expat crew for our first hike. Hiking is very big in Hong Kong with most of the island covered by mountains and greenery. We began at our hotel and walked thru the streets to get to the base of the mountain and then proceeded to climb up to the top in what only can be described as a 90 degree rain forest....I think my clothes are still soaking wet! Doesn't my hair look fab in this picture? Disgusting! The mountain is called Victoria's Peak and the view over the city is well worth it. You can also take a tram or bus to the top, but we have committed to hiking so that we can eat our faces off...the food has been amazing! We are going to go on another hike with the crew next weekend.

So, here I am in the office now. The Cyberport - how futuristic?!? This place is amazing. Check out their website too: http://www.cyberport.com.hk/cyberport/en/home/home_flash.html

Rockwell has only been in this building for about three years, it is brand new. It is so modern and chic and there are restaurants, five star hotels, dry cleaning, shopping, like nothing I have ever seen before.

I still don't have a cell phone, but hopefully will by Thursday. Oh, and I started a new email address outside the company so you can send me things there instead: Sidney.Sollazo@gmail.com

Tomorrow is a holiday in Hong Kong, the day for the Dragon Boat races. Apparently some fisherman dude (Qu Yuan) drowned 2000 years ago in the bay and now all these team race 20 person boats and then party afterwards...More to come on that tomorrow.

So, welcome to our blog, come back often and send me notes - I miss you already!