Happy Half Birthday To ME!!!

That's right kids, today I am 27 and a half.  Appropriate gifts for half birthdays include but are not limited to:  diamonds, chocolate, puppies....

As I walked out this morning I noticed our stupid mall is doing another stupid exhibition.  Apples?

I called up Physical Fitness yesterday and made an appointment for Saturday at 11 to meet with a personal trainer.  I had bought a groupon a while back for a month membership to the gym, 2 personal training sessions, 5 classes, 3d face scan (I have no idea), an hour massage and access to the sauna and steam room.  All this for like $10.  Pretty sweet, right?  Well the alarm goes off on this first Saturday free since working, and totally scares the crap out of me.  You see, Paul and I went to a groupon dinner with Katie, Steph, Beth and her sister, last night with free flow wine.  And free flow it did.  And today my head reminds me why you shouldn't pound wine.  Anyway, remember how I mentioned a while back that whenever I try to go somewhere new I get lost.  Hong Kong is seriously a maze of malls and escalators.   I have a general concept of where the mall that houses the gym in Kowloon Bay is, which is no joke a 4 minutes bus ride from my door.  I leave an hour early expecting to get a little lost and I wanted to see if they could give me a massage after PT.  I go to the mall I am familiar with and ask the info desk people where I need to go.  They look a little perplexed pull out a map and say, "Go that way."  I go that way.  No gym.  I put the address into my iphone, turns out it's across the street from 'that way.'  Sometimes the iphone leads me astray, so I'm still doubtful, but I head to where it tells me.  As I approach a different set or malls I see advertisements for the gym.  This is hopeful.  I wander up and down escalators, through shops, in and out of different buildings and finally stop at a coffee stand near an ad and ask the barista where this elusive gym is.  The points me out the back, go right through this narrow walkway and then instructs me to go upstairs to the second floor.  Oh why didn't I try that to begin with!?  By the time I got there, one hour later!, I was not feeling PT, but hey I'm here.  I sit down with a guy who works there, he tries to sell me a monthly membership (I have a gym in the Latitude), I decline and ask if we can begin.  "Sure, just need your ID so I can get you a one month membership card."  I don't have an ID for I am here as a visitor, and no I don't have my passport because really, who works out with their passport?  Not this kid.  Ugh, so I tell him I will be back tomorrow passport in hand and that I would like a PT session and a massage.

"Oh well you have to make an appointment."
"Ok, I'd like one for tomorrow."
"You need your membership card to make an appointment."

Potentially Sweet Korean Place

The circles that are Asia.  Let's not do anything the efficient way, let's do it the hard way. Fine, so I'll come back tomorrow to get my membership card and set up an appointment for next week.  Chincha!?  But siliver lining, the malls surrounding the gym are super awesome, and now that I know where it is, only 10 minutes from home.  There's a Korean place that looks promising, a movie theater, home goods store, and all sorts of nonsense.

Anyway, now it's 11:30 and I have nothing to do!!  Woohoo!  So I walk from Kowloon Bay, passed Wan Tai Sin over to Kowloon Tong where Paul works.  Approximately a 10 k walk.  Twas quite nice on this overcast day.  I have included some pictures to give you a glimpse of my walk.   So Saturday and Sundays are children/mom tag team day where they hit you up for money for whatever charity.  I try not to make eye contact and play the foreigner card, but today, they got me.  It was a wide open sidewalk. Just kid/mom team and me.  And she knew she had me.  She looked me straight in the eye and pounced.  She just had to say hello and she already had my wallet out and open.  How did she do it!?

What's behind the fence?   Kowloon Bay

Cool Tree in the middle of construction

The Latitude from across the street.  

Old Airport across the street from our apt.  They're putting in a ton of apt complexes

Alas, I finally made it to Festival Walk, the fancy mall near Paul's work.  It has my favorite grocery store, Taste.  They have everything a Westerner could ask for!  Paul came and met me when he finished at 1 and we did a little shop together, picked up some sushi, and walked home for a nice relaxing afternoon.  As I blog Paul is on the Wii.  He loves that thing.  Good call Mom and Dad!  As for me, tis time to shower.  Tonight we're off to dinner with Nina, Kenny and their English couple friends.  This is my first triple date dinner!! Should be fun, review tomorrow.

Festival Walk actually has cool displays.  Dragon dance.  "He's chasing the ball.  It's like snake." -P