Update: Still here in Hong Kong.

Hi again.

So much has changed. If you're here, you should know that this blog carries the history of my life all the way from the early 2000s. 

My blog from another life 10 years ago as an expat housewife in Singapore is here: 

www.singaporeexpathousewife.blogspot.com

My blog from another life in Australia 20 years ago as a young university graduate bent on living in Australia, shunning the politics in Malaysia -> as a newlywed and then stay at home mom is here:

www.facadetreatments.blogspot.com

My new blog for my new life is here: 

www.survivingthedword.blogspot.com

3 + 4 quarantine for inbound travellers to HK

 

We’re finally at the point of opening borders to point where Singapore was 2 years ago. 

Ah bless the HK Government’s little black hearts. 

A lot of people don’t know that China still requires 7 fucking days of quarantine for inbound travellers. So Chinese people use HK as a washout, booking up all quarantine hotels.

So HK is still fucked. But less fucked than it was before. So…. time to breakout the champagne! Any excuse to get shitfaced in the midst of this clown-car of a city-autonomous region-China-Whatever the fuck this is.

Hong Kong in 2022

Still here, kids in the same school, husband has moved on to a different bank & loves the Japanese work culture in this place. In the last year, I’ve picked up Japanese and will stop short of the language exams at translator level, as that is not what I want to do. Hopefully that’s where we’ll end up next. 

Almost 6 years in Hong Kong at its decline as one of the world’s best cities. 

View from a serviced apartment in Odaiba.

Hong Kong in 2021

 Hello, still in HK as we near the end of 2021. Kids in the same school, husband in the same job, we’re still living in the same building. Spent the last 2 years mostly at home and not socializing. 

We’ve been lucky that it never got very bad with COVID here in HK. We made one last trip to Singapore in 2021 and tied up some loose ends. And now, for the first time, I’m glad to say we live in HK instead of Singapore. 

Universal masking: the one factor that saved everyone in the early days. Your gweilo ass can thank HKers for this. You’re welcome. 

The borders are shut to non-residents who are unvaccinated. 21-day quarantines for those from high risk countries. I’m grateful for these measures, because it keeps us all safe, the schools open, life goes on pretty normally. Mainland Chinese tourists cannot enter HK yet. This arrangement suits us- the city is quieter and more pleasant these days. 

Hong Kong in 2020

 Hello all, we’re still here in HK.

It’s been tough here since 2019.

First, the anti-extradition law protests in HK.

But it’s definitely given me a new level of respect ✊ for Hong Kongers, for Mainland Chinese as well. 

I hope everyone can live together in cooperation for a new future. I hope I don’t sound like a propaganda machine. If everyone respects each other, then there is hope.

When HK Hospitals started to buckle and there weren't enough beds for mounting COVID patients, China sent a team of medics, and construction teams to build makeshift hospitals for HK's COVID patients.

The world seems to blame Chinese for COVID.

People with Oriental features everywhere else in the world will face some form of discrimination, vitriol, resentment from others. Abuse in all forms.

I get it, I DO get it.  

I mean, I'm angry at the state of the world right now, too, thanks to unpoliced unclean practices from a country that SHOULD police those people more. 

And my great-great grandfather did come from China too. 

Snippets from SCMP

Oh, Hong Kong. You try and try and fly off on the wrong tangent. and you keep flying off further and further on that tangent. Tsk tsk.

25 perfect scores in the whole of Hong Kong.

27 perfect scores in one school alone (Anglo Chinese School) in Singapore.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/education/singapore-schools-score-better-results-in-ib-exams

Red Tape here, there, everywhere.

Currently embroiled in a never ending red tape saga with 2 governments of countries which we lived in. Singapore and Australia.

Australia & Singapore governments are very advanced- they all have social media accounts, they all have online services and systems for everything.
Singapore especially has a super efficient system accessed using Singpass. EVERYTHING is efficient. Except if there's a little incident that falls outside of their set processes, they can't handle it. They refer to their upper management, who refers it to their higher management, CC the email to everyone in the universe, ask for double confirmations on everything. It's almost as if the individual human capital working in the company is devoid of any human ability such as: intuition, judgment, flexibility etc.
Hong Kong is the same as the above EXCEPT they don't bother to even refer to their upper management or CC the email. They just tell you: CANNOT.

Australia, for the most part is excellent. Efficient- most problems are solved when speaking to a human. It's their processes that aren't as high tech. BUT there are people in Australia who still use the black & white fax machine, people working in offices who can't scan....
Hong Kong has these people too. LOTS.

HK is doomed to bureaucracy.