Well, despite the incompetancies of the Fortress sales staff, my new flat screen TV was finally delivered and set up on Saturday evening. I say my TV, incidentally, as Darling insists it is mine, not 'ours', as I was the one that decided we needed a new television and went off an bought it. After taking the afternoon off work to be home in time for the scheduled delivery, I received an apologetic call from Jack at Fortress, advising that there had been some mix up and that it would not be possible to deliver the TV on Saturday, as all of the delivery vans were now out making their rounds having left the wharehouse, minus my TV. Jack then advised that it would definitely be coming on Monday.
"How could this happen"? I casually asked, "after I specifically asked you on Thursday to confirm that everything was set for delivery today". There was a moment's pause whilst Jack squirmed, I imagine, desperately thinking how to aportion blame elsewhere, before finally admitting that he had given the warehouse the wrong delivery date.
Now, I did not loose my temper at this point (I know, most unlike me). Instead, I told them that they would be delivering the TV today, as promised, and advsied that I would be grateful if they could kindly confirm what time it would arrive.
So, having gone home early from work and with with a couple of hours to kill, we decided to settle down and watch 'Borat' on DVD. Now, I will not be giving any of the 'story' away here, however I will advise that I was very glad that we had infact ended up watching this film on our old, 'small' television as a certain segment of the movie is probably not best viewed on a 37" flat screen TV where the picture is magnified approximately by 2 to 3 times of that of a standard TV! That is all I will say on the matter - if you have seen the film, you can probably guess the section I am referring to.
A few hours later, the TV finally arrives and is set up by two very helpful assistants from Fortress. Jack had called me earlier to say that he was sorry that he would not be able to come round himself and set up the TV (I can't imagine why!).
Once set up, it is blatantly obvious that the TV is ridiculously oversized for our apartment, so much so that it is even slightly painful to watch the television from the settee. It is, however tremendous when viewed from my computer desk or from the bathroom. Darling, to her credit, has not muttered 'see' or 'there, that's what happens when you go buying things without me..' even once, whereas if I had been in her position, I would not have been able to resist.
Still, I have persevered, managing to sit through King Kong (appalling) on Saturday night, and, more enjoyably, on Sunday watching Man Utd being presented with the Premiership trophy (Graham & Niki - you did not seriously think that I would let that go without a mention here did you?). So all in all, everything is finally in place where it should be, even if things were touch an go for a while. I now find that I can cope with the headaches and painful eyes, but still have not fathomed out whether my new found 'sun tan' is from Dragon Boat practice or the glare from the TV!
Showing posts with label Hi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hi. Show all posts
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Why You shouldn't send Men Shopping
It should be of no great surprise to anyone that men do not actually like shopping (purchasing CD's, DVD's or books does not count - that is just adding to our collection) and ladies, if you do insist on sending your bloke along to the shops beware of the potential consequences, as my wife found out on Saturday.
After a lovely lunch, Darling suggested that I buy the week's groceries on the way home whilst she went off to the salon to get her nails done (of course I agreed). Well, I did not fancy going to the expensive supermarket in the shopping centre where we had eaten as I did not want to lug the goods all the way back, so I decided to visit my local store, which is a lot closer to home. As I walked back to Wan Chai and arrived at the store, I thought that I would have just a quick look in Fortress (electrical goods shop), which you need to walk through to get to the supermarket (well, technically there is another entrance to the supermarket but I never use it). Now, I did actually need a new DVD player as my old one is not so new anymore (bloke's logic). So I decided to purchase a DVD/HDD/ High Definition player and recorder, on which they offered me discount. Pleased with this I thought I would enquire whether I would get any more discount if I bought a flat screen LCD TV. I was pleased to learn that not only would I get the same level of discount, they would also throw in a Samsung 7.2 Mega Pixel camera.
Of course, I was sold, the only question was what size of TV would be suitable. Now as I have a small apartment, the salesman suggested a 32" model. So, in a moment of wisdom, I decided to purchase the 37" model - just in case we move apartments at a later date. I booked the delivery/ installation for Tuesday 8th May, and set off home with the DVD/HDD player. By now it had got quite late so I headed off quickly to the gym for a couple of hours.
When I returned home, I find Darling stood in the kitchen looking in the fridge. She politely asks "where's the food for the week?" and then asks "what is in the box in the living room?". I advise that I have finally got us a new DVD player as the old one was playing up. I then casually mention that I had also treated us to a new flat screen TV - as we both deserved something nice. I could tell that she was not overly convinced by the "treat for us" line, so I blurted out that I had also bought her a new digital camera - but that she would need to wait a couple of days until I could collect it from the nice people at Samsung. Darling was still not overly impressed, "I am not keen on taking pictures" - or something like that, she advised. (I make a mental note at this point to tell her that the camera is actually a free gift, just pick a good moment to tell her).
Well the weekend passed, we ate out, (funnily enough) and Tuesday came. The man from Fortress arrived with the TV, ready for installation. As he opened the box he suddenly looked confused and pulled out his phone. It transpires that they had sent an old model, 5000 resolution instead of 8000 apparently, not that I would have ever noticed. I asked if he was sure I had purchased the correct model and advised that I had as mine is the one that comes with the free camera! Damn! Darling of course catches all of this (funny how she often misses what I say but manages to catch this one small piece of information), then insists that she does not want the camera anyway. So there we are, the TV will now come on Saturday and I will be off shopping (again) over the next couple of days, this time in search of something nice for my wife.
So there you go, if you insist on sending your bloke off shopping, beware as it can get expensive, you may go hungry and end up with something that you were not after in the first place. Just don't say you have not been warned!
After a lovely lunch, Darling suggested that I buy the week's groceries on the way home whilst she went off to the salon to get her nails done (of course I agreed). Well, I did not fancy going to the expensive supermarket in the shopping centre where we had eaten as I did not want to lug the goods all the way back, so I decided to visit my local store, which is a lot closer to home. As I walked back to Wan Chai and arrived at the store, I thought that I would have just a quick look in Fortress (electrical goods shop), which you need to walk through to get to the supermarket (well, technically there is another entrance to the supermarket but I never use it). Now, I did actually need a new DVD player as my old one is not so new anymore (bloke's logic). So I decided to purchase a DVD/HDD/ High Definition player and recorder, on which they offered me discount. Pleased with this I thought I would enquire whether I would get any more discount if I bought a flat screen LCD TV. I was pleased to learn that not only would I get the same level of discount, they would also throw in a Samsung 7.2 Mega Pixel camera.
Of course, I was sold, the only question was what size of TV would be suitable. Now as I have a small apartment, the salesman suggested a 32" model. So, in a moment of wisdom, I decided to purchase the 37" model - just in case we move apartments at a later date. I booked the delivery/ installation for Tuesday 8th May, and set off home with the DVD/HDD player. By now it had got quite late so I headed off quickly to the gym for a couple of hours.
When I returned home, I find Darling stood in the kitchen looking in the fridge. She politely asks "where's the food for the week?" and then asks "what is in the box in the living room?". I advise that I have finally got us a new DVD player as the old one was playing up. I then casually mention that I had also treated us to a new flat screen TV - as we both deserved something nice. I could tell that she was not overly convinced by the "treat for us" line, so I blurted out that I had also bought her a new digital camera - but that she would need to wait a couple of days until I could collect it from the nice people at Samsung. Darling was still not overly impressed, "I am not keen on taking pictures" - or something like that, she advised. (I make a mental note at this point to tell her that the camera is actually a free gift, just pick a good moment to tell her).
Well the weekend passed, we ate out, (funnily enough) and Tuesday came. The man from Fortress arrived with the TV, ready for installation. As he opened the box he suddenly looked confused and pulled out his phone. It transpires that they had sent an old model, 5000 resolution instead of 8000 apparently, not that I would have ever noticed. I asked if he was sure I had purchased the correct model and advised that I had as mine is the one that comes with the free camera! Damn! Darling of course catches all of this (funny how she often misses what I say but manages to catch this one small piece of information), then insists that she does not want the camera anyway. So there we are, the TV will now come on Saturday and I will be off shopping (again) over the next couple of days, this time in search of something nice for my wife.
So there you go, if you insist on sending your bloke off shopping, beware as it can get expensive, you may go hungry and end up with something that you were not after in the first place. Just don't say you have not been warned!
Thursday, May 3, 2007
May Day, May Day!
I must say that I prefer the system of having a public holiday on the date that it is intended, such as how things are in Hong Kong, rather than the British way of shifting your day off to the nearest Monday. This way your working week can be broken up rather nicely, as it was this week, with May Day falling on Tuesday. This allowed us to have a couple of extra beers after squash (I know, it defeats the purpose), without having to worry about going into work the next day. I awoke on Tuesday morning to find that Dim Sum with the inlaws had been cancelled :-) and went promptly back off to sleep again for another couple of hours - bliss.
The day was fairly uneventful all in all, with very well behaved attendance at the May Day marches, as is the norm in Hong Kong.
In Macau, however, things were a touch more lively. The May Day protest on the other side of the Pearl River delta turned somewhat ugly with a police officer firing his pistol into the air to try and gain order. This, however, apparently escalated things somewhat and it was quite a while before order was resumed. Thankfully none of the public who were stood on the footbridge directly above the police officer when he fired his weapon were shot, which was rather fortunate.
However some poor chap minding his own business riding his bicycle some three hundred metres away ended up with a bullet entering his neck and finishing up somewhere near his lung. Thankfully he is now in a stable condition, however it would appear that what goes up, most certainly does come down, and in this case with enough force to do you some damage. So if you have ever wondered can anyone be shot by a bullet returning under force of gravity after being fired directly into the air, you now know!
Photo nabbed from Hemlock's Diary
A Good Cause
I am not one for going on about charities, saving the world, and what we should all be doing to make the world a better place - there are enough pop stars and actors (but sadly not enough politicians) doing that without me going on about it here. However in this instance I will make an exception and post once (and only once) on the matter.
Without going into dull long winded narratives on how this all came about I now sponsor three children from Thailand, Cambodia and the Phillipines through Worldvision, as well as contirbuting to Oxfam's ongoing development projects in China. Their websites can be visited via links from my blog, as well as the site for the One Campaign. If you have time, check out the sites and see what they are up to.
If you are able to contribute, even better.
Without going into dull long winded narratives on how this all came about I now sponsor three children from Thailand, Cambodia and the Phillipines through Worldvision, as well as contirbuting to Oxfam's ongoing development projects in China. Their websites can be visited via links from my blog, as well as the site for the One Campaign. If you have time, check out the sites and see what they are up to.
If you are able to contribute, even better.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Buenos Dias!
Dismayed by the thought that nobody may actually be reading what I post from time to time, I have added a statcounter (as you may have noticed) to the blog. This lets me know how many 'hits' my site gets each day, as well as highlighting from which country the visitors are viewing from. This week saw my first visitor from South America - Chile to be precise, as well as readers from Japan and Spain. The US count was down, however as of last night I had 10 or so 'hits' from all over the US, but this is not reflected in the table below, which shows the details of the last 100 page views as of Friday morning. Anyway, wherever you are from, thanks for visiting -even if it is only by accident!
Muchas gracias!
Domo arigato gozaimas!
Muchas gracias!
Domo arigato gozaimas!
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Blowing One's Own Trumpet!
Those of you who are fortunate enough to know me will know that I am a modest chap and not one for blowing my own trumpet (I much prefer someone else to blow it for me), however yesterday I was awarded the Outstanding Employee of the Year Grand Award by the parent company of the construction firm that I work for, which I was rather chuffed about.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
New Blog Features
You may or may not have noticed that I have made some changes to my blog over the past few days, including making the photos section easier to navigate to, as well as adding a 'featured video', which plays at the top of the main page after clicking the link. I'll change this fairly regularly, or when I get bored with whith the current selection. Currently showing Linkin Park - What I've Done (not the best track they have written, however not bad either).
Usually around now I post an update on how the day's dragon boat practice session has gone, however as I have written on this quite a lot recently I will spare you the full vesrion of the events. I will highlight though that the Police have now split from our training session as the HKADBA are a bit too extreme for their liking. Today's paddling included the advance technique of switching up on to one knee at full speed (which takes some doing - trust me), and finished off with some 'speed' trials, the last of which saw us hitting 97 strokes in 1 minute from a standing start. To put that into perspective, that is hitting 2 strokes a second as you speed up. Try sitting in your chair and paddling through the air at 2 a second, never mind through water, and see how hard it is (although I suggest chosing a moment when no one is likely to see what you are doing). The morning ended with us being advised by our drill seargant that as from next week the training will start to become hard (!), focusing on anaerobic exercise. No alcohol is allowed from now on (you would spill it otherwise), and you must advise the leader if you are taking any medicines or if you are feeling under the weather as apparently this increases your chances of collapsing during the session (read previous post 'A Whole World of Pain' - no wonder nobody paid too much attention at the time!).
Usually around now I post an update on how the day's dragon boat practice session has gone, however as I have written on this quite a lot recently I will spare you the full vesrion of the events. I will highlight though that the Police have now split from our training session as the HKADBA are a bit too extreme for their liking. Today's paddling included the advance technique of switching up on to one knee at full speed (which takes some doing - trust me), and finished off with some 'speed' trials, the last of which saw us hitting 97 strokes in 1 minute from a standing start. To put that into perspective, that is hitting 2 strokes a second as you speed up. Try sitting in your chair and paddling through the air at 2 a second, never mind through water, and see how hard it is (although I suggest chosing a moment when no one is likely to see what you are doing). The morning ended with us being advised by our drill seargant that as from next week the training will start to become hard (!), focusing on anaerobic exercise. No alcohol is allowed from now on (you would spill it otherwise), and you must advise the leader if you are taking any medicines or if you are feeling under the weather as apparently this increases your chances of collapsing during the session (read previous post 'A Whole World of Pain' - no wonder nobody paid too much attention at the time!).
Monday, April 9, 2007
First Class Post
A week on from the 7's finds me writing this post from the Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge at Heathtrow, waiting for my return flight to Hong Kong after a short trip back to the UK. As a birthday treat, the very kind people at Cathay Pacific decided to upgrade me from business to first for my return leg - which was nice (and I did not even have to ask).
Although it was only a short trip back to the UK it was good to catch up with some good friends who I have not seen since the wedding. Reedy Boy - thankyou for the music (nothing to do with the Abba song), great to see you and Niki. I must say that I particularly like Kasabian and The Kaiser Chiefs, however you missed off The Arctic Monkeys from your selection!
Dickie H, thanks for the beers and the birthday kebab. Now hurry up and propose to Alison!
See you all again in September.
Cheers,
Hoj.
Although it was only a short trip back to the UK it was good to catch up with some good friends who I have not seen since the wedding. Reedy Boy - thankyou for the music (nothing to do with the Abba song), great to see you and Niki. I must say that I particularly like Kasabian and The Kaiser Chiefs, however you missed off The Arctic Monkeys from your selection!
Dickie H, thanks for the beers and the birthday kebab. Now hurry up and propose to Alison!
See you all again in September.
Cheers,
Hoj.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Kung Hei Fat Choy!
Dear all,
Wishing you good health, happiness and prosperity for the coming year of the pig.
I am off for a week's skiing to Canada (check out the link added to the front page), so will not post for a while, but will upload some pics when I get back.
Take care all and best regards,
Hoj.
Wishing you good health, happiness and prosperity for the coming year of the pig.
I am off for a week's skiing to Canada (check out the link added to the front page), so will not post for a while, but will upload some pics when I get back.
Take care all and best regards,
Hoj.
Monday, February 12, 2007
On the Blog - Dubai Airport
The joys of business travel.
After a 9 hour flight from HK to Dubai, then a 2 hour transfer I finally got to Abu Dhabi during the early hours of Sunday morning. Managed to get a few hours sleep before making my first presentation of the weekend Sunday lunchtime. After a full day of meetings, site visits and business dinner, I finally got back to the hotel around 11:00pm (incidentally the first hotel I have ever stayed in that did not have a bar - in fact, it was not allowed to sell alcohol).
After more meetings and another presentation Monday lunchtime, we transferred back to Dubai, where I am now sat finally with a beer and Internet access. Flight leaves in 40 mins, which gets me back to HK at 6:00am - just in time to get home, take a shower and make it back in for 8:30am on Tuesday morning. Great!
After a 9 hour flight from HK to Dubai, then a 2 hour transfer I finally got to Abu Dhabi during the early hours of Sunday morning. Managed to get a few hours sleep before making my first presentation of the weekend Sunday lunchtime. After a full day of meetings, site visits and business dinner, I finally got back to the hotel around 11:00pm (incidentally the first hotel I have ever stayed in that did not have a bar - in fact, it was not allowed to sell alcohol).
After more meetings and another presentation Monday lunchtime, we transferred back to Dubai, where I am now sat finally with a beer and Internet access. Flight leaves in 40 mins, which gets me back to HK at 6:00am - just in time to get home, take a shower and make it back in for 8:30am on Tuesday morning. Great!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Hi
Hello to anyone who may have stumbled across my blog.
As I am completely slack at keeping in touch I have decided to start a blog to let people what I am up to these days in Hong Kong, as well as posting the odd photo here and there.
As I am completely slack at keeping in touch I have decided to start a blog to let people what I am up to these days in Hong Kong, as well as posting the odd photo here and there.
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