What a week

Or actually....make that two. Work has been crazy busy, as I was a panelist on a CEO conference this week and obviously wanted to come across well. So it was a crash course in insurance regulation and Fintech in the region. In general, I get the feeling the pace here is high (if only the pace on the pavements would mirror that....). It really feels like a very modern 24/7 economy, despite the archaic banking system (more on that later).

So my past two weeks were pretty much spent working, sleeping and eating, weekend (mostly) excluded. Glad Wilko isn't working yet as he has done loads to prepare our move to a permanent apartment. YES! We signed a contract! It's a large three bedroom, two bathroom in West Kowloon, with a decent sized kitchen (an exception here) and storage room (as we don't have a maid, also the main reason for the tiny kitchens). The place has an indoor and outdoor pool and a gym and a couple of facilities we probably won't use. Disappointed looks when we read we actually have to pay about €40 a month each for the outdoor pool and that guests aren't allowed there (I'm sure we can find a way around that....), but happy with it nonetheless. Infinity pool with views of the Hong Kong skyline, guess that's worth a few bucks. Our days of furniture shopping are almost over. We ordered a sofa, armchair and ottoman at a store in Sheung Wan, are picking up a tv-thing and dining table from other expats this weekend and will do another Ikea visit to order a wardrobe, bookshelves and the likes. Thursday our stuff from Holland will be moved into the new place. After living out of suitcases pretty much since mid December, I cannot wait.

Back to work. People generally come in late here. When I get in at 8 in the morning, a French guy is always there already, but that's it. People also stay pretty late I think but I aim to be out by 6pm and just work from home if I need to finish stuff. Ten hours in an office is enough.... Lunch is like in London, people eat at their desks. Just like when I lived in London, I miss the lunches with the team, it's a good way to get to know your colleagues better and it's nice to not talk about work for half an hour mid day. Then again, few Dutch canteens can beat the quality of Hong Kong food. Another difference with modern Dutch offices: every floor has a coffee lady, who washes the mugs every morning and brings the partners coffee as soon as they come in. Ours is a super friendly lady, it's nice to have someone like her in the office. And labour is cheap here, so it's nothing extravagant.

Then banks. What a bloody nightmare. Think I visit Citi twice a week at the moment. Everyone is friendly but everyone seems to have their own processes and rules and systems aren't integrated. First we couldn't open a joint account without W having proof of address, two weeks later it was no problem at all. My credit card application got rejected because 'they couldn't find me'. When I applied for it, we only had one HK number and that was W's. So we gave the bank that. A week later I got my own number and walked into Citi to provide them with it, but the credit card people use a different system and only had W's number. Long story short: I applied again yesterday and hope for a smoother process this time. But we're getting there. We are the proud owners of three cheque books between us, two ATM cards, and five accounts. And it only took about 38 signatures for me to get all of that. Easy peasy....

So let's see what the next weeks bring. A move and a visit to Singapore for sure, looking forward to both!