First post after gettng back to HK

Am finally and reluctantly back to HK.
I had to adjust my mentality and language back to Cantonese as well.

The first person to welcome me back to HK is the bloody mobile spam.
The second person is my contractor and finally the third is my new neighbor from downstairs.

Previously before I had left for Singapore for Chinese new year holidays, my neighbor (a retired old couples) from below had requested to have a quick chat. So I had gone down with my contractor in tow to listen to his grievances about how the previous owners (the people who sold us the flat) had wreaked his ceiling during their renovation work, causing water leakage and totally disregarding their feelings and ignored him. Comes this time, they are still reliving the paranoid nitemare and wanted us if possible not to "dig" too deep when ripping up the existing wooden floors.

Perhaps this is the reason in life why my "calling" in work is project management with customer service. It makes it easier for me in life to deal with "complaints", "feedbacks" and work at reassuring them that I completely empathise with them... Frankly I didnt do much except to lend my ears but my neighbors were totally elated. They keep saying we are very reasonable as compared to the previous occupants. My contractor later told me I was very nice to "entertain" such requests and most HK people wont give a shit. I explained that I could understand his emotions and it doesnt take much to just spare 10mins of your time and cost me nothing else. People nowadays talk too much and listen too little... and perhaps so why tensions always ride high rapidly, excluding times dealing with morons and arseholes.

So comes today, I awoke to my dear neighbor calling me again and before he can say anything, I wished him a very happy chinese new year with a string of Chinese well wishing... That probably place every one in a good mood and he told me that my renovation is in good progress. Honestly, I havent even seen the state of renovation my place is in yet but since my neighbor say its fine, I am crossing my fingers. We have only just got started. However, He just wanted to remind me about the waterproofing works - to do a better job than the previous owner. I said ok and not to worry, I have been reminding my contractor about the same thing.
With that, he wished me good success in my renovation and that we will move in to the complex happily soon. And in return, I thanked him and that hopefully we can invite him over when we moved in.

I too hope my place renovation will go smoothly. Well, it has been "blessed" by so many parties from my contractors, the security guards, the management, to my neighbor, so I am hoping these combined "power" of good wishings will rub good luck to my unit and free me from future headaches now and later when we move in.

After 2 weeks of idling back home, it's kinda hard to kick into high gear. Dragging my body all over the house, and its back to the routine of laundry and work and cooking. Thankfully my very considerate husband had done his share of housework and folding the clothes away to reduce my load when I am back. I am thankful:)

Last nite getting off from the late flight, I was even more surprised by the lovely vase of flowers that welcomed me home. My husband has good taste. He picked all the lovely shades that I love. As I went about to unpack and putting the bags out of the way, he gave me a second surprise. I have to admit, my husband is much sweeter than I credit him for at times.

It didnt quite register in me why he was dragging me through half the bag boutiques while we were back in Singapore. I had mentioned off handedly some time back about needing a nice dinner bag but I had long forgotten about it but he remembered. However, I didnt quite catch on to his eagerness in trying to get me one, to the point of wanting to buy 2 Prada bags which I was having fun trying with. You should see the sales girls' eyes lit up like fireworks. Of course I will never frivolously throw my money away like that so I told my husband no. The girls were trying to convince ME that I should get both. Nice try girls, but I am not a believer that it is a must to stock pile on luxury brand names.

In the end, we left without buying anything because if I am going to spend such an amount, I much prefer to get a new piece (not display) and make sure I still like it at second or third look. I hate those sales tactics where they try to tell u it is the LAST piece..limited design...blah blah. Like I care I said. If its gone, its gone. No big deal. My quality of life is not going to diminish or that I will be deprived of future happiness. My heart wont skip a beat if I never see it again.

So when I came back last night, my partner happily told me that he went to several stores in HK and confirmed they had new pieces and the colour I wanted. I looked at him inquisitively, asking why is he more keen to get me the bag than I am? Awwwwww....he went through all the trouble because my birthday was coming up. Even without the bags, I am touched and happy by the devotion and thoughts alone...