Farewell Gardenview Gardens

After 8 solid years, it's time to say goodbye. Call it poor timing but I have to hand the keys back on  Friday, which means annual leave. Four days ago, I still had not secured a home. I did have a contingent. It involved packing all my belongings save a suitcase into temporary storage and then moving into a rock bottom hotel. One of my colleagues was living in a "Hotel" near work for 200 HKD a night, that works out to be roughly 6000 HKD/month. Which, assuming fresh towels and daily house keeping is a bargain for Hong Kong. 

Fortunately I managed to view and find an apartment 3 days ago, sign the lease and pay the deposit 2 days ago, receive the keys 1 day ago and finally, move out of my old apartment and into my new apartment today. Couple of points here: I have accumulated a lot of stuff over the last 8 years. Pretty sad to be leaving this neighbourhood. Very excited to be moving into a new area. I pay 2000 HKD to some movers, say farewell to the concierge and leave Grandview Gardens.

Coldest day since 1957

It's cold; 3° C cold. Just like London isn't built for the heat, Hong Kong isn't built for the cold. The high humidity and the lack of heating have led to an increase in the sale of Uniqlo Down Jackets.

My apartment is freezing, condensation billows from my mouth as I breath. I'm wearing everything I own and have my duvet draped over me. I futilely scrunch my toes up under my socks to no avail.

My oven is on and I'm not baking anything. Why is Hong Kong so extreme?

Currently reading: "Bird By Bird"

Two thousand and sixteen!

I struggle to open my bedroom door. The handle is jammed, the desultory jangle of the handle turning back and forth goes on for a few more seconds. I hear laughter on the other side of the door. I'm not alone in the apartment. I prise the door open, unconcerned as to why it took so much effort.

Two friends from lie sprawled in my tiny 120 square foot living room. One lies on the carpet wrapped in a duvet, the other awkwardly folded on my couch (he's > 6", my couch is  < 6"). Familiar faces from Sydney uprooted and temporarily living in my apartment. I take a deep breath and rub my eyes, the living room smells like dude, it's an olfactory shock. Like the inside of a mens locker room. I light a candle, it does little to dissipate the smell. My nose soon forgets what I was smelling as my other senses refocus.

Forgot how much fun these guys are and I'm stoked that they're staying over, only wish I could offer them more comfortable board. We play monopoly deal, watch TV (UFC, Making a Murderer, Seinfeld), laugh and chat; feels like only yesterday.

It's the 1st of January - Last night is what they call a doozy. Black out intoxication. Volar. Later interviews would include descriptions such as "Oh yeah, I saw you twice last night, once in LKF, the other in Volar, don't you remember?" supplemented with "you weren't really talking, it was more like barking littered with the occasional slur". My head confirms that all stories can probably be believed.

Time to make some changes this year. My attempts to complete my 2015 resolutions all but failed, except one 'to read more'; currently reading "The Martian". Time to roll last year's incomplete resolutions over to 2016, probably should break the tasks down into more quantifiable milestones.

Bring on the New Year!

Gas meter, found!

So after 4 years, we've finally identified the location of my gas meter, and more importantly accurately reported my gas usage. Looks like I have been overpaying based on the the previous tenants estimations. Reimbursement! 6000 HKD!

Absolutely Rental (Part 2)

A few months ago I received a message from my real estate agent, it was sent on behalf of my landlord. The message stated that my lease would be ending in October and that the landlord would allow me to extend my contract. The catch being, that a rate rise of 10% would be incurred. I told them I would consider the offer and let them know my decision by the end of September.

My current apartment is great, the location, the finishings for the price was good value. However, there were little things that annoyed me: the en-suite, the lack of storage, the small-ish kitchen and I was starting to get a bit bored of the neighbourhood. I decided that I would explore the market and see 'what else was out there'. I contacted my reliable agents from two years ago and embarked on what would be my second most testing experience with Hong Kong property.

Forty viewings in, I was reminded of the nightmarish Hong Kong rental market. Despite expanding my search to Causeway Bay and Wan Chai the extra districts proved to be fruitless. It was my last viewing that convinced me to stay at my current apartment. I was scheduled to see an apartment after work. The landlord was currently staying in the apartment and an appointment had to be made. I arranged a viewing with the agent at 7 pm.

Having escaped work early we managed to get to the apartment early at 6:50, we proceeded upstairs and found the front door ajar. How odd. The agent knocked on the door, "hello?". No answer, again we knocked and as we pushed the door open the landlord greeted us at the door. She was wearing nothing but a robe (that she was busily tying up) and a sheepish look on her face. "Uh, hi" she said, "welcome, come in". We walked in and immediately down the corridor to the left was the bedroom, I stuck my head in and saw a stark naked guy on the bed, he was frantically putting clothes on. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on here.

Shocked, I pretended to ask questions about the apartment. "So how do you find the size of the kitchen?" (Who shows somebody around an apartment in a satin robe?). "You mentioned that this place is completely furnished? Including the sofa, and erh, the bed?" (The very bed where that naked dude was lying?). "Twenty Two thousand per month?" (I need to get out of here!). "Let me think about it, and get back to you" (Screw this!). Upon leaving I messaged my agent and told him I would accept the new terms and conditions. Looks like I'll be here for at least another 12 months!

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At this moment in time, my building, Grandview Gardens is being serviced by two Internet/TV providers. The notorious i-Cable and the expat-friendly PCCW/Netvigator/Now TV. The limitations are as such:

Options	iCable	PCCW/NOW
Price	Starts from 75 HKD/month	Starts from 218 HKD
Bandwidth	10 MB*, 50 MB*, 110 MB*	8 MB
Contract	18 months	18 months
TV	i-Cable TV - Has EPL	Now TV - more expat friendly
Others	Reputation for Bad customer service	Horrible Now TV UI

The main difference between the two providers is that i-Cable can decouple their Internet from their TV offerings, whilst PCCW you have to get both. The other difference is, the bandwidth, this is not as simple as comparing apples to apples. PCCW offer a dedicated ADSL line to each customer. Whereas, i-Cable offers a fibre service to the building that is shared among all i-Cable users within the building. The draw card is that there is the "potential" for a larger bandwidth.

So heeding the warnings and opting for the higher bandwidth service I sign with i-Cable hoping that I will never have to deal with their customer service. For those who are interested, I signed for 50 MB line with Cable TV, initial Hong Kong server speedtest.net results are above. Online! Time to clear that backlog of blog posts.

Update:

• London server: Ping 632 ms, Download - 1.30 Mbps, Upload - 0.42 Mbps
• San Francisco server: Ping 174 ms, Download - 1.94 Mps, Upload - 3.58 Mbps
• Seoul server: Ping 91 ms, Download - 2.54 Mbps, Upload - 7.68 Mbps
• Sydney server: Ping 345 ms, Download - 1.34 Mpbs, Upload - 0.65 Mpbs

Connection can be intermittent - still undecided if I made the right decision going with iCable ...