Happy new year!

1) Somehow I ended up at my first Rosh Hashanah dinner ever here in Hong Kong to celebrate the Jewish New Year. The best story to come out of it seems common in every religion, about the rush of casual observers of a said religion to try to get to services on the holiest days. Hong Kong Jews take it to one more level: the hardest thing to get into during the high holy days at the Jewish Community Center is not temple services, but the store that serves challah bread and other Jewish food. This being Hong Kong, makes sense on a number of levels.

2) It seems strangely refreshing to no longer have 60 cases of beer in my apartment, with Foreign Devil wrapping down. (All the remaining stock is still in a warehouse a few blocks away.) Friends may think it's awesome to have 60 cases of beer in an apartment for whenever you want. It also means you have to navigate around it if you wake up in the middle of the night and want to grab a drink of water.

3) A coworker from my Chicago days is trying to land a job here in HK, and I took him out to dinner at the Japanese restaurant below me the other day. I know one day I will look back and wonder why I haven't eaten there more than I have. (I average about once a month.) Part of it is money. I could drop about $20 US, easily, without even thinking by getting a few grilled veggie skewers, a meat skewer and some sushi roll, every night. But really, every time I go down there, I think, "I need to come back more often." Especially when you realize that this may be my best chance in my life to learn to like sushi.

4) Every city has universal complaints, such as cable tv/internet providers. I signed up for cable tv when I moved in in 2006 with an 18-month contract. Since late 2007, I have stayed month to month, but finally they wised up and demanded I sign a new contract or pay much higher rates. The solution? Drop everything except for BBC news, at $8HK a month, or about $1.03 US. Take that, cable provider.

5) Friends just moved out to Shek O, the beach village on the east side of the island where I often go to relax on a day off. It's a haul - a 25-minute ride from there to the subway, then at least another 20 minute commute from there to where our office is - but this does give ideas if I have to give up my place when my lease comes up in February if my landlord wants to gouge me on rent.

6) Stumped for where to go when I have 6 days off in late October. This could be the first year I do not visit a new country since 2003. (Though I probably will visit somewhere new, unless I go back to San Francisco to celebrate the bday.)

7) The side business? Setting up bars is a little more expensive than I thought. I have no idea what I was thinking when I thought a year ago I could start my own little bar in Kennedy Town.