Have you seen Shanghai index continuing its graceful crawl up the ladder.....it's flawless methinks, and the joy is you get it 3X with CZM.
By the way, if you like France, you'll adore Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Hungary, Czech Republic, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and even Northern Ireland.....all countries I've spent dream visits to, along with favorite 'dream' spots (and memories) and had all too often miss-a-heartbeat moments with or without my wife.....the latter while on business trips, as required by company protocol.
I've also been to HK several times, been chauffeured on a Rolls while staying at the Mandarin Oriental from old Kai Tak airport of course, but the joy of it was nothing compared to my first visit for job interviews in Lucerne in June 1977, when the Schweizerhof rolled out their spanking new Rolls to take me to the picnic of the Company I was interviewing at (part of the interview process, but thankfully, I got the job). I was much younger then of course, so it's been a long, delightful ride since, and my son and daughter played with ambassador, diplomat and corporate captains' children in my 1200sqm garden in Geneva and could have jam sessions with them in the cellar, a carnotzet all of its own, otherwise used for 'cheese and wine' parties during the dreary winter days.....oh what a life of 'suffering'. My son excels at acoustic guitar and daughter the drums, but the former is earning his stripes (and hopefully a few stars soon) as an investment banker in NY these days.
I also sipped champagne (Moet & Chandon no less) while visiting HK once at the Philip Morris International tennis tourney, having watched from box seats Stefan Edberg beat Mark Philipousis courtesy of my Canadian friend who lived in a swimming pooled bungalow house within a stone's throw from Jardines Lookout. But I didn't appreciate the typhoon that drenched my YSL suit on the way to his Jag in his parking lot, on the way to a sumptuous dinner at the American Club. I've done the proverbial junk tour, complete with M&C champagne again, and politely declined the fresh seafood dinner, as I could definitely smell strange odours from the sea while driving past Hutchinson's harbour area. And oh I forgot to tell you in earlier posts, try walking from Wanchai to Central or the other way round on a hot noon day, and you'll realise the real condition of those huge sewerage pipes and tanks below, it is nothing to 'rock' for. In all my visits to Singapore, I've never suffered such experience, and by the way, you can walk everywhere in Singapore, those well planned roads, bypasses and pedestrian walkways are such a delight compared to HK.
But my happiest memory of all my HK visits was the tough bargaining I got into while buying 400 stiches psi bedding materials of the finest cotton at Stanley Market, and 'looted' (to use your favourite expression of course) the shop of all its precious treasures on this front at prices we could scarcely believe. Consequently, we enjoy 5 or 6 star bedding paraphrenalia in our own home here, and choose to downscale to lower spec bedding during our 3/4 visits to various parts of the world. As for table linen, I prefer the variety, quality and prices in Hanoi. I noticed service there was better too.
My wife and I are both self-made people, proud of our humble backgrounds, and everything we own is what we made on our own: my humble parents gave me the only gift I needed: best education they could afford, and so it was for my current wife of past 9+ years, while my ex-wife is carefully looking after the expensive 1200sqm landed, 240sqm, 7 bedroomed individual house property in Vandoeuvres, Geneva for my children. I think it might have gone up more in value in %age terms during the past 3 years than even your part of the world, but I despise these self-promotions as it is not for the civilised people of the world.
We own no car these days, our preferred travel mode is train, as the station is 3 min walk from our apartment. Luckily, we have strong legs, hopefully for the next 20+ years, as our village is on a hill, and most of life's wished for 'only- perfect-is acceptable' things in material, 'spiritual' and technology terms are right here, on our face! This includes freedom by the way, and we don't have to make a broadcast of it ever so often. Best of all, I delight in clear blue skies, fresh air, and the natural beauty and 'space' that is so so hard to come by in your rocking SAR. And last of all, we're definitely the sort that prefer to be away from in-laws, next-of kin, relatives, and large families, as space is what we need during this phase of our lives.
Best of luck, I await the day you turn +ve on Chinese stocks, as I feel a lone warrior right now, but the going is finally getting very interesting on CZM the past fortnight! Meantime, my little apartment in this part of the world, needs no renovations, my 3 year old computer does its job perfectly so far, and the all-in-1 price cable TV subscription includes 24 hour HD broadcasts of all major western classical concerts, including some by beloved Lang Lang. |
