One more to share of Chinese New Year, taken by the pros who accompanied the lion around the office. Note the lion decorations above my desk (one of my team members told me I had to spring for the most expensive decorations!) and my boss, Robert, in the blue sweater.

After rolling into work a bit late today, I stepped off the elevator to the sound of pounding drums and cymbals (of course being obsessively photographed).

The lion then paraded around the office (with full accompanying banging) requesting lai see, packets of money traditionally given to unmarried relatives, junior employees, and other service people.

Nice way to start the day...

Quick post tonight... yesterday the sun broke through the clouds for the first time in almost a month so Dorit and I took the bus up to Sai Kung for a hike. The northern area of Hong Kong, referred to as the "New Territories", is the wildest area of the special administrative region. In the 1970's, the Hong Kong government created a number of trails including the 100 kilo MacLehose Trail across the mountains in the New Territories.

Dorit and I hiked Section 3 yesterday, one of the more challenging and beautiful sections of the MacLehose (or so says TimeOut Hong Kong). Along the way, we had an extremely strange experience...

Perfect metaphor for how we often feel. Spotted in the wet market in our neighborhood.

Hello dear readers... apologies for the long time apart, but we're back! Our move to a new apartment has inspired us to get back to blogging, so let's begin with a quick tour of our new apartment. We moved from Spring Garden Lane to Kennedy Road - much less noise, nicer street, and beautiful views!

Walking in, dining area to the left, living room on the right, bedrooms and kitchen down the hall:

Living room, with view out the window - the mandarin tree is a symbol for wealth and luck and is purchased before Chinese New Year. One other funny thing to note - there is no internal heat in HK so we've purchased space heaters for each room:

Dining area, with view out the window (with Victoria Peak in the top left corner):

The kitchen, not much to say other than it's little. We're cooking a lot nonetheless (thanks to Dorit for doing dishes last night!).

And, finally, the bedroom - the apartment came with naked light bulbs dangling from the ceiling (no joke), so we installed a new light from our dear friends in Scandinavia: