No Fly Zone

We have officially entered the three-ish month period we are referring to in our family as the “no fly zone.” Specifically, the period between me being 36 weeks pregnant and the eight or so weeks past the baby being born when we expect to have the important international immunizations completed and a passport obtained for the little guy or gal. As every flight is international from Hong Kong, (a funny thought that hadn’t occurred to me until recently) the airlines get a little anxious at check-in as soon as your belly looks big.  On our last trip, the woman checking us in looked at me and whispered, “Excuse me ma’am. I need to ask you a personal question. Are you pregnant?” I quickly made a shocked face and replied, “no” but could only keep a straight face for about 5 seconds.  She only found this moderately amusing.  It was funny though as my belly was huge already. 

So, being grounded on an island is definitely a change of pace for us!  I’d say Isla is taking it the hardest though - the kid freaking loves flying.  So, we are improvising!  Nate recently “borrowed” a Boeing 777 Cathay laminated safely card from his latest flight to Singapore  and we build an airplane nearly every morning in our living room for Isla, me or Nate, and a few select stuffed animals to board and take off in.  We rotate who is the pilot, flight attendant, and passenger.  Yesterday, Isla gave a beautiful and almost flawless safety briefing to me, ensured my seat belt was fastened, and then gently touched me on the shoulder and informed me, “Mom, we are now on our way to ‘Gapan.'  I need to know if you’d like the beef, chicken, wine or blueberries?”  I love this girl.  I figure imaginary wine is better than no wine, so I ordered a nice Shiraz and then it was Minnie Mouse's and the kangaroo’s turn to order food.  Overall, we are embracing and enjoying this nice family time in Hong Kong and I’m quite sure Isla won’t be scarred for life only pretend flying!  

It is American Thanksgiving today. We’ll be having seafood lasagna since that’s what the pilgrims and Native Americans...wait, no.... okay, my huge pregnant ass just wanted something cheesy and fatty and it has nothing to do with Thanksgiving at all, but it should be tasty!  Hong Kong doesn’t really have any form of official Thanksgiving, but this city does have a huge appetite for shopping, so there are a hilarious number of advertisements for stores having “Black Friday” for whatever random date range they choose.  It doesn’t exactly make sense, but we’ve been having a lot of fun accumulating Christmas gifts for Isla and even ordering our REAL Douglas Fir Christmas tree from the US to be delivered in two weeks' time. Given the journey by boat and other logistical challenges, this feels like a little Christmas miracle that you can purchase!  Our apartment has shockingly high ceilings so I had to talk Nate down from dipping into our daughter’s college fund to pay for the 15 foot Christmas tree.  The argument that finally got to him agree had nothing to do with money or practicality, but simply, “Babe, you know we don’t have a ladder here as it’s it Mom and Dad’s basement. We wouldn’t be able to decorate the whole thing.”  And so, a 7 foot tree has been ordered and hopefully will be handled with care all the way to our living room.  We are stoked for a magical holiday season full of pretend Black Friday sales, a new baby, and imaginary flights to Gapan! 

Wishing all our amazing family and friends a very Happy Thanksgiving a legitimate Black Friday!!  We love you.

Just a Touch of Money Laundering

It's been a crazy couple of months settling into a new country (or "Special Administrative Region," to be precise).  As of early November, the weather has turned from deathly hot and humid to something that resembles more of a normal summer, which we are very grateful for.  The local perspective on this weather shift is quite mind boggling to me though.  As I walk the streets in normal summer apparel like shorts and a tank top, many people have busted out their fluffy UGG boots and sweaters.  It's still a solid 80-85 degrees Fahrenheit at least each day though! It might just be that I'm 8 months pregnant, but I can't even look at these overdressed crazies without feeling hot and uncomfortable.  We'll see what December and January bring, but I'm thinking it might be a few years before my sweaters see the light of day.  Other transition developments include: Knowing where to go to buy yogurt for less than $4 USD per individual yogurt, finding a way to walk to Isla’s school with only about 15 stairs, which officially makes it “stroller friendly,” and learning to cook with lemongrass!  I’d say we’re pretty much nailing it. 

While ex-pat life is never exactly normal, we have definitely found our routine and figured many of the important things out.  So, I've used this bit of slight extra time on my hands to try out a new hobby of some international money laundering. I just get such a thrill out of hiding money in my savings account from fake business ventures while Isla naps!  

...Or so that's what our bank would have you believe!  When we first moved abroad, we selected a large international bank for our all primary accounts as we knew there would be some odd transfers and the need for lots of various currency cash withdrawals, and, not to call anyone out, but we are currently less than thrilled with this bank that starts with "H" and ends with "SBC!"

Sure, we’ve had inflows to our account like US rental income, the insurance claim settlement for damaged items in the move from a Hong Kong company, and health insurance claim money from an Australian obstetrician's office, to name a few. And these transactions have been coupled with daily maximum cash withdrawals in Hong Kong dollars - you know, to pay our electric and water bills at 7-Eleven, of course!  The sheer volume of odd transactions apparently hit some unacceptable threshold with the bank.  However, instead of calling us, HSBC apparently thought it best to shut down all of our accounts and restrict all access to cash last week.  Aaaaahhhh!  This isn’t the first time a bank or credit card blocked our access or suspected fraud (in fact, this is a pretty regular occurrence), but it was certainly the most severe!  Many phone calls and escalation to bank management later, this has now mostly been resolved.  It’s a tricky thing though as we’ve entered a vicious cycle that goes like this:

- We try to open a Hong Kong bank account so we can transfer money in HKD to pay our bills. Every time we try, they say there is some piece of information we haven’t demonstrated fully. We say screw it and go out for a good Thai lunch instead.

- We have to pay all our bills in HK cash without an account, so we take cash out of the ATM daily.

- The bank sees the above as suspicious and shuts down our accounts.

- We fix the issue and go back to the bank. Last time, we had a bill in my name but not in Nate’s. This time we have both, but realise Nate’s HR team has my passport for 2 weeks because I am in need of a China visa (which we need to do now because I’ll need it back by the time the baby’s born in a few weeks in order to apply for US citizenship and a passport for him/her.)

- Back to the ATM!

Okay, so maybe we are only partially nailing it.  We figure, by the time our finances, passports and visas are in order, it will probably be time to move again!

Happy belated Halloween from
Princess Elsa (and my prince!)