Ahhh...home. While Hong Kong still feels like the foreign city that it is, there is starting to be that sense of calm coming over me when we step through the door to our flat. It's a nice, warm feeling that I haven't had in months. When we were moving all of our furniture around and selling off our worldly possessions back in the States, that wonderful feeling of home that I love just started to disappear. It is so comforting to start to feel that again. Don't get me wrong...this is a very strange place and most of what is in our flat is new furniture, but it is ours and we can be ourselves once we walk through the door. Makena and I went to Horizon Plaza yesterday via a very interesting red taxi ride. After 28 floors of furniture (although we only went to a few...we like to concentrate on the ones with kid stuff - toys, mostly!), I ended up dragging an amazing red rug home. The rug place did not deliver...and it was not light! The rug has made all of the difference in the house - a bit of color and a soft place to sit! We love it!
Charlie travels most of the time, so I've taken it upon myself to become incredibly well versed on the city. Okay, maybe *well versed* is a bit over the top and an incredible exaggeration, but I am trying so hard to get to know something new every day. And...I'm dragging Makena along with me! I've discovered where some of the fun malls are, along with several grocery options. Our favorite is the one that has car carts (2 for the whole store) and is a subsidiary of Whole Foods! It's fun to see the O brand in the store! We've got a lot of their things now :). This morning we found two toy stores and an incredible bookstore in a new mall. Makena was overjoyed until I made her leave each of the stores...I also found that The Landmark has some great stores for casual clothes in the basement (Calvin Klein Jeans, Marc by Marc Jacobs, etc...) - I desperately need some new clothes. Charlie actually even went with us on Sunday down to IFC, which has something like 200+ stores...all I found was a jacket and a skirt. In my defense, Makena is very hard to shop with and so my periods of time that I can actually shop are incredibly limited. It isn't like going to the Gap or to Target or to Nordstrom. These stores are the ones that you see in Beverly Hills - some of them have like 100 items in the store total...incredibly organized and perfect. Not kid friendly at all. I wanted to try to get some new jeans so we headed for True Religion, which is normally a pretty easy-to-shop in store. Well, the one in IFC has a pebble floor - which was absolutely fascinating for Monkey Girl, who first thought she should lay down and roll in them, and when I told her to get up, she thought she should throw them. Needless to say, I left empty-handed! I am hoping to get out alone on Saturday (I would LOVE Charlie to come, but when Makena is there, we just get nothing accomplished) and get some new wardrobe staples. Wish me luck! At least I know where some of the good stores are now...what a relief to know that I will actually be able to find some clothes! Yay!
Our last two giant milestones are getting the bedroom black-out roman shades installed and receiving our sea shipment from *home*. The curtains should ALL be finished and installed next week - and we are hoping to hear back from the movers soon to get an estimate on our sea shipment. Hopefully it will get here in time to be settled before Christmas. I am hoping for December 17th (if it came sooner I would just cry tears of joy). That would help us to get Makena's new room finished and get her used to her big girl bed before Christmas. It would also give Charlie and I our mattress - this sleeping on the couch thing is for the birds!
Roaming toward home...
