Home, sweet home?

Have you noticed that question "Where are you from?" has gone hopelessly obsolete these days? More often than not, the answer you get is "Well, I grew up in XXX, but studied in YYY and have been working in ZZZ for the past 5 years." We are hardly ever satisfied with that vague answer and, in search of binary black-and-white clarity so characteristic of our computer technology era, tend to dig further: "So, where is home?"

After 6 nights in two hotels in Jakarta, I was quite impatient to get ...home. In this case, my Hong Kong home. A very strange concept of a home away from home, but that was it. I was wondering again, what home was and it was pretty simple: a place where one does not live out of a suitcase, but out of a wardrobe and where the loom of packing it all up is not awfully imminent.

So what is my Hong Kong home like?

The location was chosen for me by my employer and although, generally I'm an awful control freak, this time I was much releaved to arrive, settle in and relax without having to go through a not-too-exciting exercise of apartment search. It so happens that the company rents apartments for all short-term assignees in the same place and within a couple of weeks I knew that my neigbours were mostly colleagues from other departments...

The apartment building is located in Happy Valley, a residential area of a much more relaxed pace than most other areas of Hong Kong, and certainly a major relief from the swarming with people shopping centers of Causeway Bay, where the closest subway station is.

I had been warned of the scanty space in Hong Kong's living quarters, so before my departure from home (home-home, that is), I checked the area of the apartment rented for me. It was advertized at 622 sq. feet, which I recalculated into metric measures and found the outcome of some 57 sq. meters to be comfortably comparable to my apartment back home  (home-home, that is).

Well, when I saw it for real, I started wondering if I did the math right... As my Indian colleague explained to me later on, the rented space of apartments in some parts of the world is calculated to include a proportion of the shared facilities like the lobby area, elevators, fire escapes, etc. I would guess that it may just as well include the swimming pool and parking lots, judging by what my 57 sq. m boil down to in the end. But, the way that space is managed is remarkable.

 

The little kitchenette is really only the size of two cabinets. But tell you what? It has sufficed so far! I've only been missing an oven. The bedroom is tiny, but if all you do there is sleep and exercise, why would you need it to be any bigger?

The bathroom was a surprise... Had it not been an obvious space optimizer, I would have thought it was devised for exhibitionists. But well, you roll down the blind and your bathroom is normal. However, once in a while on a beautiful sunny Saturday morning, you could easily only use the thinner transparent roller and enjoy your foam bath in full sunlight!

I would have even said you could enjoy the view outside, but as you may have already noticed, the view is fairly boring... Some could argue that a pair of binoculars could make it more entertaining, but with that diversity of choice, one would not know which window to pick. 

I remember back home (home-home, that is) I was very particular about choosing an apartment without any buildings across, just so I would not worry about others inadvertently peeking into my windows... In here, the windows across come in thousands, so I do not even care...

All in all, I must say, the place is quite comfortable. It is very convenient too: there are necessary shops nearby, a wet market, several restaurants, a few nail and massage spots, etc.

My current address could never be an answer to "So, where is home?", but for the year, the place could not have been any better!