Small appliances are at the core of American living. We use blenders, mixers, coffee makers and hair dryers to make our lives easier most every day. Rusty and I are no exception. That is why we purchased our favorite Cuisinart coffee maker to bring to Hong Kong. It brews incredible coffee right into a thermal carafe that keeps the liquid at the perfect temperature, without burning it and making it bitter, for several hours. Can you tell we relish our morning java?
We also brought with us several electrical adapters. Of course we would use one for our lovely coffee maker and we did for less than one week. But then one morning in the midst of the brewing cycle...nothing. No water flow, no coffee, no steaming aroma of aribica, nada! The darn thing blew up. How could this be? What about the adapter? Doesn't the electricity know how to convert? What about our morning coffee?
Thank goodness for English Breakfast Tea. It's a noble substitution, but will never take they place of java in the morning. I take mine with milk and sugar so in the early a.m. my brain can be tricked for that very first cup. Rusty on the other hand likes his coffee strong and black. He wants a jolt which no tea can provide. After two days he needed his coffee.
Now we also brought with us electric hair clippers. I'm sure you're wondering why. I obviously wouldn't use one and let's face it Rusty doesn't have much hair. That's exactly why we needed it. His little amount of hair is clipped every two weeks at home. Where would he get this done? Have you ever seen a barber shop in Hong Kong? Well neither had we.
So I volunteered my efforts. I would be the official barber. Of course I had given my boys buzz cuts when they were little. As long as they sat reasonably still everything was all right. Obviously I could count on Rusty to not squirm or fidget. This would be a breeze.
After five weeks without a haircut Rusty was acquiring the Einstein look. Yes his few precious hairs were sticking out on the sides of his head, particularly the right side. I kept telling him to wet them down, but up they would pop as soon as they dried. They had a mind of their own.
Saturday morning, after our tea, we decided it was haircut time. I plugged in the hair clippers and whirrrrr they almost flew out of my hands. These were Nascar clippers. They were revved up and ready to run. There was no way I could put this electric demon on Rusty's bare little brain. I could already envision the scars.
Which gave us our mission on Saturday - find a real electric coffee maker. Not a french press, nor cappuccino machine. Not a latte maker, nor electric teapot. We wanted, and Rusty needed, a plain old coffee maker. And we needed electric hair clippers. Do they even have those in Hong Kong?
Off we went to our local Fortress store. It's basically Best Buy on a much smaller scale. They obviously work on commission and are ever so helpful. This being Hong Kong you can request a better price so we bargained 10% off and gladly took it.
Next I ran into 7-11 for wine. Although the store is about the size of my master bathroom in the States they do carry a few bottles of Australian wine. I grabbed one and threw it in Rusty's shopping bag. They don't give you bags at 7-11 and I didn't want to be carrying my bottle of wine down the street.
Our final stop was a street/alley market for flowers. I selected a large bouquet and we headed for home. Up Wan Chai Gap Road, which is really just a paved path, we climbed. Me carrying the flowers and Rusty with the coffee maker, hair clippers and wine. I'm sure the locals looked at us and laughed, but probably not as much as we were laughing at ourselves.
Everything here is a learning experience. When we returned to the apartment I cut Rusty's hair and then sipped a glass of wine as we watched the lights of the city. We're learning more each day.
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