lapses...

...and another month has past.
In all fairness though, it's not like I haven't been doing anything; for a start, I only got back into the UK on Friday and have been fighting severe time-zone difference syndrome (my own name for jet lag...) ever since and today, with a bright and early start at 7:30am, it feels like I've gotten it beat after two days of 3am starts.

This isn't going to be a HK trip report; instead it is going to be about something my friend said while we were in HK:
"I don't think I can work here..... I think I can work here but not live here"

Now for a little context.
Like me, she doesn't really like how people are in HK. They are rude, selfish, greedy, materialistic, shallow, arrogant (unrightly so), no sense of ethics, self righteous (unrightly so). You know how they say that in London, everyone is miserable and busy and rushes around rudely. Well, that is not true. Even on the Underground where everyone has a right to be miserable and rude, you still can't ignore that anyone on that train would still smile and exchange a few words if anyone else made an effort. Anyone rushing around on the busy streets would still do the same if someone were to offer the same. How many times have you been on a tube during rush hour and was being crushed by the rush of people onto your ride but still had a total stranger say a few cheerful words to you? How often have you said a few things to a total stranger at Oxford Circus regarding tourists in the area? How many times have you had total strangers tell you not to buy from a certain shop and to go somewhere else instead? It could be just me but I find that outside of particularly stressful periods i.e rush hour on the tubes, that London People are in general, friendly, warm, helpful and very open to others. The rude ones tend to be people who don't live/work in the area. It could also just easily be me who happens to attract all of the nice people so that I get an unnaturally friendly experience of London.

In HK however, no one is friendly. If you said something to a stranger, you'd be looked upon as a freak. No one would tell you where to shop better or where to get a better milkshake. Are people nice? I'm sure they are but they don;t seem to extend this beyond their own circle of friends. This is the kind of selfishness I'm talking about; their niceness only goes as far as people they know. I know, you can;'t expect people to be be kind and generous to strangers but I'm not talking about giving someone your kidney. It's the small things like opeing a door for someone, giving up a tube seat, letting someone get on a bus first, that sort of thing. In my time(s) in HK i don't recall anyone offering up anything like this to me or anyone else around me. Of course, I know this is a horrible generalisation but that is the feel that I get. It could be because of my peculiar situation of being a British/Chinese person in HK where no one else expects me to need guidance but still, that doesn't explain the general rudeness.
A friend of mine said it best when he described the difference in work ethics (I think I've mentioned this before).
A British businessman would openly try to rip you off, that is the nature of business; I want to get the most out of you for my money. Everyone wants the same. The perfect business exchange is where I get everything that I want and you get everything that you want.
A HK businessman would try to rip you off but pretend to be nice and act as if he isn't getting anything extra.

That's the kind of thing I'm talking about.
The HK workplace is famous for being an environment of two-faces, backstabbing, gossip, lies, cheats, arse-licking, 10+hour days, 6 day weeks and shit pay. There's also the small factor of rediculous competitiveness of all work sectors that only serves to feed those factors in the negative. What you end up with is a horrible fight for yourself and tread down on all others even if it means you end up doing twice the work for half the money because you simply can't afford to lose the work.

It kinda surprised me to hear my friend (I am not playing the pronoun game) say that she can work there beucase in all honesty, I can't see her being able to handle the HK work environment. I understand that already having somewhere to live that doesn't require any upkeep (all paid for and all that) makes life a lot easier means that the low pay won't have that much effect and being at home with family can help with shit work collegues but still. Can she handle the office gossip and shit?

I know I can't.

OK, I concede that not everyone is going to be like that. That is essentially what I said about London. In a crammed tube, there are going to be nice people. I'm not so sure when it comes to HK though; after all, when it is the old women you have to watch out for when boarding a HK tube, you know that something is amiss with the general population. It seems that the percentage of nice (genuine) friendly people in HK is lower than most.

I have said in the past that I can live anywhere and I stand by that. I know that HK is somewhere I can get used to if needs be and most of it comes down to my own comfort zone but that still doesn't change the fact that HK people and their behaviour irks me.
In truth, I could probably live and work there too as it's just a matter of getting on with it so what really is my problem with the place?
Perhaps I should give it a chance?