2007-12-13

Ramblings

My dog went insane this morning. First he had Eric awake at 2am so he (Lucky) could barf. Then he woke me up at 5.30 to get out to pee. That sucks, but then we got back and he sat in the kitchen staring at me (I'm at my desk in the dining room) and whined that low, whispery whine that dogs can manage. There's nothing he wants for (that I can tell) he just sits near his full food bowl, full water bowl, near his plethora of dog treats, chews and fetchy things, and whines.

Now here's the thing about whining. It's one of those sounds designed to distress. I believe we are hardwired to react to certain sounds with immediate action (for good reason, survival and all that.) They bypass rational thought, and even bypass our usual process of dealing with annoying things (tolerate, notice, get exasperated, react) and drive straight into your fucking hypothalamus and force reaction. Which, when there's nothing you can do, is HUGELY annoying. However, dogs are also reasonably clever. So when I went very quickly up to my wee dog, and in a very loud, angry whisper (Eric's in bed with a cold) said "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT, SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU STUPID DOG", he got the message. He's laying on his blanket beside me and we'll make up later.

**

So Hong Kong has come up a lot lately. Here's why. I've always wanted to live and work 'abroad' for a while. I thought it would be cool to spend some time someplace else and experience being 'other' and experience another culture. Having friends from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Germany, France, Ireland and England I am getting the immigrant experience from one side, and I'm curious what it would be like from the other. When Eric traveled to HK last month I told him to consider would that be a place he could/would live for a while. He came back raving about the place.

In a conversation at work with his boss it came up that he would like to go over there sometime, and if there ever came an opening... at which point his boss said "There's a job there now in our HK office, how soon can you get there?" He doesn't have the job yet, but discussions are underway. And even if he got it we've not decided anything, but we're thinking, seriously enough to be consulting experts, about how we could move to HK for a year or two. Scary/Exciting all at once.