Who's on Our Block

     There's a curious assortment of businesses on this side of the street on our block, typical of many areas in our neighborhood.  Most of the storefronts are about 12' wide, and most have a glass door at the entrance.  It's usually the low-overhead ones that are open to the sidewalk, and the recycling business near the end of this block would definitely be in that category.  At least 2 or 3 recyclers are always busy inside the dim and dirty work area or out near the sidewalk where the light is better.  They're hauling or organizing bales of paper and cardboard, or taking apart small appliances or motors or what have you.  Today an older woman was squatting outside near the curb, near boxes of scavenged metal from lamps and stove burners and shelving, cans of paint, metal rods and assorted other  stuff.  She was hammering the inside of something like a rice cooker to flatten it and then using a screwdriver to disassemble the exposed parts.  When we lived in Shenzhen we were pretty sure that everyone's garbage was gleaned for usable, recyclable, burnable or compostable stuff, and I think the same thing happens here in Hong Kong.  Maybe right here on our block.

  

    At the end of the block right next door to the industrious recyclers is the Leighton Piano Studio,  the only business big enough to take up two store fronts.  There are several acoustic and electric guitars and an older saxophone displayed in one corner of the front window.  Most of the window space, though, is taken up with a few advertising posters and lots children's art work that's been taped up for display.  At right is a sample. Kids go there for art classes, in addition to music instruction.  

     Midway down the block there's a studio where there are paintings displayed on easels and the walls, and where I sometimes see someone working at one of the easels.  Today, on a Sunday afternoon, there were two teenage girls sitting next to each other working on paintings and a professor-type in owlish glasses standing in back of them, hands clasped behind his back, surveying their work.

     There's one more arty place on the block, this one for young children.  Their window display has a huge array of tiny Fimo (colorful polymer clay) creations, many quite imaginative.  I smiled at a couple of cats with cunning looks next to a barrel of fish and two vicious toothy red and turquoise sharks, standing up with open maws, each in a tiny boat.

     Mid-block is a cabinet door business with pairs of various glass and wooden doors displayed efficiently in the small space.   Further down the block is a somewhat upscale home accessories shop.  It's a nicely renovated space with good lighting and attractive displays, something that you'd perhaps see in a mall in the U.S., although some of the items displayed, such as a silver-toned bamboo-motifed room screen, might hold more appeal for Asian buyers.

     Near the end of the block are 3 stores for animal-lovers.  There's a pet goods store, which is another attractive renovated space similar in feel to the previous one.  It sells toys and special food dispensers and lots of other things that doting pet owners might drool over (such as a battery-operated fuzzy squirrel that moves and squeaks).  Next to that is a fish and plant store with aquariums full of live things to take home for your own aquarium.  If you need something to put your fish in,  there's an aquarium-building business that I walk by just about every day, open to the sidewalk, just like the recyclers and the fish store.  There seems to be an extended family hanging out at this store much of the time, but the main craftsman is a small older fellow with a shock of salt and pepper hair, often dressed in corduroy pants and knit vest, who's industriously measuring or cutting or sanding pieces of glass on a massive work-scarred old wooden table close to the entrance.  It's fun to watch him work.  He's meticulous and focused, but if he looks up and I smile at him, he smiles back.  Today I was amused to see him out on the sidewalk next to an ancient bike propped up next to the store, using a small paintbrush to dust off the handlebars and the goofy foam flower ornament attached to them.

     There are 2 other narrow entrances to small apartment buildings on this block, besides ours.  And there are 4 empty storefronts, all looking dirty and neglected.  I'll be interested to see what sorts of new businesses that  might take up residence in those spaces in the coming months.  It's the year of the dragon, after all, an auspicious time to start a new enterprise.