I'm now a HAB

Well its my first week in Hong Kong (as a resident) and life is good. I have to wear sun glasses all the time (the up side is I look cool as hell all the time) and my mobile phone works on the Tube (happy days!)

There is an old saying that when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If you apply this to shopping and Hong Kong it will all make sense. The shops are amazing and they have more than London and NYC put together.

The Chinese love to shop - Even more they like to shop well. Its one amazing experience to see every high end brand name, in every shopping mall, and sometimes they have one on each floor.

Madness. Complete consumer madness.

I have had trouble keeping Mrs B away from all the shoe shops (no surprise I hear you cry) but have not done so well on the cookie shops where I caught her on Saturday. Crumbs flying out of her mouth as she protested innocence, diplomatic immunity and then finally the worst of all the guilt look.

The interesting thing about this place is that many of these goods appear to be brought with cash and not credit. There are far fewer adverts for credit cards and I have not seen as many being handed over.

So one questions how people can spend so much in cash?

If you follow this line of thought with the fact that the average person in the UK has £30,000 of debt (with 60m people) imagine the business/credit market for a country with 3 BILLION people.

Perhaps I should get out of telecoms and go work for a bank.

..., And before you ask; HAB stands for Husbands & Boyfriends (Men you shop, but don't work...)