Larry King: We are very lucky today to have Simon from that relatively unknown blog Simon World to answer a few questions. Simon, welcome.
Simon: Thanks, Larry. You use a lot of grease in that comb-over of yours.
LK: Can you give the viewers a little background to how you got here?
S: Sure. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia. Spent most of my time kicking around the Bondi area. Got a younger brother who's birthday is one day before mine, which has lead to all sorts of neuroses. We had a cat for a while. She died.
LK: This is fascinating. Please go on.
S: Larry, you're a suck.
LK: I know.
S: So I went to uni, realised I didn't want to be what I was studying. I was planning to take a year off when I fluked a job in the financial markets trading. A little later a friend of mine introduced me to a woman wearing patchwork green overalls at Bondi Beach one night. She's now my wife.
LK: Really?
S: Shut up, Larry, I'm hitting my groove. We fell in love, got married, bought a house. We got a cute little puppy called Misti, an English Cocker Spaniel. Soon Mrs M was preggers and two days before her 30th birthday JC entered the world. Cute little thing.
LK: If I could just...
S: Larry, don't make me gag you. Soon we had outgrown our little patch of earth, so we moved a couple of blocks away to a huge mortgage and a slightly bigger house. Actually it took 9 months of looking, but it is great. Then Mrs M was preggers again and soon PB popped out to join her sister. Two little girls; Mrs M was thrilled. All I could think of was a couple of monster weddings in 25 years time.
LK: We've got a caller.
S: Go ahead, Peabody of Pittsburgh.
LK: That's my line.
S: Why don't you go have a lie down, Larry?
Peabody: How did you end up in Hong Kong?
S: We had finally settled into the new house, getting used to having two kids, when work offered the move. The job's better, the work more interesting. And Hong Kong tax is 15%, where Australia is 48%. You do the maths.
LK: We've another called. This is Elizabeth from Buckingham, London.
Elizabeth: How has Hong Kong been? Has it changed much?
S: We arrived weeks before the SARS crisis started. Nevertheless it has been great. Please see my post in the Favourite Posts for more.
LK: And why a blog?
S: It's a good way of keeping in touch with the folks back home, plus it lets me vent a little when things slow down a little.
LK: How would you categorise the blog?
S: At last, Larry, a decent question. It's a mix of personal news and views. Really just whatever takes my fancy. It's my time, it's my blog. I'm not really writing it for anyone other than myself. I've noticed that a lot of blogs are either politics and news, or personal diaries of singles living the singles life. I thought I'd show that having a family doesn't completely mark one as brain dead. In fact parents can also be people with thoughts. It's just they're tired a lot of the time. Very tired.
LK: What's with the links.
S: I link to websites and blogs that I look at daily or are interesting to me. The blog is evolving and the links will change from time to time.
LK: Well that's about all the time we have today.
S: Thanks Larry, I thought I nailed it. You looked a fool.
LK: I know. These suspenders are killing me. Fancy some Pret?
S: Right, that's it. You know about me and Pret. This interview is over.