Life v3?

Leaving Shanghai marks the ascension of my life to the second level. It marks the achievement of a number of life goals I set myself three or four years ago. But what are we without goals? Having ticked off my current list, it's time to think of my next set. So the new dream beckons: Life v3!

Just like when I thought up v2, I am not really sure how I want v3 to look. Over the last couple of years, I've picked up so many impressions, been freaked out so many times and felt admiration for so many people... It's difficult to reach into this mess of experiences and pull out a coherent dream or hope.

Visualizing your dreams is not done in one sitting. It's a time-consuming process and no better time to do it than the introvert dark days of winter. I have set myself a preliminary deadline: my new-years resolution. It's a powerful oath and good magick to combine it with v3 resolution.

So here's my thinking so far:
v1 was all about being good at excel.
v2 was all about being good at word
So I think I'll dedicate my v3 to Microsoft Project

Profound beyond belief

Goodbye Stanley

It hurts me to say this, but I am going to have to say goodbye to you, Stanley.

It's not you. It's me. Your studio's always were stinky, dirty, cluttered and noisy places. And ridiculously overpriced. Nothing has changed. But you were always there for me, and that's what mattered. The thing is though, I don't need you as a crutch anymore. I can take care of myself now, and because of that I've come to realize that what we have is not love. I just feel that we've come to take each other for granted. There's no excitement left between us. I think it's time for you to move on too. For instance, why not provide your guests with clean bedsheets when they move in. Maybe have at least one bog-roll, just to take your guests through the first night. And not ask us to carry our 30kg suitcase up to the eighth floor.

I'm sad. This will be our last week together and then I'll erase you from my phone. Never call me again.

Another stop in Hong Kong, pre-Christmas

Isn't it weird how I'm always back in Hong Kong? I'm only mentioning it because the stated objective of this blog is to keep you up to date of where I am.

I met up with Gabriel and Joyce. Gabriel gets very red when he drinks, so I decided to post this one black and white.

The coolest dude on earth

I have a playlist on my (new, amazing, sexy) iPod that I call "cool". I didn't choose that name because I felt this was cool music, in a stylish sense. The name is not intended to make me feel cool, nor do I believe it is a selection of music that IS cool- I'm not a music critic. Rather, it’s just songs that have made me exclaim: “cool!” at some point.

However, through some strange coincidence, there are some songs on there now that really are cool. They are not songs of meaning, mediation and tranquillity (they go into my playlist called “Dundee”). They are songs that are simply really, really cool. In an objective sense. Who would have thought?

When I plug these songs into my ears and walk down the streets of Hong Kong, I really am the coolest guy on earth. It doesn’t matter how tattered my clothes are or how my career in espionage may have been limited by an episode of tonsillitis. It doesn’t matter that I’m here and not there. All that matters is the swing in my head. I'm the coolest dude on Earth.

I am not very observant, I have neither an eye for detail nor a head for the big picture. Considering my job I’m almost cripplingly deficient in this regard. However, I made on observation two years ago that was so accurate yet possibly so profound that I’m considering patenting it.

Hong Kong beats to a soundtrack of swing. Not many people agree when they first hear this. They suggest RnB, house or even the sound of money (how trite!). These sounds may characterize specific experiences in this multi-faced city, of course. However, only swing captures the feeling of taking a taxi through a hilly jungle packed with chinese skyrises.

Big band swing.

Beautiful Hong Kong

It’s a gorgeous city on a beautiful day. Is it the most beautiful modern city in the world? It has everything. It has a harbour river, it has sea and beaches, and it has tropical forests and hills that pretend to be mountains. It has islands, crazy Chinese people, awesome skyscrapers and all kinds of foreigners. It has ass, it has class.

Going to work from SoHo is an amazing adventure. You emerge onto one of the narrow, slanted streets, you pass by western bakeries and coffeeshops, take the longest escalator in the world down to the central business district. You escape a gang of imposing skyscrapers by jumping into a taxi with doors that open automatically and are then transported into the half Chinese, half Southeast Asian ghetto of Wan Chai.

An ode to Stanley

Stanley, are you a man or a concept?

A good friend of mine, an ex-spy who's moved on to a high-level Propaganda ministry job introduced me to Stanley about a year ago. Stanley manages a serviced appartment business, but with a twist. Rather than targeting rich expats, he supplies models, spies and other low-budget/low-profile travellers with highly affordable studios/rooms in prime locations. But possibly the greatest thing about him is that he is increadibly flexible (maybe because I've never negotiated the rent) and doesn't require a deposit. And he never asks me any questions about my changing appearance and multiple passports.

In fact, Stanley has helped me out so many times here in Hong Kong, that he has become a concept to me very much like Google is now synonymous with internet search. I've actually never met Stanley. When I call him, he always asks me to let him call me back in 5 minutes, but when I get the call (never have to wait longer than 5 minutes), it's not him, it's usually a woman (nowadays called Liz) who will help me arrange a few viewings. Once I thought I would actually meet the man, as we talked on the phone for a while and he offered to show me an appartment right now. But the man who showed up was some Mario guy.
I've always suspected there IS no Stanley. I've got this idea (enhanced during this weekends fever) that Stanely is a loosely connected organization of flatowners from the Philipines. Kind of like a rental agents version of Al Quada...

So strong is the concept of Stanley, that in my Operational Support Files I've classified all my rental contacts in Asia as instances of Stanley. Stanley Beijing - Cin, Stanley Chiangmai - Viangbua Mansions etc. It's my goal to ultimately have a Stanley in every port.

So, Stanley, hat's of to you! You are a red thread through my existence, up there with 7/11 and Western Union! Without you, I would actually need to sort myself out!

P.S. There's something wrong with the image uploading at the moment so I'm not able to post any pictures. As soon as this has been fixed I'll show you the splendid little hole Stanley has sorted out for me this time. I called him on saturday and two hours later I had a new home!

I face my nemesis

"The good guys always win"... Actually, "The hero always triumphs" and it's not always clear whether you are the hero, the comical relief or the amiable single-use character being set up for an emotional sacrifice.
These were the kind of thoughts running through my head 3am this morning, in the backseat of a taxi racing through the narrow streets of Hong Kong. Not only had my throat swollen up and my brain started melting with fever, but the taxi driver seemed to have been inspired by crazy driving movie Tokyo Drift, zigzagging through traffic and accelerating as he turned corners.

By the time we had reached the hospital I had come to peace with my life and my imminent death, but of course (making a long story really rather short), when I left the hospital a few hours later I only had to deal with a case of tonsillitis and holding a bag full of painkillers, antibiotics and anti-coughing syrup.

I feel unhappy about all the plans I have had to change, and there are many people who are alsoo unhappy with me changing those plans. I had a good bit of spying to do in Shanghai next week, and the week after that I am expected to report on my findings to a number of constituencies...
So, I'm wondering... am I really the hero of my life? Ok, I think we've established that I'm not set up for sacrifice. But am I possibly someone elses comical sidekick? Some kind of narrative ploy to introduce the real Dundee Expat, the one who didn't get tonsillitis?

Actually, since I am now feeling better after 16 hours of non-stop sleeping, I have come to the exciting conclusion that I am the hero, and what just happened here is that we are getting to know the Nemesis of the hero. Invincible in every other respect, health is the only thing standing between me and attainment of Life v3. Wasn't it health that stopped my round-the-world trip in January? Wasn't it health that ended "the happiest time of my life" just after my trip to Singapore this year? It is a most powerful foe.

This makes me feel good, because I really needed a nemesis to make this story emotionally engaging. At the moment i live for no higher goal, no ultimate purpose, so I'm not sure why I should care about me at all. However, with a Nemesis, i have gained the dramatic element of my life.

Well, having said that, it's not the most interesting Nemesis I could think of. Fighting poor health is filled with doctors appointments, dreary hospital corridors and fiddling with bags of medicines. Doesn't make interesting writing and even less interesting living.
What I really need is an upgrade of my Nemesis, a Nemesis v2. I don't think I am quite ready for a criminal mastermind, but a nice evil underground conspiracy would be nice. If you are part of such an organization and you are yourselves in need of a Hero to oppose you, get in touch: globister@dundeeExpat.com- this could be a win-win scenario for both of us!

Regrouping in Hong Kong

Finally made it back to Hong Kong. For some reason I couldn't sleep last night so was really tired when I got here. However, a friend I first met just as I had arrived in Hong Kong for the first time called me, catching me one random night I'm actually staying here. Of course we had to share a bottle of wine and reminiscence on days, holidays and parties past.

Meaningless post

Bloody hell. Somebody is just being dumped in front of me. I’m in starbucks again, my second office, trying get my head around security technologies and there’s a woman bawling at the table in front of me. How am I supposed to not look? It’s only natural to sometimes look up from your screen and survey your environment. I’m trying not to. I’m staring really, really hard at my screen. Need to think of things to write.

No! Cannot think about what to write! If I do, I look up, with that thoughtful expression that makes look kinda handsome. I have to just keep writing, even if I write meaningless stuff. Nanna nah ni nanna!

Ok, so let’s write about the top super things in my life right now…

1) I’ve downgrade from my very good looking luxury brand computer bag to a rucksack. Carrying around heavy computers and accessories on my shoulder is giving me a bad back, so I’ve invested in a rucksack instead that’s distributes weight more evenly. But I couldn’t find a luxury rucksack. Maybe they don’t do luxury rucksacks? Anyways, now my back feels much better, cheers!

2) I’m working out of Starbucks! This is probably the most genius thing I’ve ever thought of. Ok, so you get bawling women and stuff like that, and it can be distracting when people start flirting with each other (nobody ever flirts with me though!). But, combining my addiction to caffeine with work has created a very powerful, primeval urge in my soul to just keep working. Work work work. Whenever I need an excuse to have a coffee, I think of some task I need to do. Worked straight through last weekend, didn’t take a break. And I’ve never drunk so much coffee.

3) Wow, I’m so healthy at the moment. It really, really pissed me off to get bronchitis when I arrived in Hong Kong, it ruined my momentum. So I’m happy being back at 100% and devising new plots to take over the world.

4) I managed to finally find a non-dubbed version of Bloodrayne. Whoho! Bloodrayne is the third major movie from Uwe Boll, and features a star-packed cast and a storyline about vampires. Uwe Boll is my hero, in the same way George Bush is my hero. It really makes me happy to see incompetent fools succeed. It’s inspiring. Give’s me hope

5) I’ve discovered the “thin white duke” rexmix of Royksopp’s “what else is there”. Fantabolous piece of work and much more true to the Norwegian bang’s roots than their original.

Ah, finally. She has stopped crying, and I can start looking up thoughtfully again. Back to work.

Freaking out the locals

My skills in Cantonese have improved somewhat, and I am now able to order menu item 3 and asking for them NOT to put in those pesky beans.

However, my ability to express the deliciousness of said food is less evolved... and today I decided to do something about it. With disastrous results.

I navigated through the ordering process without hickups. I've even figured out when to nod in order to indicate that: a) I want it spicy and that b) I'll be eatin in. A nod at the wrong time will land you with a hot soya milk drink and no spice.

Feeling adventures I had decided to go for menu item 5 today and had to slurp down noodles with two pieces of SPAM. Nevermind, time to learn some new cantonese. I experimented by telling the woman at the till that it was ho-chi which I hoped would mean something like "excellent eat". But it didn't. So I tried rubbing my stomach with a big smile on my face. The woman returned my smile but clearly didn't understand my desire for language tutoring. I thought the rubby-tummy gesture was international for yummy! I pressed on and tried various gestures and sounds to try to persuade her to say "yummy" in her freaky language. As my smile got less sincere and more calculating, I could see her smile fading as the fear grew in her eyes. Instead of bonding across cultures and linguistic barriers, I managed to build up a very real wall of mutual resentment. She probably thought I was complaining of food poisoning and threating to take her to court.

Oh well. Back to the drawing board. Maybe I'm just better at building walls than bridgees...

P.S. I've requested help from my colleagues and it appears I was on the wrong track to start with. In mandarin you say "good eat", but in cantonese they have a real word for yummy: meido.
So now I'm off for lunch to see if I can get through a whole eating experience without freaking out the locals.

I am a changed man

I left Hong Kong persecuted, haunted and beaten. I return a changed man. While I made my exit like a shamed dog, I’m now sitting in the SUPER class of the Macau-Hong Kong ferry. I’ve reduced my life to a couple of gadgets and chargers plus two days worth of party clothes, all packed into a small bag at my feet. I feel in control. Vindicated even.

My sense of value is all messed up. After a couple of days in Chiang Mai, I would walk an extra block to buy my beers for 27 Baht instead of the 30 they were charging down in the reception. 3 baht is a little less than 5p, but damned if I’m going to pay more than I need to. A really crazy night out might set you back 500 baht. So I was horrified when I arrived in Bangkok last night and jokingly asked Kym whether he thought 2000 Baht would be enough to take me through the night. Of course it wouldn’t. Argh! How dare they charge me 80 Baht for a beer? At Bed Supper Club, they charged 250 Baht! And there was absolutely not a drop of vodka with that cranberry. And now I’m on the Macau ferry to Hong Kong, where cheap places will charge 250 Baht for a beer, and some will want double that. Yuck! This is all happening too fast, just two days ago I was walking an extra block to save 3 Baht.

Wow, this really IS super class. They’re even serving us complimentary food.

I’m really starting to enjoy Bangkok now. That Bed Supper Club is possibly the most stylish club I’ve ever been to, and full of intriguing characters and beautiful people. I’ve learned of quite a few places that are open beyond the Thaksinn imposed 2am curfew. I was introduced to a hotel bar where you can sit outside, surrounded by a beautiful view of greenery and skyscrapers. Speaking of Thaksinn, now that he’s been kicked out of office you can already notice the slackening in the martial law. The underground club that you had to sneak into now keeps its doors open and even have a dude outside inviting people passing by to come in.

45 minutes

In fact, it took me 45 minutes to pack my life into my suitcase.

ADDED 22 April 2006: This is a picture of my life, in all it's glory. It's not a massive suitcase, but I'm not so much constrained by size as by weight: AirAsia only allows a maximum of 15 kg in your check in luggage.

Great achievements, a three week black hole and some parks

Today is a great day! I have achieved some mind-blowing milestones:

• I've learned the meaning and pronounciation of 780 chinese characters. That's 20 characters away from the official limit of 800 considered 'Intermediate' level. With the characters I know now I can read the comic books of Rin Tin Tin!
• I have fully achieved status of "in Asia". I now have 1) A hong kong ID card 2) a hong kong bank account with a rather useless debit card 3) a one year multiple entry visa to China. I'm, like, so "here".
• I have located a restaurant that serves proper frog here in Hong Kong. None of that brash, spicy stuff from sichuan, nor is the frog drowned in a rice soup. Just a really nice, pungent sauce and they serve the back as well, not just the legs.
  

How wonderful to achieve all this. I feel I deserve some good stuff after maybe not the best time in my life. What happened?

I don't think it's a secret that I have a romantic notion of the "nomad lifestyle". It comes at a cost. I pay through the nose for rooms that are smaller than my suitcase. My insistance on making every decision at the last moment means I get overcharged when travelling- and allways the coolest parties seem to happen yesterday... But, I'm quite happy to accept this: not many people can say they their entire life is contained within a suitcase, or that they could uproot themselves from where they are living and working in 15

The last three weeks been an exercise in enduring the arse end of this lifestyle. It started well. My friend came to visit from Thailand for one night only, and it all felt very jet-set and modern. One night! How crazy! I got a sense of the darkness that was to ensue on my way to meet him at the hotel though. A mild cough. Nevermind I thought. Nevermind that I don't have any immune system whatsoever and am known for being ill in all kinds of ways. Nevermind. Well, that was three weeks of my life down the drain, spent in bed coughing my lugns up with the worst case of bronchitis ever.
Next time I start coughing early during a night of boozing, I'll go home I think.

Of course, I would never have learned all those chinese characters if I hadn't had so much time in bed. Also, I watched the full first season of Desperate Housewifes. What genious!

I did force myself out last weekend- I was about to go mad in that little cupboard of a studio that I live in. I did a park day. Went to Hong Kong park, and to Hong Kong zoological and botanical garden. Hong Kong park is quite amazing, but in the wrong way. It's totally artificial- it's fascinating in a way because it is so unapoligetic. It is obvious that the park designers felt parks should be artificial and that natural ones are just behind the times. So the whole park is full of man-made caves and waterfalls, fountains and sections of grass in regular patterns. And all to the backdrop of the towering sky scrapers. I've attached a photo of what I mean. That's a park, by the way...

The Zoological garden was much more interesting and much more serene. Most of the park was closed off (due to the bird flu maybe?) so there were not so many people. They had some cool birds in big cages, and there was even a leopard there. A bit out of place, but cool nonetheless. I've attached a picture has the leopard in the background, sleeping. And that's me in the foreground. I think you can see I've felt better...

Painful lessons about Sichuan frogs

I fell to my addiction to frog the other day with very painful consequences. Frog isn't a staple of Hong Kong cuisine, so I returned to an old favourite of mine, a Sichuan restaurant that's just around the corner from where I live at the moment. I remembered that the Sichuan kitchen does a yummy number where they cook the frog by stirring it with small, very hot stones. Called something like "special stone frog".

However, once I got into the restaurant, I found that there's another Sichuan frog recipe that I haven't tried yet. It was quite expensive, but hey! you only live once. And it had five chillis next to it, whereas the special stone only had three. You know I love spicy food.

I learned many things that evening.
1) You don't want to order extra spicy stuff in an authentic Sichuan restaurant. The mild stuff would probably be illegal in Europe, so stick to three chilis next to your menu item
2) The Mala Frog is fried. Yuck. The whole point about frog is it's succulence. Whats the point of crispy frog?
3) The dish I ordered was not expensive because this was an expensive restaurant, or because the dish was extra special in some way. It was expensive because there were five frogs in there. You may remember I felt a bit embarrased about having eaten three in one sitting back in Singapore. I felt very very greedy eating five. And I got very very full.
4) The locals will find it very amusing to see a foreigner eating five frogs on his own, tears flowing from the spicyness...

So, my advice to you, my fellow frogoholics: if you're getting Sichuan food, get the special stone.

An excellent weekend of martial arts, chinese and obsessive shopping

Ouch. I'm hurting. I thought I'd try something different this weekend, so I asked a good friend to submit me to a beating. I let him have two go's at it, the second time using a stick. For good measure, he let me have a stick too, to defend myself, but it didn't make much of a difference. To be honest, it's not so much the beating I got that hurts (although my nose hurst a little from when he gave me a good punch straight in the face) but rather the times he'd let me hit him. I hurt in strange places. For some reason my legs hurt a lot, because you need to move around alot and use your legs to push your body forward when you make a punch. Or something like that.
The unarmed combat was actually under the supervision of a Wing Chun teacher. Wing Chun is that martal art style that Bruce Lee made famous. The teacher was some sort of ex-bodyguard and had adapted this style to the situations you'd find on a street. His aim, he said, was to teach you to fight wearing a suit and an overcoat, and possibly even wearing bullet proof west. Sounded pretty hardcore, but I suspect it may just have been an excuse not to teach us how to kick.
The stick fighting was really really fun, and my friend has actually worked as an instructor. Stick fighting uses less force and places more emphasis on defense. The latter makes a lot of sense. While you can take a punch or a kick, you really don't want to allow a stick to hit you. So you train a much more defensive posture.

It was a busy weekend. I didn't just attend my first fighting classes, I had my first real chinese lesson! I've enlisted a personal tutor who will visit me at the office three times a week. We agreed that I've reached an intermediate level, so we will focus our time on chatting rather than working with texts. Also, the fighting has really taken it's toll on my hands, so I can't write using a pen and paper. I'm even finding it difficult to press the space bar writing this! So for a while we'll just be practicing talking and listening skills.
It does appear that I might have the edge on this language. Chinese is actually quite easy, it's just that they've made it more difficult by using those beautiful but stupid chinese sings instead of an alphabet. However, I find it really enjoyable to learn these characters, I enjoy searching for the system behind these signs and can spend hours just exploring new characters. However, this is usually considered the worst and most boring part of the language, so many westerners skip it altogether. I'm coming to this languages enjoying it's most difficult part, so now that I'll start taking classes, hopefully I will be able to pick it up quickly. We'll see

Not only did I start my martial arts training and chinese tuition. I also explored my new shopping addiction a little further. It's mad living in Causeway bay, whenever I go out for a chicken with rice or just out for a little walk, I'm confronted with one of the more hectic shopping areas in the world. All these bargain, shiny products screaming out at me from displays under strong, attention grabbing lights.
I've realized that my approach to shopping has been completely wrong up to now. Having bought some nice jeans and a really italian-looking blue shirt, I realized that I needed white shoes+belt for this set to look it's best. As the jeans+shirt had cost a lot of money, I thought maybe now I'll head off to the bargain market over on Kowloon side. Now, Causeway Bay may be one of the busier shopping districts I know of, but Mong Kok in Kowloon is definately the busiest in the world. It's streets after streets of pulsing crowds, shops, stalls and restaurants. You think it will end at some point, but it just slowly transitions from extremely busy to very busy, and then goes on forever. After browsing the stalls for a while I understood two things:
- Escalation: once you buy an expensive piece of clothing, it requires quite a lot of will power to buy something cheaper to go with it.
- Priorities: you don't go cheap on accessories. You can save money on your clothes, but not on your bag, belt, shoes and sunglasses.

So, I quickly gave up on the busiest district in the world and headed back to the high end brand stuff and got myself a nice belt and some nice lamb skin shoes. Yes, I've overspent, but I'm writing this off as learning-related expense. Wearing an expensive shirt with cheap shoes is NOT the thing to do. While wearing the belt to end all belts with cheap old jeans and a dirty t-shirt could definately work. Now, I just bought an ordinary nice belt in the end and instead spent the money on the lamb skin shoes. I wore the shirt, jeans, white shoes+belt out on Saturday and overall I must say it was a pretty good show. It was a bit too much, but then I knew that beforehand- but sometimes you just really really want to wear all the new things you bought, right.

Speaking of going out, I headed off to Cyber in Kowloon in my new outfit. Partying in Cyber is not really the thing to do if you're a westerner, but I quite enjoy hanging out with the young cantonese hamsters. They listen to some very suspect music, but I quite enjoy it. And going against the trend (usually the cantonese come visit us in our ghetto, rather than the other way around) earns you quite a bit of attention both on the cantonese side and back in the ghetto.

All in all, wow what a busy weekend! I've broken myself financially, but I've learned many things about shopping and about the cantonese clubbing traditions. I've broken myself physically, but learned to keep my body tight and how to throw a good right hand punch. I'm still living in a rat-hole, but I'm learning Chinese. Excellent.

Touristing in Hong Kong

My home!



Time to move on again... Bangkok was just a stop on the way, now I'm in Hong Kong and it looks like I'll stay here for quite a while. I've found a little studio/room which I can rent on a short-term basis for quite a reasoble price. It's amazing how small it is, but right now I don't feel I need much. Once you've been living out of a 7-bed dorm and trying to look presentable in the office, you develop a certain toughness when it comes to your accomodation... Because the room is so small, it's difficult to take a picture in it and so I can't fully communicate how small it is. But the photo above at least shows you that I'm sleeping about 1.5 meters away from the toilet bowl, and no wall in between... Uyy... Still, it's mine and I love it.

My street!



A Hong Kong shopping mall!



I decided to be a really good tourist on Saturday. But what do you do in Hong Kong? The peak? Checking out the skyline from Kowloon? Visit some temples or one of the gardens? Of course not, that wouldn't catch the spirit of the place. What you do, is you shop of course! That's the true essence of Hong Kong. In the name of touristing, I went on a big shopping spree, naturally documenting the whole experience for this blog. Now, I live in the busiest shopping strip on Hong Kong island (On Kowloon side there are some even more frantic places...), so the second picture shows the sight that greets me as soon as I step out of my building. You do feel alive. And you want to never shop again.

The third picture shows a more up-scale shopping mall, brimming with designer shops and with quite a relaxing nice atmosphere. Do you see that in the distance? That's a grand piano. Shopping malls sure don't come like that in Dundee... It's like walking inside a glossy magazine, and after a while your reality gets so distorted... "$10,000 for those shoes you say? That's a bargain!" My tourist trip didn't get much further than here, I felt strangely appealed to the whole idea of all this luxury. Maybe it's good to visit places like this now and then, you kind of get recharged to work hard and earn money...



Me, shopping!



I do need to earn a bit of money now, cuz as you can see from the fourth picture, I ended the day with several bags of schtuff (and I pay for brand names such as Armani to make up for a distinct lack of style). I wanted to take pictures to share with my blogging audience, but it was actually really embarrasing. In one shop the assistant thought I wanted to take pictures of her, and refused. It felt very strange to explain to her that the thought truly hadn't occured to me. Why on earth would I want a picture of her? Maybe shop assistants get hassled everyday with tourist wanting to take pictures of them :-o

Of course, when you've shopped, you've got to show off your new clothes to the world, right? So I proceeded to join a good friend for some knees-up in Wan Chai. All in all I felt good about my first day as a tourist in Hong Kong, and look forward to the next excursion.
But as you can see, from the pic below, it doesn't matter what brand you are wearing if it still looks shite... Eliciting the following response...



(PS: i didn't buy the $10,000 shoes although of course I pretended to the shop assistant that I might just do...)

Ha! Failure as a teacher, and the iPod nano

Ha! I sneaked out at 5.30 in the morning, and made my way to London on Wednesday. After a very nice selection of confectionary at the Ritz, I considered my options. I learned the first time I attempted my escape that They have agents everywhere, and that London is probably one of the least safe places in the world. There was really only one thing to do: a single ticket to Hong Kong please!

I've learned that success does not teach you anything. Success is not bad in itself of course. Sucess can bring many good things. For instance, success may mean that you're sulking in Dundee Tuesday night, enjoying some rubbish hollywood blockbuster movies on an intercontinental flight on Wednesday and then partying your soul out on the Thursday. Not too bad. But have you learned anything? No. Success brings fortune but you'll be none the wiser. If you want to learn, to mature, to grow as a person then there are no shortcuts:
There's no better lesson that a good wallopping failure.

I've become a much wiser person today. I've learned that:

1. There is often an inverse relationship between trendyness and practical use when it comes to clothes. For instance, a nice pair of armani jeans that make the most of your small bum could quite possibly have extremely small pockets that over and over again cause you to drop and forever loose important things.
2. It is always a good idea to check the western union website and memorize the locations of outlets close to where you live and/or work. Should you ever be in need of emergency cash, your friends, relatives or trusted credit card provider will be able to sort you out through one of these transfer agents.
3. If you book a ticket online, and you are told that you MUST present your credit card when picking up the e-ticket, this means that it is not only advicable to bring your credit card, it is critical. Otherwise you just might make a fool of yourself and not get on that flight.

I'm truly a better person for it!

Other than these hard lessons, I'm having great fun in Hong Kong. Today is lazy day, I'm just reading up a little bit on possible destinations in south east asia. Also I've bought an iPod Nano. It is very very sexy. It reminds me of when I first held an ipod in my hands a few years ago. It was a friend's iPod, handed over to me wrapped in a nice silk protective bag. As I carefully removed the bag and held the gadget in my hands, I got the feeling that my dirty hands were not worthy to hold this piece of jewelry. Same with the Nano. I haven't had much chance to listen to it yet, but whenever I have a quiet moment I take it out and touch it...

ADDED 17 Feb: I was so upset about loosing my credit card I never bothered to mention the fact that I had SOOOOO much fun in Hong Kong. Toby and Nicki took really good care of me and made it feel like I'd never left.

Hong Kong rocks!

Ok, Singapore is nice, Kuching is lovely, and London is groovy. But Hong Kong definately rocks. I only transited through Macau, but nicely gave me another stamp in my passport. I am very proud of the way my passport looks right now.
Spent a couple of hours at the usual expat bars, Drop, Dragon-I etc. These places really really bore me.
Then off to Wan Chai. Wow, here the nightlife starts at 4am and goes on until lunch. I called it quits at 8am and now I remember why I loved it here.

Now: back to London.