Well chaps, hasn't this blog lain dormant for a long time?! I've no doubt that you've all been frantically checking this site (saved as a Favorite, natch) several times daily since 29th October, desperate for fresh musings from your dear Packeroo. Pies had the cheek to suggest that the blog will have expired and I will have been blacklisted from the site due to the six weeks that have elapsed; he even went so far as to say that nobody would even read the blog anymore as people have such short attention spans these days that they'll have moved onto something cooler.
Hah! said I, that's where you're wrong. My readers are a good and faithful bunch - they wouldn't desert me after such a fleeting hiatus - they're made of sterner stuff than that. So hopefully, it's not just still my parents reading this (thanks for the support, guys!) and we can prove old smug features wrong. (Apologies if I'm coming across as a bit rambly and overly wordy - I've been watching some episodes of that Stephen Fry series where he's visiting every state in America. It's quite entertaining but the man doesn't know the meaning of the words concise or succint! Unfortunately I may have picked up a couple of bad habits - though I will try my best to stay on the right side of the verbose-point-of-no-return.)
So today, for some unfathomable reason, the powers that be at The Long Beach (the apartment complex where we live) decided to switch the electricity off at 10:42am in Tower 5. Yep, the very tower in which our humble flat is located. So as usual, when I am thwarted by such things as over-zealous chamber maids and deliberate power cuts, I have ventured into the outside and figured it was the perfect opportunity to begin in longhand (as I usually do) what I am calling "The Return of the Blog". Though after a brief period of consultation (with myself, yes, who else is as wise?) perhaps "The Return of Packeroo" sounds a bit more silly, and I do so enjoy a good bit of silliness.
When I left you last, I mentioned the arrival of Helen, who was here for a couple of weeks, and we indulged in a lot of loafing, drinking daily (well Helen was on holiday - it would have been rude to make her drink on her own!), I showed her the sights which mainly involved the Peak, the Big Buddha, Ocean Park (Seaworld meets Alton Towers kind of effort), some shopping, some Starbucks-ing and a whole lot of flapping our gums (otherwise known as talking!) During this time Colin was offered and accepted the job at UBS for which he had undergone 15 interviews (it's making you tired just thinking about it, I know); thus followed resignation from Nomura (Lehman) after which he worked exactly five days of his month's notice having said after day one, "I'm doing bugger all because nothing much is happening at the moment, can I have some gardening leave please?"
So after Helen left, Pies and I made the most of the bonus time off and high-tailed it to Thailand on the Far East's equivalent to Easyjet, Air Asia. (Be warned people before you're tempted by the 'nice price' that though the service is a lot better than what you get from the orange-jacketed folk [yes, you're right, it could hardly be worse], there is no alcohol served on-board whatsoever. Not a drop. Pies was not amused.) We stopped overnight in Bangkok due to not being able to fly direct from Hong Kong to Phuket unless we wanted to spend much moulah, and then had a week in Karon on Phuket, where we indulged in the English national summertime sport of burning ourselves to a crisp and generally looking like a couple of freshly-cooked lobsters. Nice.
There was no rest for the wicked though as it was deadline day for both Cornell & Cambridge Universities during the week that we were away, so I dutifully took my laptop with me so I could edit while 'on the road' as it were.* This also included me legging it back to the flat from Hong Kong airport at 9:30pm when we got back, as although I'd spent most of the two return flights making corrections, I hadn't been in a Wi-Fi area to email them back and closing time was fast approaching! The day after that, we were up early to meet an old Bank of America colleague and his wife and give them out shortened tour of HK, which essentially just involved the Peak Tram to the top of the Peak, the 3km walk around the top, and then lunch. It had to be the shortened version as we had to dash off mid-afternoon to get the ferry to Macau for a night of exhibition tennis and a small amount of gambling.
The tennis was actually really good (Bjorg vs. McEnroe; Blake vs. Federer; then they combined to make US vs. Europe doubles) and the court (or venue I should say, as it also holds music concerts and boxing matches) is part of a 6-star hotel complex, the likes of which I have never seen in my life. It was preposterous - you could wander for days and not find your way out - and why would you need to: more than 30 restaurants, in excess of 350 shops, a gambling floor of which, while stood in the middle of the room, I couldn't see the back wall - just craziness personified. (It's The Venetian, in case you ever find yourself in the Special Administrative Region that is Macau.) After finally heading to bed at 4am, we arrived back in HK in the afternoon, where I crossed all fingers and toes and said a silent prayer to ensure they would let me back in the country again - they did, you'll be pleased to hear. By this time, my friend Tara had arrived. Here on a work mission for a week and a half, she decided to stay on for a few days, during which time we drank a LOT, went to the Peak and the Big Buddha and had a champagne brunch. If you've seen any of the quite frankly terrible pictures of me that Tara has so kindly tagged on Facebook, I'd like to say in my defence that the idea behind the sheesha night was to get drunk enough that we wouldn't want to drink too much the following night, thus ruining the champagne brunch which started at 11:30am the day after. Needless to say, that goal was achieved and then some.
Since Tara left, I've done enough washing and ironing to clothe The Waltons for at least six months, I've cleaned a lot and I've started researching Christmas presents - both for other people and to get some idea of what I might like for when I'm inevitably asked! It goes without saying that there's been a fair bit of lounging too, especially before Pies started his new job.
Right, you are now officially up to date with the haps in Honkers - how have you been in this period during which we've been estranged??
Hopefully I will be able to post some entries now on the more tourist-y things of HK (now that I've done some) and our blog writer/reader relationship will be back on steadier ground.
Bear with me!
*As I was writing that, it occurred to me that I haven't actually mentioned on the blog that I've been helping out one of Colin's colleagues at Lehman - so I shall explain it briefly! He's applying to study an MBA next year and asked me if I would help him by editing the applications - partly because English isn't his native language, and partly because he figured I've seen a fair few job applications in the past to know what sounds good and what doesn't. It's crazy the amount of work that goes into these things - for each school, and there were six that he applied to in the end, he had to write a series of mini-essays in answer to questions like "Which part of the world are you most curious about and why?" and "What have you learned from a recent setback?", not forgetting my personal favourite which was "You're the author of a book which tells the story of your life. In 400 words, write the table of contents for that book." I actually really enjoyed the editing - got the old creative juices flowing and I got to tell someone (that isn't Colin) "no, that IS correct grammatically - because it sounds right, ok?"!
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