It's A Small World, And I'm A Big Jerk

This was one of those moments that were so unfathomable, that on the one hand is just a great "Magnolia" moment but at the same time you wish the ground would swallow you up.

I was heading to the train station on the way home just now in Causeway Bay, dodging in and out of the hoardes of Chinese people, when I felt a prod on my arm. This was not unusual - people bumping into you, or trying to sell something - but a girl on the other end of that prod stopped and stared at me.

In that moment, I did not recognise the pretty Chinese girl at all, and tried to think where I might know her. Warwick University if anywhere, but nothing was flooding back. Maybe if I said about Uni first, I might be able to bluff her that

Girl: Hey, did you go to Warwick University?
Phil: Yeah.
Girl: I thought so; I saw you walk past here the other morning and thought I was going crazy. You were a student representative, right? I'm Priscilla.

I had absolutely no idea who she was and it was too obvious at this point to pretend. And then I asked the question that I regretted asking before I even started:

Phil: What year were you in?
Priscilla: The same as you.

Awkward silence follows.

Phil: How are you!? What are you doing out here?
Priscilla: I live here, this is where I'm from. Are you working here?
Phil: Yeah, recruitment. So are there many people from Warwick?
Priscilla: Actually, there's quite a few of us and we have reunions every month. The next one's next Thursday; you should come.
Phil: Great, I'd love to.

She fumbles around for a pen to give me her number.

Phil: By the way, my name's Phil.

I thought maybe I could even the embarassment a bit if she didn't know

Priscilla: Yeah, I know.

We said our goodbyes.

---

I felt like the world's biggest jerk for not knowing her. To my defense there were 108 girls in my class, and only 12 boys. Also, even if I did know her, it would be much easier for her to pick me out in a crowd in Hong Kong than vice versa.

I don't know what response she was expecting, but a blank face probably wasn't it. I only wonder who would be at this reunion - expats or locals? I'll definitely go, it'll be quite good to build up a social network here. But I really don't remember her, and not even her face. At all.

Strange how a small link in our past will draw us together, yet she is near enough a stranger to me.

So my next moves are damage control, work out who will be there (consult Fi and Rae, who might know) and go and meet up with everyone.

I thought it was a story worth telling.

365 Degrees, Burning Down The... Hotel

Friday night, I got home from work to welcome in the weekend and wanted to get my Gamecube from my coworker's room as I lent it to him but first I stuck some rice on. In the room, there is no gas; instead we have an induction cooker - a terrible invention if you ask me, which is near uncontrollable. I lie; there are two settings - simmer or destroy, no in between. Which is actually better than the microwave, which can only be set on "nuke"*.

I went to his room and stayed for about 5 minutes. Back in the corridor, the fire alarm was flashing; sensibly the alarm only sounds once management have asserted there is danger. I knew automatically this was my rice and rushed back to my room to find 5 staff standing outside. I opened the door midst apology and a huge cloud of smoke escaped into the hallway. The bottom of my pan was 2 inches thick of black burnt rice (which I have since cleaned up) and my room stunk of smoke. The staff were using my newspapers and books to waft the smoke out of the window. They told me to be careful but not to worry; it happens quite frequently with these machines.

The Manager unlocked my windows which are usually locked for safety reasons. I either became accustomed to the smell or it sifted away but eventually the room smelt fine. Housekeeping came to lock my window but I told her (Kitty Wong - awesome name!) that it still smelt so could she leave it. She called the Manager who gave the following response:

I don't have to lock it but must keep it closed.

Does that make any sense? Anyway, Kitty closed my window, without locking, and left.

So every smoke cloud does have a silver lining - if I work tactically, my windows won't be locked**.

To celebrate, I took this picture of my view:

Joking aside, I did feel like one step closer to Alan Partridge status!

*a jacket potato takes 3 minutes to soften through - insane!
**i.e. close them on cleaning days.

1 2 Miss A Few 99 100

I was counting the number of floors of my hotel from the pool area the other day and wondering why I could only count up to 15 when there are 19 storeys. Unlucky numbers of course, but unlike Japan where 4 and 9 are your lot, it's gets slightly more complicated.

4 is the biggest issue, also meaning "death" but there are problems with combinations as well. My hotel misses Floors 3, 4, 13 and 14 but my Office Building runs as follows 41, L43, 43, U43, 45. No idea why, and Wikipedia can't help. For the first time, it has failed me.

Unlucky day.

Spring Summer Winter

It's now mid-November and the Christmas decorations are out. You wouldn't know it though as today is 25 degrees. There aren't even any red leaves here, they seem to have skipped Autumn altogether. As I said, Europe was freezing in comparison.

Furthermore, just as with Tokyo and Fuji, the sky seems to be fresher now that Winter is upon us. The smog is clearing and visibility is better. This is the view from my window yesterday:

Mr Phil - Returned

The whole week and a bit went by in a blur. It was a great but rushed trip home - not exactly a holiday! - and I only wish I had extra days to spend more time with everyone. Still, it would never have been long enough. A condensed summary:

The first leg of my journey saw me leaving the hotel at 5:30am; still dark outside and the main entrance to to the hotel had been closed off for maintenance so I had to go through a side corridor straight from an Argento horror. The taxi took me to Air New Zealand check-in and the whole experience with the company was excellent; great service, polite staff, comfortable seats, delicious food (tubs of Haagen Dazs!), and a fantastic entertainment set-up. Coupled with the price, I would recommend anyone to fly with them. The only shock I found when boarding was that the flight was 13 hours! That's longer than to Tokyo, and must be due to the curve of the World. Still, the view from my window was spectacular - we followed the sunrise the whole way - and I can't ignore the fact that half of the journey was over China; it's massive, to say the least. However, with the sunrise in tow, it wasn't so easy to sleep.

I was worried about Heathrow as it's not the easiest airport to deal with, but I was into the arrivals hall within 15 minutes of embarking. Bless Oli for being there with coach ticket in hand - sans chocolate - and it was great to spend some time with him as he was off to Rome the next day on a Uni trip*. The National Express man let us take the earlier coach which was much more convenient. I was trying to avoid trains as much as I could as I knew they couldn't compare to Asia in efficiency/cost. Mum met us at the coach station briefly before we rushed off to get changed and meet the family for Natasha's Bat Mitzvah. It was great to see everyone although it was the middle of the night for me and I don't think I was the greatest company. Still, it was nice to see everyone well and enjoying themselves. My room had been redecorated, and looked very nice.



The next day was more of the same with a family lunch and then a big party in the evening. I was mentioned a couple of times as travelling the furthest. Sunday we had some family over for lunch and then I took some presents over to the Kurts, which they looked great in. That evening Martin, Dad, Barbara and myself played a board game and some Wii.



My last day in Bournemouth. I met some friends of the family in the supermarket and they were asking how everything was. The girl in front of me in the queue overheard that I had been in Tokyo - she had taught English there as well, a few train stations away from where I had been based! Another one: I went into the new Asian shop in Winton to see if it was Japanese, Korean or Chinese. I spoke Japanese but the man was Korean and didn't understand; however, he asked me to translate a few of the Japanese products for him!

I visited Grandma Stella in the HLH and then had a mooch around Bournemouth, buying a few souvenirs for Keiko's parents - fudge, tea etc. Nothing much had changed** and it was a bit overcast so the beach wasn't at its best.



I saw Grandma Jean and was welcomed with about three tubs of biscuits and of course the much-missed ice-cream. If anyone can think of a way to ship frozen food across the world, I would be eternally grateful!! As mentioned, it was so nice to see everyone and catch up; I don't have much news as it's all on here, so I was far more interested in hearing other stories.

That evening, Barbara took me to the station and I met up with Mum, who had a "subtle" sending-off by the Bentleys. Another National Express trip to Portsmouth for the overnight ferry to France. This one was not so customer-friendly.

---

The Trouble With Bob: We had to change at Southampton for the coach to Portsmouth Ferry Terminal. We were dropped off at the coach stand, which was closed up and not even a bench to sit on. It was grim and shady, and being Fireworks Night, explosions were going off around us. 20 or so minutes later, a coach turned up with the sign to Portsmouth. The driver - the now-infamous Bob - let all the passengers off; only a handful remained on-board. He looked right past us eagerly waiting to climb on as if we weren't there. (I don't exactly remember the exchange, but it was something like this:)

"Is this the bus to Portsmouth Ferry Terminal?"
Bob lets out an angry sigh. Mum hands him the tickets, which he stares at before ripping a part off and chucking it on the floor. He turns around and walks to the back of the coach. We both stand there, confused as to whether this is the coach or not. "Well, is this the coach to Portsmouth?" "Fine. I suppose so." He grudgingly opens the luggage door and watches us as we clamber about to put the suitcases in the hold. We left Southampton not actually sure if we were heading towards our destination or whether Bob was off elsewhere. To pass the time, we considered some explanations: 'Bob was not having a good day so decided to drive straight to the pub instead', 'Bob decided not to go on his route, as he couldn't be bothered'.

Well you know what, Bob, IT'S YOUR JOB!

---

We did make it there, and waited around for a bit before setting-off on the Ghost-ship; we had a whole seating area to ourselves to sleep in. The next morning we were picked up by Keith and Sam; a rather splendid dog from the Rescue Centre that Mum volunteers in. He jumped up on me and thus began our friendship.

The few days in Buais were relaxing, with a visit to the market, playing Ball-y with Sam and eating Baguettes. However, it was freezing, as was England. It was still shorts and t-shirt beach weather back in Hong Kong and I was glad to have purchased my new big coat from H&M. About Wednesday afternoon, the whole jet-lag caught up with me and I conked out for a good 12 hours or so! This is a stick:



One day we went to Paris, an awesome city that has so much class and culture. We went up to the La Defense - the business area to the North-West, in a direct line with the Champs Ellysses and Arc de Triomphe. Huge glass buildings surrounded a central plaza which we sat on and ate, wait for it, baguettes.




Some more exploration of the city, including the Latin Quarter and we were on our way back.

I said my goodbyes at the airport, flew RyanAir to Stansted, a one hour flight and then my last coach to Golders Green where I met up with Fi, Rae, Gem and Ian. So lovely to see them, and to know that they were all doing well with careers/life in general. A meal and some drinks at the Pub later and then we crashed at Fi's house.

My flight home wasn't until 9pm so Andrew drove down to London - thank you! - and we spent the day doing the Touristy thing. The mission was to eat traditional fish and chips as I craved it. Could we find one? Not a sausage. (Not even mushy peas!) Sushi restaurants occupied every other shop, as they have done in Hong Kong too, but no good old cod and chips. How depressing. We also walked past - being nearby purely by chance - the Nova office where I interviewed. Their sign was still on the wall, but it was all shut up and their bell wasn't in operation. Shame.



Heathrow wasn't as breezy the second time around, with chaos in the check-in gates, and ridiculous amounts of safety checks, with a girl who seemed to enjoy telling people that they couldn't take this, and they couldn't take that through with them. In front of me, a mother wasn't allowed a full bottle of milk for her child but was allowed four half-filled bottles. Where's the logic? And to top it off, you can buy more of the same at an increased price in the (duty free) shops. We also had a ridiculous shoe check. One girl behind me who reminded me of Catherine Tate's "Am I Bovverd" Lauren, was confused:

"What is it?"
"They check your shoes"
"Issit"
"They smell them"
"Issit"
"Yeah, and if they're suspicious they lick them"
"Really? You jokin' me?"

Expecting a long wait at security I was actually waiting in duty free for a long time before my flight was called. Another thing I should mention: departure gates seem sadistically far, with walks up to 30 minutes; there must be a more sensible layout considering old people and children.

The flight home was fine and I slept most of it. As mentioned, I stepped straight back into Asia and it felt as if the whole trip had been a dream. A great one at that, and I hope to be back soon!

*a bit of an ordeal
**except the big big news of Haagen Dazs to Ben & Jerrys in the Odeon.

What If You Could Slide Into A Thousand Different Worlds?

Just a quick one to let you know that I landed safely and am back in Asia. I'm not so tired as I slept most of the plane journey, although I did spend some time gazing out of the window at all the masses of land and sea that I crossed.

However, it feels weird because I entered Heathrow at 5PM Saturday and walked out of HKIA at 6PM on Sunday; I lost a day but it somehow feels like I stepped right into Hong Kong without all the travelling. It's pretty surreal to be back here so quickly, and makes me really appreciate that the world is so big and yet so small.

Ooh La La Indeed

Off to Paris tomorrow.

This isn't Paris; this is a test.

See You Soon

To a majority of readers, I'll see you all soon!

It's going to be a whirlwind of a trip, starting with Oli meeting me at the airport (thank you!) and being fashionably (oops) late to Natasha's dinner, through Bournemouth, to France, and climaxing in a Uni reunion in London before flying back on the Saturday night.

I hope to see as many people as possible, so give me an email if you think I'm ignoring you. Hopefully, my phone will work too.

Cherish this special-look blog for the next 10 days.