Hong Kong Diaries - Part I

The magic that is Disney...

China Diaries - Part I

I type this from my hotel bed, on my second night in China. The room does not have wireless and the broadband cable is on the desk – thus this post will be published much later.

2 days in China and I’m loving it. I’m in Guangzhou, which isn’t as modernized or commercial as Shanghai, or as historical and preserved as Beijing, but it’s a mélange of the two.

The weather - pleasantly cool at 11-14 degrees, but the wind makes your teeth chatter as you walk along the roads after dark. I am envious of them Chinese women, in their over coats and their boots, but I don’t find it essential, as it is really not THAT cold after all! A thin couple of layers of clothes serve me just fine, and once indoors, it’s rather warm. It’s a welcome change from the monotony of gray days and rain in Singapore lately!

The city has an uncanny resemblance to Delhi, and if it wasn’t for the signboards that are in Chinese (of course), and the oriental faces, one could look around and think they were in Delhi. High rise buildings and crumbling old apartments, flyovers, and slum-like housing, neon-lighted malls, and small shops – its got everything. Guangzhou isn’t much of a tourist destination, but it is a booming city with several MNC’s. Cab’s are reasonable, food is cheap, shopping isn’t extraordinary, but one can find souvenirs, and the people are friendly. I am surprised by their command of English – and feel less mute than I thought I would be. The 8 of us walked up and down Beijing Lu this evening and found everything – men trying to sell us imitation goods, nike outlets, McDonalds every 300m, Espirit, and trinket shops. We’ve been trying local cuisine and have had good luck so far! The tea lover in me woke up yesterday when I decided to just try the complimentary infusion offered with my meal. It was a herbal/floral infusion and the delicate aroma, and subtle but refreshing flavor was all I needed to refresh me from a long day! I have never loved Chinese tea more!

Something unusual – while walking along Beijing Lu, shopping, chatting and clicking photos, we saw a man run past us – followed closely by two policemen who were trying to chase him down. While the 8 of us were shocked, the remaining crowd seemed to carry on like nothing out of the ordinary had happened! Oh, btw, no one seemed to stop and help the police chase that guy either.

***

This is where I stopped typing and fell asleep, I think! ;)
So much to say, but have to catch up on work first; More updates abt the rest of the days in China and HK coming up later!

Places you fear

How do you overcome something? A fear, a bias, an insecurity, a history –

Do you not look its away?

Or tiptoe around it and then sprint as fast as you can to get away from it?

Put it all in a shoe box, seal it with tape, and toss it at the back of the closet, so you won’t stumble upon it till spring cleaning?

Or look it straight in the eye, shudder inside, but keep a straight face, till it slowly becomes insignificant.

Honesty

I started my day with a memory – not a pleasant one, unfortunately. It’s that weird memory that appears out of nowhere, kicks you in the gut, and trots along as if nothing happened. As you go about the day, it fades away, but it leaves a bad after taste, which you can’t help but be aware of during every free second that you get. You can just hope that you can shake it off with a good night’s sleep.

While I tried to push this memory back, spent the day in these parts :

The sad part: Starving - Going to Lunch at the sushi place - Trying out something new rather than your usual - finding it absolutely disgusting and inedible. Compensating with a Tall Hazelnut latte.

The bimbotic part: painting toes - finally.

The kick – ass part: Remembering someone's birthday - calling their place - finding out they're travelling - getting a number where they can be reached at - hearing the happiness in their voice upon hearing from you when they least expect you - singing Happy Birthday - being missed - missing.

The blood-pressure raising part: finding out that not all the papers for China visa as in place - having a few hours to get them - including an invitation from someone in China - cursing and muttering incessantly - finally managing to send them in with 10 mins to spare - remembering to breathe.

The intelligent part: going through work with boss - having answers to all his questions - getting a good review.

The heart-warming part: hearing from an old friend - being called one of your many high school nicknames.

The guarded part: Writing about the abovementioned memory - and then deleting it, cuz otherwise it’d be revealing too much - to too many people - who's see right through it

The lame part : The mind turning blank within minutes of starting to write.

I should just not bother. This is crap.

I'm leaving your town again

Its been quite a week…and weekend … and the Monday

- 3 of my closest friends were born within 4 days! Plenty of birthday parties and socializing!

- The boss insisted that the first weekend after work starts must be spent partying. So invites were sent, and a whole group of colleagues went bar hopping at The Cannery. Champagne flowed very fashionably at The Fashion Bar – a pretty classy place, followed by stop overs at 3 other bars! Unfortunately, the music sucked, thus, no dancing!

- Salsa Intermediate has begun! And the turns, the spins, the music – ahhhh, we like muchly. “Muchly” is my new favorite term, coined by one of my favorite ppl ever!

- The Clapton concert was amazing, to say the least. It is breathtaking, the things that man can do with his guitar. As expected, he did not play Tears In Heaven, but he did play Wonderful Tonight, and I swear, I was in another world. N it takes a lot to get me that mushy! I still go sighhhh as I think of it. Sighhh

- Checked out the boys new house – and now we have a new place to party, have poker night, order pizza, and hang out till daybreak!

- The Little Devil’s birthday was fun fun with the girlies all dressed up and posing non stop for le camera! Ahhh, how vain we are!

- After the excessive fashion, partying, alcohol, socializing, cake, music, chilling, shopping, and kick – ass weekend, I definitely didn’t deserve this Monday. 12 hrs of non stop working on the same damn thing, I kid you not. This has resulted in crazy mood swings, borderline snappy emails, and far too much cursing.

- The clothes for tomorrow are yet to be ironed, dishes from the crappy dinner are still in the sink, and if the phone rings again, with someone from the team, telling me another something that to be dealt with, I swear to god, the phone or the laptop goes out of the window! *breathe in, breathe out* okay, maybe not.

- In other news, I have tickets to China & Hong Kong, hotel bookings for China, and absolutely no plans for HK. This means I don’t know who else is coming with me, I don’t have a hotel, and my best friend who used to live there, has moved to Scotland. She’s provided her best advice via MSN – places to shop at and places to eat at. She knows me well! But considering the trip’s happening in less than a week’s time, I should start worrying just a wee bit!

- I’m so excited, I can’t wait!

"I'm leaving your town again" from Plane, by Jason Mraz

Hush Hush

Our veiled conversations don’t upset me anymore. Neither does their lack of.
What does, however, are the conversations we have in our own heads, with each other, but never out loud.

Only Superstition

The New Year has been kick started in the best of ways!

The eve was spent cooking (yes, I repeat, cooking) Thai dinner with close friends, and savoring every bit of it. Next stop was the apartment 9 floors above ours – that of a friend’s, where we had planned the new years party. A house party on such occasions is the best - it prevents us from spending a majority of the evening in queues! I loved it all the more because when tired, all I had to do was get in the elevator and hit my floor – and tadaa! I’m home! Plenty of alcohol, music, flirting, dancing, and picture taking – not too bad a way to spend the new years eve I’d say! A private view of the fireworks from the balcony was the icing on the cake! The night stretched into the early hours of the day before I finally hit the elevator to go home! Needless to say, much of the first day of the year was spent in bed! But I woke up with a skip in my step – since my hair and I were smoke-smell free, and hangover free, respectively! The day ended on a good note, after a very pleasant date! *wink*

Day 2 has been just as great, if not better! (Although I had to get up as early as 930 am!) The Little Devil (LD) had asked us all out for ice skating, and so by 11 am, I was lacing up my skates and entering the rink after ages! (I’ve only been ice skating once before I my life) I am proud to announce that I fell only once, and at the end of the two hour session, I was not-so-gracefully skating across the rink without holding on to anything! We came out of the rink with huge grins, sore toes, and perhaps bruises that we’ll discover tomorrow! But the feeling of having taught yourself something, and falling, and picking up again, is amazing enough to compensate for the aching bums! Caught up with the girls about their India trip over lunch, and heard of the million and one fiascos that they’re responsible for.

I’m not superstitious, but I’d like to think that if the year started off so well, it’ll continue to be this great! Full of resolutions, promises, and over-ambitious plans, I look forward to the next 363 days as they unfold!

Cheers and a Happy New Year to all!