I've Waited Hours for This.......The Cure Live in Hong Kong

Excellent performance by The Cure last night, just a shame that they played at the Asia World Arena which meant a half hour train ride out to the Airport to see them, whereas if they had played the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai it would have meant only a 5 minute walk from my apartment.

Robert Smith, (looking rather uncannily like Dawn French), led the band through what he said was their longest live performance ever (around 3 hours), featuring most of their hits as well as some very old and rare tracks. Quite surprisingly keyboards did not feature in the set up, just good old guitars, giving them a bit of an edgier sound live. Here's what they played (if I remember correctly):

Open
Fascination Street
alt.end
The Blood
a Night Like This
The Walk
End of the World
Lovesong
The Figurehead
Kyoto Song
Hot Hot Hot!
A Strange Day
Push
In Between Days
Friday I'm in Love
Just Like Heaven
Primary
If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
The Kiss
Shake Dog Shake
Pictures of You
Lullaby
Never Enough
Edge of the Deep Green Sea
Wrong Number
One Hundred Years
Shiver and Shake
End

1st Encore
Let's Go To Bed
Close To Me
Why Can't I Be You?

2nd Encore
A Forest
Boys Don't Cry

Lamma Day Out

No words, just pics from our trip to Lamma last weekend on a hot Sunday afternoon!

3 Nights in Bangkok

At the beginning of the month when most of Hong Kong was preparing to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Handover, we decided, rather unpatriotically, to make the most of the extra day’s holiday and headed off to Bangkok for the weekend. Darling very kindly cashed in some of her UA air miles, for two return Business Class tickets on Thai, whilst I booked our favourite hotel for the weekend – The Oriental.

The flight down was very pleasant, nice and comfortable and the first I have been on with a massage function set into the seats (trust Thai Airways to think of that idea). Apart from the ridiculous queues at immigration, and a little more hassle than normal to find a taxi driver prepared to use his meter, our transfer to the hotel was uneventful. On arrival at The Oriental, we learnt that the main swimming pool was closed for renovation works, which, to be honest, I was not happy about. (Darling, on the other hand, I’m sure was rather pleased with this news at it would mean more time for shopping, however, bless - she hid it well, and did her best to look disappointed).

To compensate, the hotel upgraded us to a Deluxe room on the top floor of the River Wing. Alas, not a suite but still rather nice all the same with a great view of the Chao Praya river.
















So after checking in we headed back down to The Bamboo Bar for a night cap. We ordered a couple of cold beer Chang and settled down to listen to the jazz band who were playing - we could not see them due to the thick cigar smoke.

Next morning we ate breakfast, sat on the terrace, looking out on to the river and across to The Peninsula Hotel. After breakfast came the serious issue of choosing the spa that we would visit for our massage that afternoon. A couple of calls later we were booked in for an afternoon slot, so we then headed off in the direction of the shuttle boat to the sky train, from where we could reach Siam Paragon.

After shopping for shoes and cosmetics (it would appear that women cannot have too much of either) it was time for lunch. The food court did not seem to have much offerings in the way of free samples this time (nothing to do with my last visit I’m sure), however I still managed to find a few things of which I had no idea what they were. All was well until I sampled some reconstituted fish sausage (at least that’s what I think it was after I had tasted it), which put paid to my free food quest. For lunch we settled on Chiang Mai Sausage, with the extra hot chili sauce, and an accompanying Papaya Salad (absolutely bloody gorgeous), all good and spicy. Lunch over, it was time for our massage, so we ventured off to the Spa, a new establishment we had not tried before. The massage was OK, (I’ve had much better) and is probably best enjoyed not straight after eating very spicy Chiang Mai Sausage with extra Chili. For dinner we decided to dine at the hotel as it was raining, selecting our choice of food by the number chilis shown next to each dish (only picking the hottest of course). This, in retrospect, was probably not overly wise considering that we were sitting outside (under cover) on a very hot and wet evening, with no aircon for assistance.

Thanks to beer Chang, we made it through dinner, before heading back to the Bamboo Bar.

The next day was pretty much a repeat of the day before, opting to visit a different spa and a change of location for dinner. Having learnt my lesson from the day before we skipped lunch, which made for a more comfortable massage experience. We ate dinner at a rather good restaurant not too far from the hotel, somewhere we will head back to the next time we are in town. After eating far too much, I only had room for a couple of beers back at the hotel, before retiring hurt for the night.

The next morning we ate a rather leisurely breakfast before it was time to return to Hong Kong, alas all too soon.

I'm Not A Plastic Bag!

When I left my office late on Thursday evening (well actually, it was around 1:00am Friday morning), I noticed a group of people were camped oustide Harvey Nicholls opposite my building. Thinking not much of it I jumped in a taxi and headed home for some sleep. When I went into the office on Friday morning, the traffic was a lot worse than normal, even for Hong Kong, so I jumped out of the taxi by the HSBC building and walked the rest of the way to work. As I approached the office I noticed hordes of people queing patiently everywhere outside Harvey Nicholls and The Landmark Manadarin Oriental Hotel.

The excitement, it transpires, was not caused by some canto pop superstar staying at the hotel, it was in fact due to the scheduled release of a bag (not a plastic bag I hasten to add) which retails for around US$30, and which apparently is in high demand. The environmentally friendly bag, designed by Anya Hindmarch, apparently is a limited item and is so sought after that it can be resold on EBay for up to 10 times the original purchase price. This was enough to send scores of Hongkonger's out on the streets overnight throughout the city, in the hope of being first through the door the next day to secure a purchase.

On Friday morning, the crowd of around 2000, became so rowdy with people jostling for the best position, that none of the stores which were due to sell the bags could open due to safety concerns, forcing the hordes to head home tired and empty handed.

So if anyone reading this happens to have one of the said bags and finds they no longer want it, I am quite prepared to take it off your hands - for a good price of course!

Tumble and Fall

Whilst I was away over the weekend the racing season for this year came to a dramatic close at Shatin on Monday. There were, unfortunately plenty of tumbles on the day, not from the horses I may add (thankfully), but from the punters queuing for their free gifts from the Hong Kong Jockey Club. This year's giveaway trinket attracted racing enthusiasts in their hoards, and when concerns grew over the availability of the free gift, the crowd took things into their own hands.

During the non uncommon scenes at such events, many were trampled in the stampede for a free souvenir. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt, apart from the HKJC, who have now banned such free giveaways in the future.

Oh, and I'll buy a beer to the first person who names the band from who I lifted the title of this post from.

10 Years Later

On the 30th June 1997, I was sat in the living room of my rented house in Wolverhampton, watching the proceedings for the handover of Hong Kong, where sovereignty would be passed from Britain to China at the stroke of midnight. I had been at Glastonbury for the previous 4 days, enduring what remains one of the wettest and muddiest festivals on record, and recall thinking whilst watching tv, that the rain in Hong Kong at the time looked like a light summer shower in comparison to what we had been subject to over the weekend.

Martin, one of my housemates and colleagues, also had the day off work and we chatted about our respective jobs and the fact that we both wanted a change in direction. It was at that stage I decided that I was finally going to resign from work and go off on a round the world trip, the focus of which would be an overland journey down the West coast of South America, and then all the way up the East coast to Rio.

I advised Martin of my plans and we decided to head off into Birmingham so I could buy my ticket. Now my intended itinerary was not really something that Thomas Cook could take care of, so we went into the specialist travel agents - Trailfinders, for their assistance. In the shop they also had a television on showing the scenes in Hong Kong live from the BBC. I outlined my intended route to one of the agents whilst she jotted down notes. When I came to enquiring what was the best way I could get from New Zealand to Quito in Ecuador, and what would be the best way to get out to the Galapagos Islands, the women glanced up, gave me a disbelieving look, and asked me to repeat my request. It was at this stage I realised that she thought I was joking and had no intention of booking anything, so I left, determined to book my trip with another firm, perhaps down in London at the weekend.

The next day at work I was called in to see the Project Director - who offered me promotion. When I told him that I wanted to resign this was obviously not the answer he was anticipating. Over the next few days I had a number of calls from various managers from within the Company, and was offered a role with the International Division in Kuala Lumpur, as a Section Manager on the rail link from the new airport into the city. So I thought I would postpone my travel plans for a couple of years and head on out to Malaysia.

2 months later I was in my new apartment in Kuala Lumpur, with the same housemate (Martin also went out to work on the same project), and from there, as they say, the rest is history (well not quite, Asian financial crisis, job stopped, new job offer in Hong Kong, you get the picture).

So this weekend I again found myself watching the historic events in Hong Kong on television, this time for the 10th Anniversary of the Handover. I was watching with a different perspective as I am now a Hong Kong permanent resident, (and from a different location - Bangkok, not Wolverhampton this time). Where I find myself in the next 10 years, we'll just have to wait and see.