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.