Friday, February 23, 2007

Preparing for Athens


Thank you kindly, Mother Nature, for restoring the sun to Hong Kong so I could say goodbye in a proper manner.

Despite the fact we were out a little late last night, I jumped promptly out of bed this morning and headed for the peak. . . in bright sunshine. For Christmas, I bought Fantastic Man a framed vintage photograph of Lamma Island taken from the peak, and I've wanted to try and reproduce the shot as close as possible in order to get a comparison shot to put with it. And, although his picture is safely in a box headed for Grand Rapids, Michigan, I think I did it. I took about 80 pictures, so I'm sure one will match close enough!

Did a little last minute shopping, found a pair of nice walking shoes on sale (in my size!!!), bought some extra lithium batteries for my new reading light, and met the boys in Lan Kwai Fong for lunch. As I was leaving the peak around 11 AM, I decided to walk down, which is something I hadn't done yet. Well, I walked the wrong way for about ten minutes until a nice lady (who I asked) told me, so I turned around and headed the right way. My watch told me it was 11:20 as I hit the top of the trail to Central. I figured I had plenty of time (mind you, this is my $3US watch I bought at the market here), so after walking for what I gauged to be about 20 minutes, I reconsulted said watch, and it said 11:20. . . uh oh. Looked at my phone (which was and has been securely placed in the same pocket on my camera case that I lost it from on Mui Wo), which said 12:04. Grabbed a cab for about a 4 minute ride and arrived directly in front of the Hong Kong Brew House for lunch.

Had a nice lunch, came home, dropped off my purchases and wandered around for a little while longer. Came home and worked on the Friday NY Times crossword (failing miserably), had a catnap, and finished reading "Galapago's" by Kurt Vonnegut.

Now, I haven't read anything by him since "A Clockwork Orange" in High School, and I didn't care so much for it at the time (maybe I should re-read it now), but I found "Galapago's" to be GREAT! In fact, it's funny, but sometimes when I get "smart" (read: drunk), I have even argued this storyline as how human life will end up, or maybe really is. . . . Read it, if you're into reading. It's cool.

Boys are cutting over tonight, so it's 7:17 and they're still at work. I'm meeting a friend of a friend from home for lunch tomorrow (her name is DeeDee and she is from Grand Rapids and her husband is working for Steelcase here and they arrived the same time as us and I've NEVER seen her here yet, I'm an awful person). Her husband is in Kuala Lumpur until tomorrow night, and they have a small baby, but will be nice to finally see her in Hong Kong.

Also tomorrow is our going off party at The Island Bar, and there's a band, so should be great fun. Even some of the other crew members who haven't left the island except to go to Macau on a visa run (which all they did was go through immigration, get right back on the boat - WEAK), say they are going to go. Should be interesting.

Trying to get packed and decide what I need for Greece. Looks like the weather is starting to warm up, although still quite cool at night. Probably bringing too many sweaters, but as British Airways and I are in a big fight about how much weight I can bring in my suitcase, I finally just purchased an extra bag worth of cargo from them, so DAMN IT, I'm using it! There website says like three different things about weight allowances, and then when you call them here in HK they can't tell you what rule applies to you. Quite frustrating. Whatever. I will have plenty of sweaters in Athens. . .

Still doesn't seem quite real. . . .