Hong Kong

The problem with working for yourself, is that you pay for your own work travel. That means everything is done as cheaply and quickly as possible. Which in turn means that nearly all work trips are hell on earth. This trip to Hong Kong involved 13 hours on Thursday, 10 hours on Friday and 3 hours Saturday morning. The vast majority of that was in a computer room air conditioned to a cosy 18 degrees and just enough humidity to stop you zapping everything in sight (not enough to avoid dehydration).

However, I did manage a free room upgrade - possibly because I seriously considered the executive upgrade and then decided it wasn't good value. As a result, right now I am looking straight out over Victoria Harbour.

And this is what it looked like the night I got here.

After I gave myself a splitting headache working at the somewhat-less-than-ergonomic hotel desk for 3 hours this morning, I decided some walking might be in order. Also, since this is my third trip to Hong Kong, I figured it was well past time I made the tourist trip to the peak. Here is my proof that I went.

I've finally started to get some feel for the geography of this place, and this is what the other side of the island looks like

I just don't think they're trying hard enough to pave the entire island.

Nice as it was up there, this is where I'd rather have been:

See all those little sails through the smog down there? It was a magnificent sailing day. Why did no-one organise me an invitation onto one of those boats? I consider this a grave failing on the part of the universe.

Tokyo tomorrow, but before then there are many more shopping hours ahead.

More Hong Kong silliness

OK, a couple more weird things about Hong Kong.

1. There are no seats. There are vast public spaces with not a seat in sight - and in general barely a person in sight. In such a populous country, it seems like such a waste. Or maybe it is a necessary luxury.

2. Toilets that flush themselves, but a stainless steel bucket for sanitary disposal. Of course, now that I think about it, sanitary disposal units that can open themselves and toilets that need flushing maybe just as odd a contradiction.

Being a mono-linguist in a non-English speaking country also reminds you what we will miss if the world ever speaks only one language. (Of course, that language will be English, because I speak it - and it is probably the most ridiculous, hardest to learn language too, both indisputable reasons for its supremacy.) We will lose the joy of lost-in-translation. The one that caught my attention this morning as I cruised past was "Giant Foot Restaurant" - clearly sounds decidedly different in Cantonese. It also makes me lament not being able to speak more languages, and therefore to understand more poor translations. I will never know which of our perfectly reasonable names sound utterly hilarious or just plain wrong in other languages. Or at least I will never really appreciate the finer aspects of the joke.

The weirdest thing about Hong Kong

...is that many of their school uniforms are all white. White dresses, white shirt and pants. Now I don't know about you, but I just can't imagine a P&C or school board or whatever, sitting around looking at some design options and saying "You know, I think the all white option is the best." At Ben's school nearly every kid has faded stains on their blue shirts, can you imagine what white uniforms would look like after a week? Or, god help us, a year? Maybe children in Hong Kong don't spill food and draw on themselves. Maybe their parents just use a lot of bleach.