So in the race against time during the Vietnam negotiations last week, the MD banker made a snap decision that we would delay our departure by half a day. As he needed to be back in Singapore by Friday noon, we changed our flight plans and re-routed through Hong Kong instead, since the flights out of Hanoi to Hong Kong were more frequent.So unexpectedly, I found myself in Hong Kong for the next 24 hours.
I sms-ed the good gang back in Singapore to say sorry for cancelling on them on a pre-planned Friday dinner, and got very understanding replies: "It's okay, we'll do dinner during the weekend", and "Do you have enough clothes (read:underwear) with you?"
As things always are in Hong Kong, it was an action-packed 24 hours, consisting of...
9 pm (Thurs).... Wondering why the Landmark was full of people sitting on the floor in queues, with security guards putting barricades and attempting crowd control. What was happening? Was it a post July 1 demonstration? Did another celebrity commit suicide? It turned out that people were queueing for a limited edition designer bag to be launched the next morning by Anteprima (an Italian brand name known for it's cool "plastiq" clothes and accessories):
10 pm.... Checking out the much talked about new Landmark Mandarin Oriental hotel. It was probably the most amazing hotel I have stayed in to date. I really didn't need three LCD TVs and a full sized jacuzzi in my suite, but I guess this is how business people travel. Pity I only had less than 10 hours to spend in that room.
9 am (Fri).... Decided to prolong my stay in the nice hotel room for an hour more by taking a morning conference call in the hotel room rather than the office. heh.
10 am..... Arrived in the HK office, it feels a little strange to be back in Chater House. My old office happened to be free, so I set up shop there for the day. I went upstairs to our own Pacific Coffee cafeteria to get my usual morning coffee, and said hi to a few familiar people on the way. But, gosh, there are soooo many new faces too.
12.30 pm.... By a stroke of luck, we both managed to divert some urgent work, and Best Friend and I were able to meet for lunch. We first did a quick run to see the apartment that she had just bought. The renovations had just begun, looking forward to seeing it all done up when I go back to HK again in October. Had a nice crepe lunch at a new place along Peel Street, and spent an hour catching up. There's nothing better in life than being able to sit down with an old old friend who just understands.
3 pm.... A series of unanticipated and somewhat serious conversations with colleagues in the Hong Kong office. Another conversation with my boss in the same afternoon that made me realize I could be embarking on a different stage of my career soon.
7 pm..... No time to check out the summer sale at all, the afternoon was so busy. Finding myself on the Airport Express again, with even more wide-eyed and bushy tailed business people flying in and out of this gateway to China.
9 pm (Fri)... On a very full flight, but slept through most of it (except for the Bollywood movie that I watched but did not get to finish because the plane landed in Changi 10 minutes ahead of schedule, so now must go look for the DVD at Mustafa).
So there it was - a little surprise trip to Hong Kong - a reminder of a past life that's familiar and distant at the same time.
