In the case of day 6 that was because (a) I was in a foul mood for most of the day; (b) I then proceeded to get a bit drunk in pleasant over-compensation; and (c) there wasn’t much to say about most of the day due to it becoming a hell work day.
Long story short, when I booked this trip weeks and weeks ago a certain large deal I was working on was meant to be well finalised by now. Through no fault of anyone in particular, it was not. And so I could bring it away with me, or dump it on the co-Boss to manage while I was gone. Doing the latter would be just stupid and everything would have taken three times as long and had five times the aggravation given he knows none of the details or the people and it’s not really in his area of expertise. So away with me it came. And on Thursday it reared its ugly head in a way that involved a lot of phone calls and me not being able to leave the hotel room until pretty much the close of business at home because I needed internet access and a proper forum in which to read lots of paperwork. Grumble, grumble.
This grumbling was made more pronounced by the fact that Thursday was the first bright sunny day in HK since the previous Sunday. Or at least it was until about 2pm.
HK is three hours behind, so getting out of the hotel at close of business in Melbourne meant it was still only 3 in the afternoon. But no longer sunny. Though at least the protest that had been going on most of the day in front of the Indonesian Embassy across the street from the hotel had ended and I was able to get out the door.
I headed straight to a mall to run a purchasing errand for a friend, and then straight to a bar for a large gin and tonic.
After that I started to feel a bit better.
I then made a change in public transport arrangements and took one of the skinny double-decker trams towards Central. They have an advantage over the trains in that there are no sticky over-warm tunnels and stations to navigate before boarding, however in compensation for that the open windows deliver 2 parts pleasant breeze and 8 parts horrid exhaust fumes and polluted air. Either, just like Melbourne, it’s generally standing room only. Tram (taken badly through other tram window while in a bad mood):
Both the guidebooks and my friends had sent me in the direction of Soho as a good place to find plenty of bars and restaurants and places to hang out. Plus you get there by riding the giant escalator to the sky. Okay, not to the sky, but this is only one small section of it, so it's pretty damn big, and I have to say it’s a great idea.

It just takes you up the hill, with periodic breaks to jump off at whatever level you want. This is a good idea, because this is how steep the streets are. They have steps instead of footpaths.

It is true that Soho is loaded with places to eat and drink. I wandered into a bar that was serving large Asahis for AU$4.50 and pulled up a stool. It wasn’t until the first beer was gone that I looked around and realised that this was ex-pat and tourist central. Everyone in the place was Caucasian. Didn’t matter though, the beer was good and cheap and, thankfully, they were not playing Christmas carols on the stereo.
I am certain that last week, between the hotel lifts, the malls, the shops, the restaurants, the footbridges and every other enclosed or semi-enclosed space, I have heard every rendition of every Christmas carol and most of them more than once. And that doesn’t even include the inevitable repeats playing in my head. If I ever hear another one it will be too soon.
As I said, there are tons and tons of places to eat around Soho, and pretty much every type of food you can think of. Though very little Chinese. I would up in a Spanish place drinking Sangria (yes, I was mixing my drinks) and eating enough tapas for three or four people, all heavily laden with garlic, and all really pretty good.
Then I went back to the hotel and slept all of about two and a half hours.
Day 7, Friday, also involved work, but the major breakthroughs had occurred on the day before and before I got up, so it wasn’t nearly as grumble-making as the day before.
I also had a chance to duck out for an hour and a half while waiting for documents to be sent through and pick up a second pair of shoes which I’d debated but not bought a couple of days before. I’d been thinking about them quite a bit during my night of non-sleep, so that seemed like a good sign that they were meant to be mine. And now they are.
I also got to do most of the packing, so I could see how much room there was left for last minute purchases.
Friday was also sunny and stayed that way by the time I was done with work at about 2. I went back over to Kowloon, as I wanted to look around and get some views of the Island while the sun was shining, and stop by an Asian arts and crafts store there to pick up something for Mum as the two shopping missions she had sent me on had failed miserably.
The haze and pollution really is epic. Here’s the view from the ferry, about three in the afternoon:

Here’s the view a couple of hours later as the sun is starting to go down.



It just descended into a fog, really.
I also took myself up to the bar at the top of the Peninsula Hotel for a very civilised drink, even if the view was all grey, and did get a small amount of amusement from the simultaneously over-earnest and over-arrogant business pitch going on a few stools over. The American pitcher – and it seemed they were in the middle of a series of meetings, this wasn’t a new introduction – talked almost non-stop for the whole hour I was there. I would have been surprised if his companions, one from Hong Kong and the other from some generic part of Europe, said more than three words each. I’m also surprised that the pitcher didn’t keel over from not pausing to breathe.
These are the small amusements of travelling alone. Listening to other people’s conversations because you just can’t help it.
Anyway, took the ferry back to the Island. Here are some of my bad photographer attempts to capture the way the buildings are all lit up for Christmas, and did some last minute shopping and eating close by the hotel. Duck. Yummy, yummy duck.

And, on day 8, I wrote this from my comfortable seat on the plane, with a chilled beverage at hand.































