The Trip January 14, 2008

It’s been now almost two weeks since I’ve arrived in HK. Sometimes I feel like I haven’t even left the big city which is a strange, strange feeling. The last couple of days everyone’s been going back and forth between pleasant and great to hang out with to down right mean and snarky. I know I’ve been that way, I can’t deny it.

There has been mornings when I’ve walked into the conference room and thought to myself, “I so don’t want to be here doing this with these people.” For the most part I’ve snapped out of this within an hour or two.

I’m disappointed in some people and how they’ve behaved but not particularly surprised considering we’re so far away from what we know, the people we love and our cherished belongings that brings a sense of comfort. Even my own everyday items strewn around my office seems rather unfamiliar.

I can’t stand to hear P’s voice on the phone because my heart aches for him. I’m tired and have very little sleep, even when I do get the opportunity. I’ve been spoiled after 11 years of marriage and without his shoulder, well sleep does not come easily to me.

We have had a chance to go to The Peninsula for dinner with the crew (The Boss’s idea) and then went to the Felix for after dinner drinks. The view from the ladies bathroom was stunning and it was here that MB, TB, VW and myself hung out taking pictures. Just a visual, while washing your hands, you overlook a whole panoramic view of Kowloon. We washed our hands for an unusually long amount of time *grins*

That evening was interesting. Actually we’ve had quite a lot of intrigue during the last week. It seems as if two members of our team are having a fling. The good thing is neither of them is from the DC office which makes me breath a sigh of relief. They have been rather obvious about their interest in each other, particularly the female. The dude, he’s a total moron who would probably drill a hole in the wall to screw it as long as he thought it had legs and breathed, which explains why he chose this chick. AND he’s married. What turned my stomach was during one of our dinners together (hmph) he sat there telling me how ‘insanely in love’ he is with his wife.

Three words: WHAT THE FUCK.

Your going around telling everyone willing to listen that your ass is crazy in love with your wife who is 8000 miles away while you’re happily boinking one of your co-workers? Uh…hello? Have I fallen into some sort of alternate universe that was, up till to that moment, unknown to me where this sort of hypocritical behavior is acceptable? I would have had more respect if he hadn’t said how much he loved his wife. At least that would make more sense.

No instead this stupid smartass wanker has been sitting around making sexual innuendos and then clearly carrying them out with this twit, who btw is one of the nastiest looking hags I’ve ever seen. Gross. She’s scrawny and thinks she’s hot but has a face that’s nothing but sharp angles. Nothing is soft about Miss. Twat. Hey, I guess if that’s yo thang, than do yo thang (which is what he did eventually do).

Now don’t go shakin’ your pretty heads at me darlings, all that I’m saying isn’t simply because I seriously dislike both of the parties (in fact the dude seems to like me well enough) and that I just adore a good gossip (cause we know I do) but this isn’t hearsay. Nope, we have witness of physical contact. This happened the same night we went to The Peninsula and then after we went on a wild goose chase looking for our counterparts (who got bored at the Felix and decided to head on out to the night club hot spots in Kowloon). Good for them, bad for us. We were a group of 8 trouping around trying to find a bar that we probably walked past 10 times climbing the steep stairs of Kowloon avoiding broken beer bottles, drunks and bad singing.

There is far too much to recap except to say that by the time we left (two shots and one Vodka and Cran later) I and my two friends (V and TB) we were fired up and thoroughly fed up of all the juvenile behavior that was abounding in copious amounts. How do adults act so simple anyhow? I believe at this point, I’m just too bleeding old to act like a 18 year old. Sitting around whilst watching a single NYC ho flirt grossly with a smarmy married colleague is not something that I like to put on my agenda of what to do for the night on a regular basis. Enough was enough so we jetted leaving the rest to enjoy their evening. It was a good thing too since by the time we got back to the hotel it was 4 am and then TB and I sat around in my room yacking until 5:30 am after which I fell into a hard sleep till 11:30 pm.

Later that day we met The Boss, DLC and Chia Pet at the Mandarin Oriental for high tea which was followed by another stint to the local “Ladies Market” and onto the “Night Market”. I scored all sorts of loot for friends, family and myself of course.

Since then we’ve been fairly busy (of course it’s 11:27 am on Monday night for me so not a lot of time has elapsed). We’re looking to ramp down by midweek and send certain members of our team home (Ho will be one, smarmy married jackass being the other). Clearly discretion is not the better part of valor in their case and so even if they aren’t being sent home in complete disgrace due to their unsavory actions, I certainly hope they think so, t’would verily serve them right.

On a very positive note, the collection of the documents are going well. That is, after all, why we are here. The only hiccups have come in the form of our completely inept vendor who probably sits around scratching their asses instead of actually copying said documents. This has been confirmed on several occasions when we have been quality checking documents and have run into a lot of problems, more than I can possibly mention. We’ve become a bit paranoid regarding the custodians originals and everyone has pretty much pitched in to make sure that everything is returned to them as they were taken from them.

One very disconcerting thing that seems to have become a trend is that when we (the attorney’s, paralegals’ and ESI collection vendor) have been on the floor, there is a lot of snickering being done behind our backs (well not completely behind our backs since a lot do not even bother being discrete about it). I believe they maybe taking bets as to how many boxes will come out of any one custodian. How this is amusing is beyond me. We are walking around with our suits being ultra polite (and completely unlike ourselves) and very polished (again unlike ourselves) keeping respectful distance between us and them yet they sit back and titter away in Cantonese, or so I think it is, while standing around in clusters watching in fascination. I feel like a damn monkey in a damn cage…damn it.

Okay, I’m going to go to sleep. Why am I up now anyhow? It’s 11:38 pm, I just talked to P who said that he misses me horribly and wish I were home. He’s managed to make me bery sad since I miss him so terribly and his thoughts echoed my sentiments exactly. Darn man :-(