Tuesday January 8, 2008 – 12:15 am

What a crazy few days. I’ve seriously neglected to update but I believe considering all that’s happening in my life right now, my negligence is totally understandable. Anyhow, I’m here to rectify matters by jotting down a couple of things that happened since last I blogged.

Let’s see.

Saturday MB and TB joined FT and myself. Of course they looked like and probably felt like death warmed over and any human being who had an ounce of sympathy would have hustled them off to their rooms and let them lay their heads down for a well deserved rest. Did we do that? Of course not sillies. FT and I basically dictated that rest was not on the agenda because if they crashed then, at that moment, they would not be able to recover from jetlag nor the time distance with out significant problems. (*lowers voice and whispers* I think FT and I were about sick of each other and was craving new company)

Before they knew it they found themselves ensconced in the Airport Express Train towards HK central where we caught the Peak Tram up to the summit of the highest mountain (okay I could be making this all up but it totally sounds convincing, no?) point that overlooked the city. The view was stunning. Truly awe-inspiring. I took tons of pictures which will be posted as soon as I get the energy to do so. BTW, that trek up to the Peak Tram was a total biatch. The only cool thing was that we realized that the same building that Tom Cruise slid off of in Mission Impossible was the same building that houses our beloved work place, of course HK style. Anyhoo…

After gaping at the scenery, we grabbed some chow and of course hit the whole sale market where we women purchased scads of goodies for beloved ones at home. *happy dance* Poor FT though, he stood leaning against a pillar for most of the time tinkering with his blackberry. I believe that he kept his eyes down in fear that if he should make eye contact with any one of us, we’d ask him for his opinion. Kudos for the lil Button for even hangin’ with us. If my precious P were there, he’d have waited about 20 seconds before dragging me away (not that he would have gotten far before I downed him with a well placed kick).

Oh, and speaking of kicking. On our way back down the mountain, squished in the tram, we found ourselves in the midst of a brawl. Well actually not really. It would have potential for brawl status if we were back in the states. In HK, it was just…well weird. So this is what happened:

TB was getting into the train and mistakenly trod upon a foot that was jutted out into the narrow aisle of the tram. Before she knew it, TB found herself kicked. Turning, she found herself looking down at a 5-foot next to nothing lil whispy piece of Asian hostility who was the owner of said foot. In retaliation, now wait for it crickets, she had kicked TB! Imagine this. And to add insult to injury, she proceeded to keep her head lowered and glued to her lap as she futzed with anything that was located in her purse. She was probably afraid that she was going to get her ass royally whopped by the 3 angry Americans who stood glaring at her for the whole 20 minute train ride back. Actually we did a great bit of laughing after.

MB said that the lil Asian now had street credit and would probably go around HK braggin’ to her peeps that she had taken on 4 American’s (because after all FT was with us even if he had his back towards us)down.

Well that was that for that night. Oh, we did end up staying up till about 2:30 at the hotel bar chatting (as if we hadn’t had enough of each other all day long) and I have to say I was very impressed with Ms. TB and Ms. MB for hanging for that long as well as staying on their feet after trekking practically up the Himalaya’s. After FT and TB went to bed, MB and I wandered aimlessly around the airport terminal chatting until 3:30 am.

The next morning, FT woke me up at 8:00 am because the next batch of three (DLC, V and JZ) were arriving and we were to meet and great and eat. He informed me that the plain was late so I could sleep for a bit and meet them at 10:30 for breakfast. I mumbled an incoherent okay and went back to sleep only to get another call at about 9:00 am from FT who said that the newbee’s had arrived and we would meet at Maxim’s at the airport for breakfast. I had a mental shut down because I assumed I had plenty of time to go back to sleep, wake up, get dressed and go to breakfast. Yeah, I totally miscalculated as he called back at 10:45 asking me in his very FT way, “um, where are you?” OH SHIT.

Anyway, we enjoyed Dim Sum however every one seemed to have a food allergy or restriction so ordering was an interesting affair. And we has one of those ‘no you try it first’ moments as we eyed the delicacies with a great deal of mistrust. It wasn’t bad actually. Anyhow, we parted company with DLC who wanted to spa herself into happiness while V and JZ, MB, FT and I decided to do something (again we thought it best that none of the new arrivals retire to their rooms in fear of horribleness). Oh…TB was snoozing away to happiness so we left her alone and took our happy asses off to The Big Buddha.

We took an area sky thing that glided us up about 1800 feet into the mountain where the biggest bronze Buddha in the world sits perched in eternal observation of all before him. It was spectacular. This would be a great spot for pictures right? Yeah, when I get home I’ll probably post. The one thing that wasn’t fabulous was that in order to get to the bronze Deity, one had to climb 268 steps to the top. WHAT? Okay now crickets those who know me know that I do not do stairs. Heck no. And worse of all, lik JZ was practically hopping around excited to get up them stairs. *mental eye roll* I love the girl but I wanted to push her down so we had an excuse to not climb those stairs. This was a battle I lost no matter how I bitched. God love V though, she was my companion all the way up (inevitably I felt the need to stop and take ‘pictures’ of the glorious vista before me about every 15 steps).

I can’t complain though cause I realized that the group that I was with was a terrific one and that I genuinely liked each and every one of these people. It helps to be stuck in a foreign country miles and miles away from home and familiarity with people who you can actually say ‘yeah, I’d be their friend even if I weren’t under duress’.

Got back to the hotel, met with DLC, left, went to the Ladies Market (an outside market of hawkers where you can bargain the shit out of absolutely anything as well as pick up some illegal designer purses). This time it was FT, TB (who had finally gotten her ass up to join the living while MB went to pass out), V and myself (JZ’s energy must have faded after Big Buddha, not to mention the 3 glasses of wine she had during dinner cause she had crashed and burned as well).

The trip was just surreal actually. We were all dead tired and we had about 2.5 hours to get back into HK Central and back to the hotel for an 11pm meeting with DLC. We hoped the express again, then wandered around till we found a cab that zoomed us (literally) of towards our destination. Of course we hit the ground running since we had so little time on our hands. The first thing I spotted were these hideous bronze stretchy reflector like pants that I suggested FT to buy. He considered it for half a second before he decided that he would look far too hot in them pants and we walked along.

I’ve realized one thing during this trip and that is: Our dearest TB seems to draw drama to her like a magnet. And this has been proven when a skeezy looking Asian dude tugged at her sweatshirt covered elbow, said the two most magical words in a woman’s vocabulary ‘designer bag’ and motioned her to follow him. Hell even the Road Runner coulda eaten this chicks trail dust (and mine and V’s for that matter) as he led us down sketchy side streets, in and out of vendor stalls, and finally to another woman who then took over as guide and finally showed us into her store (or so we figured). How 3 mature grown ass women would moronically follow a complete stranger to god knows where to buy illegal contraband still stuns me now. We didn’t’ even pause to consider that it could have been a set up and that we could have had our asses jumped. Nope, we trotted anxiously if not excitedly along in these peoples wake (FT dragged himself along for the ride though my theory was that even if we were ambushed, he’d be the first to split like a banana and leave us to figure out our own end…heh…sorry FT, I keed!). Anyhow, this lil greasy woman tossed three albums and one thick catalog full of wondrous designer purses to us as we gawked, squealed and considered the beauties displayed in front of us.

Sadly we couldn’t purchase our coveted pieces of happiness’ simply because FT and I had a limited amount of time to haul ass back in order to meet with DLC at the ungodly hour of 11pm. Still work was what we were there for and neither rain, snow, sleet or Gucci bags could hinder us in our path…besides, the lil chick was taking way too much time finding our illegal items so we took off. God back 2 minutes after the designated hour. Not bad though after dong the math we realized we had taken longer in the transit than in actually being at the market itself. Oh the bright side, I bought two stunning evening bags *does another happy dance*.

Um…incidentally, the night didn’t quite end in this happy afterglow of my new purchases since I found myself with a pile of work that had to get done before our Monday morning briefing with all the members of the team. MB, who now was up and about and kicking herself for missing the open air market, offered her services to me which I eagerly accepted with a grateful sigh. She showed up at my room with laptop clutched in her hand, in her PJ’s, the hotel big fluffy robe and the pair of paper sandals that the hotel had also provided us. She looked like a cleaner version of the wino’s back home. LOVED IT! MB was a total super star. She stayed up with me till 4:30 am helping me out after which she was an even bigger super star cause she walked outside with me while I smoked and decompressed for a second. Oh, while we were out there, a small Asian woman laid across the street in the bus stop wailing her brains out, sobbing uncontrollably into her cell phone, stumbling around in a drunken stupor and yelling at the top of her lungs). Good times.
Now that I’ve covered the last two days, I can go into today, Monday. It’s 11:12 right now and I’m happily in my room. I had gone to sleep at 5am the morning before and woke up at 8 am. I’m wiped out. We had meetings after meetings at the clients facility, then a briefing with the whole team. I also met with my colleagues after which we were all supposed to go to dinner as one big group (all 20 of us). By the time 7 rolled around, we totaled 10. *sigh* I can’t say much about today but that everything is ready for tomorrows first official day of document collection. I’m tired and irritated and annoyed but yet optimistic that everything will go smoothly. I shall remain so. I’m Zen, I’m calm…I can do this. I know I can. Right?