30,000 feet

Well here I am, sitting on the plane and writing my farewell-to-China entry. I've got two pairs of socks on and my toes are numb brrrr. I watched Miami Vice, which was pants, and Little Miss Sunshine, which was ace. Got my scarf on ready for my return to the frozen void of Amsterdam.

Things I am most looking forward to (in this order):
----------------------------------------------------
My toilet (flush on toilet planes unnerves me: always have urge to stick my hand in to see if I get sucked out!)
My bed
Cheese toastie

Yesterday one of les grandes fromages from the ITU came to visit the stand (who bribed him, and with what?) The moment he was gone, we started packing everything up. Filiz, Nurani and I trotted back to cocktail hour as fast as our high heels would carry us, and there we flopped, exhausted and in need of booze.

After squashing everything into my Tardis suitcase, I went off with Nick to do some last minute shopping. One of the main things I noticed in HK was the smells, unlike anything I've ever smelled before. The disinfectant smell got trapped at the back of my throat, the 'there must be a human corpse rotting somewhere close by' smell made me heave, and the herbal medicines didn't make me too happy either. Walking down Nathan Road at 23:00, thronged with busses and taxis, with my lungs feeling a bit tight, I suddenly realised that the slight headache that I have had since I arrived was probably mild lead poisoning. OH for the pure and smog free air of er, Amsterdam. Another thing that made me chuckle was the road names, some of which were so English and some of which were Chinese. There was even a 'Knutsford' terrace, which will be funny to those of you from Cheshire.

Paul, Fil and Nurani went off the Aqua Bar, where we met up with them a couple of hours later with our goodies. The Aqua Bar is some sort of 'The-place-to-be' bar, on the 29th floor of a tower block, and with fantastic views over the city (however, if you want to secure a window seat, you have to spend a minimum of HK$3000, about $300 so we didn't bother with that). It was chock full of pretentious people (mostly investment wankers, er, I mean bankers I presume) in tuxedos and ballgowns. When asked if he was celebrating something, aforementioned character said "Yes, being rich".


I was actually a bit surprised they let me into the looking like I did (which was like crap, obviously). Drinks were expensive but not extortionate and I suppose you pay for your view. The bar was very dark, however, and being kitted out in black marble made it a bit difficult to see where you were going. Anyway,we had a few cocktails. Some aged Middle Eastern oil baron or whatever was quite taken with Nurani and proceeded to take pictures of her for about an hour, coming up to Filiz and I when he left to show us his best shot.


And then I made the fatal mistake of 'ordering one more'. I don't know why, but even though we had been drinking mojitos all night, donkey here goes and orders caiprinhas (if you know your 'tails, you know one is rum and one vodka based). This is why I felt like I'd been run over by steam roller when I got up 5 hours later to catch my flight.

So, all's well that end ends well, so they say. The ITU is over. I probably won't be back to HK for a while but I enjoyed myself while I was there, it was definitely like nothing I've ever experienced.

Where will I go next? Who knows, but don't worry, I'll fill you in on all the details here
:)

Bye bye Internet Pavilion

Here I am on my last booth duty...with not much to do, as you can see. We've given away all our bags. I can recite the NRO presentation backwards and in my sleep. The show seems to have been opened up to the general public who are taking everything that isn't nailed down. This morning's shift told us that the people on the Egypt booth had to run after people and extract their little display statues from their sweaty hands. Nurani has just returned with news that one stand was giving away little pastries and there was 80 people in the queue.

It seems that news of my blog has travelled afar. Matthew came to ask me today if I knew who 'scrabble addict' was because someone had forwarded him the link saying "someone is blogging from the Internet Pavillion!"

This morning, faced with the prospect of returning home and not being able to shop in the manner I have become accostomed to, I got up early and went to Tsing Yi. I had to stock up on the disposable panties that have now become a must-have item back in Amsterdam. I also went a bit nuts, grabbing bags of unidentifiable edible objects (UEO). NCC Comms can look forward to sampling the BBQ flavour Cuttle Fish Strips I just bought.

I don't think I can ever come to HK again. If I do, I will surely face bankrupcy upon my return. Looking forward to getting back to cold, wet Amsterdam because I am physically and mentally and suitcase-ly overloaded. I'm also having murderous thoughts about Hello Kitty and am feeling violent towards anything pink...overdose!

On a brighter note, I did buy a camera (not a brighter note for my bank account, obviously) so pictures will be uploaded soon!

Big Buddha

This morning's booth duty was mind numbing, but Nick will be pleased to know that I didn't give out *any* memory sticks. The crowd is thinning out and I was watching the clock and sending telepathic signals to my mate big buddha (more later) to grant me some karmha or whatever and make the seconds go a bit faster. Unfortunately they didn't and, out of sheer desperation, I had to go and beg a cup of tea from the Egypt booth to keep my caffine levels slightly above flatline.

On the plus side, I did have time to update my blog and check my fantasy football team. My team, FC Princess, did very badly this round, but I am still leading my league :) and am looking forward to the next round.

At 13:00, I rushed out of the expo as fast as my stupid, smart, conservative heels would allow me (which is not very fast, and makes me look rather like a Japanese lady with those little wooden shoe thingies)...I was rushing for I was to visit the big buddha. Big buddha, is, well, er, exactly what the name suggests: a big buddha. The largest sitting buddha in the world, apparently, and it's built way up high on top of a mountain where a monastery of monks also lives.

I'm not into buddhism or anything but I was feeling like I was suffering from a complete sensory overload: music/lights/people all day in the booth and music, lights, shoes and bags and people all night in the streets. So, I took myself off in the cable car to see big buddha and get some fresh air. 25 minutes up the mountain and there I am at the top, with spectacular views of HK (well, they would be if that damn smog wasn't there) and lovely fresh-ish air. It was really hot up there and I did catch the sun a little bit.

Big buddha is indeed, truly huge. Trouble is, they've built a sort of 'big buddha theme village' there. It's very small and low key but yes, there was a 7-11 there and a starbucks. The Disney Land HK resort is also not too far away and, I apologise to my lovely American friends, because I know you are not all like this, but I heard some whiney woman say "I'm bored now, shall we try to get to Disneyland". AARRRRRRGH.

Anyway, I watched all the people doing buddha-ery things (like waving incense around and making hand movements and stuff) whilst sitting under a nice tree and laughing at all the signs on the big fire pots saying 'CAREFUL HOT FIRE".

I decided to go to one of the vegetarian restaurants there - the monks are supposed to cook the food (when they are not praying I guess). I wanted to see the little monks scuttling around and pouring tea, but alas, I was disappointed. The food actually tasted ok for Chinese food, although I was so hungry, I probably could have swallowed one of the poor fishes-in-bags from yesterday, whole. However, a few hours later, that food was not getting along as smashingly with my stomach as a cheese toastie would have done.

After my re-balancing with nature and a few hours alone on top of a mountain, I decided my senses needed to be re-overloaded again and I went to the outlet mall that was conveniently located next door to the cable car stop back at the bottom of the mountain. Then I got on a bus that looked remarkably similar to a London double decker back to the hotel.

I am having a problem with the money over here: the bus journey costs HK$ 3.50 , which is around 35 EURO cents but I got mixed up and tried to shove $35 in notes into the little box. The driver is shouting at me, "What you doing?! IS THREE DOLLAR FIFTY MISSY". Yesterday, at the ladies market, I did the same thing. I asked the price of something and she said "four fifty" (meaning four dollars fifty) and, knowing you have to haggle, I said "200!" and her eyes nearly popped out of her head!

Tonight ARIN organised a dinner at dot cod and I ate a poor little 'moon fish' that came all the way from Hawaaii. Well, it wasn't little, it was bloody massive and tasted like a softer, creamier version of tuna.

As always, things got a little raucous, and resulted in Rendek stealing the xmas decoration from the wall and Nurani wearing it in her hair like some couture hat (actually, though, it looked pretty good!) Then he proceeded to make some underwear out of a napkin for the 'naked' statue on the wall behind him.

Interesting observations (general):

1. Locals go mad for Crabtree and Evelyn (posh soap) - every time I see a shop, the queue is out of the door.

2. It must be a cultural thing, or fashion, or something, because mole hair is in. I'm not the only one to have noticed this, but I have seen at least three men with small facial moles with MASSIVELY long hairs growing out of it. I'm not talking a cm. I'm not talking an inch. I am talking like long, black hairs, 10cm long, sprouting out (eeeeeeehk!)

And one final funny thing that I have forgotten to mention: on Tuesday, Filiz was so dazed and confused, she walked into a mirror in a shop and apologised...to herself. HAR HAR HAR!

Dang xin, wo bi ni da*

Last night, after cocktail hour, Filiz and I went on a shopping mission to the Mong Kok district. It seemed to be the real Hong Kong. The 'ladies market' is here, so called because the stalls sell masses of fake designer handbags and watches. Everything is insanely cheap, although you really do have to haggle. The sellers, usually women, are very sweet, and say "Hello missy, lookie lookie" and then when you try to haggle, they say, "oh no, you very bad, you very rich" (er, not anymore dear, I've just offloaded all my cash to you and your compatriots). Designer handbags aren't my thang, but I did get lots of nice gifts (although some of them I am sure I will end up keeping for myself, as is my wont). Anyway, this market went on forever and was packed, even at 23:00.

We soon realised, Filiz and I, that our map reading skills are not the best but, as I was perusing my map, I noticed something called 'goldfish market'. Well of course I had to have a look. TRAUMATISED! There were hundreds of beautiful, colourful fish hanging there in bags so small, most of them couldn't even move. It was awful. Then we saw stingrays being fed with guppies - poor guppies, gulped down in one go. There were also pet shops there too - puppies and kittens in tiny glass cages with hug signs saying "no photo, no video". Anyway, we got out of that district as soon as possible and carried on with our shopping mission.

Interesting train facts:
========================

- The Airport express train has little screens in the back of each seat so you can watch tv while you travel (unless you get into a 'quiet car'where there are no screens!)

- The MRT trains are really long, and have no carriages or partitions, so when you are inside you can see all the way from one end to the other.

- They smell funny, and someone told me that it was the disinfectant they use to cleanse them (every half hour apparently).

- The hand grips hanging from the ceiling are low enough even for me to hold without stretching.

- The locals can sleep in the most awkward of positions!


* "Just watch out cos I'm bigger than you" - it's something I can say to almost everyone here :), thanks Sara!

Reporting live from the Internet Pavillion

Reporting live from the Internet Pavillion

The afternoon shift is dragging, although we have had several people in the booth, most need to talk with the ICANN and ISOC guys. I did manage to lure in an NCC member (France Telecom) with the promise of a much-sought after memory stick.


Today, the Russians treated us to some traditional Russian music (it is me, or does all of it sound like the theme to Tetris?) They've got an entire band here.

Being full of techy geeks, I was expecting loads of gadgety giveaways but all I've got is a plastic gold egg from the Russian stand in as very large and ornate box (and I didn't even get given that, I just found a discarded one in our storage cupboard!)


Fortunately, the Egypt booth across the way has a little coffee/tea bar which has kept me stocked up with caffine (although I have to go sleathily, as one of the Egyptians has taken a bit of a shine to me and I don't want to go through the whole 'how many camels' thing again ;-). )

Toilet humour

6 December, 11:30 pm
======================

Another day on the booth. It seemed quieter today than yesterday and people weren't even sneaking in to snatch handfuls of pens. We did have a few regulator-ish people coming over but Save from ICANN dealt with most of those. We got the PA system and microphone headset set up (we decided that barking at people as loud as possible was the best way to frighten them into staying in our booth for a bit) but no one has used it yet. I was really hoping to see Paul prancing about a-la Madonna "IP is a mystery, everyone will stand in awe, NRO hears you call its name..."

We went to Hong Kong island for lunch because everyone (Paul, Filiz, Nurani, Nick and Hirshan) wanted to go to a 'proper authentic noodle bar'. I'm in the wrong part of the world, really I am. What's tasty about a bowl of chicken broth, nasty noodles and prawns covered in slime, or wanton thingy or whatever it is? Anyway, they all loved it, and I gave my wantons to Filiz and stocked up on sweet potato chips afterwards. We took the infamous Star Ferry from HK island to Kowloon. I'm sure the view of all the tower blocks IS amazing but, hello people, SMOG?

Anyway, so off we trail down the back alleys to find Nick's new best friend, Michael the tailor. Kicking myself for not having a camera: this guy is the cutest, sweetest, old and bent over Chinese man I have ever seen! He should seriously be making money as 'stereotypical old Chinese guy' in Hollywood movies. Hopefully Filiz has a nice picture of him because he was utterly endearing.

Then we wandered around and and I bought the shoes I'd seen the other day (plus another pair to keep them company) and some the cutest, fluffiest hallo kitty slippers for my niece (who won't be able to weat them for the next few years, but oh well...). When we could all no longer walk from exhaustion, we sat down for a drink and then had some eats.

Interesting observations
------------------------

- The scaffolding on all the buildings is made from bamboo, which is then wrapped in this green netting stuff so that every building looks like it's completely wrapped up. Even the 65-storey building has bamboo scaffold all the way to the top.

- Public toilets are holes in the ground. The flush on normal toilets is usually a little square button on the right hand side.

- When I bought bottle of water at the Seven Eleven just now, the two ladies said something and laughed looking at me. I thought hold on, they are laughing at me! So I raised my eyebrows in a quizzical manner, pretending to be offended by what they said. One lady said, "oh sorry! Please, no bitter!". HA HA HA. BUSTED. I wonder what they said...

Cucumbers away!

5 December, 00:30
=================

Oef. This 'Jet Lag' lark is doing my head in: I keep waking up at Amsterdam meal times, starving hungry, craving a broodje kaas. Last night, or should I say morning, I didn't get to sleep until 7am.

In my typing frenzy yesterday, I neglected to add many a funny anecdote. So i'll continue from there on...

After dinner on Saturday night, we bailed out as early as possible, a few moments before I was about to collapse headfirst onto my plate. 'Get me to the train' I slurred. But oh no, Nick had other ideas and more shopping/toilet finding ensued. I did see some fab shoes that I will go and buy at some point but was so dazed and confused, I couldn't make up my mind which colour to buy. I made the mistake of randomly pointing at a camera I might like to buy, and the sales boy tried to cut me a deal on whatever 'Siny' or 'Pontax' or 'Kodek' rip-off I was looking at (note to self: bargain, bargain, bargain - they'll do anything to get a sale).

Saw some horrible black lace, barely-there underwear and pointed and laughed. Stupid move. Nick (who is, excusably, suffering from jet lag and so therefore cannot be held responsible for his actions,) runs up to the bloke and screams 'Which one would look good on her?'. I'm mortified! MORT-EEE-FIED. (Note to non RIPE NCC-ers who happen accross this blog...Nick is my boss.)

Back to the supermarket on Sunday afternoon: not only did we buy disposable underwear, I also saw 'sea cucumbers' for the first time in my life. I expected them to be long and green, naive little soul I am,...but no, they were short and brown and slimy and at first, I thought they were some sort of garden slug on drugs... you can even buy their 'innards' separately (orange and curly!) eeeeugh! The supermarket is located in a huge mall with the biggest santa I have EVER seen and fake snow falling from the ceiling! Xmas feels weird when it's warm outside and I can't get used to hearing xmas carols in the hotel while walking around in flip flops and short sleeves.

Since my last blog, by the way, at least two of my friends have mailed to tell me that I simply have to bring home disposable panties for them. Place your orders ladies - the packaging on these things is the best bit!

So, all of us RIPE NCC-ers, and the APNIC guys, are eligable for 'cocktail hour' (translate: cocktail three hours in the executive lounge (tone lowered avec us) with free and open bar and as many bizarre dim sum snacks as one can eat). Last night I enjoyed some fine Barcardi with Nick and Rob Blockzijl. The latter went off to bed to cure his jet lag. Then I scoffed the biggest 'Tuna Burger' I have ever seen. It was very tasty !

The hotel is located in the airport, which is a hub of activity 24 hours a day, so Nick and I went off to the 7-11 to stock up with supplies (me: shampoo. Nick: 'oh my god, these are the cheapest condoms I have ever seen! I'm going to stock me up!' Me: 'Er, I think I'll stand outside and examine my very interesting bottle of shampoo with very interesting and indecipherable madarin charactures for the next few minutes, whilst glancing anywhere but the shop....'

After tossing and turning and thrashing about like an agitated killer-whale for 7 hours, I finally got some sleep at around 7am. My shift started at 13:00 at the booth but I had to go and eat my fried eggs for breakky at 10. You can even eat Chinese food for breakky here but, not liking Chinese food at the best of times, the thought of eating it first thing in the morning makes me want to hurl and I'll stick to fried eggs on toast thank you very much, even if I do feel a tad like a plebian tourist in Spain seeking out eggs, beans and chips for tea.

The afternoon of booth management went well, although no one is really interested in our booth (yet). All the other booths are commercial and people just want the goodies and giveaways. The more serious want to cut deals but, since we aren't selling, we can't offer (although a man did come up and hand Richard Jimmerson his card - Tailoring Services hahahaa). The Internet Pavilion bags were popular though and funnily enough, as we were going to dinner this evening (Nick, Filiz, Paul and I, Nurani from APNIC and Hirshan from AfriNIC), a man got into the lift with us carrying one of our bags - we were all thinking, oh hello dear attendee! You got one of our bags and you're still carrying it around 5 hours after you got it hurrah! A round of applause for you! Turns out he is one of the Egypt booth workers who are opposite us. No matter, today Baher, the ICANN laiason, and an Egyptian, pulled his strings and got us on the booth free coffee from the Egypt coffee bar: I guess there'll be more 'bags for coffee' deals to come.

Our presentation worked well, but one of the big TVs does not have speakers so we requested those for tomorrow. We also decided to get a PA system and start shouting at people who walk by, er, I mean giving quick 5 minute presentations in various languages on spam, Internet secururity etc. etc. in order to lure people in. I took a quick look around at the other booths today, and only in our hall - there was a Hummer and the NEC booth had the cutest little robots on display and a bar (and a half naked girl on stage playing some kind of traditional instrument.) Talking of half naked girls, it's full of 'booth babes', and white knee high boots seem to be the fashion a la moment (er, and not much else for most of them...After seeing two girls wandering around in bottom-skimming white PVC dresses, I was truly thankful for our booth's conservative dresscode')

Monday evening was a quiet affair. This executive lounge cocktail hour thing is great, especially as you can pour as much of the loot as you like into your glass. We were all getting hungry and, after my bargain sushi from the supermarket (2 Euros for 6 pieces!), I suggested that we sample the Japanese restaurant in hotel since none of us fancied the 25 min train ride into the city. There is another restaurant in the hotel called 'The Hairy Crab'...somehow, the name puts me off. Anyway, I almost died when I saw the prices (18 Euro for two pieces of tuna sushi). Needless to say, most of us decided on noodles (cheapskates) ...

Hello Kitty

Sunday, 11:00
=============

It's Sunday morning and I feel like I have been run over by a bus - staying awake for 36 hours is hard work. I've had 9 hours sleep but it's sleep that is normally during my daytime... It's 11am but it feels like 11pm.

Here's an account of the last two days:
Given my week of unprecidented unluckiness (heating breaking, bike tyre exploding, etc etc) I was slightly worried about the mechanical functioning of the plane's engines, but the journey went without a hitch. Film selection was crap, and the only thing I wanted to see was 'Barnyard', some animation about a cow in a, er, barnyard, but of course, that was the only channel that didn't work on my screen so I was forced to watch 'Scoop', which was pants and comes highly unrecommended.

Tried to sleep under the can-this-contain-any-more-static-blanket, with my scarf wrapped round my head to shut out the light (yeah, I looked like a nutter but so what? It's better than waking up with the shape of the eye mask imrpinted into your face innit?) but the bloke behind me was snoring like a pig and I was then forced to put on my super-noise reducing headphones to drown out the sound lest I reach over and stab him with my fork. I didn't sleep for a second but felt remarkably ok by the time I arrived.

On the plane, I managed to eat the a la carte food and had a very civilised meal of smoked salmon followed by prawn risotto followed by cheese and port. However, by breakfast time, the minions had cottoned onto the fact I was an imposter to the world of mainstream meals and that I should have been given the substandard vegetarian meal that I had ordered. Instead of the breakfast I had been expected, I was given the most repulsive thing I have eaten in a long time: lukewarm semolina with grapefruit segments. To top it off, instead of the strawberry yoghurt I was expecting, I got a SOYA DESSERT. Would someone PLEASE inform the head of catering at KLM that just because you do not eat meat, it does not mean that you are a VEGAN? aaargh.

Landing at Honk Kong was a bit precarious: you fly in over the ocean and between the mountains. But all went without a hitch. The airport is very clean and spacious. Luckily our hotel is actually in the airport so I didn't have a long commute. Although Nick has a 747 parked outside his window, and I have a view of the runway that would have a plane spotter chewing off my arm to see, you cannot hear a thing. The triple glazing is about 30 centimeters thick.

My room has the biggest bed I've EVER seen. It's wider than it is long and I can lie comfortably on it horizontally. There's easily room for 4 people comfortably, er, if you're into that sort of thing. I have a huge flat screen TV and a control panel by the bed that controls the lights and airco. There's a clock that shows you local time and the time all over the world too. Even the 'please make up room' sign is electronic. All very James Bondy. There's a nice view into HK city, apparently, but all I can see is the murky shadows of massive mountains and tower blocks shrouded in fog/smog/mist, which hasn't really cleared since I've been here. There's bad weather heading our way say those who know, but it's 22 degrees and breezy: quite lovely. You have to wrap up warm when you go inside though, because it's air conditioned to arctic temperatures.

After I'd resisted the urge to curl up the crisp white sheets (oh, oh, oh, that bed was beckoning me to crawl into it's warm and comfy folds) Nick and I decided to take a look at our booth in the EXPO before they shut it down for the security sweep. The EXPO is massive. HUGE - and that's just our hall: one of 12. Our cute understated little booth is sandwiched between huge glitzy, shiny, neon booths, most with two levels and some with three and elevators! Some seriously expensive structures here, mostly vendors and countries* offering their wares with huge screens and massive sound systems. We are opposite the Egypt booth (they have blenders - I hope they are giving away free cocktails!) and close to the 'Invest Holland' booth; (a huge orange strucure that looks like a bar aaah, you gotta love the Dutch!)

*The Russia booth is MASSIVE, easily the largest square meterage of them all in our hall. Note to self: do not eat the free sushi in this booth ;)

We wandered around for a bit and then got the train onto Kowloon island. By this time, sleep deprivation/lack of food was starting to take it's toll and I was finding everything hilariously funny and becoming a bit hysterical. We found a tiny local eating establishment, with only locals inside, and braved it. I ended up with chicken broth with tofu and pak choi, not really what I expected. But, this vegetarian was so dazed and hungry by this point that she'd convinced herself that squeezing all the excess liquid out of the tofu meant that she'd consumed no chicken whatsoever. Laughed my ass off at the cutest translation of the menu (I had been led to believe that, as a former British colony, almost everyone was pretty much fluent in English. Not so!). The two menus we had had been translated by two different people; on one menu, your choice of soup was discribed thus:
"Soup spice: little, medium, burning, very burning, non spicy.' On the other menu, it was "soup: hot, very hot, medium hot, super hot, without hot". I was so taken by the translation, I even wrote it down.

After that, Nick went off to find a tailor and I decided to hit [one of] the malls. Oh. My. God. You do not know malls, or shopping, until you have experienced this. It took me two hours to get round one floor of the 'Ocean Center' mall on Canton Road - and that was without going into *any* of the shops (except some little confectionary shop that lured me in with all the 'Hello Kitty' MIAOW sweeties and chocs and gum that I just had to buy. There I purchased the nicest crisps I've EVER eaten and proceeded to scoff them while making my rounds. I'm not sure, but perhaps stuffing your face in public 'isn't done' here: I was getting very odd looks and, now I think about it, I actually havent seen anybody eating on the street. Hmmmm!) There was an ecclectic mix at the mall and I found it hilarious that the Vivienne Westwood shop was located nextdoor to the FILA shop.

Anyway, it's sale time and the shops were PACKED. Everytime you walk into a store, someone shouts "HELLO WELCOME" at you as loud as they can. The first time I was like, 'Why, how kind, thank you very much, let me part with my hard earned cash in here because you have been so polite, dear girl.' Thirty-seventh time, I thought, 'hmmm, heard that before...'. I honestly didn't find anything I liked and I didn't buy anything. There's a few old familiar faces here (Zara, Mango, GAP etc.) but I can buy that in Amsterdam: I want unusual! Unfortunately, stacked heels and mock Elizabethan ruffles don't do it for me.

After a few hours of dazed perusing, I decide that I am just going to go to the restaurant where I was to meet Nick, Megan, Susan and Nate and his girlfriend for dinner. I am an hour early but I simply cannot move anymore and need to sit down. The streets are packed and if I get one more 'hand-made-fake-rolex-madam?' whispered in my ear, I think I might vomit. So I sit myself down in a lovely comfy chair, with a fab view over Nathan Road (sort of HK's Times Square) with my bookje and a Tequila Sunrise. Three time. Three times I woke myself up with my own snoring before the others arrived.

I really do not know how I got through dinner, especially when Megan and Susan proceeded to show me the fifty thousand, or there abouts, 'genuine' prada/gucci/chanel bags they'd just bought from some random illegal sweatshop. By 22:00, I was practically rocking back and forth like a mental patient and hoping that a freak meteorite would strike: anything to get some sleep. So I went back to the hotel and slept as if I was in a coma (well, I did wake up once, at about 2am, thinking what the F is that flashing green light on the ceiling, the aliens, the aliens, they must have come, and why, oh why, are there tiny green glowing lights by my bed. But, after a moment, I soon realised that it was only the smoke alarm and the 'control panel' by the bed and went back to the land of nod.)

Sunday, 22:30
=============

Off we went to the booth after breakfast to continue setting up: packing the meeting packs and getting things ready for tomorrow. We went to the supermarket to stock our fridge with supplies for the coming week. There I purchased the funniest, most HILARIOUS thing I have EVER seen in my life: a pack of 14 'disposable panties' for 2 EUROS. OH the hilarity. Unfortunatley, I forgot the camera and my phone is not playing nice and won't let me e-mail the pic I took, but anyway, maybe it's my sick sense of humour, but I absolutely HAD to have these things for the comedy value. There were huge aquariums full of massive 'pick yer own for dinner' fish at the supermarket too. Poor fish :(

Off to bed now as jet lag is catching up on me.