Things I am most looking forward to (in this order):
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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
:)
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