Why is it that these small wiry locals guys can seemingly work all day, play all night and never tire of it. I think I've found their secret....
Thunder nuts
Put a bit of Thunder into your life !
Monday 20 August 2007
Saturday 11 August 2007
Macao - the Vegas of the East
It was the first weekend of August and I had been invited to join a group of Aussie guys for a weekend of golf and go karting in Macao. I was looking forward to a break after working like a madman for the last few weeks straight. The lifestyle barometer was looking up with the prospect of a third game of golf for the year too.
When I got to the ferry terminal to meet all of the team for the first time, I learn that the buck is not only already married( the monday before) but has been together with his wife for years and they have kids too!
We had beers on the ferry, went to the hotel then dinner at o manuel a tiny portuguese restaurant in Taipa. You don't pay for the decor but the food was good traditional Portuguese , olives, bread, baked fish, duck rice, garlic prawns etc.
Saturday up early for golf in China, requiring a border crossing and a fair bit of transport logistics. It happens to be the hottest day of the year at about 36 degrees on the Orient Zhuhai course. Fortunately there is a breeze and unfortunately plenty of water hazards around the course. I lost 5 balls on the first nine holes and found 3 on the back nine. It was a good game despite the score.
For dinner we dress in the team hawaiian shirts a another Portuguese place (even better than the night before). We're seated at a table next to an Asian couple wearing matching caps. The proprietor quickly moves them to a safe distance from us on the other side of the restaurant. Another bucks table is nearby and doing vodka shots with the waitress, a bit strange given it is really a family style restaurant. A volley of Jokes are flying around our table for the entire two hour dinner. Stage 2 involves a long walk to a bar where our buck downs a flaming lamborghini.
At the next stop the 8 piece house band is playing and the place is jumping. The Buck downs another three tequila slammers and earns the 'best on ground' award. A vodka red bull keeps me going until 4am and then I conk out. Fortunately there's a taxi outside the front door and Im at the hotel and asleep 15 minutes later.
Sunday breakfast is quick, only minutes before closing time at 10.30am then we pack up and are off to the go kart track. On arrival it buckets down with rain, the track becomes a river and the karts are sliding all over the place. We pull the pin and head for the Ferry back to Honkers after a real boys weekend....even without seeing a gaming table!
When I got to the ferry terminal to meet all of the team for the first time, I learn that the buck is not only already married( the monday before) but has been together with his wife for years and they have kids too!
We had beers on the ferry, went to the hotel then dinner at o manuel a tiny portuguese restaurant in Taipa. You don't pay for the decor but the food was good traditional Portuguese , olives, bread, baked fish, duck rice, garlic prawns etc.
Saturday up early for golf in China, requiring a border crossing and a fair bit of transport logistics. It happens to be the hottest day of the year at about 36 degrees on the Orient Zhuhai course. Fortunately there is a breeze and unfortunately plenty of water hazards around the course. I lost 5 balls on the first nine holes and found 3 on the back nine. It was a good game despite the score.
For dinner we dress in the team hawaiian shirts a another Portuguese place (even better than the night before). We're seated at a table next to an Asian couple wearing matching caps. The proprietor quickly moves them to a safe distance from us on the other side of the restaurant. Another bucks table is nearby and doing vodka shots with the waitress, a bit strange given it is really a family style restaurant. A volley of Jokes are flying around our table for the entire two hour dinner. Stage 2 involves a long walk to a bar where our buck downs a flaming lamborghini.
At the next stop the 8 piece house band is playing and the place is jumping. The Buck downs another three tequila slammers and earns the 'best on ground' award. A vodka red bull keeps me going until 4am and then I conk out. Fortunately there's a taxi outside the front door and Im at the hotel and asleep 15 minutes later.
Sunday breakfast is quick, only minutes before closing time at 10.30am then we pack up and are off to the go kart track. On arrival it buckets down with rain, the track becomes a river and the karts are sliding all over the place. We pull the pin and head for the Ferry back to Honkers after a real boys weekend....even without seeing a gaming table!
Bonkers Third Law of Compromise - Typhoons
Yesterday a Typhoon level 8 warning was hoisted for at 3pm. This means we were in for some pretty rough weather and most importantly we were allowed to leave the office and go home. I was pretty excited about the prospect to get home early and maybe chill out watching a dvd.
There's a couple of problems with this whole concept, firstly approximately 6 million people are all leaving school, offices, shops and industry to go home at the same time. You can imagine that getting a taxi is nearly impossible, the public transport system is overflowing with people and the roads are choked. Secondly because shops shut it can really test your forward planning skills for the necessities like food and drink in your own home. Since most HK kitchens are smaller than the bathrooms or non existent.
I sat out the early part of the typhoon in my car for an hour while crawling along the freeway down the east end of the island. Traffic basically stopped to slower than a crawl. Road rage simmering as cars try to push in on other lanes of traffic. I let loose a few expletives to drivers who try to cut in on myself and others.
The typhoon seemed a bit of a non event in the end, producing a bit of wind and rain but no signs of damage anywhere. Most of the boats go into shelters like this one next to my apartment building.
Impact is more personal, our building sealed off the lifts exits to the podium forcing people to go out via the car park. There is nowhere to go either since everything closes, it becomes a ghost town like Launceston on Good Friday.
The kitchen was pretty bare so I had cheese on toast for dinner, watched Las vegas TV series dvd and went to bed. This morning I realised that I had not spent more than 12 consecutive hours in my appartment before and that I have been living like a uni student for the last while. The sad part is the rent costs about fifteen times more then when I was at uni.
Today I went to the supermarket and topped up with supplies ...just in case.
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