letter to Ruth

too lazy to create an entry about Christmas Eve in HK, so here's a letter I wrote to my friend.

Ruthie!

Thanks SOOO much for the use of your apartment! I've left the resident card and key in the nightstand in the guestroom. I've made sure to sweep up all my loose hairs, but if I missed any, I'm SO sorry! I also did my best to get rid of toothpaste specks from the mirror (I'm an aggressive tooth-brusher at times) but if I missed any, again, SORRY! On my last night, I was in such a mad rush to get in to use the toilet (I felt an explosion coming) that I RETARDEDLY left the key in the door all night. A security guard came to ring your bell, and he must have been ringing for a good 10 minutes or something. Finally the building phone rang and I opened the door, while in my towel, to find a rather cute security guy. A shame about his red beret, really.

Glad to hear you're having a blast in Australia! I just got in last night, but my Dad left about 10 minutes ago to catch his flight to Asia. Glad I got to see him, even if only for just a short period of time.

Christmas Eve was nice. Spent the whole day alone, walking around HK. Sat beside some nice Canadians (expat for about 10 years) at a little Shanghai noodleshop. They'd directed me to some bar in SoHo, which I tried to find after polishing off a steaming bowl of sesame paste at a dessert stand up one of Central's many narrow slopey alleys.

As I walked past a Sichuan restaurant, a party of three dining there invited me to join them for coffee. It was actually one guy who came out to get me, on behalf of his single friend. They were nice, very chatty. I just sat there with my tea while they talked about Taiwan Independence and gave me a briefing on Portuguese Colonial History (they sure love Macau!). Both guys were lawyers, the woman (whose bf had come out to get me) is a Taiwanese native, doing her masters in arts management in Paris (How cool is that?) Her bf, a Montrealer raised in DC, has worked in Asia long enough to speak perfectly fluent Mandarin. The single guy, a Beijinger who's been in HK 25 years. Well-spoken. Not ugly. I felt bad for him though, because his friend was putting us both on the spot "So, you're here for what, five days? SURELY that's enough time to fall in love with this young successful lawyer!" We exchanged email addresses, but Kenneth knows I won't be contacting him anytime soon. Anyhoo, walked into some pretty neat bars in SoHo, but every place was packed so I took a mini historic walking tour with Kenneth and he accompanied me to the E11 bus stop. A nice boy. But no sparks. And of course no smooching. ;)

And here I was, ready to plunk myself down in a pub for Christmas Eve, with a pint of cider and the hopes of making a temporary friend or two. Now that I think about it, I doubt I would have found a quiet pub in that neighbourhood. Revellers were spilling onto the road, barricades and police officers everywhere. But isn't Lam Kwai Fong like that every weekend? New Year's Eve must be quite the scene.

Thanks again, my rice paddy honey and have a safe safe trip home! Happy New Year!

xoxo
lsc