Love this!!

Ladyhawke, My Delirium...

The trouble with Thanksgiving...

...is that luxuriating in the bliss of a 4day weekend means work really does a number on you over when you finally get back to the office.

I am slammed!!!!

I'm so busy rushing to get things done before I fly to England on the 12th for my Christmas hols on that I've barely a moment to spare to update the blog and what not. Sigh!!

Hope you had a good one anyway if you were celebrating Thanksgiving. I had a good laugh with Nigel over lunch who regaled me with tales of his dating life. I hope to post about them soon, but let's just say his stories involve heat packing paraplegics and a snuggie. I kid you not!!

The Friday after Thanksgiving I flew to Austin where I had a lovely time Catweazle. Let's just say that I learned from one of the characters on The Real Housewives of Atlanta that the secret to a youthful complexion is sex three times a day and that Catweazle was more than obliging in helping me test my new skincare regimen ;-) The only thing that didn't impress me about Austin was the weather. Before I left I'd been obsessively checking weather.com and Austin was forecast to have sunny days in the high 60s/low 70s over Thanksgiving weekend. What did I get....low 50s, wind and rain!! Harumph. C'mon now Texas, you can do better than that!!

A few pics anyway

Did you know that the flight to Hong Kong from New York is 16hours!!!

Sixteen hours!!

Someone at work told me that it's the longest single leg flight you can do. I have no idea if that's true, but I do know it's a bloody long time to spend in the economy cabin of a 777. It wasn’t so bad up to the 13th hour, but the last 3hours were absolute murder. I wouldn't recommend it. If I were to do a similar trip in future I’d be tempted to break it up in the middle somehow, or cash in miles and upgrade myself to business class. Ooooh that would have been lovely!!

Fortunately when we finally landed in Hong Kong it didn't take too long to get through immigration and we were soon on a train travelling to Central station on Hong Kong Island and from there we took a taxi to our hotel. Unfortunately our taxi driver was a complete numpty and dropped us off at the WRONG hotel, tsk, just what you don't need after a 16hour flight, but fortunately we didn’t have to struggle too far through the mobbed streets of Causeway Bay with our luggage to find our actual hotel and we were completely thrilled as we approached the entrance of the Lanson Place Hotel to see two doormen running towards us to take our bags. Bliss!!

Ah, I was so very happy to be relieved of my luggage I could have kissed them, although I doubt they would have appreciated it since the last shower I’d taken had been at 5am New York time – only 24hours earlier, but still I felt like a minger, so disgusting and definitely in need of a shower after travelling in the same clothes for all that time. I felt bad for soiling the air of their very elegant lobby.

Beautiful hotel isn't it. I can't recommend it enough are you are ever around Hong Kong way.

I always want to be one of those travellers who swishes elegantly, fragrantly and wrinkle free into a hotel lobby, but more often than not I arrive sweaty, crumpled and exhausted. The Lanson Place doormen however were the very essence of professionalism and didn’t wrinkle their noses at me once ;-)

After a revitalising shower we forced ourselves to get out and take a walk along the Hennessy Rd to see a view of the famous harbour. The guide book had recommended taking in the view from the bar at the Renaissance Harbour View hotel (the words 'harbour' and 'view' are in the very name, how could we possibly go wrong?), but I have to say it was disappointing and seemed too far west to get the full impact. Maybe if you are staying in a room on a higher floor of the hotel it would be better, but we could see more of the highway than the harbour, however after a refreshing Kir Royale cocktail and an appetizer of duck spring rolls we took a walk along the river and spectacular views of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Unfortunately my photos are hazy - well, Hong Kong was permanently hazy - and I was still figuring out the correct settings for my new camera, but here's a view looking back to Hong Kong Island from one of the piers.

And here's Kowloon

Anyway I'm going to pop off and get ready to meet my friend Nigel for our annual British Orphans in NYC Thanksgiving. We have a reservation at the Spring St Bar & Natural restaurant downtown. It's a pleasantly bustling restaurant on Thanksgiving and doesn't charge an arm and a leg like some places do. Afterwards we're off to swoon over Daniel Craig in the new Bond movie - well I am. Nigel's probably going to be fantasizing that he is James Bond - so I'll be back to post more photos later, that is if I get a chance before popping off to Austin tomorrow to meet up with Catweazle for the weekend. Eeek!! So excited!!

Happy Thanksgiving to any Americans reading by the way.

Later kids :-)

It's only useful as a paper weight

Well my good intentions to post about my long past vacation this weekend were scuppered yesterday by the sudden passing of my laptop - this post is written via blackberry. It will be brief as working with the tiny keyboard drives me loopy.

Ah well.

I don't have a home computer so I'm reliant on the IT department working their magic tomorrow.

Fingers crossed.

I don’t know where the time goes

I honestly don’t. I’ve been meaning to update the blog with holiday stuff from Hong Kong, Shanghai et al, but suddenly it’s almost 3weeks since I got back and not a sausage.

Sigh!!

To be honest I was very busy doing not an awful lot the first week back in the US since just standing upright was something of a challenge. The flight back from Hong Kong seemed to trigger a bout of jet lag induced insomnia where I was just getting 4 or 5hours of sleep a night and I was pretty much a basket case for a week and a half and then in subsequent weeks I've been busy catching up on all the work I was incapable of doing while the sleepless nights took their toll. Emotionally the insomnia put me at a very low ebb and it didn’t help to discover Gobshite – significant ex of a couple of years ago who chased me for 9months only to dump me rather unpleasantly back in August 2006 - had only bloody gone and got married this past August.

Married!!!

Gobshite!!

How is THAT fair that the evil, lying shit found someone to marry him before me? I mean...I’m such a catch ;-)

Hmph!!!

He should be living in emotional purgatory until the end of his days that one.

Bitter?? Unforgiving?? Moi?? Nooooo, of course not ;-)

Hearing of his nuptials just caused a lot of old feelings to come flooding back. Oooh I was so mad. I walked around with a face like a slapped arse for a good week. The news also caused me to take stock of my own life. I think him having such a big change caused me assess what’s changed in my own since we broke up. Let’s see…

- I’m still working at the same company
- I’m still have the same job title
- Pretty much still have the same haircut
- I still live in the same apartment - although for NYC it is a bargain
- I'm still trying to lose that last 5lbs

I have to say I’ve been feeling as if I’ve stagnated of late. The constant flow of depressing news about the economy isn’t helping to lift my mood either. I learned on Friday while drinking wine with someone in the know that mass layoffs are pending in January. The words 'carnage' and 'bloodbath' were mentioned.

Ugh!!

Fingers crossed!! These are not fun times eh.

On the plus side I do have an upcoming visit with the lovely Catweazle to look forward to. We haven’t so much as laid eyes on each other for 6months, not since we did our trip to Charleston back in May. It's not for want of trying, but with one thing and another it didn’t happen. However we’re still in regular contact and I’m popping off to Austin to meet up with him for the weekend the Friday after Thanksgiving.

I'm so excited :-) My first visit to Texas too. Tips and recommendations for Austin much appreciated if you have any favourites.

Anyway I shall try my best to post some pics from my HK/Shanghai hols this weekend. I promise!!

"If you believe, you can achieve innit". Go Dizzee Rascal ;-)

Whoo Hoo!!!

Wow!! Obama won!! That's such amazingly fantastic news I was hoping he would, but I didn't even dare think about it actually happening in case I jinxed his chances - yep, my thoughts are THAT powerful. I remember all too clearly how certain we New Yorkers were, back in 2004, that Bush would not get re-elected and how deflated we felt when the unthinkable happened, but that's behind us now.

Unfortunately sleep is still eluding me so I saw much of the election coverage. Last night I tried Deb's suggestion of wine since I hadn't been able to fall asleep before 1am these past few days.

"If you drink enough wine you'll be out like a light" she informed me knowledgeably.

"Although the downside is I'll have to deal with a hangover on Wednesday morning"

"Yes but it will be worth it because your body clock will have adjusted"

Since work is on the lighter side just now I decided to risk the headache and had a couple of, admittedly large, glasses of the Gavi white languishing in the corner of my fridge and was thrilled to find myself nodding off toMSNBC's election coverage - gotta love that Rachel Maddow - before 9pm. Marvellous. That Deb, she's a genius!!

I woke up feeling refreshed and well rested. I knew it was still on the early side as my alarm - set for 6.30am - didn't wake me, however I figured I could deal with it being 5am, or even 4am, since that would meant least 7 lovely hours of sleep. I turned on the lamp, sat up and squinted at my clock.

1am!!!

One.Chuffing. AM!!!!

Nooooooooooooooo!!!!

I couldn't believe it. Ugh. Not in the least bit sleepy I gave in and went to see who'd won the Presidential race, handwashed 4 jumpers and scrubbed the bathroom. I tried to sleep again around 4am, but to no avail. I gave up at 5:50am and got ready for work.

It's going to be a loooonnnnnnnnggggggg day!!

At least my apartment is benefitting from my insomnia.