The Leicester Tiger jersey that goes a long way in Hong Kong

I am finally taking in the magnitude of what Rugby 7s weekend is all about.   I'm not quite sure how many come to HK for the party but so many, many more came here to party regardless of having tickets for the show....heck, the show was going on last night and well into this morning, as  costumed, tipsy, morning walkers along Hollywood Road in Hong Kong clearly were not at the stadium but were out for the all-night carnival that will last the weekend.

The tables next to me on this Saturday morning at the FCC are normally empty.  They're full of middle aged Brits who look tired after the night and are here for breakfast prior to their trek to the stadium for the day's worth of rugby.

The game is fast  - there's not sufficient time to read an ebook reader during the lull times between games or that minute half break.  Beer flows without stop.  The lines grow in geometric proportions in wait for a urinal as the event goes on.  Being a teetotaller (not by choice) alleviates the need to wait on line.......and, I suppose, permitted me t have a less 'distorted' view of what was happening on the pitch.

.......but in the long run, nothing beats those tail gate parties outside of Candlestick Park from the late 80s for  sports partying!!!!!

And oh yes......wearing my Leicester Tiger jersey was an 'ice breaker' for the half-dozen or so fans who gave me thumbs up.....lots of Brits here this weekend!!

Lots of big, fat, loud, drunken rugby fans have hit town.....

Hong Kong is a party town this weekend.  One saw it last night as the bars were all packed and I had to walk Wyndham Street to get home as the sidewalks were packed with many here for the party.

Undoubtedly this is a big F&B weekend in town - the annual Rugby 7s are being played this weekend.  I'm going, tonight.  I have not been to the 7s since 1994 when I sat in the south stands and decided that I am not the animal one has to be to get into the swing of things over a rugby weekend.  This was re-confirmed and fully etched in my mind when I went to the mens room - the place was a pig sty.  I didn't even want to walk in!

Tonight, 20 years later, I will sit in a corporate box - business class instead of steerage.  I will get my fill of Hong Kong sports for anther 20 years.....and yes, I do intend to attend the 7s again in 2034!

The bean counter who devoured Hong Kong

The agony continues - confronted with wonderful choices at superb restaurants, I am devouring faster than I can burn it off and getting more rotund as the season of taxation continues......

Jimmy's Kitchen - Kowloon - for a lunch meeting.....Main Dining Room of the FCC tonight.  Two breakfast meetings and a lunch meeting tomorrow followed by sporting event food at the 7s in Hong Kong.  And when will it end?  Who knows???  I am here in Hong Kong (where Spring weather seems to have replaced the chill of a south China winter) for two more days.  Then I go home to Guangzhou for a couple of days.....and then its off to Bangkok for two weeks of work and fun.....with emphasis upon the latter (hopefully).

Chinatown

This was a collaborative effort between writer Robert Towne, director Roman Polanski, producer Robert Evans and stars Jack Nicholson, John Juston and Faye Dunaway.  I saw it in 1974 when it first came out.  I didn't appreciate it for what it was:  a classic that withstands the test of time.  I saw it over 2 nights, finishing last night.  It is, in a word:  brilliant!!

I did not have a difficult work day, yesterday....but I fought the work, nonetheless.  I have an even less difficult day, today....but there is little to fight...... Tonight I go to see The Grand Hotel Budapest.

Taxation every day......thinking about writings all the time.....actual writing:  not as much as I should be doing and definitely not as much music practice as I should be practicing, too.....

This is what it's all about.....

I slept in, getting up around 8:30am, getting to the FCC about an hour later.  Yes, it was nice to sleep in!  I am now at my favorite morning table.  Temperature outside is 20 degrees.....obviously warmer inside but that warmth is enhanced by the rays of sun beaming on me through the windows as I sip my after breakfast cup of coffee and type away at my iPad.

I can't attribute it to foresight but as a true stoke of luck, today's scheduled work will be as easy and pressure-free as it gets and I can coast through in a relaxed mode.  I will have the time to start researching the Stones-related memoirs:  where they were at the time, where I was at the time, where the world was at the time  for six concerts over 6 decades.......I experienced this....can I put those thoughts and feelings coherently, cohesively, into something that someone would want to read?  To be continued.....

A night at the opera +

Wonder of wonders - a 5th row center seat for Lohengrin, flown in from Helsinki, as part of the 42 annual HK Arts Festival.  I've now been to 23 of the 42 festivals, taking in opera each year.  The production was superb, although the cast, dressed in white for much of the second and third acts, could be culturally confusing to the Asia audience used to white as the color of death and mourning, rather than for a wedding celebration.

Tonight is an 'opera gala' for symphony and vocalists performing all those hit arias that one likes to go home humming.

And next week it is time for a totally new mind set on Friday night as I go to the HK Rugy 7s for the first time in 20 years......

Life is nice.....and then there are tax returns to do.........such is life......

Technology - at its best, and the problems that it can cause.....

Technology at its best:  I have an ancient (as old as you can get) MacbookPro on my desk in Hong Kong.  It is partitioned with the Windows XP partition the only HDD I use.  It is slow but very reliable and I am able to fully function a 2008 tax return on this machine.  I cannot print out or save because these functions were changed for subsequent years and the newer software and 2008  are in conflict on my computers.....but for that old reliable  MacBook Pro.

Technology at its worst:  Same machine.  I cannot right click.  Neither one nor two finger clicks work on the earlier operating systems.  I screwed up a 2013 tax return and it is locked in a state of permanent limbo because all the alternatives that my software service provider has to offer require a right click.

Fortunately, porting over this client to my new Mac Air proved to be the solution, as I was able to 'authorize' the client and print out.   I now have to follow up and make sure I know how to right click-simulate on this machine.....but it is still my 'in transit' machine.....after tax season, I will keep that trusty old MacBook Pro as a permanent back up library of the earlier tax stuff....but will have to get a new machine for the office.  Such is life......

A weekend in Macau

In December, 1969, I went to an outdoor concert in northern California.  I must have been out of my mind!  Northern California in December?



It was cold.  It was wet.  It was muddy.  I hated the fact that I really should have exercised some common sense and not have gone.  Yet I went and while I was a long, long way from even being able to see anything, I did go to that infamous, Hell's Angels policed Rolling Stones concert.



That was 1969.  Now we are entrenched in the third month of 2014.  Cotai strip was not here when I first came to Macau.  And tomorrow night, the Stones play.  I'm prepared - I'm ready to boogie....I have my soft gel clear yellow capsule that is not vitamin D but, shall we say, is vitamin thc..........



I saw the Stones in the 70s - in July, 1975 at the Forum in Inglewood, CA.  I saw them during the 80s and in the 90s and in 2003 in Hong Kong.  Here it is, I'm seeing a band with members older than me.....



I KNOW, IT'S ONLY ROCK & ROLL....BUT I LIKE IT!!!!!

Back again in Hong Kong.....

and speaking tonight at the American Club!

Here it is, folks, we are into the first week of March and not only am I not burnt out.....yet but actually am enjoying some of the work challenges.  The problem is that the days have been long, thus far, and the time off has been ....well......not really sufficient.

Last night, though,  after a day that was more productive than I anticipated, I went and dined while listening to live jazz at the FCC.   One of these days I am going to have the patience to tackle blues scales on my chromatic harmonica.......because I will not progress beyond my current musical capabilities until that happens.......

Anyway......I'm back through the 10th of March, so there'll be some blog additions - maybe even something substantive, over the next week.....