Laid Back Guy

I really like where we are in Hong Kong. Our hotel is a 3-minute walk from the site, but there's a building in my line of site and all I can see of work is the very tops of the 4 flags on each corner of the Big Top. That's good -- I don't really want to see the work site from my hotel room 7 days a week!

The site is right on the water, and reminds me a lot of being in Vancouver. There are tons of ships literally an arm's length away in view. With all the mountains in the background -- or pseudo-mountainous landscape, at least -- and the water in the foreground, it looks a lot like the view from my old apartment overlooking English Bay towards Vancouver Island.

And I like that feeling of home.

But unlike home...

• Hong Kong, a city with a population of 6.8 million, was ceded to Great Britain by China in 1841, and returned to Chinese rule in 1997
• The city is now administered by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)
• Hong Kong is the city with the most Rolls Royce's per capita in the world.
• Its rich, multiethnic history has made it one of the world's most thriving cultural and financial centres
• Hong Kong has the largest fleet of double-decker trams in the world.
• Hong Kong residents have the highest rate of dining out, consuming 8.7 meals per month at restaurants
• The city has been selected to host the 2006 Asian Games (the Asian equivalent of the Olympics)
• The average maximum daily temperature in November: 24.9°C (76.8°F)
• The average minimum daily temperature in November: 16.4°C (61.5°F)
• Laid Back Guy lives here

Laid Back Guy is my old friend (I can't believe I met him way back in 1992) who I met in Whistler waaaay back when he and New York City Boy worked in the Ticket Office. Why do I refer to him here as Laid Back Guy? Cuz nothing phases this guy. Nothing. He's seriously the most chilled fella I've ever met. He's recently moved to Hong Kong with his wife, One World Gal, and I was going to e-mail him as soon as I got home tonight, but we were obviously on the same wavelength, and he beat me to it!

And it turns out he and One World Gal live very close to here. And he's not working right now and has some help to look after the kids. And he can leave the kids with the help and get away pretty easily for a coffee and catch up. And he likes to drink -- or at least he used to when he and Sandy and New York City Boy and Meggsy and Will and Megan lived in Snowgoose -- so maybe we can go for something stronger than a coffee.

I haven't seen him since my birthday two years ago. Jeepers, that was a week after I moved to Sydney, and that's just far too long ago. Can't wait to catch up.