GOD almighty

Hong Kong, Wednesday 4 November

Have I mentioned I love GOD. When we were there the other night I bought a signature T shirt. It fits like a glove and is the perfect colour and you would need to know about GOD to even know that is was a GODly product. Carmel mentioned the clever marketing used by the good GOD store to a work colleague yesterday and described my T shirt only to learn that the wording on the products which make perfect sense in English have dual meaning, this aids their popularity with certain Chinese stylistas but also creates tension with some others. It seems that in Cantonese my Tee shirt also means F*** your mother (!) Ah. A little inside knowledge goes a long way. What to do? As well as brushing up on my cross cultural communication I think I will promise not to wear it in front of my mother or anyone else’s …nor I think will I wear it around any Cantonese friends...

It was a big day yesterday. I walked 500 metres and across a bridge to the shops and suffered a manicure and pedicure. I then walked back. The day just flew.

Today I am paying the price. I woke just after 3am and have not been able to get back to sleep. At four I learned that the upstairs neighbour who I knew was a flight attendant is also an aspiring chef - who likes chopping - not slicing or dicing - authentic Chinese chopping. Chop/chop/chop/chop chopping on a sonorous wooden chopping board that is positioned just above my head. I think preparations must be underway for a major family celebration; there was enough chopping to feed at least 50.

So watched the sunrise. But I couldn’t see the sun, just the slight brightening of the dull haze and now there is a veiled blue sky. Beautiful big clear full moon though, I am sure I read somewhere that bodes very well for excellent shopping.