The internet at my work has been down for a while, so this is the first opportunity I've had to write a new entry. I really enjoy writing, but it's easy to fall out of habit, even when concerning things I favour. So, I'm going to keep trying to update this here blog-o-mine in hopes that it keeps my fingers moving, and my pen scrawling.
Where to start?..... ah yes...
Thursday turned out to be a wonderful day. I spent the morning sleeping, because I had been up so late, and then headed to kit ming's place in ma on shan, for about five o'clock. She needed my help with a school project that her, and a few classmates had been working on. My job was to read over most of a 3000 word paper, and correct any errors should there be any. Oh yeah, there were errors alright. It took me a while but I really had fun doing homework again. For those of you who've known me since highschool, you probably remember that my grammer and spelling abilities were terrible. Well, it seems that two years of teaching english to chinese kids has done wonders for my grammer skills. I finished up at kit ming's around ten o'clock, and headed off for the train station. Whilst working on rewriting a few pages I was surprised to get several phone calls, from friends asking me if I wanted to come out for a drink. I don't usually get unexpected invitations to socialize. I ended meeting my lovely sis, steph, at c-club in lan kwai fong, but on the way there I ran into a new friend who I had only met one time previously.
I met Crystal a couple of weeks ago at the fringe club. I was there with a few others checking out my mate luke's solo act. Crystal is a friend of my mate Greg, thus we were loosely introduced. We seemed to get along really well that night, so we exchanged phone numbers under the guise of going out to do some street art. I actually didn't even notice her, though I walked right by her and her friend Bram. They were apparently waiting for someone, who turned out to be a no show, so they came along to c-club to join the gang. The gang being, the three of us plus, steph josh amra jill and her boyfriend adam. Drinks were cheap, and it wasn't too busy at all. Generally a great atmosphere. After about an hour Crystal and I both needed to go to 7-11, and by the time she finished a couple of cigs, the folks in c-club were taking off to dragon i. Crystal bram and I stood around on the street for a while, talking about music and whatever else happened to develope. Bram having an early morning meeting the next day, had to take off home, which left my new compadre and I standing about, thinking of how to entertain the evening. At that point I was inclined to cheap wine, and she to chain smoking. So, we went back down to sev's, bought the cheapest bottle of red, and a pack of marlborough lights.
Not too far off, we found a darkened niche of a closed cosmetics shop. It had comfortable enough steps, a wall to lean against, and nearby construction lights flashing out of sync provided the ambiance. It had been so long since I last bummed it out with some cheap booze, with someone I barely knew. I've always loved that sort of situation, where conversation has no end because you've anything and everything to discuss. The timeline at this point gets a little lost, as we both jabbered on (once again) about music, life direction, and a slew of authors. At some point during the night Crystal asked me if she could stain my jeans with some red wine, which surprised me a bit. Her wanting to pour wine on my pants didn't surprise me though, it was that she actually asked if she could do it. Rob and I, once upon a time, poured beer over each other's heads, and ming on a few occasions has poured champange all over my shirt. Clearly I had no objection to her request. Sadly, however, there's barely a stain on me. The only visible reminder of the act is a slightly darkened patch on my right pant leg. I was hopeing for much more.
After an unmeasurable amount of time we started wandering around towards sheung wan, looking for a more scenic place to carry out the night's festivities.
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This is a good time to mention that I've been reading and writing more than ever, and I think the result is my dragging out every detail of an evening into the sunlight, and beating it over the head 'til it confesses it's sins.
This would also be a good time to mention an interesting little fact, that I learned from my good friend Osho, the other day. The root of the word, 'sin' means, forgetfullness, and the original meaning of the word, 'paradise' means, walled garden.
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Realizing that no one will likely read this far into my blog, I'm going to cut the story short, and not go into every last detail.
Back to the story......
Crystal and I ended up sobering up, talking in complete honestly along the beautiful sheung wan harbour front. With our legs dangling over the water, we realized that it was nearly 6am and just about time to go home. I wasn't even tired actually. I felt obligated to sleep though, seeing as I had to work the next day.
Friday marked the beginning of the end. I finished my last friday ever at interkids, and celebrated by having a few pints at the whiskey priest, with rob and dave. We played jenga, and I actually got home at the resonable hour of one o'clock.
Saturday was easy breezy lemon squeezy. All seven of my classes went famously. I was in a good mood all day, thinking about how I'd never see any of my naughty students again. The one's I like are young enough, that they'll never remember I ever taught them. Some of the older ones asked for my canadian contact info, and my email address, which I gladly supplied.
Saturday night Rob and I chose to rally the troops at the woodstone. A lot of our friends showed up, and everyone seemed to have a good time.
Sunday was spent in a very relaxing manor. Kit Ming and I woke up, had another pillow fight, and then we watched 'I heart huckabees' with shaun. We were both starving after the movie, so we headed out for something to eat. We ended up walking around, eating indian samosas and banana parathas for ages before we settled into a lovely/inexpensive soup noodle shop.
The band got together for three hours in the evening to make some noise in the studio. Ander's made great use of his new iriver, with the help of a great little recording mic, we put down some nice live material, and worked on a few beats that sounded awesome. We'll have one last practice, and then a gig this coming wednesday at the Wanch in wan chai.
Today is my last monday, and I've only one more lesson to go. My next class is good fun. The kids are only enough that we can just talk, and work on achieveing a natural, confident flow with their english.
It must be so hard to be a student in Hong Kong. There's so much pressure on children to go beyond all parental, and social expectations. I wish parents would realise that not every child can, or should be a doctor or a lawyer. Things would go seriously rye if such became the case.
Tonight should be good. Rob and I are meeting our old friend Nancy, whom we rarely see for dinner. Then.........oh yes.......then........we go to bonkers.
That's right!! It's been ages since I last went to bonkers. It was the first place all the elta's ever got properly pissed at, when we came to hong kong. I'll be sure to have a moment of silence before tasting my first pint.
Cheers!
brendan (the warrior geek) harrington
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