So I've been preparing for the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon over the last couple of months, you see. It will be held this Sunday. My preparations have been something in the order of paranoia, you won't believe it, I tell you. I booked a cab to fetch me to the airport since Monday. And I kept calling the cabbie throughout the week to ensure that I wouldn't be forgotten. I also made sure that this time I'm having matching pair of shoes.
This morning I woke up quite early and finished packing with hours to spare. In fact, I was running out of ideas on how else to kill the time while waiting for the flight. All system go.
And then Helen just had to spoil everything for me. She called me at about 2:30pm and asked me a strange question, "Where are you?"
I said, "At home, of course. Why?"
Well, anyway, to make the long story short, that call was made just as Helen and the rest of my friends were about to board the plane. I almost fell off my chair. Now this wasn't the first time I had mistakenly seen the ARRIVAL time as the DEPARTURE time on the flight schedule. The last time it happened to me was a few years ago when I was flying home from KL. I must make it a point to seek Dr Peter's help when I return to KK. Maybe there is a cure for stupidity, I don't know.
After I have calmed down from freaking out, I started finding alternative means of getting to Hong Kong. I entertained the idea of flying out to KL and then catch a connecting flight from there. But alas, no more flight today. The next best thing was to stay in KL tonight and then catch a flight to Hong Kong tomorrow morning.
Then I considered flying to Singapore where I can find alternative flights to Hong Kong. But as I was contemplating all these alternatives, my brother called up, saying that he found a direct flight to Hong Kong tonight. I wasted no time—I immediately confirmed the seat.
If you're smelling something burning, it must be the hole that's burning through my pocket right now. But luckily I was saved by Dragonair, touching down in Hong Kong around 10:30pm. But it's a little past midnight when I arrived at the hotel. I was pleasantly surprised to know that our rooms are on the 23rd floor, apparently the VIP floor. I wonder if that stands for "VERY IMPORTANT PERSON" or "VERY IDIOTIC PERSON", but I guess it doesn't really matter because right now I feel I can qualify for both.
It's quite amazing, too, that I actually managed to find my way to the hotel, instead of ending up in Macau, if you know what I mean?
I'm not finding all this amusing at all, but I don't know why I can't stop laughing at myself.
So... I am in Hong Kong! Let's see what other silly things I can do for tomorrow. For whatever it's worth, at least my shoes are a matching pair.
Keeping my fingers crossed...
2 comments:
Hehehe..fact that u still got time to blog, amazes me!
Now that u've made it to HK, go and do a sub 4.30!
KD,
A good story must be told as soon as possible. That's why I simply had to blog upon my arrival after midnight last night!
It's cold out there today. Well, actually it's only 13C-14C, but to me that's enough to prevent me from spending too much time walking the street!
Anyway, we spent a bit of time walking to the race pack collection point (where we met Mohan); had a bit of afternoon nap.
To be quite honest, I was pretty confident of achieving a sub-4:30 prior to arriving in HK, in spite of the slopes I've been told about. But today, after seeing the chart, I seriously doubt that I can do it. I'm gonna try my best of course. I'll report again tomorrow after the race if I'm not dead of hypothermia.
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