Last good day of the year:

I had a drinking session in Causeway Bay with friends I've made here, and afterwards I invited 8 of them back to my apartment to carry on. A few had to sit on the floor, and we were so noisy I half expected some neighbour to come over and wring our necks. When my drinking gang in Singapore gave me a surprise phone call that night, it felt surreal, like I was drinking at 2 places all at once. Oh yes, I did call Hong Kong a country didn't I? But "breaking up with a SAR" doesn't quite have the same ring to it, lol.

In the morning, I searched out an old restaurant called Tai Ping Koon and tried its famous chicken wings in Swiss sauce. The story goes that a caucasian tried this dish and said "sweet!" but the restaurant staff misheard it as "swiss" and named the dish accordingly. Odd, this reminds me of songs with misheard lyrics.

I also watched "Merry Christmas", a lovely film I didn't manage to watch before Christmas. It's based on a real-life incident during World War I in 1914, where the Scottish, French and German troops ceased fire over Christmas and fraternised. I especially love the scene where the German officer went over to the French and Scottish trenches, and explained politely that they should walk over and take shelter in the German trenches (as the Germans would be shelling them in the next 10 minutes). Then afterwards because the Allied forces would be retaliating, it was the German troop's turn to walk over to the Allied trenches to take shelter. lol.

There was a countdown to the New Year at Times Square here with a falling apple, just like in New York. So I thought I would walk over to Times Square about 11-ish pm after watching a rerun of "The Sound of Music" on tv. However, what used to take 10 minutes became an impossible walk as the crowd was too huge. A few false alarm countdowns took place because people couldn't see the countdown stage at Times Square, so I'm not really sure how I crossed over to the new year, but it's all good.

First good day of the year:
I woke up and ran, and came back to the office thereafter to clear some emails. Will be walking back to my apartment building later for farewell lunch with neighbours and a security guard. No new year resolutions but it seems like a good start.