shi nian

what happened after vietnam? well...i went back to hong kong for some serious hanging around. not a great deal happened, but it was exceedingly pleasant.
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we were present at the 10 year hong kong hand-over celebrations, where they had the biggest fireworks display in the region's history. it was pretty good. we watched with 5 million other people. for that reason alone i really felt part of something - connected to all the humanity there in some way - a brotherhood of fireworks observers. it was as if there was some sort of power in it all, all these humans doing exactly the same thing at the same time. 10 million eyes fixed on the same spot in the middle distance - i wouldn't have been surprised if it had caused an earthquake, or a tsunami had come and swept us all away. it didn't though. there was just a hell of a lot of rubbish after everyone had left. then a tsunami of girl guides came and swept it all away. maybe that's what i was expecting. it's the hong kong version of a natural phenomenon.

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it was the second best fireworks display i'd ever seen. the best was the traralgon community fireworks i saw a few years ago, in which we all gathered around a massive bonfire and they set off fireworks so dangerously close to the ground it felt as if they were exploding right in our faces, which of course they were. when the wind changed, the ashes and embers from the bonfire started raining down on the crowd and there was a mass-panic and mini-stampede. no-one was hurt, but it certainly added a dimension to the fireworks display that i felt was lacking in hong kong.

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the rest of my time was basically spent hanging around the scented harbour being a tai-tai extraordinaire. the situation with gerard is now criticial - i've never met a man who's so filled with fucking goodness. and i mean right to the brim. i've moved all my troops to battle-stations, and the army of me is now at war with fate and the department of immigration and citizenship to make sure that he doesn't become the one that got away.