July 1, 2007
2 Comments
so if i had to say one negative thing about hong kong it would be…….this charming city of ours (or special administrative region, whatever they want to call it) has this annoying habit of keeping plebians out of the loop in regards to traffic information.
most civilised countries (those with radios, newspapers, internet, televisions, town cryers) will inform the public the day before there is to be traffic roadblocks or hold ups or delays. in hong kong, if the roadblocks will be caused because of a visiting politician, no information is provided to the public, with the mindset that, if the public knows the route the politician is going to travel, it gives them time to plot a nefarious plan against them.
so today, at 10.45 i jumped into a taxi with young jasper. we were headed to a birthday party at the aberdeen marina club. young jasper was very excited. we left in plenty of time. imagine my surprise when the traffic was at a standstill, five minutes into our journey. five minutes later, i realised being late was a very real possibility.
to get to the aberdeen marina club you take the same turnoff that takes you to ocean park. on the other side of the road, traffic was thick and i was grateful we would soon be turning off. as our taxi crawled toward the turnoff, i noticed policemen covering it and motioning other would be turners.
what’s this?
i unrolled my window.
"you can’t turn here" the policeman informed the taxi driver.
"why not?" i inquired not so politely, holding up a birthday gift.
"because the vice president of china is visiting ocean park."
"im not going to ocean park, i am going to the amc for the birthday party."
"no" and he motioned us forward.
so this meant we had to crawl to the next turnaround, and then join the crawling traffic. oh i was angry. and i was trying not to let jasper know how angry i was, but he kept asking me,
"mummy, why are you thaying "oh man?"" and i kept having to come up with excuses in a false voice like, "oh, i am just pretending like i am swiper the fox! can you say it with me? "oh man!"
unbelievable. we had to take so many turns and combinations to get to the silly amc, not to mention being pulled over twice to have the boot of the taxi inspected, and then they pulled out some silly mirror thingie and looked underneath the taxi. can you imagine.
and i mean really, what sort of place is it where the vice president of china comes to hong kong to celebrate 10 years of hong kong rejoining the fricking motherland and visits an amusement park? i mean really.
(can you tell that i am shaking my head and my lips are thin white lines as i type this?)
we finally got to the party and it was a great party. jasper had a fun time and ate well. i know that he ate well because he came home and needed to go on the nebuliser. his breathing has been bad today. and after the nebuliser, he vomitted. he only made it halfway through dinner and then decided he wanted to go to bed. he was snoring by 6.45. at 7pm he was crying. why? because he had vomitted all over himself and his "cars" sheets. poor little tyke. i took him into bed with me and he watched the jetsons while having another nebuliser treatment.
it is 2am and he just woke up crying again unable to breathe. drinks of water, inhalers, soothing.
this wouldn’t have happened if the vice president had acted like a bloody grown up and done something that didn’t interfere with my schedule today. i’m sure of it.
