Ceci n'est pas une blog post

I haven't written anything in a while because I've had nothing to say. Or too much. Or too much and nothing at the same time but to the wrong people. I can't put my reasoning into words but I had some crazy reasoning.

Canada was perfect. I felt completely at home for the first time in a long time. They say home is where the heart is... to my travel companion in the great white north: you're awesome and I miss you and those dinners were amazing!

I was in Manila briefly. It happened. I'm still laughing. Thanks, Jade.

When I first wrote this I wrote a bunch of stuff that was sort of on my mind but it was very boring mind dump kind of stuff. I deleted it, don't worry you weren't missing anything. But I will say is that writing anything as late in the night as I did will lead to some pointless rambling. Not drunk talk, more... the kind of things you feel are really necessary to write about at 1:30 in the morning... and then you get up and do normal life stuff for a while and your real brain gets back on the job. It's like the minute or so in basketball when mostly bench guys are on the court and the team lags a little while the starters rest. Then the minute the coach puts a few of the starters back in the game the team picks right up again. Last night, the bench brain squad was on the metaphorical mental court, while the starting brain was sipping Gatorade and getting the cheerleader's phone number. But this morning the starting brain was back in the game and order has been restored.

A few weeks ago, I went out with a bunch of locals from work for the first time. These guys and girls are good people, but it seems like if I'm out on a Friday it's always with expats. But that night was fun. I had some great food with them (I love eating with locals because they just order a bunch of stuff and I don't have to think about to order.) But the event of the night was a bar/pool hall that also has set ups for you to play your favorite old college drinking games like beer pong and flip cup. I haven't played either since I was in college. It was mostly locals and a small group of expats that work on the airport project with everyone. It was great to be out having fun with the local guys, socializing with them, cracking jokes. I had a blast and I hope I can get out with them again soon.

While I was out yesterday, getting some half decent pizza and exploring some more western areas of the city, I stopped off for Brooklyn Lager and to read an English language newspaper I picked up. Bon Jovi and Springsteen came on the sound system in succession. It's like some greater force was trying to let a Jersey boy know that he was welcome, that home was just one "Born to Run" mp3 away.

I think I did well today. Good conversation with my folks, went to yoga, then got sushi and went to the Hong Kong Museum of Art for a while. That's a pretty passable in Sunday in my book.

I want to throw some congrats out to my multiple friends who got engaged recently, now if you guys would kindly coordinate your weddings to make MY travel easier ;-)
Kidding.
Sort of.

Closing thoughts: A friend at work (originally from Long Island) says that she talks more like a New Yorker when she's around me. I guess I'm a good frickin' influence on people.

Cheers and happy Presidents Day to all of my Presidential American friends.

Long overdue holiday+ blog

So I've been busy at work, not too stressed, but definitely busy. And I've had a lot do organizing my life and the holidays were their own thing.

Anyway this year there was no Bing Crosby/Danny Kaye cinematic excellence in my Christmas. But there was one of my oldest and dearest friends, another kid the from dangerous back streets of Little Silver, Mr. Jeff Dalton. And we kept ourselves busy exploring the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. We found some bars, found some GREAT food, and definitely shared a few laughs. Thanks for coming, Jeff!

Here I am at the Po Lin Monastery in the Pakistani hat that Jeff got for me:




So we got a late start on the day and we got there and wanted to see the Buddha and the Monestary so we're not stopping for food just powering through to see everything. Now I wanted to sit down at one of the nice restaurants in the village but there's a line 90 mins long to get the gondola back to civilization and the only place still open to sell food is like a gyro fast food guy. So we go to town on gyros and fries and then wait in the cool mountain air on this line forever just to get the gondola back.









And here's Jeff with the bull who was wandering around the village on our way back. Because you know how often do you see a bull loose in the street, when you're in a major wold city...


I mentioned finding some great food, we hit up an Italian deli for Christmas Eve foods, we found a great Dim Sum place that I was sure wouldn't have an English menu but surprised with that and great Dim Sum. All in all it was a great holiday weekend.

Before I leave Christmas I want to send another shout out to the gang from New York/Boston/Long Island/Jersey who put together that great care package, it made my holiday. You guys mean the world to me.

I missed the New Years fireworks. I was feeling under the weather and took the opportunity to rest. Since it worked, and I managed to hit it strong during the week, I'm glad I did. It's funny though, because I've had some really great New Year's celebrations, with some great friends, or family. But in the end there's something about New Years... it's all build up and 12:00 always manages to fail to live up to the hype. Usually the party would have been just fine if we ignored the clock and just partied and let the calendar flip as it will. But that's not what New Year's Eve is about. Oh well.

So the holidays are over and I've got big travel plans for the end of the month. The centerpiece of my Lunar New Year travel is my awesome ski trip in Western Canada with someone I've missed terribly. Can't wait to see you! I'm so excited to hit the slopes and then settle into the condo at night. I love ski trippin'!
Then as a little bonus I'll be meeting a friend from New York in the Philippines for one day. I don't know what to expect but it'll certainly be an interesting weekend after what's sure to be a fun filled week.

At work, I'm working my tail off and we just moved offices. The whole process took the chaos up a notch but I seem to have survived with only minor bruising to my humanity.

Since I last blogged my Jets managed to flush away their season in typical grand fashion and I'm glad I didn't buy an NFL playoff package right about now. But the Devils are holding on their own and should make the playoffs and the Yankees just finally did something to improve themselves a bit. So the sports world back home isn't all bad news.

I found "Mexican food" last night with a friend of mine. This isn't Mexican food. It's Americanized Mexican-ish food. It's not to say the food was bad, it was alright food, I'd go back there, but it was really the kind of place I expect to find passing for Mexican food near the Canada-US boarder in Vermont.

Lastly I have few funny pictures:



"Ho Kung Fu"
I suppose self defense is important in that line of work...




What makes this funny is that this restaurant is at the airport. It implies that you should get on your flight and then ask "the Captain" about how to follow up on the take away roast goose. Of course I was informed that the Chinese word implies someone at the restaurant but I'm going to go with the literal English translation and see where that gets me next time I want roast goose on a flight out of Hong Kong.


I'll be back after my travels.
Cheers!!