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satyricaam back in the UK: we stopped over in Hong Kong for a few days en route back from Oz, which I think was a good plan in terms of providing a kinda decompression chamber to allow me to get used to leaving Oz and then returning home rather than plunging straight from one to the other which could have been kinda intense
had a good time in HK but it's probably the first place I've visited that I wouldn't make the effort to go back to: I've always thought of myself as a total city-boy but, maybe it's just having acclimatised to Sydney's more chilled out pace, HK was too full-on for me; I enjoyed it most when we got away from the high rises and explored the more rural parts of Lamma and Lantau islands or when I trawled round various Buddhist temples and museums of archaeological glee; of course it doesn't help that the main activity relently pushed by and about HK is Shopping, of which I am a Sworn Enemy; I managed to tick off my usual alterno-tourist checklist too by squeezing my way into a gay bar and heading along to see a bunch of punk bands: as usual, the music won
we stayed in the suitably rickety Chunking Mansions (hurrah for stairwells featuring exciting tangles of uncovered wires and pools of piss and rooms of non-feline rotation! I take![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cryx to all the nicest places!) which was quite a cultural melting pot but generally HK was very anglophone which made things slightly guiltily easy; all four of the countries I've been to this year boast a not-entirely-glorious past of British colonialism and one of the things this year away has done (cliche cliche cliche) is give me a fresh perspective on home, for instance in appreciating the level of attention paid to the UK around the world- the saturation of British TV, media, music etc. in Oz really took me by surprise: I guess I just assumed it would be on a fairly reciprocal level to the extent to which Australia intrudes into the British cultural consciousness
I'm now sequestered back in Highcliffe and relaxing here for a couple of days before my Epic Journey Up North, followed by my Tour Of The Provinces, culminating in my Triumphal Return To The Capital, so will try and post some of the stuff I've been mulling over as a result of this year away (and if you're *really* lucky, I may even rant about APEC. . .)
had a good time in HK but it's probably the first place I've visited that I wouldn't make the effort to go back to: I've always thought of myself as a total city-boy but, maybe it's just having acclimatised to Sydney's more chilled out pace, HK was too full-on for me; I enjoyed it most when we got away from the high rises and explored the more rural parts of Lamma and Lantau islands or when I trawled round various Buddhist temples and museums of archaeological glee; of course it doesn't help that the main activity relently pushed by and about HK is Shopping, of which I am a Sworn Enemy; I managed to tick off my usual alterno-tourist checklist too by squeezing my way into a gay bar and heading along to see a bunch of punk bands: as usual, the music won
we stayed in the suitably rickety Chunking Mansions (hurrah for stairwells featuring exciting tangles of uncovered wires and pools of piss and rooms of non-feline rotation! I take
cryx to all the nicest places!) which was quite a cultural melting pot but generally HK was very anglophone which made things slightly guiltily easy; all four of the countries I've been to this year boast a not-entirely-glorious past of British colonialism and one of the things this year away has done (cliche cliche cliche) is give me a fresh perspective on home, for instance in appreciating the level of attention paid to the UK around the world- the saturation of British TV, media, music etc. in Oz really took me by surprise: I guess I just assumed it would be on a fairly reciprocal level to the extent to which Australia intrudes into the British cultural consciousnessI'm now sequestered back in Highcliffe and relaxing here for a couple of days before my Epic Journey Up North, followed by my Tour Of The Provinces, culminating in my Triumphal Return To The Capital, so will try and post some of the stuff I've been mulling over as a result of this year away (and if you're *really* lucky, I may even rant about APEC. . .)
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Date: 2007-09-05 02:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-05 02:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-05 03:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-05 03:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-05 03:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-05 11:26 pm (UTC)We shall have to see if we can organise some sort of Arch...
Looking forward to seeing you at the weekend!
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Date: 2007-09-06 11:11 pm (UTC)Also how long will your triumphant return to The Capital last? I.e will you be there during the week? If so would you like to meet up for lunch? I'm happy to buy if you can get near enough.
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Date: 2007-09-07 08:54 am (UTC)but yeah, will be back in London from the 17th on so definitely up for weekday lunch! (maybe Tue 18th?) Will be good to see you :-)
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Date: 2007-09-07 09:01 am (UTC)