Say What????

I worked late into Wednesday night, participating in a video conference with Simeb US followed by a telecon with our ERP Partner. With the time stretching to 8:30 PM or so, I figured my wife Kim would be at work, so why not see her on the telly too.

So I call and tell her to come to the Board Room. There, I connect us using the video technology and we “see” each other for the first time in almost a week! Unfortunately, I think Kim became frustrated when she couldn’t find any show to watch other than Gary’s Face. And, wouldn’t you know it, no DVR either!

After our “call”, I was once again taking a solo cab ride. All of the taxis in Hong Kong are painted a deep red color, which I suspect was selected to hide the splayed entrails of unwitting tourists who fail to look right when stepping off the curb. As a former British Commonwealth, Hong Kong cars drive on the left (or wrong by our standards) side of the road. After a while you get adjusted to it, but it’s easy to have a lifetime of pedestrian habits place you in mortal danger if you’re not paying attention. You glance to your left for oncoming traffic and go to cross the street only to have a speeding car coming from your blind side on the right.

Another interesting thing (to me at least) about the cabs here is that the driver can open the back door by pulling a lever on the floor next to the steering wheel. This is precisely what my driver does as I approach his taxi for the ride home and I hop in. I tell him, “101 Repulse Bay”. It’s clear that to him I might as well have been speaking pig latin. So I grab my cheat sheet and give it my best Chinese, “Yat Ling Yat Chin Soy Wan”. He looks at me with the same expression I have when Kim is talking to me about relationship dynamics. Fortunately, he has a resource that can help and he gives me the microphone. I tell the unseen dispatcher where I want to go, and the fellow squawks clear directions to my man in the front seat. At least I hope so. For all I know, he’s told the driver to go as fast as he can around a curve and then pull the mysterious lever knocking this idiot American to the curb in the middle of nowhere.