& so the shooting season finishes, not with a bang but a long haul flight
As game shooters will know, this weekend is the last of the season & as regular readers will also know, your humble correspondent hasn’t had much time this year to get the barrels of his Beretta warm. If fact, he didn’t even manage to make his annual pilgrimage to the moors of Scotland & if that wasn’t injury enough, not being to even get to Bisley over the last couple of months has only served to heaped up further insult. Still, all of that is going to be rectified this weekend as we have our annual end of season ‘cocks only’ day on Saturday, followed by Short Siberia japery care of EX_STAB on Sunday … assuming that the Saturday night doesn’t become as errrrrrrrrr liquid has it normally is.
As plans go, it wasn’t a bad one, right up until the moment that the CEO needed someone, experienced in dealing with whiley Oriental chappies to go at short notice to further Sino-British relations & try to undo some of the damage that the arch-nanger Brown has been doing in Peking this week. This sadly will entail missing my shooting weekend but on the flip side, it will mean abusing Cathay Pacific’s drinks trolley service for about 12 hours tonight, as I fly to Hong Kong. Yes it’s a bummer about the shooting, as is also the woeful lack of entries in the Game Book this year … but on the flip side there is the opportunity to visit old haunts in Whanchai & ‘the Fong’ – a tough call I know, but someone has to put their liver on the line for the greater corporate good.
Having left Hong Kong in 1997, returning only once a year later for a short visit, if the truth be known, I will be fascinated to see how the place has changed after what is now, nearly 11 years since Mrs T sold out to the Communists: but like everything in life, there is no such thing as a free lunch (unless you have a generous expense account) & for a few days, I shall be locked in earnest discussions with some of the more tedious lawyers it has ever been my sorry displease to meet – however when you are hung over to billy-oh, the last thing that you actually want is Bobby Broker pitching you the latest credit crunch busting financial product, with all the accompanying bluster that seems to accompany the occupants of certain Investment Bank’s ‘front desk’ personnel – so I will settle for dull lawyers, a pile of legal documentation & another Alka-Seltzer thank you very much.
Whilst the end of the week will see me up-country in some unspeakable Chinese city with a completely unpronounceable name, eating the local delicacy which will inevitably be badgers balls (or someone equally vomit inducing), on the up side, I get to drink in possibly my favourite bar (note bar, not pub) ever … The Captain’s Bar in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
I hear rumours that it has had a bit of a freshen up but by all that is good & holy, if they have ruined it, I’m on the next flight home! So I shall direct my following comments to the old bar, as I remember it in when old Mr Lee was last building me gins in ’98 & the condensation formed on pewter tankards full of ice cold foaming Carlsberg (pronounced Carls-i-berg in HK). In fact, said esteemed hostelry almost defies description … a head on car collision between orient & 70’s chic. & boy o boy, did it ever work. Forget those faceless hotel lobby bars which could be anywhere in the world; sit in the Captains Bar & know just know that you are in Hong Kong; just don’t be surprised if an immaculate Roger Moore should walk into the place & ask for his drink not to be stirred. It’s that sort of place.
If it has been ruined by ‘refurbishment’ then expect my howls to be heard around the globe on early Wednesday evening when I fully intend to be sitting down at the end of the bar, kicking off with a couple of post flight bracers. In that case I would have to retire to the floor above , home to the wood panelled Chinnery Bar which was originally opened in 1963 but didn’t open to women until 1990. Aside from its gentleman’s club feel, it is noted for serving serving traditional colonial cuisine & whiskey. Need I say any more?
Comments
Have to agree with you on choice of bar. I left HK in '96, and have yet to go back. Liked to start the evening in Le Jardin ('Fong).
Nowhere better to enjoy a large Gin and Tonic than the Captains Bar.
Posted by: Wilky cpo | January 22, 2008 11:54 AM
You have my sympathies, I am struggling to get to saturdays shoot, (dead car) and will possibly have to make do with last saturdays as a memory. I am hoping unless work intervenes to make Hampshire for the 31st as The tips cover the diesel for once!(wifes new truck)
I never got to HK, my mob was there 76-78 whilst I was at secondary school dreaming of joining up!
The sunniest posting I ever got was six weeks in Wainwright Alberta!
Posted by: TimC | January 23, 2008 8:53 AM
Cathay Pacific ... as I recall, one of their 747s was grounded in Frankfort when an airport maint. person noticed that they were using nylon cargo straps INSIDE the engine intake to prevent three loose stator blades from annoying the passengers by vibrating while the engine was running.
http://iagblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/chinese-aircraft-maintenance.html
Ignore the clueless yowling in the comments ... it was a Cathay Pacific 747.
Posted by: Kristopher | January 23, 2008 5:23 PM
Im just catching up on a bit of missed blog reading so excuse my tardiness....
Im off to Aus in a couple of weeks for a wedding and happen to be spending 3 days in HK. Any ideas on what to do and see? And more importantly, I suppose for the bride and groom anyway, where I can get a decent suit made?
Posted by: oc | January 29, 2008 5:52 PM