Day 1: It's November; it must be another holiday!

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It's half four. Usually that means that it's cold and dark and I'm getting up early to go on another jaunt to some far off place and experience something different. Well; two out of three's not bad - it's cold and (nearly) dark but it's actually half four in the afternoon and I'm in Bedfont (near Heathrow) having completed a day's work in the office.

It all started the day before.

After a very hectic weekend trying to tie up lose ends before taking a break, I finished my meal, brought the car round from the garage and packed my trusty camera equipment and suitcase. At precisely 18h00, not by plan, I pulled away into the darkness and headed for the main motorway running from the North West of England southwards. My plan was to spend the Sunday night south of that renowned motorway bottleneck, Birmingham, and have a more relaxed journey to Bedfont.

The journey south was much busier than I'd anticipated with a constant stream of vehicles in the “BMW lane”. However, we averaged some 60mph so it really couldn't have been that bad and I arrived at my night stop some 5 minutes later than the Sat Nav initially indicated.

Sadly, it went downhill rapidly from there. Having checked in, I went to my room and switched on CEEFAX to see whether Lewis Hamilton had achieved his ambition to be the youngest ever F1 world champion. He had and I was elated. Some 5 minutes later though, I was the victim of another vertigo attack and found myself reaching out for the walls in order to steady myself. I sat on the bed motionless, afraid to move for fear of another attack. Gingerly, I reached for my travel tablets, took a couple and waited. A few moments later, I set the alarm on the phone for 05h00 and carefully lay down and closed my eyes.

Monday morning arrived very quickly. I knew that because the alarm was waking me. Very slowly, I lifted my head and waited for the room to spin dreading that awful feeling. Only a little wobble. I washed, dressed, took two more tablets, collected my bags and headed out into the damp, early morning air. Packing everything back into the car, I headed back to the motorway for the two hour drive to the office.

My plan had worked. Apart from feeling drained, the journey towards Bedfont was uneventful and I pulled into the underground car park at 07h04 - only a few minutes off the expected arrival time. In all, I'd had a very good journey and now just needed to do a day's work!

That was all this morning. At 16h00, I downed tools, set the answering machine to "go away, I don't care" and headed back to the car. I changed my shoes for my walking boots, locked my PC in the car and, leaving it securely two floors underground, headed for the bus to Heathrow. At 16h30, exactly on time, it arrived and, winding through the early evening traffic, we arrived at Terminal 4. Next, I headed for the Heathrow Express and made my way to T1, 2 and 3. Changing onto another train, I finally arrived at T5 - 5 minutes before I was able to deposit my luggage! Having checked in earlier in the day, I really wasn't too miffed and I only had to wait 4 minutes before they'd take my luggage.

So here I am. Two hours to wait, sitting in T5 with a mug of coffee waiting for the call to board and the start of another adventure.

Hong Kong

The flight to Hong Kong was totally uneventful, the only excitement being whether the Amazon-like chief stewardess would copy word for word the captain's announcements or whether she'd add her own words!

The decent into Hong Kong at 16h00 was preceded by breakfast on the plane! We flew in over open water, made a gentle landing and disembarked. All very ordinary really. Even getting the passport stamped was simple although there was quite a wait for the luggage.

After that, I went through the Green Channel and my heart fell. I was embarking on a two week walking holiday but I hadn't anticipated that my fellow ramblers would all be called Jean and would all be wearing print skirts; I was the youngest of the 24 by a very long way.

When we boarded the bus to the hotel, it was very disconcerting that several (well, most) of the group chose to take the lift rather than the escalator. If they can't carry their suitcases down a moving staircase, then we're not going to be in for a strenuous walk!!!!

Driving through the rush hour traffic, we eventually came to Kowloon just as the sun was setting. The neon lights from the shops cast, in the early evening light, an eerie glow over the pedestrians. We soon arrived at the hotel and waited for our tour leader to check us in.

After unpacking and showering, I went up to the roof to inspect the swimming facilities and was delighted to record the fact that the air temperature was 26C and the water temperature was 25C; my kind of water! The gym, however, didn't offer any more than just a few running machines although there was a notice, in small print, advising to inform the lifeguard if you wanted to use the dumbbells. I wondered why you'd use dumbbells whilst in the swimming pool!

We all met downstairs in the main lobby at 19h30 for the set western meal - much to the annoyance of quite a few of us! I opted to sit in the middle so that others would have to sit with me, rather than I with them. The meal itself consisted of reconstituted mushroom soup, chicken and chips and chocolate mousse; not good and therefore glossed over.

After tea, six of us (is this the first breakaway group?) decided to take the hotel bus down to the Cultural Centre. I didn't realise that this was on the waterfront and was totally blown away by the absolutely stunning Hong Kong skyline at night.

Tomorrow, I'll have to take my camera!

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