November 2024
Most of the events in September and October were the normal routine stuff, weekly radio show co-hosting, fortnightly newspaper column etc plus the usual birthdays and wedding anniversaries.
Such action as did take place was mostly linked to future travel plans. I had the usual annual flu shot as soon as the latest vaccine became available, and my seventh Covid shot (even though the pandemic seems to be abating, this seemed a sensible precaution). But the big excitement concerned passport renewal.
For some reason I had it in my mind that this process could take up to half a day so I blocked off the requisite time in my diary. I also prevailed upon a technology-enabled friend to book an appointment for me on the Immigration Department website at 9 am on the selected day. I hoped with good luck and a fair wind I might be done by 11.
In the event I was in and out in 13 minutes. And most of that was taken up by my fumbling in the photo booth – facing wrong way for the first pictures, thumb in wrong place for fingerprint check, searching through pocket for Octopus card to make payment etc. A moderately competent person would have taken much less than five minutes.
Despite being a HK “Bull” I had underestimated the legendary Hong Kong efficiency. A lesson the rest of the world would do well to bear in mind. Now off to UK for Alex’ graduation and USA for a wine tour of California with Tiffany.
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