A long hiatus

I've not been busier in a long while.  Time seems to fly past and I don't seem to get anything done.  Writing on this blog has been put on the back burner and I seem to have trouble finding my way back to it.

I'm back though and thought I'd tell you all about our last boys and toys.  October 1st is Chinese National Day and as always, there was a gathering of puzzlers in GZ for the competition and just a good old time.

I had originally not planned to go up as Mr. Man  has been being funny about my travels (his job is dull and boring and he never leaves the office-poor man.) but when I told him how long I'd been going, he decided maybe it was a good idea if I didn't skip this year.  I ran over to Hung Hom right away and bought a ticket to GZ for Friday evening.  (I still had to get through 6 hours of classes first) I managed to arrive at the dinner around 8:30.  I'm very proud of myself because I managed the whole trip alone.  All the way up to the outside of the restaurant where I had to call and have Philip come rescue me.

We didn't stay long after I arrived.  It was off for karaoke as usual.  Interesting night it was. Since it's not rated PG I'll skip the details.  But I had Ming with me so all was well at the end of the night.  Stupid Rox forgot it was a holiday weekend and didn't book a hotel room.  Luckily I had Michael to rescue me and I spent the night with him.

The next day saw us up early walking around town to visit friends, and stopping by the competition.  If you've ever gone to one of these you know how not exciting they are, and we didn't stay long.  I think we are getting a bit long in the tooth, because Michael and Da Yan both wanted to take a nap and I thought that was a wonderful idea.  I passed out for about 3 hours and boy did my head need that extra bit of kip.

We ended up having dinner with a group of puzzlers, and as usual the drinking continued.  Me?  I've turned over a new leaf.  No boozing.  Honestly though, I just didn't feel good.  The guys went back to Karaoke again and I headed to the hotel.

The next morning we checked out and Michael went home, and I headed over to the competition.  It reminded me of that scene from "It's a Wonderful Life" when George Bailey turns Uncle Billie around and pushes him down the street towards home.

I watched a few twistings, visited with friends, had lunch with Uwe and Jet.  At the last solve of the day, the storm shut down all the power but it wasn't a big deal.  Philip had light and long arms.

All in all, it was a good day.  Jing, Adele and I ended up taking a train back to Shenzhen and I headed back to HK like a good little girl.