Sunshine on a rainy day

Shiny, glitzy, sparkling – that’s what Hong Kong is supposed to be like.  But when I looked out of my window at midday, reviewing the notes from the previous night’s focus group, it was so dark that it looked like it was ten in the evening!  Rain, rain and more rain – interspersed with a bit of thunder and a soupcon of lightening.

Yes, I know, I complained about the rain in Sydney, which was otherwise glorious, but the HK weather was so bad that we sat on the runway for more than two hours waiting for an opportunity to get back to Beijing – this was something altogether in a different league.

Besides, I had good reason to indulge in the British pastime of obsessing over the weather since I was working with The British Council in Admiralty.  And, as an organisation that promotes British culture I can only imagine them being more than happy for me to broadcast something so central to that culture (two things, should you count moaning separately.)

As it turned out, a week of rain was somewhat welcome given the whirlwind of work that accompanied my visit – there’s nothing worse than being indoors on a gloriously sunny day.  Depth interviews, focus groups, new venture meetings.  Things are meant to happen at pace in HK, and they certainly did.

I’m only sorry that I didn’t have time to meet up with some old friends whilst I was there.  Then again, I don’t imagine it’ll be too long before I’m heading south again.  And, yes, next time, I am hoping for a little sunshine.