Bryan Joiner

So I’m going to Hong Kong on Saturday for work. There are two simultaneous conferences going on, and I will be covering them as a guest of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. Trust me: I can’t believe it either. I will have a day before and a day after the conferences to sightsee, as well as any time I can carve out for myself otherwise, and I’ll do a fairly excellent job of carving. Adding to the absolute lunacy of this trip is the fact that I will be flying into Hong Kong at 3:15 p.m. on July 1st, 2007 — the 10th anniversary of the British handover. There are citywide events and celebrations planned for that evening. Good timing.

This whole thing started about three weeks ago when my editor received an email from the HKTDC inviting one of our editors to the licensing conference, promising to cover hotel expenses and return airfare for those who wanted to attend. The publisher negotiated for them to cover an entire trip, and my boss’ passport expires on July 1st, so off I went. I didn’t believe it was happening until the airfare was booked, and even then they switched it at the last minute — could I stay an extra day to cover the second conference? — but it looks like everything is in order. I am extremely lucky, I know this.

I plan to do a lot of walking and eating during the trip: basically the same thing I do here. That’s what I like to do, and Hong Kong seems just as suited to it as New York, if not better. I’ll probably do the two main touristy things, but hoof it after that. I may buy some new shoes before I go. I may not. I probably won’t do much except laundry and cleaning up the house (so it’s not a complete mess when I get back). That’s about all. I’m very excited. I’m trying not to boast or do anything that could still jinx it, but it’s my blog and it’s all very fun.