December 4

I suffered from surprising exhaustion in the earlier part of the day, and slept in, uncharacteristically, and then went out and just to the library where I did a few emails, and to my Chinese Breakfast Cafe.

Chinese staff laughed uproariously at White Person as I tried to have peanut, white rice cereal gruel, hot tea, and soy bean milk for a good cheap breakfast. Finally it all came together, and I sat writing letters to my father, friends, and cousins.

Laura called me in a dither about her academic assignments which I have offered to proofread for her to check on perfect English spelling.

The more we talked, the more she felt like running away to my distant island on her day off, and also getting my advice on her papers.

Her husband had the television on loudly when she woke up, and she got in a frazzle about her school work, and when I finally looked at her papers, I almost passed out with the unclarity of the instruction from the Chinese Academics at a local university.

The writing was so vague, so unclear, and so almost illogical - and I am on who did well at tests in the school system of a Western democracy.

We had a hilarious laugh walking around the island finding out that the hotel I am now staying in is quite notorious, and therfore we think I was rooked - when we asked at the ferry stands how much the monthly rate at my hotel was, she gave Laura a 25% lower rate than I had been given, and for a far better room, well decorated, spotless, with a Western bath-tub.

I feel I could do anything to live in a house that has a Western bath-tub, it is almost a distant dream and an incessant obsession. A woman from my culture needs this type of room to do her beauty and grooming routines, and the hot water all around your muscles is also a potent therapy before you sleep.

I'm really getting that Chinese sense of humour, I laughed with Laura, as we discussed the scandalous nature of the hotel I was staying at.

No wonder they are so many young goodlooking Asian couples there, I wondered, They seem to be having illicity holidays away from their strict moms and dads.

Since these kids are not even boozing or doing drugs, this would not be racy stuff in other countries, only in Chinese lands.

I thought that name rang a bell, agreed Laura, as she dished the dirt with the Chinese sales representiative, both laughing at the terrible name of the hotel where I am staying.

We had a second laugh about how I had been cvharged, a laugh that won't extend to a second month of being rooked.

I thought that would happen, I said cynically, though now I am right here, and am going to rope my Chinese friends in to finding me a Chinese rate, and a Chinese bargain rate, if possible.

I am going to take you for dessert, said Laura in an increasingly buoyant mood she had shifted the burden of her academic work onto two people's shoulders.

When I was in the washroom at dinner, she paid for mushrooms and tofu cakes, and squid and celery, and two faux Mexican beers - deliciously cooked, dirt cheap, in one of those large wood round tables and plastic stools restaurants.

We could not get over how cheap the dishes were. 35 HK for a large plate of well cooked food, it came to under 100 HK for two with beers.

Laura found an incredible place full of Chinese desserts for 5 - 10 HK each. I had red beans pudding with vanilla ice cream for 10 HK.

I could not bring myself to have her back to the bedroom with paint chipped on the headboard, though facing a white sand beach and thundering ocean waves - which somewhat justifies my error.

I walked her to the ferry, and she kept wondering what she could to to help me with her hideously demanding written work.

I grimaced and said, I am sure you will be repaying me for that! And we both laughed, exhausted, feeling the fragile tendrils of human friendship in this city of Hong Kong, so potentially crushing of new and vulnerable growths.