Getting sorted out...

I leave Hong Kong a week today – so am beginning to get sorted out for returning home.

When I get back to the UK I’m going to be involved in a project across some of the bank’s divisions. I can bore you with the details when I see you! I’ll be based in Edinburgh (which will be nice after 3 months of gallivanting!) but will probably have to visit various centres throughout the country. So that should keep me occupied throughout the summer…

I’ve been meaning since I arrived to see about buying a tailored suit and some shirts. I finally got round to asking for a recommendation and went for my measure up last week. I had my first fitting yesterday – lots of pins and tailor’s chalk! And picked up my first shirt – it fits perfectly – which I’m actually (sadly!) quite excited by. I have a thick neck and short arms –which means that I’ve never been able to get a shirt that fits properly… I either can’t breath or have sleeves dangling to the floor!



To stay with the sartorial theme... it turns out that “the man in pants” (see blog from 28 March) is the actor Djimon Hounsou who appeared in the excellent movie Blood Diamond alongside Leonard DiCaprio (who pulled off a pretty impressive Rhodesian accent!). He also appeared in Gladiator and Amistad. So there you go – a celebrity “man in pants”!

And finally, for the trivia buffs - following on from my trip to Macao on Sunday... Portugal was given the right of “perpetual occupation and government of Macao” by China in 1887. It was only after the 1974 Carnation Revolution (military coup in Portugal) that the Portuguese government decided that it wanted to relinquish all its overseas territories. Initially the Chinese didn’t want it back! And it wasn’t until 20 December 1999 that sovereignty was formally handed over to China.



Similarly, Hong Kong Island (by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842) and Kowloon (by the Convention of Peking in 1860) were permanently ceded to Britain. It was only Lantau Island and the New Territories that were obtained by Britain by the 99 year lease in 1898 – which had the unintentional effect of setting the date for the transfer of the entire colony back to China. In the decades before the lease end, it became clear that it would not be feasible to hand back only the leased areas as the “British” areas were so dependent on them for their existence. The British government therefore had to negotiate the best deal that it could before the handover of the entire colony to the People’s Republic of China on 1 July 1997.

and ps... Happy Brithday Sly (who's currently in the gambling capital of the world... although Macau is doing its best to catch up! Hope you're winning!)