...Well after departing from Patpong - and no - I'm never going there again I left for Hong Kong before heading off to the South of France.

I have to say I absolutey hated Patpong - it really was the arsehole of Thailand...and a very ugly arsehole at that...I felt huge relief when I stepped off the plane in Hong kong..into a limo and into Hotel LKF - what a fabulous hotel and what a wonderful upgrade they gave me...!

The only silly thing I did was to think I could walk up Old Peak road to see my friends...the road was so steep I had to walk backwards and looked as though I had had a bloody shower by the time I got to their apartment - I was soaked!

That evening, we dined in Zuma which is at the Landmark Hotel and is fantastic, before hitting the bars one last time....michelle and I rolled out of the last bar after singing our way through a few epic 80's classics..and safely in a cab and off back home to her hubby - I walked into my elevator and crashed and burned on my hotel bed.......

Meeting michelle for brunch the next day in Dragon-i seemed like a good idea as we were screaming our way through a whitney number on the dancefloor the night before but my head felt as though a tank had repeatedly rolled over it the next day - BUT although it was as stuggle getting up...lunch was great and just the tonic...we ate like kings...and that evening we washed our hangovers away with a departure drink for me in the Red bar...overlooking the harbour - A perfect way to end an exciting adventure.

I loved Hong Kong and would move there tomorrow....it was only as I was saying farewell to my friends there that I realised an amazing break from work was rapidly coming to an end...and that after rendevouzing with loved ones in the South of France I would be returning to the rat race...its odd really - part of me was screaming "NOOOOOOOOOO get a job in a bar...live a little...don't go back."....and yet the other part of me was saying "Come on - time you used the old grey matter again...you are getting bored"....its that classic dilemma - you miss it when you don't have it and then when you have you don't want it....what wierd animals we are!.

After some wonderful evenings in Bar Sur Loup, and Valbonne I returned to London and am now gradually getting to grips with my new role at my company....I'm not sure what I expected but nothing has changed...I was getting quite sentimental about old blighty and in Hong Kong I remember saying..admittedly after a few drinks "There is no place like home"...yes it was a bit of a Dorothy moment....BUT having returned the sentimentality quickly evaporates when you crash back down to earth and open your eyes......

Thames Water are still taking a criminally long time..3 months...to repair each tiny section of the waterpipe replacement programme in our streets; the underground is still over-priced and shite and closes far too early thanks to Bob Crowe; there are still too many bendy buses on the roads and when you want a bus you wait for ages to find that a whole pointless convoy of them arrives at the same time; the black cabs are still a rip off, rude, and the drivers still ignore you if you want to go 5 miles out of the centre of London; pointless Speed Cameras are still screwing Drivers and causing accidents rather than preventing them; Gordon Brown remains incredibly ugly and creepy and continues on in lame duck mode, hanging on..not by the skin of his teeth..but by a single, stubborn pube; David Cameron is still a patronising; condesending insignificant little tosser....but that will never change; petrol prices still keep going up....along with everythingelse including the national debt; Tesco still rules the world..annoyingly...; Walthamstow still doesn't have a starbucks; Simon Cowell continues to wear grotty grey t-Shirts; 200million americans continue to tune into fox news who still think Bush is president; and the whole of the UK is glued once again to the 21st century bloodsport that is the X Factor and Strictly come dancing and that stupid thick weatherman on Sky who talks complete piffle STILL HAS NOT BEEN FIRED even after 100 years of talking bollocks........so after 3 months away its nice to know I have missed nothing...and that this small nation of ours is still as interesting and as annoying and as lovely as the day I left it..

Well I have been back at work now for two weeks and my time in Tokyo which was the start of my sabbatical literally feels like it was years ago...so more relaxed; chilled out and with life in a better perspective I am back at the coal face...trying to keep the blood pressure down.....I wonder how long that will last.

I have circumnavigated the globe; have met a few freaks along the way; caught up with some great friends and loved leaving the rat race - even if it was only for a while....Thank you for joining me.

ax

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