So, spent an entertaining 5 days in Hong Kong last week, training various bods in seemingly everything from Facilitation skills to concept writing, profitability and Innovative workshopping. Talk about having to walk round the airport to stay awake (flight 11.45pm, mmmm handy) and virtually crawling onto the plane home. Add in the ensuing 2 hour delay due to 'a problem in Chinese airpsace' (a missile? North Korea trying out their nuclear programme? OK, we'll just wait then) was an even bigger bonus…
And then had all of one hour back at home to empty one bag and fill another, as headed straight off to Whitstable (the Hong Kong of Kent… kind of), with Hatch, Fitz & Claire for a girls' weekend. Not quite as balmy as it could have been – British understatement, it was bloody freezing – but still a really nice two days, catching up properly with the birds.
And they even managed to hoist my fat butt onto a bike, to cycle not just to Canterbury (with the lure that you can leave the bikes there and get a cab back – my kind of trip) but in the end, also back from Canterbury – I had weighed up the vast calorie intake of the two days (fresh crab scoring nice and low but counterbalanced by everything from raspberry wheat beer and Frazzles to wild boar, astonishingly good cheese from the local fromagerie and hot doughnuts straight from the pan..) and thought it might be a good idea..
And the sun did finally come out, so after Sunday brek we wandered up a stony spit that poked straight out a couple of hundred yards into the sea. Hatch was right at the far tip and as she turned back to look at us, her face changed. Had one of us trodden in dog poo? Or eaten the last of the strawberry bonbons from the retro sweetshop? No – it seemed that the tide had turned in the 20 minutes we'd been out there and the bit of spit we werre on was now no longer connected to the rest of the spit… or the shore.
Cue 4 x 40 something women rapidly legging it towards land, 4 sets of very wet socks & feet and a good spattering of Kentish mud up everyone's trouserlegs as we made our undignified emergency return to the edge of Blighty…
Photos to follow - always good to be 3 days shy of May and still be wearing puffa jackets and fleeces, hey ho… x