Saturday, December 03, 2005

Being Brave....

The other evening saw me doing something so totally out of character that I still can't even believe I did it! I think I have mentioned before that a friend of mine has called me a social nightmare, mainly due to my complete inability to communicate on a social level with people I don’t know...

I was kindly invited to a dinner party...a fellow Manila blogger took pity on me and invited me to meet himself, his girlfriend and some of their friends...and it was a great evening – interesting people, good food and the added benefit of nobody working in the same industry as me. I must admit it was nerve-wracking to arrive at someone's home and not know anyone but I am really glad I did it.

One of the things I found refreshing during the evening was the fact that one of the other Brits at the table, who has lived in Manila for a number of years, was talking about his frustrations with things that happen here...and how agitated he gets (not unlike myself!!)..so I quoted some Kipling to him...

"And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, with the name of the late deceased,

And the epitaph drear: 'A fool lies here who tried to hustle the East.'
"

The gentleman in question had also spent a long period of time living in Hong Kong...is it possible that Hong Kong spoils you for anywhere else in Asia?

One of the subjects of discussion over dinner was the way in which newspaper headlines here never cease to amaze, amuse and stun (not necessarily in that order!)- is there anywhere else in the world where newspaper headlines are so surprising? In HKG you almost know what the headlines will be every day...particularly on the day after a fireworks display and after some sort of protest march...am guessing that Monday's SCMP headline will give the number of people who attend the protest...unfortunately the dinosaurs are gone so we can't be treated to a rerun of my favourite SCMP headline of all time

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Favourite headlines would be a good topic for a post. My favourite Singapore headline (not a spoof I swear) would take some beating:

Let's have spontaneous fun: here's how

6:47 pm  

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