the hills are alive with the sound of crying

aaaaaaaaaaaaand i'm back.

back to blogging, and back in HK, the land that inspired me to once upon a time blog every day. (while getting the url for that link, i discovered that i used to blog MORE THAN ONCE a day. who am i? what have i become???

i arrived late last night and took a cab from central station to the apartment that will be my home for the next few weeks. to my horror, the apartment that will be my home for the next few weeks is practically ON A HILL.

"high on a hill was a lonely goatherd ..."

(i tell you solemnly, i heard julie andrews when i saw the street sloping up to oblivion.)

ok so maybe it's not exactly a HILL hill. but it reminded me of too many mountain memories ... and it was high and narrow enough for the taxi driver to refuse to bring me to the building lobby.

let me repeat: THE DRIVER DID NOT BRING ME TO THE TOP OF THE HILL.

if you had an iota of interest in this story/my travails, you would've figured out by now that THAT meant i had to drag my huge bag up the steep, tiled incline.

"jack and jill went up a hill ... BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO BRING A SH*TLOAD OF STUFF UP THE DAMN LANDFORM"

the almost-overweight bag is my fault (duh.) – in my haste (this isn't the most well-planned trip), i brought ... my whole room. except for the bed. and my extra lip balm.

so anyway, i DID bring the bag up until i found ... STAIRS. leading to the lobby. i left the accursed bag and trudged slowly up the steps.

when the door was unlocked for me, i peeped inside and half-sang, half-whimpered to the man behind the reception desk, "can somebody help meeeeee?"

(you think i'm making this up. you are wrong.)

thankfully, herbert (mr receptionist) turned out to be the mosthelpfulguyinHK. he probably weighed the same as one of my thighs, but he gallantly brought the bag up the stairs and into the lobby. go herbert. my skinny hero.

at 32 years old, i should probably be the type of person who actually LEARNS from past mistakes. well ... no. an hour later, i found myself lugging a total of 4 liters of drinks inside nonfinger-friendly plastic bags up the same incline. dehydration will not kill me. accidental grocery-related amputation will.

i can tell it's going to be a great month.