(I wrote this Monday night, yanked it Tuesday morning, deciding to repost it now, unchanged. No explanations offered.)

Almost 2 AM here local time and I should be tired since I’ve been up since 7 AM HK time, though I did sleep a bit on the plane and the bus.

Every time I travel I forget one thing. The problem is it’s a different thing each time. This time I forgot the cable to connect my Archos to the TV so I could lie in bed and watch movies. Now I can either hold the Archos in front of my face (the screen is amazingly clear but just 4.3 inches diagonal) or transfer to my PC and watch on that slightly larger screen.

(The problem is that I can’t just buy a generic cable for the Archos, otherwise I’d just go out and grab one. I tried that when I first got it, a HK$38 generic mini-plug to 3 RCA plugs and it didn’t work. Archos has done something weird, probably with the spacing of the connections. You can only use their own cable, which costs something like 300 or 400, fuckers. A longer post at another time, I think.)

Yes, I know, I should make a packing list as reference for all my travel. I keep forgetting.

Hard to figure out what balance here. I’m no longer comfortable blogging every detail of my personal life. Yet I know that not only does that bring the hit count up (which only matters to me in a very small way), it’s also the stuff I probably write the best (and my writing is a big point of pride, though hard to tell sometimes, like now, right?).

So just a couple of observations.

Saturday night’s dinner companions were T and two female friends, both local HK women. One of them reads the blog. She asked me why I couldn’t be physically faithful to T. I said, only half in jest, that I know I’m damaged, that I’ve been to several shrinks and they didn’t help, and at this point I’m old and not gonna live that much longer and so what’s the point of changing now?

What I also told them was that at this point, there have been so many bust-ups between me and T that a wall has gone up for me after the last fight. I’m sure she notices, too, but being Thai I suppose she doesn’t feel free to start that conversation. I’m being pessimistic here, anticipating the worst, and my anticipation may bring that “worst” along much sooner.

On the other hand, Sunday night, she was walking down the street to meet me at the Wanchai Computer Centre. I could see her from a block away. Her hair was down and flowing, she was smiling, she was wearing tight jeans with knee-high boots and just looked great. As she got closer, some white guy stepped up and tried to pick her up and got shot down.

I also know that when we were at Neptune on Saturday night with our two female friends, she took the two of them out to the dancefloor and on her way there and on her way back, some guy tried grabbing at her both times even though he was already standing with a girl. (Her sister later scolded her saying, “where is he? why didn’t you tell me? why didn’t you come and get me?”) I have no trouble believing this. Even though she was just wearing jeans and a loose sweater, when she fixes herself up, not only does she look great, she doesn’t look like any other girl in these bars, she can really stand out in the crowd though when I tell her that, she just laughs.

Anyway, I’m not completely stupid. I know this was her way of telling me, “hey, other guys find me attractive, what’s up with you lately?”

And it was not entirely unsuccessful. On Sunday night, with all of this running through my head, I came up with a new position (new for us, anyway). It was pretty darned good, if I say so myself.

On the other hand, on Saturday in Neptune, she was looking for her friend J. I commented that I saw her earlier and that she looked very fuckable that night. (J is older than T, probably around 40 or so, but still quite nice.) T asked me if I wanted to fuck J, and I replied by saying, “even if I did, there’s no way she would fuck me because she’s your friend and she loves you and she hates me because she thinks I’m a helicopter.” At which point T jumped up, looking for J, in an attempt to prove me wrong. Luckily, she could not find her. I suspect someone else also thought she looked fuckable and pulled her out of there.

Anyway, kind of hoping that with all these business trips I have coming up, the whole “absence makes the heart grow fonder” thing will kick in.

Oh, other note, Saturday night, walking up to Neptune, they had a frigging velvet rope in front of the place and a long line of girls patiently waiting to be let in. I asked one of the managers. He said the police have been hassling them about overcrowding and said they would be shut down if they didn’t keep within their limit – he says they’re only licensed for 200 occupants. And I’m sure on your typical Saturday night there’s at least double that number in there. He expects the crackdown could last for a couple of weeks or so and then back to business as usual.

Well, after 2 AM local time. Gotta try and get some sleep. Would get in bed and read but the reading light by the bed is crap. But that’s some of the personal stuff many of you have been asking for.

(And for those of you who think that’s everything, no, it isn’t. Believe it or not, I still manage to hold most of it back.)