Happy jellyfish and more thousand island dressing

Thursday night we had a quiet evening. We walked along the beach and then had drinks (margaritas for me, and just in time, too – I was in tequila withdrawal) and watched the boats come into the harbor. Very relaxing. So last night we decided to go out (you can be fairly sure that whenever you read this sentence, the night ended with me falling down. It did.) We went to a DVD launch party for the Happy Jellyfish People’s Democratic Language Bureau. Slogan: “learn Cantonese the natural way – from a Norwegian!” It’s run by a Norwegian woman who’s lived in Hong Kong for several decades. The DVD seems pretty good. Title: “Cantonese – The Movie: This Time It’s Personal.” She’s also written a book chronicling her erotic adventures in Hong Kong entitled “Blonde Lotus.” She’s very odd.

The party was on top of Pier 3 in the Hong Kong Harbor. The lights of the buildings are really gorgeous, and every night at 8 p.m. the skyscrapers put on a synchronized light show.

We had a few beers, then a few more. We ordered some Japanese-style barbeque. I had sirloin chunks on a skewer with that traditional Japanese dipping sauce, thousand island dressing; Kelly had samosas.

As the night wore on, things got stranger and stranger. The Filipino band played a rousing rendition of “Devil Went Down to Georgia.” Our Greek/German friend told a story about being an adolescent and being dared by a friend to visit a prostitute, but once he got to her room he saw a half-eaten cookie on her dresser and couldn’t get aroused. We requested “On The Road Again” and the band played something that approximated it. I went to introduce myself to the Norwegian language teacher, who was playing a Chinese card game at a table of guys who looked like supermodels. I walked over to their table, sat down, and promptly fell off my chair. I handed her a slip of paper with my email address, told her she could contact me there or on the floor, dusted myself off and ran.

Now I am eating the cutest pea snacks in the world and trying to recover.