It was the familiar nightmare against which I thought I had prepared myself so well by being hyper scrupulous with the whereabouts of my belongings:
Got off the ferry this morning and skipped lightly to the MTR (“metro”) station to go and teach Cantonese in Causeway Bay. Reached into bag, or rather, started wurzeling in my bag ( new Cockney rhyming slang: Wurzel Gummidge, rummage) – where was my wallet?
Oh no! I had left it on the bloody ferry!
Anybody who has ever left anything on the Lantau ferry knows this: It’s the black hole of belongings. The ferry guys take everything they find, including children’s shoes, books by Ian McEwan and even food, to supplement their meagre incomes.
Knowing that my wallet with a not insignificant amount of money in it was gone forever, I nevertheless started legging it back to the ferry pier with a huge, resounding F word filling up all my brainwaves.
My phone went and an unknown number came up. “Wei, did you just lose your wallet? It’s in the office at the ferry pier.”
There is a god. Or something.
Still, I know it was the ferry guys who took the laptop I accidentally left under some newspapers on the ferry last January, and not some opportunist thieves living in Mui Wo; the opportunist thieves, in fact, on whom the ferry company normally blame all losses. There just can’t be that many thieves living in such a small place.
But I’m happy today, oh yeah. Now I won’t have to sit for a whole day in Immigration Tower waiting to get a new ID card, listening to HK people trying to quack out Filipino names. Yes there is a god.
God? I don’t know, but certainly some good people working for the Lantau Ferry.
The worst thing about losing a wallet in Hong Kong is the ID card problem. I wonder why the law insists you must carry your Hong Kong ID card if you are 50 meters away from home (yep, that’s true, though not sure if they have changed the 50 meter thingy to something else).
They seem to have a bloody good immigration check and control, and now that nearby regions in China are prospering, there aren’t huge numbers of illegal immigrants entering Hong Kong.
I too have been carrying that silly ID around for twenty plus years, though no one has ever asked me for my ID or checked for it even once.
But if you don’t have it on your person and the police ask for it, you have to pay a fine (don’t know how much, but think it was HK$ 200 some years back, as our maid ended up in that situation).
Silly rules, silly place.
Ciao!
Perhaps you could start a new cult, maybe with a little boat on a cross as your logo. If it takes off and you set up your church near me, could you start your services *after* 9.30 in the morning, please. Thanks.
You jest, but if you had lost half as many belongings on the ferry as I have …
You know, you’re on the thing twice a day every day, there are newspapers, waves make things fall off seats … it’s easy to leave things behind.
Good idea though. I don’t think people worship me quite enough. Forget about the boat logo; it will be a photo of MEEEEEEEEE!
Excellent idea. But I have to warn you: My services are not constricted by the clock.
Ooh-err, Missus!
Forget the seas and the ferries. But to see this site dry for almost two days is already “An Unexpected Development.”
Ciao!
PS: I know, everyone enjoys their weekends. Sadly, I don’t. Off to C-Sims now…