in Hong Kong!!

Tom Petersen's (new apmcp professor) last words to me were, "Make sure a full report of this evening is posted on the APBIN so the current class knows how hard I am working." Yes, sir!!

Last night a large gang of us celebrated Halloween in Hong Kong. The evening commenced at a cute little Italian restaurant named "Tony's" just below Hollywood Road next to the escalators in Mid Levels. Fifteen in total attended the dinner including:

Bob Bagshaw: (founder of the apmcp) "I am very happy with the progress in HK this week. I think this has been my most successful trip to HK to date."

Tom Petersen: "I love my job and think the apmcp has tremendous potential."

Lucy Chow of apmcp Year 6 and her beau Ray Everett from Victoria who currently works for Watson Wyatt in HK. "Why are we the only one's dressed up for Halloween?" asked Lucy who wore a sexually charged sailor's outfit.

Roger Dowker: Production & Quality Manager for Westbeach Snowboard Clothing and long time friend of Charles. Currently in town on business, and urgently needing to contact Westbeach.

Maria and Bernard Lee of Pama HK Limited. Brother and sister team that handle 50% of Westbeach's production in China. Maria works like a maniac... she claims last night was her first night off in over six months.

Kersti Krepp, Cathy Cole (with beau Mike) both honourary apmcp. All three work for Evergreen in HK (as in the shipping company.)

Shawn Jackson, a consultant at KPMG, recent SFU MBA grad, and orginally from Ottawa. "I took my mask off for Halloween. Tonight you get to meet the real Shawn Jackson."

Edwin Kwong (on a 48 hour binge before starting a job at Hopewell Holdings on Monday), Andre Giroux and yours truly of Divine Year Nine. (Andre & Edwin are apmcp classmates of mine.)

Special visitors Dick Wright and Caroline Wong (both apmcp Year 10 & Tess' classmates) popped in for 15 minutes. They would have stayed except they are suffering from HK's latest new improved flu.

Richard Grasset, in town hunting for a job in Investment Banking... brave soul considering the recent market turmoil.

After a special Halloween meal we began the journey into Lan Kwai Fung which was a huge breathing, seathing couldron of ghosts and goblins. Police had the place blocked off, and daring spirits such as ourselves had to march through special winding streets that police had set-up to discourage the thousands of people trying to get into LKF. Edwin tactfully arranged to get us past a police barricade and into a private party at Mr. Rhinos (Edwin knows all 4,000 UBC alumni in HK). Choice of beer flowed freely at 3 for $100 HKD, tequila shots were included in the door tickets, and wild techno dance blared from the speakers. (Can you imagine Bob dancing to that?)

Normally LKF is full of gweilos on a Friday or Saturday night. Amazingly, though, last night it was full of both Chinese and gweilos, most of whom had taken themselves very seriously in dressing up for the occasion. The result was an incredibly surreal atmosphere. One would be approaching a regular human being who would suddenly turn their head to reveal a Texas Chainsaw Massacre work of art. Vampires, witches, mummies and werewolves floated about, not just representing their breed of ghoulishness, but also maintaining HK's theme of the scantilly clad fashion conscious. (Note Lucy's costume description above.)

Police could be found everywhere, including special commando units. Law and order was the theme of the evening as Asia's finest rigourously kept the peace. No one wanted a re-make of New Year's Eve 1992 when numerous people died and even more were injured in a stampede of partiers. Loud halers instructed the crowd of thousands on where to wait to enter LKF and how long the wait would be. "These measures for entering the Lan Kwai Fung area are for your own safety," said a lady whose voice was drowned in a Chinese-British accent, adding to the eclectic nature of the evening. Those who dared to wait would be swept up into the spirit of the night... tonight Lan Kwai Fung would not disappoint.

Roger, Maria and Berton finally called Westbeach on business at 4 AM, after telling us for five hours, "We should really call Westbeach now." They called from the dance floor on Maria's cell phone.

Andre and Edwin were left at Mr. Rhinos where they were being hunted by numerous women. My last words to Andre were, "Don't let Edwin smoke tonight... he'll blow-up."

Tom and I had a long and productive discussion about the apmcp. He then went running home "to write all these ideas down." I lost my voice from yelling overtop of the music.

I never figured out what happened to Bob. Last I saw he was dancing up a storm at Mr. Rhinos (which by the way was decorated to look dark and forboding) when I went to say good night to him. (I was a party pooper, and finally called it quits at 2:30 AM arriving home in time to give Tess another dose of drugs for her bronchitis which flared up on Thursday.) I was sure it was Bob when I approached but something came over me and I was engulfed in a large dark cape. Next thing I knew I woke up in a taxi. This morning the hotel said Mr. Bagshaw had "checked out before dawn."