James and his fiancee Nim rescued me from the slum, hooked me up with a new "crib" on Hong Kong Island (away from the commoners on the mainland, hmph) and then kindly joined me for an evening of debauchery. Hang on, this is still me, so not so much debauchery as another attempt at a "First". We started off nice and slow, having a snack and drink in the infamous Lan Kwai Fong. That's not my beer, sorry!
Then we moved onto the races at Happy Valley race track on Hong Kong Island - LOTS of fun! Unfortunately, season at make sure you go. All the expats stand around drinking and "seeing and being seen"... its great to sit back and just watch them network!
As we were stuck in traffic for some time, I had asked the taxidriver if he had any tips. He gave us horse #8 in race #3 (both deemed to be lucky / prosperous numbers in China). We all ended up betting on the horse and it WON! Unfortunately, that was also the only time I won anything. Having been persuaded to bet on every race, I proceeded to lose a bundle (10 quid total). Perhaps my strategy of picking horses by number and/or by name rather than the stats had something to do with that! All my bets seemed promising but petered out in the end. Horse #7 in race #7 - aka Bulldozer - guess that should have given me a clue - was first all the way round the track until the last 25 metres. He just "peaked" too early! Similarly, Big Kahuna, Superdana, etc all seemed hopeful at first (= me screaming by the sideline) but then lost in the end. Alas, I did not win big, but neither did I lose my shirt! With 15 HK$ to the pound, I'm not complaining! Definitely my first trip to the races, and even more definitely not my last. I'm hooked... mama needs a new pair of shoes...
No comments:
Post a Comment