Spinning Around in the Air — 123 Show, Hong Kong | March 2014
“Now joining me in the studio. . . ”
Whirrrffftt BONK, the cabin shakes and the interior lights flicker. I’m not that phobic but this I don’t like. The take-off from Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok Airport (赤鱲角機場) had already been unsettling as it took place in the middle of a ‘red’ rainstorm but now, about 20 minutes into the flight to Bangkok, the situation has become outright diabolical.
“Cabin crew suspend service,” the captain’s voice crackles over the intercom as he orders the flight attendants to return to their seats and buckle up. They look nervous, too nervous, I really don’t like this at all. It would just be wrong to crash now, an inappropriate conclusion of the awesome week I’ve just had.
The past week has truly been incredible. I stayed on laid-back Lamma Island, had a number of ‘executive’ lunches in the bustling Central district, was a guest on a radio show and gave a keynote presentation on the 23rd floor of a skyscraper overlooking Victoria Harbour. It’s been a week of life like I’d like to live it!
My mind wanders. I’ve been going back and forth between Vientiane and Hong Kong at 2½ month intervals for about a year now in my incarnation as Hong Kong Virtual Education Ltd’s (HKVE) Operations Director. At the moment, HKVE is not much more than a paper construction built around an idea but it allows me to live a highflying executive lifestyle, albeit only one week at a time. I like bouncing around Hong Kong in a suit and tie, having corporate luncheons in its skyscraper restaurants and handing out business cards left and right at conferences.
Actually, I love everything about these juxtaposed one-week ‘corporate’ retreats. I leave the third-world chaos of Vientiane, transit in Bangkok and step into the first-world buzz of Hong Kong a couple of hours later. The Airport Express train to Central, the ferry to Lamma Island, check-in to the hotel and then off for a first pint of Old Speckled Hen.
On an average day, I have breakfast — smoked salmon, eggs Benedict or sometimes a ‘full English’ — before setting off for an hours walk along Lamma’s shoreline. Then onto the ferry to Hong Kong Island to take care of whatever business related task I’ve got planned for the day. Lunch is either an extravagant business lunch meeting in Central or a cheap wonton soup in Kowloon or Wanchai. Back on Lamma late afternoon, some beers with friends and then a Skype call home to touch base with wife and son.
As much as I enjoy this daily routine, last Tuesday and Wednesday were really something special. On Wednesday I was a guest on RTHK Radio-3’s 123 Show, hosted by DJ Noreen Mir. I still can’t get my head around how I managed to set that up. It was so simple!
Back in Vientiane, about a week before this trip, I was listening to Radio-3 over the Internet and figured it would be great publicity for my business to be interviewed by them. I sent an email to the lunchtime 123 Show and almost instantly got the following reply:
Dear Marko,
This is Noreen from the 123 Show, and yes I would love to have you on the show. I’m away on Monday, so can we schedule Tuesday 25th 1.30-2pm?
Let me know if that works. Thanks so much!
Best wishes,
Noreen
What!? It’s that simple? Well, that’s a lesson learnt, think bigger! I arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday night 23rd March and the following Tuesday I made my way, by means of the iconic Star ferry and the über-efficient MTR subway, to the RTHK studios in Kowloon Tong. I got there just after 1pm, collected my visitor’s badge from the security, took a seat in the waiting area outside the radio booths, and waited…
1.10pm nothing, all the doors closed and nobody around. 1.15pm still nothing, had they forgotten about me? Did I get the day or time wrong? 1.20pm nothing… then, at 1.25pm, a studio door opened, “Marko?” a young lady asked. I confirmed and she introduced herself as Noreen, the host of the 123 Show. We went inside the tiny cosy studio and, after some chitchat and quick instructions, I was ‘live on air’.
About 25 minutes later it was over. It had been an interesting conversation, and I’d easily forgotten that I was live on the radio all over Hong Kong. It had been fun!
On Wednesday evening, I gave a presentation/workshop about online learning and virtual education to a group of teachers and education specialists. The number of attendees was a bit disappointing, especially considering the free promotion from RTHK, but the presentation itself went really well. “Wow, that’s a very professional slidedeck,” a staff member of the event centre hosting the event had commented as I practised my talk. Maybe not so many attendants, but it had definitely been a qualitative success; and so much fun!
“Coffee Sir?” a flight attendant interrupts my stream of thought. Without me noticing it, the plane has made it through the storm and the cabin crew has started serving again. Looks like we’re not going to crash today.
P.S. No crash that day but later I crashed anyway. After a year of working 6-8 hours a day on the paper construction called HKVE, still employed full-time as a teacher, travelling up and down to Hong Kong every couple of months — no matter how much I enjoy my stay there — and still recovering from a traffic accident [Read: God Only Knows] a few months earlier, I felt a burnout creeping up.
I tried to slow things down, but it was too late. I managed to not completely burnout but I did loose too much energy and motivation to continue my business ‘dream’. I had to shift my focus back to the job that actually allowed me to pay my bills: HKVE Ltd was dissolved.
A dream ruthlessly shattered, but there are no regrets. I will not have any ‘I wish I had…’ moments in this life, “Smyge mig som støv i alle revner og hjørner,” [Read: Far l’Amore (Smyge mig som støv)]
The Proclaimers – Spinning Around in the Air on Like Comedy [CD]. London, UK: Cooking Vinyl. (2012)
This autobiographical sketch comes from my bundle In the Moment: A Disjointed Audiobiography which is available at Amazon.com. (USD 9.50 for a paperback or USD 4.50 for the Kindle version)
