W is for what are the odds?
On the last day of March the hubs and I were sitting in a little burger restaurant in the middle of Hong Kong with our friends G and A. We'd been out walking and talking and had taken the mid-level escalators into the central part of town. These escalators are a must-see if you're ever in Hong Kong.
Did you know Hong Kong is incredibly steep and hilly? Honestly the women here must all have great legs because you literally have to climb a mountain to get anywhere. Maybe you knew this about Hong Kong but I didn't. Since it is so steep and hilly someone had the brilliant idea to put a series of escalators and moving sidewalks smack dab in the middle of the city.
Keep in mind Hong Kong is positively teeming with people so their escalator system helps with the flow of foot traffic up and down the slopes. The mid-level escalators run downhill from 6- 10 in the morning to help with commuters traveling to work and then switch to uphill mode from 10:30 until midnight. The system consists of 20 escalators and 3 moving sidewalks with a vertical climb that's close to 450 feet. They're the longest covered escalators in the world and if you rode from beginning to end it would take you about 25 minutes.
Super cool.
But nearly impossible to capture in a photograph.
So I didn't.
Besides helping commuters get around, the central escalators are also a pretty big tourist attraction. Running all along the street beside the escalators are restaurants, bars, and shops. It was in one such little burger place that we found ourselves on this sunny Sunday afternoon at the end of March.
The little burger place had a glass front that faced the central escalators so we planted ourselves on four stools in front of the window to watch the world go by. There are more than 8 million people living in this city so there is plenty to see. Hubs hopped outside to snap a few photos and we were enjoying our french fries and chit chat when A asks, "Hey, do you think there's anybody in this city that we know?" Hmmm...good question.
As we're mulling the thought over in our heads G points to the escalator platform outside our window and says, "Well do you know that guy because he definitely acts like he knows you?"
We glance over and see two tall men standing on the platform looking back at us. Hubs noticed the taller of the two first and while he was wracking his brain trying to decide if he knew this man thru work I shouted, "Oh my goodness-that's PJ!!" which of course is not his real name but that's what he'll be called here.
PJ just so happens to be one of my most favorite boy people in all the world. He went to high school in England with my girls and spent a lot of time with daughter1 especially. My girls knew whenever his name came up I could be counted on to start talking about the beauty of arranged marriages. Other mothers do that too, right?
He happened to be in Hong Kong for the weekend and I'm wondering what are the odds that in a city of more than 8 million people on the other side of the world we'd be sitting in that little restaurant, right in front of the window, at the exact moment he passed by and happened to look over? The odds have got to be something like a thousandmillionhundred to one don't you think?
Now I'm going to insert the super freaky crazy bit here and hope he doesn't read my blog. Because even to me it sounds a little nuts and I'm the one telling it.
We haven't seen PJ in more than five years nor have we been in touch with his family, BUT...about four days prior to seeing him on the street in Hong Kong I had a dream and he was in it. In my dream he was running around Hong Kong with daughter1. Daughter1 who at this very moment is probably wishing her mother didn't blog but hey, if I can't talk about the crazy here then tell me where I can. Because this was ca-razy.
I actually woke up from that dream and sent daughter1 a text message telling her about it in that 'haha guess what kind of crazy dream I had last night' sort of way. Four days later, and here we are...standing in the middle of Hong Kong catching up face to face.
There's a word they use in England that fits nicely here and that word is gobsmacked. It means astounded... flabbergasted. It comes from the word gob meaning mouth and smacked meaning clapping the hand over in surprise.
Yep. We were all gobsmacked.
Not so much so that we didn't get a picture but gobsmacked nonetheless.
