In memory of John Kerr

Let me first start out this post on a tragic note...

Late in my Hong Kong vacation I went out on a Friday night with an old buddy Paul, his friend Billy, and an old friend and colleague of my Dad's named John Kerr. Big friendly Scottish guy that had been a barrister like my Dad in Hong Kong for many years. I think he first met me when I was 12ish. We went out drinking until really late just shooting the shit. They kept saying, in a good way, that I look nothing like my Dad! Okay when we stand next to eachother you can see some resemblance. When he stands next to my Mom and I'm there (which is very rare now), you can totally see it I think. Anyway two days later my Dad found out that he had died the night before from a heart problem. He was only 46. It was a real shock to us both and I really can't believe I was hanging out with him so recently and he seemed fine. He had two teenage daughters and will be missed by a lot of people. Here's to you John...



John is in the middle.

I'll talk a bit about the rest of my holiday in HK now...

It was nice to get away from work and pretend I was just taking a little vacation from school again. I slept in a lot, played with my little brothers, watched tv, went shopping, and just quit stressing out about all the things on my shoulders in the real world. And of course, I partied, big time. In Hong Kong you can stay out til 6 AM most nights, so I did just that. I met up with a couple friends from Canada that I had met in Bangkok a few weeks earlier, and a few of their friends. We went out to Lan Kwai Fong (the huge party district in downtown HK) a couple times and even went to a karaoke until about 6:30 one night. I'm have a pretty terrible voice but when I'm wasted you can find me even singing along to "I want it that way" by the bloody Backstreet Boys!. Hey c'mon, it's a classic now.



Little Sam learning how to swim



Boys and I fell asleep in the car



This guy just turned 11 and he's playing computer games for 16 year olds, and playing them well.



Karaoke!

You know I did manage to go on a Victoria Harbour dinner cruise (hadn't in years) as well, so it wasn't just all a big piss-up. I missed out on hiking and sailing though. Next time.



View from the ship

A day after I got back from Hong Kong I had to go straight to Singapore on another short business trip. My god the work had piled up and my head was about to explode that whole week. Sooo many missed emails, and soo many meetings. What I remember most though was going out with some friends to a really nice Spanish Tapas style dinner then getting into the Ministry of Sound for free and partying until 4 am. After the club we went to get some late night food and I was so drunk I started an obscene game of "would you rather?" Everyone else was Singaporean and had never heard of this crazy lame little activity. Basically you just go back and forth with crazy hypotheticals between two choices to either stump someone, make them sick, or make them laugh. I can't really say many of them here but they are too rude. How about a nice clean, "Would you rather have your mouth smell horribly like ass or constantly be on the verge of diarhea but can never go?" Most of the time the questions end up along the lines of "Would you rather do a dog or a cat?" or something equally gross and silly. But when you've had a few drinks and are eating some unhealthy food at 3:30 in the morning, that stuff is funny.

Here I just want to randomly rep a couple alcoholic beverages - Ciroc and Coal Ila. Ciroc is an ultra premium, super smooth vodka from France made from grapes and distilled FIVE times (thats a LOT). It is priced higher than Grey Goose and rightfully so. I love that stuff on the rocks or with a tiny bit or soda water or sprite with ice. It also makes an excellent grapetini. Coal Ila is a really hardcore single malt Scotch whiskey and by hardcore I mean it is soo rich in flavour and oakiness that you HAVE to drink it on the rocks. You will instantly feel like Sean Connery when he was James Bond-young. That taste is acquired though, for those of you that never drink Scotch.

I had another dream about Andrew last week. We were off on some crazy adventure in a place that looked like Neverland. NOT the Neverland Ranch! This time it was all fun and games and I never mentioned anything about why he was there. I actually felt good about this dream when I woke up. Whether or not there is some spiritual connection or if it is all just memories and brain waves and totally random, it is good to know that sometimes, I can see him again, in the only closest way to really seeing him I can now...

I got a haircut in Bangkok last week and I made the brave/stupid decision to tell them "do whatever you think is best." Now I have a bit of a Thai-looking urban haircut. Not too different from before, just longer than usual and with gel/mud stuff moving it forward and to the center like a duck's butt. That sounds a lot worse than it looks. I'll post a picture sometime.

I urge all guys to lookup Misa Campo on yahoo. She is a half filipina, half german model and if she wasn't a clueless bimbo I would marry her (and if I wasn't out of my league too, haha).



Isn't she wholesome?

Last weekend my older sister Marjan gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Joey. I saw some pictures, he looks adorable in that icky super fragile and pale newborn sort of way. Can't believe I'm an Uncle now. I called my sis an hour after she gave birth (it was 3 in the morning my time) and she seemed so happy. I was genuinely really happy for her and it made my day to know she was having one of the best days of her life (mine had been real shit up to that point). Can't wait to see him in Xmas when I visit. Eventually when I'm back in California (IF I do go back soon and for long), I'll mold him to my do my evil bidding, bwahaha. That mainly means annoying and harassing my younger sister Sarah. I already taught my younger brothers well.



My Mom, brother Dar, and new nephew Joey

In other familial news, my older brother Dar is moving to Hong Kong this week for a new job. I'm really excited for him because he has wanted a change of scenery for a while and he loves Asia, especially Hong Kong. I also haven't gotten to spend as much time with him the past 5 years as I would have liked. When I was a kid he was my hero and I always looked up to him, even when he broke my favorite toys on accident. He was always really cool and taught me a lot about life, even if he doesn't think he did. Hopefully now he can visit sometimes on the weekend (only 3 hours away) and we'll have some new adventures.

Last weekend in Bangkok a friend from Singapore visited me with a buddy of his from Canada. We went out one night to RCA road, one of the huge nightspots in town. Lucky for us, the police decided to do a drug raid on the club we were in that night and locked everyone inside at midnight. Everyone suppossedly would have to do a urine test and fill out some paperwork before being allowed to leave. I took one look at that line to the bathroom and said "F*ck that!" We went to the door and flashed our foreigner ID cards while speaking in super fast, concerned English. The cop just let us out. Then there was another checkpoint of cops at a gate before we could be free. I was like shit, they checking if people have cleared the paperwork first. But my drunk Canadian party buddy for the night just went up the cop and said "hey hey we got stamp, see!" and he pointed to his clear, stampless wrist. He talked really fast and acted like we were suppossed to be out of there already. The cop looked a bit confused, then turned to me and asked, "And you?". "uhhh yeah yeah I was suppossed to get a damn stamp and they didn't give me one. Hey I'm from California." Then he paused and just let us go! "ok ok ok, go now!". To think that if we had any substances in us and got caught, we could have ended up in some obscure jail, Brokedown Palace style. Hahaha, so funny...right? We ended up going to the sleeziest of sleezy legit clubs in BK later on. ALL foreign guys and slutty looking Thai women, and PACKED tight. God I'm never going there again. You could smell the cheap perform and dirty cigarettes everywhere. My eyes were burning! A place called "Spicy" can never be that good I guess.

By the way I'm in Vietnam again right now on business. It was a real short 2 and a half day trip that ends tomorrow morning (Friday!!!). The CEO of Diageo was here (for the first time ever) and everyone in my team has been stressing hard trying to make sure his trip is smooth and productive. Thankfully I am here on unrelated business so I got to hide from his wrath. I hear he is a very professional, but sometimes ruthless, hardcore businessman. I can just imagine him shaking my hand and asking, "How old are you? What?!? You're fired!" Okay maybe he is a nice guy, but I will never know.

Tomorrow night in Bangkok is one of the biggest posh parties of the year. It's an invite only event called the Johnnie Walker Black Label Black Planet. 3000-4000 guests and free JW BL galore. It's going to be awesome. Also a friend of mine from California is visiting me for the weekend since she was working temporarily in the Philippines for a few months before heading off to Stanford Graduate School of Management. I'm going to show her the ropes and Bangkok and it's sure to be an amazing time.

I just finished playing some Ping Pong with the Vietnamese gym attendant in my hotel. He beat me 22-20, wtf!??!? I'm still reeling.

I swear I'll post pictures soon! Take care of yourselves and live it up. In the span of two weeks an old friend died and a new nephew was born. Carpe Diem.



Sunset in Ho Chi Minh City from my hotel.