UPDATED: Long Day's Journey Into Central- Now With More Photos!

Someone asked me if I would blog about the party... Since it is the same person who asked if I would go in the first place, and who asked me to be sure to go, of course I will.

But, as always, a little background is in order.

I average about six hours sleep a night. So yesterday was an average day. I woke up at 7:00, because I had things to do. I ate breakfast and tried to pick up my flat, because the housekeeper would be here. Yes, I am one of those people who tidies up my home so that the housekeeper doesn't have to do it. It's her job to clean my home; it's not her job to clean up after me.

At 9:00 I was in Starbucks in Shatin (it's the law; all gweilomust go at least three times a month) to meet my friend Rick's mother in law, Sandy. She will be visiting the US later this year and wants to learn some English.

[digression] I found out that her visa interview at the US consulate will be conducted in English. Apparently, more and more of my government is becoming just as f@#$ing retarded as the guy at the top of it. What part of 'constitutional freedom of expression' is so f@#$ing hard to grasp?

I made sure that when teaching her how to answer questions about living in Hong Kong (should any American overcome their innate xenophobia long enough to ask about somewhere other than the US), that she can say  "No, I have never met Jackie Chan."

After an hour or so of this, she and I met Rick and Gigi, his wife (and Sandy's daughter), and went upstairs to the gym. In the next two hours I managed to keep up with Rick fairly well, and by 12:00 my arms felt like two wet noodles.

Which of course made me think of lunch!

We went to La Villa in TST, the place Rick took Gigi for their first date, where he proposed to her, and where the wedding party had lunch the day of the wedding. The food was good, and I really like the black shirts the staff wear, with the name of the restaurant, La Villa, embroidered in red on the front of them.

Me being me, I thought of finding a similar black shirt and having "Villain" embroidered on it.

What a waste of a PhD, huh?

So, around 3:00, we headed back to the New Territories. I wanted to get a massage, and I knew that TST is not the place for such things, even on a Sunday afternoon. So I went back to Shatin to a place I know that is refreshingly free of monkey business. While on the train, I sent my friend Sidney an SMS: "Winsome yet?" My goddaughter was due Sunday, so I thought I ought to check.

A few minutes later, I got the following: "Godfather Sean, I have entered this beautiful world at 1320. I look forwarding to meeting you soon. - Winsome Chan."

Hong Kong is such an advanced society that newborns apparently have their own phones and can tell military time. And type in English.

But maybe it's just a unique skill of my goddaughter, one of the greatest humans ever to grace the earth with their presence.

I sent Sidney an SMS telling him I would be at the hospital in ten minutes. He called me and said I may as well wait for 5:30, when visiting hours began.

Since I had some time, I went to a store in the mall that carries a certain Japanese designer's adaptations of Adidas. I wanted to see about getting a gift for someone that I hoped would be an amusing extension of a joke I had made.

[digression] Buying gifts for women, even if they're just your friend, can be very intimidating. You have to guess an acceptable color, and you have to guess an acceptable size. What I mean is that you don't have to be correct about the size, but you better not bewrong . Whereas men know that if you ever have any doubts about what size t-shirt your guy friends wear, just get the biggest one, and they won't care.Women are not like that. If you buy something too small, they think you are just trying to flatter them. If it's too big, they may never speak to you again.

I bought a baseball hat, black, size small. Even women can accept that the size of their head is beyond dietary control, and I figured that no one wants to be made to think that other people feel they have a large skull.

I have a large skull, which is one reason I never wear hats. But it's not all bad. You know what they say about men with big skulls: "Godd@mn, you got a big f@#$in' head!"

So, risky gift purchased, I went to Chun Chun Sauna; I had 90 minutes to kill, and I knew that a massage would be just the trick.

Because I knew I was going to be awake late and that I was not going to be able to sleep between now and 10pm.

I arrived at the hospital at 5:31 and met Sidney upstairs. He took me into Angie's room, and there was my goddaughter.

I find it amazing that such a tiny, gentle human can fill me with such fear. I was afraid of doing anything that might upset Winsome as she lay in the (big clear plastic baby carrier thing that I don't know the name of). I watched her fuss and make faces, astounded that this little angel's life was still only a matter of hours. I had never seen a 4- hourold person before. She was beautiful and pink and has tiny little fingers (which she seemed pretty happy to keep stuck in her mouth).

Sidney asked if I was brave enough to hold her, and I was actually stupid enough to say "Maybe when she's older..." Newborns are so small and soft and I am so big and ignorant of how to hold babies, much less newborns, that I figured it was not a good thing.

But Sidney made me promise that I would have a picture with her soon. I will, and I will post it. Feel free to laugh at me. You laugh at Winsome and I will kill you.

Sidney hadn't slept much, which I told him he needed to get used to. Angie looked a bit tired, but happy and smiling as usual. Her family was there, and Sidney's too, and I was content just to watch.

Besides, everyone was speaking Cantonese, so I could only catch the odd pronoun or preposition.

At 7:30 visiting hours were over, and I came back home to change; I had somewhere to go, which is a remarkably unusual experience for me.

Hmmm, let's see. Black matches with... black. Black shoes, black jeans, black shirt.

Done.

At 9:45 I met up with Maggie, a former student and a very good friend.

See that smile on Maggie? I helped put it there. That's why I look so self-satisfied.

Maggie, like most women in Hong Kong, finds a certain member of Alive to be... highly attractive. I had encouraged her to attend the party since, statistically speaking, there was a good chance that all four members would be there.

I have what I consider to be a beneficial character flaw in that I instinctively use whatever opportunities I have to make other people happy. Whenever I have a chance to do something for another person, either in addition to or instead of doing something nice for myself, I do it. One of the best perks of my job is that I can facilitate people meeting their idols.

So it was especially fun for me to walk into Cliq and after about five minutes spot a tall guy in an Alive hat a short distance from where Maggie and I were standing. "Follow me," I said, and started walking. I walked up to Daniel, introduced myself, and introduced Maggie. I spoke briefly with him about wanting to conduct an interview for research purposes. I was also trying to maximize the time in which Maggie could claim proximity to her own personal God of Handsome.

He left, explaining that he had to go pick up his mother. I believed him, and so did Maggie. I was surprised, really, since she seemed very well composed.

At least until he left. She began giggling, and the corners of her mouth were doing their best to meet around the back of her head, so wide was her smile. It was infectious, and I began to laugh too. It made me happy to know I had just forced her to reset one of her life goals.

But like any good jackass, I had totally missed the photo op.

Dammit.

Still, the night was young (even if I wasn't), and so Maggie and I grabbed some couch (please tell me I have not just unknowingly used a euphemism) and began people watching.

Maggie knew quite a lot of people there, so it was fun to become a photographer and/or to sit and watch the crowd go by.

One of the passersby was Michael Wong, whom I immediately accosted and asked for a picture.

"No, really, this is my wife's bag, I'm just holding it..."

I also took the chance to finally ask him how he ended up in Seven Swords, the Tsui Hark film, since his was one of the best  and most unexpected cameos I had seen in a long time. I told him it was very reminiscent of Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now, and this seemed to amuse him. I also thanked him for being as tall as he is, so that I will at least in this one photo not look like some overgrown freak.

I may still beone, but I don't always have to look like one. Do I?

I also saw, spoke with, and took a picture with Ah Fai of 24 Herbs.

"I'm with Stupid..."

If you had told me in 2005 that someday I would be recognized by a former member of LMF, I'd have told you to f@#$ off.

I was talking to Maggie when suddenly a commotion began right in front of me.

The commotion was named Yung Yung, who seemed very happy to see me.

Which, as you may imagine, made me extremelyhappy.

Yes, that is an expression of smug arrogance. Do you blame me?

She told me she had been looking for me (happier still...) and that she had actually punched some tall white guy, thinking it was me. When he urned out to be someone else, she was mortified.

But I bet the guy didn't really mind...

Besides, we all look alike, so it's an easy mistake to make.

We took a picture together and she promised to find me again after she took care of some things.

I believed her. Wouldn't you?

Which, as it turned out, was the right thing to do.

She did actually come back. We took more pictures,

He: "See? I wasn't lying, you vituperative swine."

She: "After three seconds I will run..."

I asked her what her favorite color was.

"It used to be black," she said.

I was too late!

But the following colors she mentioned were not options for these hats, so in a sense I was excused.

I told her I assumed she didn't like cigars.

She understandably looked at me like I had said something odd.

I told her that I had become a godfather that day; Angie delivered Winsome at 1:20 that afternoon.

She huggedme, genuinely happy and excited for Sidney and Angie, and, by extension, me.

I was tempted to say Angie had twins in a cheap bid for another hug, but this would both tawdry and a lie.

It was also unnecessary.

I told her that I had a gift for her to celebrate Winsome's arrival and presented her with a black, size small, Y-3 baseball cap.

I had previously teased her that she was lucky; a designer label functioned as a monogram for her.

She hugged me again.

I wished I had bought more hats...

How on earth did I end up here, in some trendy nightclub (and in Lan Kwai Fong for only the fourth time ever), being hugged by an actress?

What had I done so right?

And how could I do moreof it???

It was not even midnight, but Yung Yung excused herself to fulfill a familial communication obligation. I thought that was very nice.

Hell, at that moment, you could have set me on fire and I'd have thought it was nice.

My evening's major goal had been met and surpassed; I met the person I was supposed to meet, and the gift was well-received. I felt myself to be extremely lucky.

But now I had an important mission: to once again get Maggie within arm's reach of D-Wu.

Which turned out to be much easier than expected.

Because another member of Alive took it upon himself, after I asked him for what I admitted would be a huge and potentially inappropriate favor, to march us directly to Daniel. It was an incredibly nice thing to do and just another illustration of how and why Hong Kong's celebrities are eminently better people than their Hollywood contemporaries.

I'd be his fan even without $500.

I took several pictures of Maggie with Daniel:

Daniel borrows my name tag in a bid for anonymity while Maggie tries to contain a volcanic joy.

I asked for a picture myself, strictly for propaganda reasons.

I no longer need any kind of drawn-out rationale for my students to explain to them why they should do their work and stay on my good side. I will just show them this photo of me with Daniel Wu and the (predominantly female) classroom will suddenly become chock full of eager learners who would gladly volunteer as my research assistant.

So, both of our goals over-met, we went to Tsui Wah to have a snack and bask in the warm afterglow of luck, ringing ears and smoky clothes. But this is Hong Kong, after all; two tables away, Stephen Fung sat down. When we left, I introduced myself, asked for an interview, and also a picture for Maggie, whom I introduced as my student.

He was kind and gracious and didn't seem to mind us interrupting his evening.

As Maggie and I headed for the minibus station, I began laughing, and Maggie asked me why. I told her that Stephen could very justifiably wonder what the hell a professor is doing out with his appreciably younger student at 1:30AM in Lan Kwai Fong.

Then again, he probably knows all gweiloare ham sup lo, so his projection of what we were doing was certainly muchmore prurient than riding together on a minibus to Mong Kok and then finding the minibus that would take Maggie back home and then walking to Prince Edward to get my own minibus.

I walked in my apartment at 3:00AM. In one day I had  become a godfather, helped a friend meet their favorite celebrity, and made an actress happy enough to hug me. Twice.

Some days are better than others. Few will be better than this one.

Good night, Winsome.