Hong Kong Chronicles: The Headlines

I must be missing a gawkers gene.

Gawkers carry cameras. And videos. Or both. Or at least a video phone.

Like Cathy (who missed the Squirrel with his face in an empty peanut-butter jar but got the Oscar-Meyer-Weinermobile instead...you need to bookmark her blog...seriously funny).

Only I didn't get an alternative for you to ogle.

So, back to missing DNA...the gawkers gene...I'm really excited to be setting foot in the US again to see friends and family. I hope I will behave properly...i.e. habits I've picked up in HK won't unnerve my old friends.

Back the instigation of this post, I was finishing up the family trinket shopping and noticed what was normally a moving throng of people a stopped throng of people. Looking up. In addition to looking up, there was an impressive display of mobile power recording the event with whatever they had at hand: camera-phones, video-phones, i-phones, video cameras. If they didn't have video, they were on the phone telling someone about it. Since this was a major thoroughfare for tourists, this also included a fair amount of tourists in this gawkers crowd. When I looked up, I saw an anemic plume of smoke from a burning window air conditioner.

On the Richter scale of dramas, it might have been a 0.001.

I really wasn't impressed. I was more impressed with the display of mobile power. Once I determined that I was not really interested in gawking, I was trying to assess whether there was a trickle of non-gawkers moving through the crowd or if police had truly cordoned off the street to pedestrians.

Just at the time I had dismissed the burning air conditioner as a drama princess, the burning air conditioner decided to amp up the feeble display with a tiny, spluttering explosion. There was a collective in-take of breathe, cry of concern, and a micro-stampede about 20 steps backward.

Sigh...yes, alternative routes must be found...

At least Hong Kong is almost to scale. It really it just a matter of a few steps this way or that way. You pick.

And if I had the gawkers gene I would have something to show you. But, I am missing that piece of DNA. So you only get to hear my story about it.

P.S. - I have finally reached the vacation part of my US trip. I have many stories to tell, but was caught up in the whirlwind of work, friends, and travel and have not had any spare minutes until now. My stories are a little out of order. This was one of the stories that happened the day before I left. Since jewelry and blogging are hobbies...they get included in my vacation...