Sunday, January 31, 2016

What a Piece of Work Is a Man

Pygmalion is essentially a comedy of manners. Those seem a little out of date in today's world, but they make for some great plays.

It also might be a difficult play to pull off in China. Chinese people understand the class system since they have had their own for thousands of years. But taking an uneducated peasant woman off the streets and making her refined and cultured might be a tough sell. It would be one thing if Henry Higgins gave Eliza a lot of money or she started a business and got rich. I have never met a Chinese person who did not believe that instant money would bring instant happiness. But taking Eliza out of the lower class simply by convincing her that she could be upper class might not make sense to people who have always been told to keep their place.

After two weeks of studying the play, and a few rehearsals here and there, we are almost ready to raise the curtain. We have a dress rehearsal at the actual theater and then it is show time. I have not seen the space yet, so I'm curious how small it is. I am not expecting the Gershwin Theatre, but it is amazing how small some of these places are. I went to a show about a year ago that was in a theater the size of an apartment living room. I'm hoping we will have a little more room than that.

Friday, January 29, 2016

Lily's Dad part 3

Lily is in Canada. What's happening with her job is anybody's guess. They said they did not want her to go. She said she was going. They did not fire her and she did not quit, so we will have to wait and see what happens.

The only purpose of her trip is to see her father, of course. But since this is January, she gets to remember what winter feels like. In Hong Kong, winter means slightly less humidity than the rest of the year and temperatures under 25°C/77°F. In Winnipeg, a sunny day in January is well below freezing with only a few inches of snow. Lily might as well be in a different world right now.

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Lily's Dad part 2

Lily wants to go to Winnipeg to see her father. I'm on her side, but her boss is definitely not. This is the busiest time of the year and they don't really like it when people take an indeterminate amount of time off without any advance warning.

This is one of those situations where Lily would easily choose her family over her job, but if she has to quit, or is fired, that could be a serious problem. As a foreigner, her visa is tied to her job. If she loses the job, she loses the visa. She could easily go to Canada and come back without a visa, but then she would only have 30 days to find a new job and get a new visa. That's not impossible, but it is another problem she does not need right now.

Hopefully, everything will work out. She is most likely going to go. I'm just hoping she has a job when she comes back.

Monday, January 25, 2016

Lily's Dad

Lily's dad had a heart attack today. He is in stable condition and the doctors say he will be ok, which is great news. Unfortunately, this is not his first time. He had a heart attack three years ago, so that puts him at higher risk for everything else. Lily says he is at the best hospital in Manitoba, but I'm not sure how she knows that. I am not about to ask her. She has enough on her plate right now.

I have never met her dad, but I almost feel like I know him since Lily talks about him so much. Anyone can tell they have a great relationship. I think the hardest part about living away from home for her is being away from her father. Things like this definitely don't make it easier. She has told me several times that he needs to start eating healthier food. Maybe now he finally will.

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Spam



Blogger is pretty good at blocking spam. Almost all of the garbage automatically goes into the spam folder. If I ignore it, it is eventually deleted by magic internet fairies. Sometimes I will look at the spam folder because sometimes they put legitimate messages in there. Today, I found this:

My wife and i have been very more than happy when Raymond managed to conclude his homework through the entire ideas he received out of the web page. It is now and again perplexing to simply choose to be giving out tactics that many most people might have been selling. We really recognize we have you to thank for this. All the explanations you have made, the simple site navigation, the relationships your site make it possible to instill - it is most impressive, and it's really making our son and our family consider that that concept is interesting, and that is pretty pressing. Many thanks for all!

I don't get it. What are they trying to sell? Most spam lets you know right away why it is spam. Take this snake oil to make your dick bigger. Give us money to win the green card lottery. This one is obviously spam since it has absolutely nothing to do with anything on this blog, but what is the point? What does the spammer have to gain here? There was no link to any website. There was no phone number or e-mail address to contact for a quick scamming. Clearly, it was written by someone who does not speak English or, even worse, by Google translate, but how do messages like this benefit anyone in any way? What if I saved it from the spam folder and let it post. What good would it do the spammer? Now that I have posted it where people might read it, what good does it do them?

I don't understand spam.

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Glenn Frey

Glenn Frey died yesterday after years of illness. He had to cancel several shows over the years, but people are still surprised. He was only 67, did not have cancer and did not overdose on drugs.

I never had the chance to see the Eagles before they fired Don Felder, but I was lucky enough to see them a few times in various parts of the United States. They even came out to Hong Kong in 2011. That show was unexpected for several reasons. They were only scheduled to play one night, but it sold out in minutes, so they added a second. An even bigger surprise was that they did not phone it in. Since Hong Kong is not exactly their primary market, I thought they might go through the motions and save their strength for a more important date. But they gave it their all. It was an impressive show. And I had great seats.


Sunday, January 17, 2016

Pygmalion

Now that I am back among the living, my agent got me some stage work. I am going to be Clara Eynsford-Hill in Shaw's play.

Who, you ask. No, she is not the most important character. She is not even in the movie version. But in the play, she is Freddy's sister and Eliza's opposite, in many ways. Clara is a small part, but one I am not at all familiar with, so it will be a nice challenge.

I have played a few different characters in a few different productions of My Fair Lady, but the musical is very different from the play. Especially the ending and all the songs.

Even though this is a small part, I have a lot of work to do. I know the story, but this character is completely new to me. I understand her purpose in the play, but I have to figure out what I'm going to do with her. It should be fun.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Dating in Hong Kong

On New Year's Eve, I met a man who asked me out on a date. Since I recently decided that I might as well dive back into the dating pool, and since this guy was reasonably cute, I said yes. I only had one condition. I wanted to wait until I was completely free of the bird flu. That is not entirely unreasonable, from my point of view. Avian is not the most contagious flu in the world, but it is always better to play it safe.

That was two weeks ago. I still have a residual cough, but I feel a million times better than I did last month. I can go to work and jack myself up on enough medication to pretend I am virus free. Nighttime is worse than daytime, but that is what the drugs are for. Lately, I mostly cough when I lay me down to sleep.

So I called the man in question and told him I was feeling much better. He said he was no longer interested. Apparently, I made him wait too long. Two weeks is too long to wait for a date.

The list of good things about the bird flu is pretty short. But one good thing is that it showed me what kind of person this guy was before I wasted any time. Without the bird flu, we probably would have gone out right away and it would have taken longer to see. Or he would have shown it right away. Who knows. Either way, someone who can't wait for me to get over the bird flu is not the man for me. Worse still, someone who wants to date an infectious carrier should not be the man for anyone.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

New Year's Eve 2015

The bird flu has been kicking my butt, but I agreed to go to a New Year's Eve party with Lily and Kevin on Thursday. Sitting on the sofa with a blanket wrapped around my body and a surgical mask around my face gets pretty old pretty fast. The drugs I got from the hospital have worked wonders, but my cough just refuses to go away. The solution? Go to a party and spread it around.

I left the party before 2015 became 2016 and was home by the time all the fireworks made Hong Kong sound like a war zone. But I talked to a few people in between coughing on them and had a few drinks, which are probably not supposed to be mixed with the drugs. Oh, well. Alcohol is good for the flu, right? Feed a fever, drink the flu.

I also met a friend of one of Lily's friends who asked me out on a date. I definitely was not expecting that. I left the blanket at home, but I did not look my best at the party. So either I am irresistible while choking on my own phlegm, or this guy has low standards. I was a little too buzzed on alcohol and drugs I can't pronounce, so I said yes. But I had enough sense to suggest we wait until I could breathe through my nose.

I have a date. No one knows when it will be.