HK7s 2012!

Yes, it's the last weekend in March and you know what that means, don't you!

Yes, it's our election for Chief Executive - which doesn't really concern us because we're not a Democracy - but it's not that which has everyone so excited.

HK's take on this weekend's 

election for Head Honcho.

Nope, it's not our election. It's ... wait for it! ... the great and wonderful and magnificent Hong Kong Sevens, however we didn't get tickets this year to "The World's Greatest Party".  There was a reason for that.

At the end of last year HK7s honchos announced they were only going to sell 1000 of the 40,000 tickets to HK locals, so we got all outraged and antsy and decided we'd boycott in protest.  However, now it's about to happen - gates open in less than two hours - I'm so sorry I'm not going I'm scrambling around for spare tickets.  Know of any?

But how outrageous is it that this event which we local Hong Kongers made into such a fun party everyone in the world wants to attend ... now can't get tickets without groveling or lining up all night.  That's just wrong. In fact, it's wrong, wrong, WRONG.

And what makes it so very, very wrong is that this is actually HK's very own "Bacchanalia Festival", our "Rio Carnivale",  our Lord of Misrule, our Abbot of Unreason, our Prince d'Sot ...

... it's Our Crazy Time when everyone Gweilo ("Foreign Devils") in this alien land gets all down and stupid and dresses up in crazy costumes and cuts loose first in the stadium and then in the streets.

Typical HK7s weekend!

And it's such an important symbol of Hong Kong, and such a necessity for our collective psyche, that our lovely stadium up there on Caroline Hill was actually a gift from Mainland China at The Handover, letting us all know that things weren't going to change and were just going to get bigger and brighter. (And now they're talking about pulling this one down and building us an even bigger one.)

 Our current one gets pretty full!

But it used to be that the Chinese never got it, which was a big part of the fun, but increasingly they're loving it as much as the rest of us and taking part as well ... and that's fine too. Everyone here is so work-oriented I guess it's become an outlet that fills everyone's needs.

And now they're not letting us go.  At least they're making it very difficult for us. And that's so very wrong, right?

However, we fully intend to find ourselves a lovely sports-bar down in Lockhart Road and spend this entire weekend waving the flag for Fiji - or NZ if the Fiji Team proves unworthy - but word is that this latest Fiji Team is spectacular and has the best chance in three years, the last time we won.

 Our last win!

But being at a sports-bar is not quite the same thing. However at least it's something.

Yayyyy, GO GO HONG KONG SEVENS!!!

But moreso GO GO FIJI!!!