The $15 dollar mistake

Yesterday I went to visit my company's office. It's located just across the river, technically in Kowloon. To get there, I had to take our mini bus down to the subway, take the subway from Causeway Bay station to Central Station, walk the few underground blocks to the Hong Kong station, and from there take one more subway under the river to the Kowloon station. There were two options I could take for this last step. One subway line was called the Disneyland line, because ultimately it would take you to Hong Kong Disneyland. The other line is called the Airport line for the same reason. Typically for sub fares, you scan your card so they know when you enter, then you scan it again when you leave. They can see exactly how far you've come,and charge accordingly. Well, the Airport line is $15 if you take it all the way to the airport, and I knew that. But I assumed it would work like other lines, and would charge me a normal fare since id be getting off early. Nope. The moment I scanned to enter the train, BAM! Minus hk$100. Oops. Leah is saying, well your real mistake was not taking the Disney line. Who wouldn't take the Disney line? Disney or Airport....

The story gets better. I finally make it to my destination, only to be befuddled by the elevators. I'm trying to go to the 69th floor. Stu, no giggling. I have to take one elevator that only goes to odd floors up to floor 49, then switch elevators to another one that goes to odd floors 49 and up. Who designs buildings that way? I get the evens versus odds, but can't one elevator just go all the way up? I mean, there are 10 of them. Anyways. I finally walk into the office. My plan was to arrive at 11am, meet the office coordinator, meet the editor I'd be sharing a cube with, have her explain to me what she does for an hour, which would put us just around 12pm, Lunch Time! Should we go to lunch? Let's go to lunch.....

But the editor was out sick. Thanks for telling me. The office coordinator points at an empty desk, this is where she would be. Shows me the break room. The view would be great if the building wasnt constantly engulfed in clouds. I'll try to get you an office access card. Great. And that was it! 15 min of nothing for 1 hour each way of traveling.

Just to clear things up, I will be working from home 99% of the time. Just wanted to meet fellow office folks. This is a pic of the night view from our balcony last night. See the tallest building on the left? That's where the office is. The other pic is of Easter decor in a super fancy mall between the subway station and the office building. Why do they celebrate Easter here? Only 12% of the Hong Kong population is either Christian or Catholic. 50% are atheists. Perhaps thats why the Easter decor is all bunnies and no crosses. Still....