Okay, it’s about time to give the extended version of why I am AGAIN trapped in Hong Kong. Add to this tale a dash of humility and L-shape-on-the-forehead hilarity, and you have my current situation in a nut shell. Or nut house, as the case may be.
[Booming voiceover] It began like any otherrr shuttle flight from Hong Konnng to Taipei. [Er, get rid of the voiceover.] Scooting through ticketing, the usual checks, and finding myself on a quick line through passport control, I was already thinking of a cheery Taipei eve (Thurs 28th, I think). But being called to the little room at the side of passport control was not at all usual, nor the information that I wasn’t actually allowed to leave HK until I had fixed up a little case of overdue tax. Oh shit.
With an hour until the close of the tax department in town, I scooted and had a quick interview with a case worker (or the like), which informed me that yes, I did indeed have to part with a reasonable amount of money right away to be able to get on the next, if not any, flight in the near future. Having been a student for a year with fractured blips of minimal income from financially-spastic employers, and with HK$70 in my pocket, I have thus spent the past week or so hunting for loans and keeping my head down in a desperate attempt at economy living. Thus my silence. And bemused grunts. And failure to appear in Taipei for the past week.
I am nearly happy to almost report that I may soon be supposedly hearing from the HK IRD about my suggested timetable for paying back said tax debt, so I hope to be in TPE very soon. Or, yeah, I’m mince. Cheap mince. Is it just me, or are my stories – usually true – getting more outrageous as I get older and sillier? Pls don’t answer that, I’m currently liable to bite yer bloody head off :P Shout-outs to Anj, the Grok posse, Katie Shan who now reports from Melbourne and the TPE crew. See u all soon. Yuletide log?
