Return of the Jedi
Wow. It has been an interesting 3 ish years. Honestly, I nearly forgot about this blog but a part of me kept it going in the back of my head for some reason. Its currently 2:44 AM and I am currently in bed, in Amsterdam. To all my faithful followers, I'm sorry there has been some delay with this post but I will attempt to start posting again as I feel like I need a venting place. However, the real question that must be addressed is what has gone on since my last post? My whole memorable life I believe. I met a great group of friends and basically lived out HIMYM for 2.5 ish years. Violet is long gone and merely but a flesh wound. I still think back to it but it was a first kiss and I remember it pretty well. So lets summarise these years, grouping them by when I met major people in my life or major milestones.
How I Met Toby - First year of IB and the courses I took were kind of difficult from what I can remember. I started going out a lot more like I wanted to haha. My first major friend who kind of enabled me to start was called Toby. He and I had a mutual love of Ikea and we were both broke. We met during IGCSE Spanish, with me sitting next to him as I didn't really know anyone else. We went to the same primary school and he was good friends with Kushaan as their parents both worked there. At that point, I only really knew him as an acquaintance and almost as a meme as he was usually the guy that people laughed at/with as he was a bit awkward. For a while we were inseparable and did stupid stuff together. Our main thing early on was our love of Jumping Gym (a children's arcade in HK where we sunk way too much money into) We did other usual teenage stupid stuff like buying our first bit of weed, meeting an undercover whilst smoking said weed, going to where all the cool kids hung out drinking the cheapest booze we could find, movies, and all the dumb stuff kids do. Also we went to the peak this one time and drank there but couldn't find a bus down so decided to walk then hitched a ride on a resident's shuttle bus halfway down the mountain.
How I Met Henry - After like 4-5 months hanging with Toby, I met one of my two best friends I have: Henry. He was this new kid who came from a local school and I met him in physics, slowly bonding over our shared love of interstellar and beer over the next few years. Nearing the end of my run with Toby, I also hung out with a dude named Umed (I will get to why we don't really like him later). Umed and I weren't the best of friends but close enough that I could request for us to go drinking at a nearby location to both of us: Kowloon City Walled Park. Now this location is important as its the staging ground for my entire teenage hurrah. Anyways, Umed said 'Hey, can I invite this dude Henry?' and I was like 'yeah sure but who is he?' At that point, I knew he was in my class but never really talked to him. Anyways its me and Umed at night at a sketchy park and we're trying to find Henry when we stumble upon 4 shirtless old men standing in the park near the workout bars and Henry doing pull ups with them. Anyways, after 6-7 chugged bottles of soju and a lovely hurl outside a 7-11 at 2 am, we were bros for life. I forgot what I called her earlier but I have given up with the name censorship considering how many slip ups and inconsistencies there have already been.
How I Met Lu - So this night (affectionately named 'soju night' or simply, 'pain') was the start of my drinking days. Ironically, this is when stuff starts getting hazy. Somewhere along the line, Umed, Henry, a girl named Sim (lots of backstory there that I will save for another post), and I were sitting on the rooftop I usually brought girls on first dates as it overlooked most of the HK skyline doing our thing, listening to music, and discovering what it was like to be drunk. At about 11 or so, Henry (who had previously met the 'party group') said 'Hey Ryan, do you want to go meet the rest of the guys? They're just at the other end of the pier row'. Now, saying yes to this was probably one of the best things I ever did because this was the night I met best friend number 3, Lu. You see, we had been talking for almost a year exactly at that point on Snapchat but never met in real life. We had really deep convos but that was about it. Anyways, we walked down to the DB Ferry Pier and there she was, sitting with her friend Tom. If I remember right, she got up and yelled 'omg, Ryan????' and that was kind of history. After that, she was part of the triple threat and we went out everywhere together. Funnily enough, I don't remember a lot of the start of our relationship (or my teenage years for that matter). I vaguely remember her asking me out but me saying we're better off as friends, yet, she denies it to this very day. Anyways, the day we were the closest was when we went back out to drink at the same pier. Side note: normally, past generations go to bars as they are not strict with ID's but this was Covid where all the bars were closed so night times at abandoned ferry piers it was. Now back to the main story: Lu and I were sitting in a group when she was being awkward and such so I pulled her aside and asked what was wrong. She was upset and I could see some insecurities showing. I asked what was wrong and she was talking about not getting a guy I think or not being able to start to flirt with guys because she's never had her first kiss. So being the great friend I am, I leaned in and gave her that first kiss. Surprisingly, she was pretty good and after that we've only really been friends, siblings even.
How I Met Ms. H - Now, my teenage years, or IB more specifically, were kind of blurry for a few reasons. A large portion probably has to do with the massive amounts of alcohol intake, or the fact that I just have a bad memory. Needless to say, I'm trying my best to recall it all. You're probably wondering: Who is Ms. H? Why have you never mentioned her? Ms. H is Lu's mom and I like to think of her as my adopted mom as well. She was the mother figure aside from my sister and helper that really brought me through my teenage years and gave me a judgement-free safety net that I just didn't have from my parents. How we met, however, is a very funny story. In the quest to test my limits of drinking during the early days, a blunder was committed: I drank too much one night. Known forever in the friend group as '18 drink night', this night was when I drank 19 drinks within the span of 2 hours, thinking I was invincible. 'But 19 drinks? I thought it was 18 drink night.' Yes, it was 18 drinks. But it was the 19th that sent me into the downward spiral. So back to the plot: My dad didn't let me stay out very late because he was lame so I had the genius idea of 'staying at Henry's'. But we couldn't go back to his completely wasted so we hatched this amazing idea of sleeping at Tamar Park, even bringing sleeping bags with us and stashing them in a locker at the other end of pier row. Anyways, a few major events happened this night: 1) I met my first love, 2) I met my adopted mom, 3) Lu and I became permanent friends. So, event 1 ( which I shall keep short for now) I was stumbling across the main entrance to the pier hall, desperately trying to find anything for balance, when I coincidentally lean on this very cute British girl: Sophia (gonna censor her name and all of my exes in case I want to trash them later). We lock eyes, falling in love, and stare at each other for a long while (partially due to intoxication) to which the silence was broken by Lu who happened to go to kindergarten or some BS like that. Anyways, I was spiralling, hurled in a trash can, and then hurled some more outside while Lu held my hair out of my face. I was like laying dead on the floor - not a great time in my life - while Henry ran to get our bags. Lu finally made the executive decision to take me back to hers and not leave me to sleep on the grass. Thanks. Anyways, I met her mom the next morning. A lovely British-HK lady who was like the 'cool' mom. She was extremely nice, sympmathizing with the worst hangover ever to have happened. I also met Lu's cool gay dog, Blue, who I instantly had a bond with. After that, I found out Lu lived in Gold Coast (the middle of nowhere) but in quite a large house with a guest bedroom. This house was also to become a main location of my teenage years. Here, Lu, Henry, and I would come back from Lan Kwai Fong (the party district) almost every weekend. Both of them would pay for the taxi as I was beyond broke, and in turn, I would cook them a very large single pot of Indomie which we would all share around her coffee table while discussing the events of the night at 5 AM. We stayed there so often, Lu's mom became one of the friends and one of the people I'm the closest with. Their guest bedroom was rearranged so that Henry and I had separate beds on either end of the room and they became our beds. A home away from home.
How I met Blue - Yes, so I already said how I met him just now. I came home blackout drunk and gained consciousness when Lu dragged me through the door and he came up to me on the floor and licked some dried hurl off my face. But Blue was the best dog I ever met. I loved him and he loved me. He was like a scruffy medium sized black Tibetan mastiff or something like that. He was like 10 years old or something. Every time I would come over, he would run to greet me. He slept in bed with me when I came over, laid at my feet while I cooked brunch for everyone in the mornings, sat with me during the morning tea fest. A real mans best friend. Near the end of my time in Hong Kong, he sadly passed. Not a shock but really just a terrible feeling for everyone. He was an old dog and in quite a bit of pain from the multiple diseases he had. He was suffering and putting him down was for the best but I got to have a good sendoff for him. The weekend before he passed, I stayed at Lu's house for what I didn't know was going to be the last time. He came to my room and tried jumping on the bed like usually but just couldn't as he was so fragile. I made him some stairs out of a sofa thingy they had and he climbed up and laid with me. It was HK in the summer so around 35 celsius . Even with the aircon on, this dog was like a personal heater but I'm glad I didn't kick him out. I think he knew his time was coming soon so he decided to spend some of it with me. For that I'm eternally grateful.
Kowloon City Park (KCP) - Kushaan has been the OG. Though I only became friends with him at the start of high school and not at primary, he's been there through thick and thin. He's witnessed me at my best and worst and one of the best friend's I could have ever asked for. He joined the group of 3 after I invited him to meet us at Kowloon City Park (the park near where I lived) for some drinks. He knew the group but never came out to drink with us. KCP has a special place in my heart. Henry and I usually held drinking sessions there a couple times a month at night for all of our friends. It was essentially a very local park with a large and very cheap small shopping mall next to it. Inside, we would get our sketchy alcohol at a Japanese supermarket called Aeon, grab some food at the Gin Curry or Genki, catch a ridiculously cheap movie, or go to the McDonald's. Gin Curry was a main bonding point between us three guys. Toby introduced me to it and I've been hooked ever since. It is essentially a very local HK chain of Japanese curry with rice that's dirt cheap. Around $20 HKD for a plate of rice and curry sauce and it tasted phenomenal. We would go there after school, before our nights out, or sometimes just for the hell of it. They also had this challenge called the Mt. Fuji. Basically $88 HKD for 1.5kg of curry, rice, egg, pork cutlets, a beef patty, and some sausages. This was a eating challenge we had but sometimes we would just order one to share. Anyways, back to KCP nights. Here, we invited our friends and some girls. Usually just drinking and talking for hours, listening to music, and doing dumb drunk stuff. This is where we solidified our bond between the 4 of us.
University - So IB went okay I guess. The summer in between year 1 and 2 was honestly the best of my life. I met lots of people, went out with some girls, and really developed. I learned how to play pool pretty well and got into bartending. I worked a few F&B jobs everywhere. I didn't fail IB as I thought I would and did not too bad. I ended up applying last minute to the University of Amsterdam to study Business Administration and got accepted. I made some cash during the summer before leaving then packed up everything and moved it all. Housing was a nightmare but I managed to work a miracle and get the best place I could have ever asked for. I live in a very big concrete prison/student accomodation with 17 other people. Now I know what you're probably thinking: That sounds like hell. But in reality, Its quite frankly one of the best experiences I've ever had in my life. I have my own room looking out over the back part of Amsterdam and the canals. The kitchen balcony faces the entirety of the city, and being on the 9th floor ish, we get amazing sunsets everyday. The people here and sort of become family, even though I want to murder one or two of them. I met a few guy friends whom I have become good friends with. I've also become a professional bartender. I'm working at a pretty cool Mexican-inspired tequila and mezcal cocktail bar. Learning all the crafts and recipes. It is a lot to memorise and the hours are long and tiring but I've met a lot of cool people along the way and had some pretty great adventures in this city. I'm writing this a couple days before my midterms as well as kings day. Got a lot planned the next couple weeks including a trip to morocco and I can't wait to see how this turns out. I will be posting more but unlike my previous 'commitments' to posting everyday, I will be posting whenever I get major thoughts or big events happen. Anyways, so that's my life at the moment. I'll be putting flashbacks and bits of stories I remember periodically from the IB years in some posts in the future but that's enough for now. Just gonna let y'all digest this for a bit. Excited to start this new chapter. Esser out.