Is it que or queue?

Monday night was interesting. One of our VPs is retiring and moving back to the US. The management team in my office decided to throw him an impromptu going-away dinner at a restaurant called Aqua on the Kowloon side. Now I don't normally go over to Kowloon -- I equate it with the SF Eastbay. I'm not sure if that's entirely fair, but who moves to Manhattan and hangs out in Jersey? Maybe some people ... but not me.

Well, if this place is any example of what Kowloon has to offer, I am dead wrong! Probably the best thing was the view. It was like none other. Our table was in a private room fully surrounded by glass with a huge centerpiece of roses and candles. The food was ... Italian and Japanese. Weird combo, but it was good. I tried to be Mr. Cool and pick out the wine (not remembering that I can't do this effectively in SF and it's right next to the wine capital of the US!). My more-experienced VP quickly took over the role and ordered a 1997 vintage Italian wine. I can't even get myself to type the price, especially since we drank five bottles.

After dinner, I truly wanted to just go home. Not wanting to sacrifice the face time, however, I opted to join them at Felix in The Peninsula Hotel. The Peninsula is probably the most famous hotel in HK (mostly for me, since it's prominently featured in the Bourne series), and mostly known for its English afternoon tea. Felix was a somewhat-cool bar, but it was packed with ugly tourists in shorts. I was still feeling fabulous from Aqua, so I decided to classy up the place by ordering martinis. My coworkers were amazed when I drank two martinis and was still sober (small martinis and huge dinner -- I'm no Houdini, just 1/2 Irish and very practiced). After hanging out there for a few hours, we decided to go home. (Favorite comment from this part of the night: "Oh yes, I love San Francisco. It's so peaceful and quiet there, I can see moving there to retire!")

Most of us live in Pacific Place, so we all got in the same cab and headed back to HK Island. And here was my mistake. The two top guys are good friends, pretty drunk, and won't see each other ever again. And I'm in a cab with them headed to two different places -- allegedly. A private conversation broke out between them and before I knew it, the destination had changed to someone's house to play pool. I was trapped. So the cab ride took about 30 minutes straight up to the top of The Peak. (Favorite comment from this part of the trip: "Aren't you glad I gave you my Lexus? The 8 cylinder engine makes it up the hill so much easier than this cab!) The place was a total bachelor pad, with the exception of an immaculately refurbished antique pool table as the prominent centerpiece. The same piece of furniture became a source of major stress for the owner, as one of our party members was FOB Chinese and had never seen a pool table in her life. The end of her que more often found the felt than the ball, leaving the whole room cringing with every shot. (Favorite last quote of the night: "I no good with all these balls! (insert Asian-style giggle).

We got out of there at 1:00 and got home around 1:30. I actually made it to the office for my early meetings the next day in fantastic shape. The big boss stopped by my office to compliment my ability to hold my booze. And I think I just figured out how to get things done at the HK office.