The Unknown

HONG KONG, HONG KONG

The last two weeks of shows, travels and chasing after flights has been exhausting. Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I am very spirited, almost always with a smile on my dial and seizing every moment as a positive rather than a negative. 

Like right now! Being put in at the Regal Airport Hotel because the scheduled 1am flight out of HK to Tokyo was cancelled due to the typhoon. Positive: not being stuck in the air in a typhoon. Negative: feeling stranded and that panic-stricken moment of wondering what to do for a 10 hour overnight transit. Positive: they put me in a hotel and instead of an overnight flight which I would barely get any sleep on, I can now sleep in a bed in my own room, quiet and content before a morning flight into Tokyo. Negative: It takes 2 hours to get from Narita airport to Tokyo CBD and then by that time, i will just have had enough time to drop off my bags at the next hotel and go straight into soundcheck.

See the circle of events? It's been like that ever since I left Sacramento! Who would have thought. Its all been close shaves but in the end, it's all one big adventure right? And in Mr. Chow's words: 'BUT DID YOU DIE?' well, no. Technically I didn't. But it sure felt like death during the process! I lived to tell the tale though. More tales to be told from where THAT came from :)

Sitting on the plane is pondering time for me and reflecting on the last week on the ocean. From just dodging that horrifying cyclone off the coast of India (mind you i did a show that night and wondered why the swells in the ocean were so BIG! I had NO IDEA!), to seeing Sri Lanka for the first time and spontaneously running into and catching up with old friends I had worked with over the past few years, you realise how small the world truly is! 

Last night, I was in the bar saying goodbye to a couple of friends and was not really in the mood to be making new friends to be honest. I was leaving the next day. A few people sat around our group and a guy across from me asked me if I was from Vietnam. I answered 'no, i'm Australian but my heritage, my parents, yes, they are from Vietnam'. He smiled. I smiled back. His name badge showed he was from Italy. Usually I'd strike up a conversation particularly if it involves Italy but I just couldn't be bothered. I checked my phone. 12:10am. I had told my friends I was only to stay til midnight before I turned into a pumpkin. So I gave them hugs and goodbyes but not to him and at that, I left. This morning, I was out and about in Singapore, catching up with another friend and then he so kindly drove me from the Marina Bay Cruise Centre to Changi Airport. As we left in the zippy light blue limited edition Fiat500, I saw a minivan full of suitcases and people staring out at it. It was some of the crew and there he was. Straw hat, shades on and smiling. I turned to my friend and said we'd race them of which we took another road and ended up seeing them about 15 minutes later, zipping by, I waved and he waved and that was that. I don't think I'd ever see him again. There was nothing there. I'm not talking about chemistry here. Nor am I talking about any feelings towards someone, but just merely having met someone, exchanged smiles, a few words not knowing their name and probably never seeing them again was a weird feeling!

So much of the time, we live life thinking we KNOW what's going to happen, we schedule our timetables, my calendar is filled into the ends of 2014 yet there is still SO much that is the unknown. And it's pleasant that way! Whether it's being put in a hotel due to a natural disaster or exchanging a smile with a person you'll probably never meet again, it's things that are unplanned, undetermined and unknown. 

And with that, I am ready to go into a slumber.

With LOVE and GRACE,

Van-Anh 

And for the RIGHT NOWS:

Fav food: hainan chicken rice

Reading: David & Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell 

Wishlist: a safe flight to tokyo tomorrow

Current city: Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Listening to: silence. air conditioning. it's deafening.

Fav clothing item: Ralph Lauren boyfriend fit cardigan. Perfect travel cardi!

Wearing: Zara waxed jeans, Claude Maus tee, tanzanite ring, Tiffany & Co ring, 'beyond infinity' ring.

Next destination: Tokyo, Japan