Flying Books, Blood and Banknotes.

Thrilled - and rather relieved - to finally have books again. The first print run sold out earlier this year, which gave an opportunity for some corrections, particularly to the index, which was compiled (by me) WAY too fast. Pete Spurrier (Blacksmith Books) has also included the lovely endorsement given by Eoin O'Leary, the Irish Ambassador to China. Pete put a box in the post by air last Tuesday and they arrived this morning - pretty nippy work through the skies, that.

I was at the blood donor centre last week, and filled in the long health check form.

"Yes" I've been abroad since my last donation. Its always the same thing, so I could tell the Donor Attendant that no, Hong Kong isn't on the 'OK' list, it has to get signed off by the nurse. HK has had some pretty scary health events in the past, so they check every time. The nurse came in: "Oh, hello! I got your book!" .... I'd met her on a previous occasion. Explaining then why I spend so much time in HK, she asked what I was writing and it turned out that she had a relative in the HK Police, one of the remaining overseas officers. Great excitement ensued - wasn't this so random?! Anyhow, this time I found out that she'd bought a copy of the book from Blacksmiths in HK, sent it to a relative in Ireland who was sending it on to the police relative in HK. These books do go on some convoluted journeys - who'd have thought!

Meanwhile, work on my Crimwim - sorry, Criminal Women on the China Coast - has sent me looking for information about bank note printing in Hong Kong - and to Hugh Farmer's wonderful site The Industrial History of Hong Kong Group. I could spend FAR too much time on this site, there's a real wealth of articles about all aspects of activity in Hong Kong which give wonderful glimpses into the daily lives of people of earlier generations.