I give a media training today (an over-priced PR service that is full of sound and fury….), then I have dinner, then I pack for my trip tomorrow to London — one week away from this nerve-smashing jungle. I will be flying on Cathay Pacific’s over-advertised “New Business Class,” and I have never been so excited in my entire life. Ha.

Sorry, can’t go on any more (no, not with life, just with this blog); have to run to work. Maybe I’ll check in later today.

The II (illegal immigrant) who broke into my place and stole my watch and computer and jade ring and more has already been sentenced to 9 months for doing the same thing to someone else and he goes on trial this week for yet a third robbery following the same pattern.

I had to go back to court again yesterday, and the case was finally closed — I should find out about the verdict later on today.

Day 4 of my new blog-life. Today is the beginning of the rest of your blog…..

Hong Kong is shrouded in a dull grey overcast, and its been raining on and off all weekend. I’ve now been here a year and 12 days, and while it’s been an incredible experience, surpassing my hopes and dreams, I’m getting anxious. I want to move on, maybe to Shanghai or Bangkok. Unfortunately, jobs are no longer in abundance as they were three years ago, and many of my friends in the US are out of work and feeling quintessentially grim.

I am supposed to write a column for my friend’s Web site, but I just can’t seem to get motivated. Not that that is a new phenomenon with me — finding motivation and energy is my life quest, my impossible dream. So often I just say, “Why bother?”

Watching Stephen (my older brother) pass away five years ago really made everything seem sooooo meaningless. I mean, Mr. Healthy, playing volleyball after work and making millions of dollars and not smoking and never indulging in anything to dangerous — I mean, why of all people should he get lung cancer and die so quickly?

Luck, fate, providence, destiny….and there I am, the family rogue who will try anything and everything once, I walk away fit as a fiddle as Stephen’s ashes are spread around his favorite corner of Central Park. How ironic can it get?

Well, it’s now my second attempt at blogging and, sadly, I feel I still do not have the hang of it. I have read blog after blog, and am not yet sure what the whole pupose of this is. But then, if so many people are doing it, there must be a reason and I should be doing it too, right? I’ve always believed in conformity and following the crowd.

I read lots of these, and I have to say I often detect a lack of intimacy and, at times, sincerity. I sense that some are using this for their 15 seconds of fame (it’s the age of Internet-time), stepping onto the soapbox and screaming the first thing that comes into their heads. I guess that’s okay. It’s just that, being the romantic that I am, I prefer deep psychological exploration, profound inquiry and, as I said, a touch of intimacy. Alas, born in the wrong century….

My first blog post, right now, right here. If someone had told me ten years ago I would be sitting in a Hong Kong skyscraper blogging on my lunch break, I wouldn’t have believed him. I came across this site (Blogger) after reading an article by Andrew Sullivan (whom I still haven’t forgiven for his fawning and unending praise of George W. Bush), and I found the idea intriguing. I’m not sure whether I understand it yet, but hopefully I’ll get the hang of it in time.

To introduce myself: I do public relations in Hong Kong. I was in journalism for several years, then fell into high-tech public relations. My background is in classical music and German, and my great passions are the operas of Richard Wagner, European history, great books (Brothers Karamazov, Austerlitz, Women in Love, Portrait of a Lady, Madame Bovary, The Great Gatsby, The Master and Margarita, etc.), most classical music (with a particularly soft spot for Mozart, Bach, Brahms, Faure and Dvorak, but I love all great classical music), writing, cats and The Simpsons, and surfing the web aimlessly. Did I mention Wagner? It is more than a passion, it is life itself.

I guess that’s enough for now. I am under intense deadline pressure, preparing to get my client on CNBC tomorrow, and the frantic emails are flying.

How’d I do for my first time?