Well, first off, it was where The Esther Benjamins Trust effectively took off back in 2000. That's all thanks to my friends Ronnie and Carol Ford who at that time were teachers at Sha Tin international school. Ronnie, who has since become an accomplished professional artist (
http://www.ronnieford.com/), staged an art exhibition as a fundraiser for the Trust. That was reported on by The Hong Kong Standard newspaper with its report of the charity's origins and early work in Nepal being hijacked by the South China Morning Post. A press visit to Nepal led to a feature making cover story in The South China Morning Post Sunday magazine; the very powerful story that was written by journalist Fionnuala McHugh then moved sideways to the UK's Daily Telegraph and we had the initial publicity we needed to ensure that the Trust didn't go the way of so many other new charities and wither on the vine. So Hong Kong is a very special place for me and it feels good to be back.
Other interesting, but fairly useless, facts from Hong Kong:
- Tomorrow's Marathon and associated running events will attract 54,272 runners.
- Of these 32,907 will be joining me in the 10km event.
- The record time for that event is 30 minutes 19 seconds, a target that has gone unbeaten since it was set in 2002.
I am not impressed with this time; I am sure that I can double that. That is if I can get out of bed early enough to be there for the 5.15 a.m. start.
There's still time to sponsor me and win a beautiful work of art from Nepal:
www.justgiving.com/philipholmesbupa
