My workplace has a convoluted system for claiming expenses. Everything needs to be sorted by date, time, expense class and star sign and entered via a wonderful internet portal. As one small example of how ridiculous it is, food bills need to be split from drink bills. I think. Luckily my computer is one of three in the whole firm where the system doesn't work. This means I have the luxury of dumping all the tedious work on our office secretary instead. When I've returned from a big trip I have receipts for everything in no discernable order and she needs to collate, enter and make sense of it all before the monthly deadline.

Let us call this lady Choo-choo. She is without doubt the most powerful person in the office. While officially she reports to the MD, in reality nothing happens without her. We all curry favour by buying her lunch, showering her with compliments and being extremely nice to her. Which is quite easy given she is friendly, well-dressed and pretty. But one false step could send me to administrative oblivion.

So I sit here now looking at the large envelope containing the collected receipts of my trip. I need to get this in soon before Choo-choo is swamped with work and so it can be done before the deadline. But I cannot do it too quickly either. I have resolved to wait until she leaves for the day before delicately placing it on her desk with a polite note. Then I will go home and pray to all the deities I can think of and prepare to buy Choo-choo lunch tomorrow.

Much like Hong Kong itself, we work in quiet fear of a powerful far bigger than any of us.