Today’s post has nothing to do with motorbikes.

One incident that comes to mind again and again over the years occurred in Hong Kong over twenty-five years ago in 1989.

One Sunday we had been to church and were walking along Jordan Road in Kowloon to board the Jordan Road ferry to go out to an island in the South China Sea.

We entered a tunnel to pass underneath a very wide road to get to the ferry.  The tunnel was very long and was lined with ceramic tiles which made it like an echo chamber. A group of young Filipina ladies was walking a few paces ahead of us in a straight line across the tunnel. I felt a sneeze coming on. I tried to suppress it but lost the battle. Suddenly a stentorian explosion of magnificent volume echoed throughout that tunnel.

All of the Filipina ladies instantly rose into the air in unison like a line of well trained ballerinas and we were able to see a lot of daylight shining through beneath their feet. Together they all landed again with a single click as their feet all touched the floor of the tunnel simultaneously.  I have been to a great many ballets over the decades, but I don’t think I have ever seen a troupe of ballerinas leap in such perfect unison.

There was a moment of still silence followed by enormous guffaws from both the Filipina ladies and ourselves as we all doubled up with laughter.

Later in the afternoon, as we sailed smoothly across the South China Sea, we realized that the Filipinas and ourselves had all caught the same ferry and every time we saw each other after that we would all keep bursting into laughter again. It really was one of those moments that remains unforgettable throughout a lifetime.

Now, a quarter of a century later, when I sneeze, I often picture in my minds eye that line of ladies doing that perfectly-timed leap in that tunnel, and people around me wonder why the heck this crazy guy starts laughing at his own sneeze!