Delboy just because the women that have been involved with you were ready to run at every opportunity with no intention of ever returning doesn't mean this is true for Piloterror and his girlfriend.
Piloterror if you are already unhappy and have longings to leave HK because of all things considered you will not be happy in another 6 months or 6 years. You will be resolved to accepting the same garbage as those you can read about here on this bb. They are bitter, disgruntled, self centred, and their most blatant inability to take charge of their lives and know what they really need and want, and their inability to do just that. If your needs have you being somewhere else, go do what you need to do. Don't get stuck in this stinking rut with the rest of the whinning saps.
Cathay was once a great company to work for with traditions of honour and loyalty, but that was then and you are here now and it isn't the same. So if there is any sense of loyalty within yourself let it be to yourself not an establishment of discontent. Another thing, HK isn't going to change for the better to expats.
Whether you reunite with your girlfriend or not has nothing to do with the rest of your statement about how much better it was flying the smaller crafts for less money and enjoying it so much more. Those are the important messages in your post. If those things brought you more joy and felt like the right place then you will forever be looking back saying "if only I had" as you stand in line for the hope of having what is so elusive at Cathay today and for the foreseeable future. Just look back over these posts and the last 6 years. What do you see? A bunch of very unhappy disillusioned people. Cathay keeps changing the rules and the carrot dangling on the stick, which once was spelled carat as oppossed to the veggie kind. Soon it will be a single brussel sprout. And the same guys that are clamouring for the carrot will clamour for the sprout. But it all comes down to you and your ability to face and accept the responsibilty of your choices. Even if it appears there is no choice there is always choice and it belongs to you.
[This message has been edited by AtRisk (edited 21 September 2000).]