As I write this, I am off tomorrow to check out the newer-than-new, super-duper, huger-than-anything-we’ve-ever-seen-before Venetian Macau. And you know what, I am going to gamble bigtime.

The reason is, I am feeling extremely lucky.

I’ve just received a call from Singapore Airlines’ Hong Kong station that they have found my Moleskin notebook which I had inadvertently left behind on the flight the night before. (I was born forgetful.)

I know, it’s just a notebook but to an old hack like me, a notebook is worth a thousand words. It contains my notes, thoughts, memories, stories, interviews – let’s just say, it’s worth more to me than the cover price.

I had given it up for forever lost in that big airline bin in the sky because I had only realised the loss the morning after the flight, but thanks to a friend who used to work for an airline who now works for a hotel – thank you, Ng Wee Kee of Shangri-La – who phoned in a report for me, the wheels of recovery were set in motion and lo and behold, it was found.

Yes, you’re going to say, who’s going to take a cheap, old notebook but it could have been thrashed by the cleaners or just taken by mistake by a passenger or whatever – thing is, the chances of recovery were pretty slim.

So I salute the folks at Singapore Airlines for their efficiency and service – the station manager called me three times to arrange a pick-up and I only had less than 24 hours in Hong Kong for the notebook to be sent back to me but we worked it all out and now, IT is back in my hot, little hands.

The other reason why I believe the stars are shining on me is because of what happened at lunch today.

I was at the Spring Deer in Mody Road, Kowloon, a restaurant I haven’t been back to in at least 10 years. It’s a charming, little restaurant where I think the staff are as old as the furniture.

When the bill came, the amount came to HK$444.40. I couldn’t believe my eyes. To the Chinese, this means the ultimate in bad luck, 4 meaning “death”. It shook me so much that when I added up the bill, I actually wrote HK$4,800, to give it the lucky “8”, you know, to neutralise the bad omen.

Thankfully, the waiter returned with the bill and pointed out my mistake. I had meant to write HK$480.00.

The third reason why I am feeling lucky – good luck comes in threes, they say – is because when I checked in for my Malaysia Airlines flight in Kota Kinabalu last week, I did something I seldom do – which is to check the boarding pass.

I found the staff had put the wrong name on my boarding pass – another similar-sounding Chinese triple-barrelled name. I pointed it out to him and he gave me a new boarding pass.

“Thank goodness you checked,” said my friend. “They wouldn’t have let you onto the flight.”

On the flight, I had the most stomach-churning thought. What about my baggage? Would it arrive because it had been tagged under the name on the first boarding pass? Given the tight security these days at airports – I had to surrender my bottle of water, though not my cup of latte, go figure – would my bag have been taken off the flight because it was technically “unaccompanied baggage”?

At the conveyor belt in Changi, I waited with bated breath for at least 20 minutes. Just when I was thinking, okay, how am I going to explain this lost baggage story, my bag arrived – with the wrong name still tagged onto it.

Oh well, one airline’s lax security is my good luck – so tomorrow, I am going to play for high stakes in a place where I am told everything is just bigger, huger, enormouser, better and grander than anything we’ve ever seen before in Asia’s hotel world.

Step aside, Pussy Galore.