Beyond expressing a desire to meet in Sai Kung where we both live, Jill Robinson was undecided about most aspects of lunch. It is not a meal she normally eats, preferring to work through the day and break off for a leisurely meal in the evening.
Having left me with the choice of venue, she did however, warn me that she is a vegetarian, so I chose Firenze, a normally reliable medium-priced Italian restaurant with a good selection of meat-free options. I thought she might like to choose the dishes, but once again she deftly knocked the ball back over to my side of the net. 'Whatever you like,' she said disarmingly.
This, you may be thinking, is a woman who does not know her own mind. Wrong. In her very effective work as an animal rights 'activist' - she hates that word but admits that it describes her pretty accurately - Jill Robinson knows exactly what she wants and just how to go about getting it.
A combination of an iron sense of purpose and a gift for cross-cultural diplomacy have allowed this remarkably resourceful animal lover, who was awarded an MBE two years ago, to enlist the help and support of some highly unlikely individuals and institutions in her fight for the humane care of animals in Asia.
In South Korea - a country where dogs routinely appear on menus - she has persuaded customs authorities to make use of the services of a highly trained 'canine detective' to sniff out the products of endangered species being illegally spirited in and out of the country.
On the mainland she has enlisted the co-operation of officials at both local and national levels in working to bring to an end the vile practice of 'farming' caged bears for their bile, and to rehabilitate at least some of the victims in a specially established sanctuary.
She was, however, not up to negotiating with the waitress over what we should eat, so I chose the bruschetta with herbed tomatoes as an appetiser, the baked eggplant, linguine with pesto, and a dish of mixed mushrooms with garlic, accompanied by a bottle of the very palatable Italian house white wine, all of which we shared. She approved the selection.
