Sick mind

Remember those corny signs seriously disorganized people have in their offices / cubicles "a clean desk is a sign of a sick mind" ?  Well right now I'm prepared to risk it.  My desk was overflowing - and for those who have noticed my blogging is getting, well, let's say a bit more spaced out (in time that is), it's not that I'm not collecting thoughts and ideas, it's more finding them on my desk and in my mind to put them down.

In order to clear one item from my desk, a book, called "Room" which I managed to devour during my HK trip, I need to share with you a very interesting quote, which I think ties in rather nicely with the "parent bootcamp post"

  "In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time.  Even Grandma often says that, but she and Steppa don't have jobs, so I don't know how persons with jobs do all the jobs and all the living as well.  In Room me and Ma had time for everything.  I guess the time gets spread very thin like butter over all the world, the roads and houses and playgrounds and stores, so there's only a little smear of time on each place, the everyone has to hurry on to the next bit. 
  Also everywhere I'm looking at kids, adults mostly don't seem to like them, not even the parents do.  The call the kids gorgeous and so cute, they make the kids do the thing all over again so they can take a photo, but they don't want to actually play with them, they'd rather drink coffee talking to other adults.  Sometimes there's a small kid crying and the Ma of it doesn't even hear."  (Room by Emma Donoghue)


I had a few interesting responses to the Bootcamp posting.  Actually I do subscribe to the idea of TCS (Taking Children Seriously) and one of my gripes with leaving children with domestic helpers is that often they don't understand the nuances of discipline.  When to listen and see where a child is coming from and when to set a boundary and trust that your age, perspective and wisdom counts for something.

I do see parents in the category of where you wonder why on earth they had children.  Sure they love their kids, but do they really like them?  I have a profound respect for people who chose to be child-free or whatever the current correct PC term is.  Particularly if it is an informed and careful choice.

And now to finish my goal of a clear desk (well, it is clear, but everything just shifted to the floor, which isn't really a solution either) before my offspring get home and want my undivided attention.

A little R, R &R

Yup I went off for a little nostalgic trip to HK for some rest, recreation and replenishment.  I do have a very very nice husband who basically said, go now, every weekend will have some other reason why you shouldn't go, plus I had my very good child-free friends staying here to give 2 extra adult hands while I was gone.  Perfect.

There is something good about going back but not too soon.  Allowing your rose-colored memories to stand up to the scrutiny of reality.  My first shock was on landing.  Scrummage to exit the plane, run, rush, yes honestly grown men with their wheelie bags and laptops were running to be first in the sky train and ditto when the emerged to be first at immigration, and I don't want to even tell you how amusing it was for the last 100m dash out the airport express to the taxi rank.  "ah," I thought, "that truly is Hong Kong for you.  People scared to wait, scared to be last, scared to miss out"

The weekend was spent in a hedonistic blur of lunch to tea to dinner to brunch to lunch to drinks to dinner. With a bit of retail therapy in-between - after seeing the film Crazy, Stupid Love on the plane I could no longer in good conscience let my friend walk around in sneakers anymore.  I needed new contact lenses - yes I know Singapore has contact lenses, but it will be weeks before I find a supplier I like who has the right stuff at the right price with the right amount of niceness.    I got my son a new trumpet.  The second hand stop gap let's see if he likes it was starting to rust at a rather rapid rate, the bits that go up and down were sticking no matter how much they were oiled and his teacher said he was showing a real aptitude for it - and he's been practicing - a lot, despite all the set backs.  Again, I know they have trumpets here, but the prices seemed steeper and I didn't feel like the hunt.  I'm not into hunting right now.  I want familiarity and ease.

Yardbird

And that's what HK is, it's familiar and it's easy.  And while I'm walking and bussing and tramming to get the stuff I need easily, I have all sorts of serendipitous finds along the way. Like did anyone notice how much fun Bridges street (link is the sane day-time version) has become after dark?  Oh, shed me 20 years and allow me to sleep late and it would be my haunt.  Yardbird must be the happening place at the moment.

Cute retro store on Bridges Str

I managed to squeeze in two walks up the peak, dim sum at City Hall, dinner at Shanghai Lane, lunch at Madam Sixty Ate, dinner at Hunan Garden, drinks at Dot Cod, breakfast at pacific coffee (mistake, but the company was great), dinner at the American Club, lunch at a Vietnamese hole in the wall in Wanchai, stopover at Yardbird.  I missed but will be back for the molecular Sangria at  Ovologue. Brunch at the China club.  I took the airport express, MTR, bus, minibus, tram, taxi.

I caught up with as many friends as I could.  And I took a good hard longer distance look at my life from 4 hours flight away and decided that we have it good.  We are lucky.  We may not complain.



I still miss HK like it aches.  But that always happens when a long love affair comes to an end.

And this, ladies and gents, is what is on offer at Changi airport - I had to reassure my friend that I was not in a seedy sex shop and in fact it's a type of deep heat to "relieve aches and pains"  yeah, right.