More Postcards from Hong Kong

1. My favorite breakfast here: a mug of warm, fresh, black sesame soymilk, ripe pomelo, papaya, and banana, and delicious, soft sesame raisin toast. (The softness comes from a special Japanese flour.)
2. Totoro, the movie. I am probably letting my eldest daughter watch it a bit too much.
3. Vacation reading.
4. The gentleman upstairs likes to garden on the roof. I am assuming these are his gardening shoes.
5. Our beautiful kitchen maiden.
6. Garden fellows: tea, a pipe, and conversation.
7. A view.

My youngest still naps twice a day. In turn, this trip has been about exploring the world closer to home: sort of a domestic tourism, seeing how everyday things can still be totally new and different. Like spying on the French family downstairs as they eat at their outdoor table, or photographing the postboxes, or venturing a taste of a Japanese kiwi: yellow and red inside.

At first, it was a bit hard to adjust. My oldest, when offered the chance to ride in the grocery "cart" at a local food emporium, turned pale and unreadable when she saw that it meant riding toward the bottom of the cart in a little chair that faced my legs. She wanted out of that right away: the world had suddenly turned completely unrecognizable for her. I thought it was funny when same daughter, a ballet enthusiast, attended a ballet class at a local school, and received a report card. Straight Bs the first day and a proper "thank you, Miss Kim" expected for the effort.

Still, it is nice (and a bit of a relief!) to see them adjusting and carrying on--same kid rhythms, almost as if being halfway around the world is merely incidental. Absorbed for a moment in something new, and then off into their interior worlds, their hungers, their alternating distress and laughter.

Thanks for visiting.

Warmly,

-L.