It was a gruelling day yet happy throughout and
happy in the end.
The weightiness of ploughing through the public
transportation of Hong Kong sans car, sans taxi, deserves some sort of medal of honour for Urban Survival.
Firstly, I arose at five in the morning out on
the tropical island of Chamma Tau, where we live in exalted splendour.
With no time for either coffee or breakfast I walked
to the ferry boat and stumbled up the wooden gangplank half-asleep.
Because of my chronic light sleeping I am never
really that drowsy, though I could see the boat full of working Chinese and not an ex-pat in sight was headed to a full Saturday
workday in best Hong Kong tradition.
Then off to the almost end of oneMTR line, chaninging
just once. I was there with a Chinese Canadian friend until noon, when we took two buses to another far out area.
The day was suffering from strong sun by then,
unexpected in middle October.
Into a large air-conditioned builsding we went
then untilabout two, when I partedfrommy friend, and took two more subways just to get to TST where I did not really want
to be, to meet a flock of Chinese family members.
I wanted to meet the relatives, I just did notfeel
like facing the TST hordes.
The subway line from Kowloon Tong was crammed unbearabhly
and I got a Chinese man looking at me with a mixture of disapproval and interest, standing too close to me, so I pulled my
shirt more shut, and turned half away from him.
I was standing in the larger space between two
subway cars and had a fascinating view the cab takers never get, a never ending vista of subway takers, clinging to the bars
above and beside them.
My inner prayer was to to collapse at Delifrance
and have the whipped cream afternoon pastry special, with fresh French coffee.
Finally I made it, and just sat there reading the
paper for two or three hours, waiting for Joe to arrive with his parents and aunt after they had shopped for some new work
outfits for him.
We had the usual cell phonetango of mutualmessages, andafter
parkingmyself at Delifrance so long, I thoughtit would be tactfulif I moved my waiting body up to the luxurious lobby of the
hotel above.
I was irritated to be finally ordered by Joe to meet everyone
at the Mirador Mansions lobby, though I did that, and then found out we had to take two subways again, just to get to our
dinner restaurants.
The dinner was to celebrate various career possibilities opening
up for both of us, and thereby releasing some of the terrible stress we have felt returning to Hong Kong.
When you are in a couple or a family, the griefs and the joys
are balanced among you.
My favourite saying about being in a couple:
The sorrows of life are divided in half, the joys of life
are doubled in intensity.
Chinese food we had at dinner featured many vegetables, and
seafoods.
There was a mixed meat platter to begin: pork, chicken, and
jellyfish which I daringly tried for the first time. I feel neutrally about it, it is not scallops or squid to me.
There was the classic spinachwith small white bits of garlic,
and three other large platters. One was scallops in a large sea-shell with light green vegetables and red peppers, and
another fish dish, de-boned in rectangles, and also a mostly green vegetables plate also with seafood.
I had one Chinese beer, and controlled myself to just one beer,
so as not to shock the Chinese Parents too much.
Joe had to buy work clothes, and though I was asked back to
TST for a shopping trip, I could not face the subways again, and chose to go home early.
Though we are happy about recent successes, we still feel we
are racing the clock; as realists, the daily news full of bird flu, and global warming, and economic vicissitudes does not
look glorious. Perhaps it never did.
Dear readers around the world, take happiness then in this
day at hand.
There is a price to be paid for everything, and the street
density, the bulky transportation links, and high prices are what you pay to live in Hong Kong.
And still it is better to be back in China .
