January 2020

The last few weeks of 2019 went by in a blur of family and feasting. We chose to stay home, in Hong Kong, and to house all our visitors in our flat. Freed from the frenzy of holiday planning and once-in-a-lifetime-experience administration, we took each day as it came, filling the hours with whatever activity struck our fancy, whatever favourable weather conditions rendered propitious. This allowed us to explore, for the first time, relatively far-flung tourist destinations such as the Chi Lin Nunnery and Nan Hai Gardens in Diamond Hill and to discover new attractions such as the majestic Xiqu Theatre in West Kowloon. We ate ourselves into a stupor, Anna valiantly trying, but not succeeding, in breaking her record of 16 Shanghai pork dumplings consumed in one sitting. We watched good TV (the Mandalorian), tradition TV (the Red and White show, and “White Christmas”) and nostalgia TV (Karate Kid – the original with Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita). We bought books. We tried to read. We bickered. We nagged. We rolled our eyes in frustration. We even got a little bored.

By the end of December, we were ready to sneak up on 2020 rather like a puppy inching its way closer and closer to an unfamiliar mound of freshly dug earth. Playfully curious, yet filled with equal parts of anticipation and dread.

Jump in, the New Year beckoned. The water’s warm in places, absolutely freezing in some parts, mostly calm – you hope! – but turbulent when you least expect it. Would you have it any other way?

May your New Year be filled with love, peace, hope and many, many stories.

With love,
Maureen, Anna & Ben