![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Well that passed in something of a blur.
I've been out for nearly a week and it's been a pretty good one all things considered.
Highlight 1: spending time with the family, including a positively-minded half-brother and half-SIL, an adorable niece, and my aging dad (however flawed he may be).
So, family is important to me and the sistren. In part, this is because didn't marry and/or have kids, thereby forming families of our own. Additionally, our own family isn't toxic or abusive - flawed, occasionally problematic, set in habits that aren't always entirely health, but not bad or dysfunctional on an emotional level, so we have positive associations with blood family being true family.
That said, the possibility always exists that among our step/half-family, the connection is less secure: the halfbro has married and has a daughter, plus lives in another country, plus is significantly younger than us. That might very well have changed the game for them in terms of 'who they count as family'. Which is utterly fair and we would have abided by it if they didn't want to know us; but both I and the sistren held out hope that we could be as much family to G's kids as he and S allowed.
I think it's reasonable to say that G and S are positive towards their daughter having aunts. G was friendly and encouraged contact between us, and so did his wife. Which is great, because his kid, K, is an adorable 'little emperor' and although shy to begin with, was delighted to have another person to play with and wanted me to be there in the morning when she went to bed last night. (Although K might very well have a sibling on the way; Dad noted G's wife taking supplement pills and she seemed a little larger around the waist.)
We gave her a quilt and three books - two Australian (Possum Magic, and Wombat Divine), and one that's a bit more about diversity and how different people need different things (Come Over To My Place).
Anyway, yay for family. It will remain a tenuous connection, but Dad at least is trying to keep us all in contact with the monthly zoom calls, so that's good. And now K will (hopefully) recognise 'Aunty' as one of the people on the call.
Kowloon Park, I think.
--
Highlight 2: learning more about Hong Kong from an on-the-ground perspective. Previously, I ended up starting from Dad's place, and pretty much just going wherever he directed. This time, I got to navigate the city on my own two feet, which meant I have a better feel for it and where to go and what to do.
Stayed at an AirBnB that was basically an apartment turned into a 'lobby' (with a 'reception': it was pretty much just a desk space) and rooms. Each room has a bed and a bathroom, although the shower pretty much *is* the bathroom. That took a bit of getting used to!
But it was nice to walk out the door and try to work out how to orient myself. I spent the first couple of days just turned all around because of the sun being in the 'wrong' hemisphere for my instincts. Every time I mentally tagged something 'north', it turned out to be 'south'. It's difficult to explain to people who haven't spent much time in another hemisphere - there aren't too many of us, and it can throw you for a loop.
I travelled on the MTR, hopping trains and working out exits (with the assistance of GMaps), and catching HK buses and learning just how wild the transport can get.
I did do a little shopping: two pairs of glasses, because I only had my 'backup' pair with me (I grabbed for both boxes, but apparently hadn't put away my main pair, because when I opened it there was only the empty box). And they were pretty cheap compared to Australia - as in 1/4 the price!
I like being able to get around in a city myself. To be able to work out where I am and how to get places. GMaps and the intarwebs sure helps, but having a feel for the streets and the people on them, who you're watching and who's watching you, the social norms of crossing the road and which side you pass people on...
That kind of stuff.
Being on my own in HK gave me an education about that, and considering it's been at least 25 years since the first time I visited it as an adult, it's certainly more than time.
I think it's the HK Entertainment Centre, out on HK Island. With one of the 'motorised junks' that my father thinks are The Worst Ever. And a ferry that came into the pic just as I snapped it! D'oh!
Highlight 3: Macau and learning more about myself through going there.
Dad's leg was giving him trouble 'cause he'd overdone it, so he didn't come with me to Macau. Which gave me some time to work out a few things.
1. I will pay money if it saves me time. I value my time over my money. This is the opposite to Dad, who will cut corners every which way if it means he doesn't have to pay more.
2. I am interested in artisanship - that is, where someone has put time and energy and effort into creating something unique, I am appreciative of it. I admire the design of mass-produced things, the cleverness involved in the production of them in large volumes, but I do not admire it as artisanship.
3. ...I had a third thought originally, i can't think of what it is. And my flight to Dubai is about to leave, so I'm going to leave off this thought just now and head off to catch the flight rather than stay and catch the thought. I'll be back with it later. If I remember.
Anyway, more about Macao later!
A dried food stall on HK Island.
I've been out for nearly a week and it's been a pretty good one all things considered.
Highlight 1: spending time with the family, including a positively-minded half-brother and half-SIL, an adorable niece, and my aging dad (however flawed he may be).
So, family is important to me and the sistren. In part, this is because didn't marry and/or have kids, thereby forming families of our own. Additionally, our own family isn't toxic or abusive - flawed, occasionally problematic, set in habits that aren't always entirely health, but not bad or dysfunctional on an emotional level, so we have positive associations with blood family being true family.
That said, the possibility always exists that among our step/half-family, the connection is less secure: the halfbro has married and has a daughter, plus lives in another country, plus is significantly younger than us. That might very well have changed the game for them in terms of 'who they count as family'. Which is utterly fair and we would have abided by it if they didn't want to know us; but both I and the sistren held out hope that we could be as much family to G's kids as he and S allowed.
I think it's reasonable to say that G and S are positive towards their daughter having aunts. G was friendly and encouraged contact between us, and so did his wife. Which is great, because his kid, K, is an adorable 'little emperor' and although shy to begin with, was delighted to have another person to play with and wanted me to be there in the morning when she went to bed last night. (Although K might very well have a sibling on the way; Dad noted G's wife taking supplement pills and she seemed a little larger around the waist.)
We gave her a quilt and three books - two Australian (Possum Magic, and Wombat Divine), and one that's a bit more about diversity and how different people need different things (Come Over To My Place).
Anyway, yay for family. It will remain a tenuous connection, but Dad at least is trying to keep us all in contact with the monthly zoom calls, so that's good. And now K will (hopefully) recognise 'Aunty' as one of the people on the call.
Kowloon Park, I think.
--
Highlight 2: learning more about Hong Kong from an on-the-ground perspective. Previously, I ended up starting from Dad's place, and pretty much just going wherever he directed. This time, I got to navigate the city on my own two feet, which meant I have a better feel for it and where to go and what to do.
Stayed at an AirBnB that was basically an apartment turned into a 'lobby' (with a 'reception': it was pretty much just a desk space) and rooms. Each room has a bed and a bathroom, although the shower pretty much *is* the bathroom. That took a bit of getting used to!
But it was nice to walk out the door and try to work out how to orient myself. I spent the first couple of days just turned all around because of the sun being in the 'wrong' hemisphere for my instincts. Every time I mentally tagged something 'north', it turned out to be 'south'. It's difficult to explain to people who haven't spent much time in another hemisphere - there aren't too many of us, and it can throw you for a loop.
I travelled on the MTR, hopping trains and working out exits (with the assistance of GMaps), and catching HK buses and learning just how wild the transport can get.
I did do a little shopping: two pairs of glasses, because I only had my 'backup' pair with me (I grabbed for both boxes, but apparently hadn't put away my main pair, because when I opened it there was only the empty box). And they were pretty cheap compared to Australia - as in 1/4 the price!
I like being able to get around in a city myself. To be able to work out where I am and how to get places. GMaps and the intarwebs sure helps, but having a feel for the streets and the people on them, who you're watching and who's watching you, the social norms of crossing the road and which side you pass people on...
That kind of stuff.
Being on my own in HK gave me an education about that, and considering it's been at least 25 years since the first time I visited it as an adult, it's certainly more than time.
I think it's the HK Entertainment Centre, out on HK Island. With one of the 'motorised junks' that my father thinks are The Worst Ever. And a ferry that came into the pic just as I snapped it! D'oh!
Highlight 3: Macau and learning more about myself through going there.
Dad's leg was giving him trouble 'cause he'd overdone it, so he didn't come with me to Macau. Which gave me some time to work out a few things.
1. I will pay money if it saves me time. I value my time over my money. This is the opposite to Dad, who will cut corners every which way if it means he doesn't have to pay more.
2. I am interested in artisanship - that is, where someone has put time and energy and effort into creating something unique, I am appreciative of it. I admire the design of mass-produced things, the cleverness involved in the production of them in large volumes, but I do not admire it as artisanship.
3. ...I had a third thought originally, i can't think of what it is. And my flight to Dubai is about to leave, so I'm going to leave off this thought just now and head off to catch the flight rather than stay and catch the thought. I'll be back with it later. If I remember.
Anyway, more about Macao later!
A dried food stall on HK Island.
no subject
no subject
no subject