I Knew My Time Had Come

I’ve been singing the same song in my head for the last 48 hours.  That’s not an exaggeration.  An unending loop, it plays over and over again.  It’s not unusual that I stick with a song for days or weeks at a time, playing it so often that it becomes a part of me…melds with my skin, lingers in my hair and plays in my ears even when all is quiet.  If you can imagine, everything I’m about to share with you was experienced with this song as the soundtrack.  I was the spinning ballerina in the music box, seeing a bit more of the horizon each time the lid was lifted but always spinning to the same tune.

  Just keep hitting play and you’ll have a taste of my weekend.

Friday night saw a brief return to a state of being that I haven’t felt in years.  Something about the uncertainty of work, the adjustment to Hong Kong, something I ate and the isolation of my existence here hit me.  It hit me so hard it knocked the wind out of me, actually.  I had my first taste of emergency health care on the island of Hong Kong which actually ended without any health care.  A  waiting room with 1000 masked sick people and 4 hours in an uncomfortable chair was enough and I left without so much as my temperature being taken.  Not to worry…I’m alright.  What took me out Friday night is nothing that a little Work-Life balance can’t sort out though the experience did motivate me to get acquainted with a Dr. here so that I don’t ever repeat the QMH emergency room insanity.

One by one the days are slipping up behind you
One by one the sweetest days of life go by

Saturday I woke slowly, still shaky from the surreal adventure of the night before.  Unsure if my sealegs-for-land had returned, I took a walk around the hood and decided that the couch was most likely the best bet.  Some provisions for me and the buddies and 6 movies later everybody was feeling better.  Can you remember the last time you watched 6 movies in a row?  2 cats, jasmine tea, a cashmere blanket, a macbook and 6 different HBO channels was the perfect way to collect myself.

One by one my dreams are fading in the twilight
One by one my schemes are failing fast away

Today I was open to giving myself another day of rest but really hoped for the energy to go find some adventure and clear my head.  With the sun came the full-glass-feeling that I am so lucky to be accustomed to so I packed a couple cameras and headed to Lamma Island.

Lamma Island

Arriving by ferry at one end and walking the length of the island proved to be a most theraputic and wonderful day.  The breeze was blowing up off the South China Sea and the heavy smog made the air seem bent and rounded and soft.  I had no plan, no map and no expectations so from when I landed to when I left I just wandered.  Here is a peek of what passed as the soundtrack in my head played on…

Peep Toe

l o v e

Lamma Lady

Twilight Riders

The island basically consists of 2 fishing villages with a couple other small settlements sprinkled around the beaches and hills.  The most striking component of the place is the huge power station that sits on the west end of the island.  The dichotomy of a huge wind generator spinning in the breeze while the massive power station belches CO2 into the already-thick air stuck me as interesting.  Also interesting is the ease with which people swim in the waters touching the power station and hike the surrounding hills as though the nature there is unspoiled.

Dichotomy 2

The smog was so thick today that a clear view back to Hong Kong Island was impossible and only a slight outline of the high rises sitting in Pok Fu Lam was possible.  The fog in the air made the fog in my head seem like nothing…

One by one my hopes are vanished in the twlight
One by one like snowflakes melting in the breeze

Riding back home the city began to light up.  The tankers all flourescent and the skyscrpaers drapped in X-mas kitsch.  Seeing my apartment from the ferry I smiled – my one little light twinkling amongst the thousands.   I guess I left the light on for the cats :)

It felt good to get outside of my routine and outside of my self.  Even the never ending Tweedy, though slightly melancholy, kept my head from swaying back to work and the stress of my Friday night ‘lights.’  Tomorrow kicks off another week and I am feeling ready for whatever it my toss may way.  One by one, I’ll take the days as they come.

If you’d like to travel vicariously through more of Lamma Island, click here.