Day 3: A good Sabbath
Photo Selection with interspersed commentary
The family has two kids (aged a couple years old and then a couple more years old). The floor is hard tiles and so they have this incredibly soft and comfy carpet/rug thing. And it’s kinda spongy.
One of my favourite books ever, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. It’s also been made into short film as well. And I really love it. Ugh, so good. If you’ve not seen or read it before, do it. And if you know it, why not give it a rewatch/reread. (free to watch at BBC iPlayer). While writing this part I got distracted and gave it another watch. Safe to say my cheeks got a bit wet and a tissue was needed (but in a good way, it’s not sad, but rather very, very wholesome).
After Church (which was really good and I’ll definitely be going back, and mention it in the random thoughts section), I had a look at making my way back to the flat. I could either use public transport (which was gonna be a hassle) or walk 45 mins. Obviously, I chose to walk. However, Maureen and I had gotten a minibus directly to the front of the building and we went straight in. So I had no idea about the surrounding area. Naturally, I thought no problem, this isn’t my first day in Hong Kong, I got this. I did very much not get this. I went out to the street, looked up and saw a walkway/corridor crossing the street from the 1st floor. I thought, aha, can’t catch me out, I know about these, so back in I went, up the escalator and found the bridge. It should be noted that google maps was not telling me to go along here. It was simply saying to follow the road normally. And I did actually grasp that as I entered the shopping center from the bridge. However, citymapper was showing a path through here and so I was going to find out. After walking around the couple of floors I realised that maybe the fact that citymapper’s route didn’t actually overlay clearly over its own map indicated that something was wrong. It was not all in vain though as I did come across the bookshop. I didn’t buy anything but that doesn’t matter. It’s a bookshop.
After conceding to google map I returned back outside the way I came in but just under the walkway, and followed the suggested path. This led me by the Hong Kong Park. This is where the I took a lot of pictures. Not an easy task to filter through them all.
Further along the path from the above structure there was this water feature / ruin temple thing. There were numerous people taking pictures and some girls filming themselves doing something vaguely akin to dancing. Between the two structures there was a waterfall fountain thing about 2m high with people queuing up in the heat to take pictures of themselves. Some of whom had so much make-up on that if they dipped their face into the fountain, the water would become an environmental hazard.
This just looked so cosy in a very fantastical way. Love the idea and the execution.
This is the artificial lake. I feel like there’s probably some size that a body of water has to be for it to be called a lake. But I haven’t fact checked that so I’ll just complain quietly. There was however a substantial amount of life in the pond lake.
I don’t know if this is a common thing but it feels like they designed the garden with the idea of having nice picture spots. Like there where the water features earlier, the water stairs below and more besides. Or maybe that’s just because they know Feng Shui?
Ah, now this had me confused at first, I saw like three couples all clearly brides and grooms at this spot. The little building in the left is a marriage registry. Hence the love-heart positioned there so that they get a nice expensive picture taken right after the deed is signed. (I tried not to be in the background of their pictures but the path goes right up the back. I’m just gonna assume the pictures are taken so close up that the background (me) is not visible)
There was also an aviary which was bigger than I expected and also totally free. What you see there is a hornbill. I think it was described as a specific hornbill, but I guess you’d have to go there yourself to read the sign. I’ve not got a clue why it’s got the extended/bulge of a beak, but it looks kinda comical. Especially as it tilts its head in such a way it feels like its trying to see around it.
I feel like this picture captures some of the essence and feel of Hong Kong Island so far. You’ve got the contrast of lush, tropical greens with the grey, drab buildings. Sometimes it feels really busy and bustling, but then sometimes it feels deserted. The roads are never straight or level for more than a couple hundred meters, if that.
Also captures the feel. At night a lot of the buildings light up. Either through simple lights from people’s homes or because of bright advertisement boards. On the rare case you can see past them you often just see more buildings. If I stand still and look straight up anywhere, anytime I will see some tall buildings in my periphery. The basketball court is just a funny one. Imagine playing and the ball goes over the fence. Good luck getting that back quickly enough to keep playing.
Some(what) disjointed thoughts
I bought some granola and a litre of almond milk yesterday. I was thinking it’d be nice to actually eat something for breakfast and as it was gonna be Sunday I’d be up early anyway (and maybe I was missing my normal breakfast a bit). While I didn’t buy exact products I recognised, but instead got Asian variations, I’m pretty sure the place I went to was a little more expensive than usual as they had a big sign in English at the entrance (and I remember someone told me you can buy a lot of western food here but it costs way more, and well, this definitely had brands and products that I recognised…). The price for just the two items was just under £10. Yeah, not gonna be doing that in the long run. It was fine as a one off, but I’m gonna need to figure out a different local breakfast that checks the same boxes that my previous one did. The ingredients need to largely be able to be bulk bought and stored without going off within a month (that’s probably gonna be a tough one, might not be too strict on that). Have enough variance between ingredients that it makes lunch nearly obsolete (when coupled with an equally strong dinner). Taste nice enough that I actually make the time and effort to eat it, longer term.
Church was so good. There were some things that I wish were done a little better or differently. But as a whole I can’t complain. The people were very friendly, I have some contacts that I intend to meetup up with outwith church time. The sermon was really good as well. It was based on Genesis 22, the sacrifice of Isaac. This is by no means an easy passage to preach from, but preached it was. The obvious questions that come up from the story were acknowledged and answered but two parts that stood out to me were as follows. One, taking just the chapter alone, it seems like Abraham was a really faithful guy. When God said go over there and sacrifice your only son to me. Abraham got up and did it. He didn’t even try to negotiate or wiggle his way out. But including the context it’s clear that Abraham was not always like this, rather, he lied, argued and failed many times. But in this case he didn’t do any of those. This is a source of great encouragement. Two, God gives and he takes away. Sometimes, we might pray, God, give me this, give me that, I really need that job, if I have that it’ll be really good for me. But sometimes, we might like the gift more than God. Sometimes, God might ask us to let the gift go again, to bring us back to him. Or simply to test us, as is the case here. It’s a reminder and a challenge for us. What is our Isaac? What was a gift we received that maybe God is saying to let go? Anyway, there was more to the sermon but I can’t remember it all and those were the points that stuck out to me.
In the evening I met up with a friend from the home uni for some dinner. Was interesting to see his experience so far. He’s at a different uni than me here. He arrived on the same day as me in Hong Kong. His mum’s friend picked him up from the airport, drove him to his private halls (as the uni declined his application for accommodation). He also saw more of Hong Kong so far as she took him to see stuff further out. It was interesting as it made me realise how we’re blessed in different ways. While he has someone that can show him stuff and help him practically. I have the advantage of being able to move at my own pace. What also came up is that he feels at the moment that he’s not made friends as quickly as he’d like or as others are. This got me thinking about friendship in general, a topic that has come up many times previously for me and no doubt will in the future. This time I thought about how different people make friends. He would prefer to make friends now at the beginning and be able to enjoy that now. Whereas I tend to enjoy getting settled a little first and then slowly make friends. For me this is always how it’s worked. I think it’s interesting because how we both think that friends are important but I think we differ on the details, on the specifics, on the execution. I think my attitude is I’ll make friends when I make friends, no need to rush it. For example, I’m talking to someone here at this orientation thing, but afterwards we’ll never really see each other as we’re so different and have different hobbies and interests. Whereas when I make a friend later, it’ll be through a situation where I’m actually interested, for example, at church, I will meet people and we have a really strong base common interest, everything builds from there. I’m not sure uni is good enough foundational interest.
Technical ramblings
You might have noticed that this time the text came before the relevant picture. Previously, the picture came first and then my writing. Because this is my writing process. I add all the pictures, I order them, then I go through and write bit by bit using the pictures as guides. But this time I thought that it made more sense for the reader if they read the text and then see the picture understanding it. But then I feel like maybe seeing the picture first makes you look at it in more detail as you can see it with fresh eyes. If only I had a poll setup, oh well. I’ll probably keep it this way for now.