The Hong Kong Experience: Day 05

2014/12/27 @22h05 HK time

¡Hola, Webbies! Comment ça va?

It’s no longer the 25th, but the carols will continue a-playing for the foreseeable future. Seems like even during the downtime, it really isn’t downtime, ya know?

=8=

Previously on The Hong Kong Experience…

Family. Togetherness. Gratitude.

=8=

On the fifth day of Christmas–vacay–my sister said to me,

“Hong Kong Museum of History?”

And the adventure continues…

The Sestra and I decided to give the ‘rents some quality time, while, of course, going out to explore on our own.

We started the day earlyish enough. It’s interesting here because shops seem to open whenever the owners want them to rather than having a universal fixed schedule. I’ve seen major retailers have different hours of operation than the rest of a mall, but here, it seems that every few shops have their staggered opening and closing time. Hence, we leisurely made our way there, and as always, marvelled at how close these supposedly far-esque venues were from our point of origin.

It was interesting to learn about Hong Kong during prehistoric times and how society adapted to changes in geography, climate, and technology. Having been to historical museums in different parts of the world, I was fascinated and compared what social norms were per location due to when the place was discovered and/or occupied.

Through years of progress, we saw the evolution of food, fashion, leisure, and the like, and how each of these were were affected by the various cultures that occupied Hong Kong, at the time. Of course, some things were harder to get through such as war exhibits or particular moments in history that had political ramifications on both a local and global scale.

The one thing I did take away from the trip was how I was able to fill my cranium with story ideas. I was able to tap into the many conspiracy theories about who may have survived the Romanov killings in an alternate history type novel. Also, a simple thing about the cultural usage of Emperor and Tsar made me think of space operas and world (and galaxy) building.

The writer brain never shuts off. Inspiration is everywhere.

( via ipadartroom )

Meanwhile, the ‘rents went back to the tailor for Papa Bear’s fitting.  Some minor tweaks were necessary and they were told to come back the next day, so they called us to see where we were so we could have dinner together.

Sure enough, we were in the midst of something spectacularly awesome–per usual, naturally, ha!–when they called.

I figured, we still have another week here, I’d rather spend as much of it together as possible so that everyone’s happy. It is pretty sucky that, barring another major situation (this past year, it was my paternal grandmother’s passing), we’ll see my father in another six to seven months. So, together happy fun times is a must, especially if he’s always thinking about the day we have to go back to Canada. Distractions are a necessity to avoid premature homesickness and, well, just the overall sense of dread. I turn to goo in a bad way with the emotions drop below melancholic.

Anyhoo, dinner together and the usual evening stroll with Papa Bear: some father-daughter bonding time or post-dinner constitutional, if you will, ended the evening and the first week of our visit back to Hong Kong.

I must say, that the Christmas spirit is still insanely high the day after, and I’m sure will carry on into the New Year. You can’t deny that it’s easy to forget your troubles–at least temporarily, and at least until someone elbows you on the sidewalk–while you’re here. It’s called Vacationing Suspension of Disbelief (VSD, newly coined, as in just now) and I highly recommend it.

Until next time…