Compassion and gratitude

I was feeling all compassionate and grateful today 🥰 I should try and bring in more gratitude into my days, try and come up with three things that I’m grateful for at the end of each day. It’s such a different mindset when you think in terms of gratitude, and I just feel happier when I do. I probably could’ve done with some of this during the week! 😂

The weather was still 💩 so I didn’t really feel like going out today. And then N had a Zoom catch-up with some mates from Sydney at 2pm HK time anyway, so I figured we may as well just stay home. And then maybe go out later in the evening, if we wanted to. Pffft, as if we did 🤣 But I did manage to finish my next YouTube video, and I also got through an episode of Crash Landing On You, my current Korean drama 😆 I need relaxation goals too! 😌

Hopefully the weather will be a little bit better tomorrow, and I’ll actually feel like heading out for a bit of a walk somewhere 🤞

Martyrdom

Today’s post is a bit of a rant, so if you don’t need additional negativity in your day today, then please skip this post and continue on with your day and hopefully I’ll see you back here tomorrow 😊

I have a friend who perpetuates the stereotypical ‘women do everything around the house and men don’t do anything to help’ mentality. I don’t like stereotypes in general, and I especially don’t like gender-specific stereotypes. As I may have mentioned before, I am very good at ignoring things that I disagree with on social media, so I ordinarily just scroll past anything that she posts on this topic.

But today, she drags me into it, and THAT I can’t ignore. What she was basically implying was that I am lucky to have a guy who cooks for me. Um, no. I just happen to be with a guy who likes to cook. There’s no luck involved, it’s just who he is. And we make the joint decision that he cooks simply because he likes it. And because he likes it, he practises it more and is therefore better at it than me. And it’s not a skill that I’m interested in improving. If we both hated to cook, I’m sure we’d eat out a whole lot more or order delivery more or eat pre-made dinners more often. So we divvy things up around the house based on our personal strengths and interests. I look after our finances simply because I’m better at it. I wash the dishes because I prefer to do this than cook dinner. It’s about our strengths, not luck or gender. I believe in maximising our strengths rather than trying to minimise our weaknesses. And if I was feeling like I was being overwhelmed with too many things going on in my life, then I’d talk to N about it and he’d be there to help me out. That’s the whole point of a relationship, isn’t it?? 🤨

So I see it a bit like playing the martyr. And if you want to play the martyr, then by all means, go for it. Just please don’t drag me into your martyrdom with you because I choose not to play that game.

Gifts and redemptions

I was feeling all pumped this morning, ready to do a ton of stuff around the house, but then that all fell to 💩 😂 And I ended up not doing much at all! I didn’t even get to go to Wan Chai to see if the cherry blossoms are still blooming 😔 Oh well. It’s Sunday, it’s supposed to be the day of rest anyway, so maybe I should’ve just rested!

One of N’s workmates dropped by to give us a few small cakes that she made today. She loves baking, so she’s always making cakes 🧁🍰 The ones she gave us today were so pretty! Totally Masterchef-worthy, I reckon. We had them for dessert tonight 😋

These wouldn’t be out of place in a Masterchef episode! 😱

Have I told you about the stickers that they give out at supermarkets here? They give you a sticker for every HK$X spent in their store, and if you collect enough stickers, you can redeem certain items during their promotional period, which usually lasts for around 3-4 months. Anyway, last period, we managed to accumulate enough stickers to redeem a hot pot and accompanying cooker! 😲 They don’t have the cooker in stock at the moment, so we’ll have to go back and redeem it later on, but we got the pot today! 👍 Very exciting! Now I can’t wait to have hot pot at home 😋

Our new hot pot! 👏

Busy busy

I had a mega-busy day today, getting up at around 8:30am and then eventually getting home at 1am 😱 We went over to a friend’s place tonight, and just hung out there for the entire evening. It was nice to actually catch up with friends during this time 😊

We caught a cab to their place and back, and both cabs that we got into had hand sanitiser available for passengers to use. All the cabs that we’ve been in in the past few months have had hand sanitiser available, so I’m guessing this is now part of the taxi regulations. And, of course, there is the obligatory ‘please wear a mask’ sign on the window. Like I’ve said before, you can’t really go anywhere in HK these days without wearing a mask 😷

But I think all the measures here are working: we’ve had single digit increases for one week straight now, so things are looking promising 🤞

But SG… They had almost 1,000 cases today, the vast majority being foreign workers. Local cases are actually falling 😔 If anything good comes out of this, I hope it’s a wake-up call to the SG government about improving the conditions of the dormitories for these workers.

Hiking

We made it for another walk today! 👍 It took us forever to get out of the house, though. We wanted to do the Morning Trail in the morning, but it was more like mid-afternoon by the time we actually got there 🤪

Everyone keeps saying that the Morning Trail is a nice, easy hike, that people can push prams and strollers up this trail. And yes, I saw people doing exactly this. But for me, it was not easy. I’m not a hiker, so I doubt I would classify any hike as ‘easy’. It was freaking tiring! 😂 People also say it should take about 45 minutes to an hour, going at a leisurely pace, to get to the top. Err, no, it did not take me an hour. It was probably closer to 1.5 hours 🤣 But yes, I did stop to take pictures, and I also did stop to rest every now and then. But still, even without these distractions, getting to the top within an hour wasn’t gonna happen! 😂 Who are all these fit people zipping up this damn mountain?!?

There were a ton of people also climbing the Peak today, which made me a touch uncomfortable, given the current virus situation at the moment. Perhaps the streets are quiet because everyone is hiking all around HK! 😂 So we had our masks on when the crowds got a bit too much.

But despite the pain that I went through to walk up to the top, it was definitely worth it for this view 😊

View of Victoria Harbour from The Peak

But yes, you can also just catch the Peak Tram to get the same view 🤪 But you don’t get the exercise 💪

A flicker of light

We spent the afternoon just chillaxing at the HK Cricket Club with one of N’s workmates and a few of his mates. All of them have their families stuck in Oz or the UK, and they’re all unsure about when to bring their families back into HK, with HK potentially forcing people into mandatory quarantine centres if they’re coming back from specific countries, which of course would be countries where the outbreak is spiraling out of control. And at the moment, that includes both Oz and the UK. And with Oz going into partial lockdown mode, the number of flights will probably decrease too, so just physically coming back will also be that much harder. Plus rules keep changing at the drop of a hat, so the earlier they can get back, the better. Tough times for these guys 😔

And then we just stopped by the supermarket and bought some more groceries before heading home and watching a few more episodes of The Good Place 😊 You’ll be pleased to know that toilet paper supplies are well and truly back to normal here 😆 It did take a few weeks for the people here to calm down, but they eventually did, and supplies of rice, frozen foods and toilet paper have all gone back to normal now. Oh, and supplies of masks and hand sanitisers have also gone back to normal too. So if people in your country are just starting to panic, I hope calm can return there just as quickly as it did here. It felt like foreverrr as we were going through it, but we eventually got through it, and now, hopefully, we’re starting to see a flicker of light at the end of the long, dark coronavirus tunnel.

But I think the supply chains are a bit stuffed, though, with other usual products not in stock, and other brands are in their place. Like I keep saying, challenging times ahead for everyone!

So stay safe during these crazy times, and take all the necessary precautions that you need to.

Food, yoga and languages

N felt like Malaysian/SG food today, so we decided to try this new place we’d never been to before in Sheung Wan, Asam Chicken Rice. I thought the food was good, but N thought the food in SG is better. Well, it’s tough to compete with The Source…!

They didn’t have dessert, though, so we went to Shake Shack for one of their shakes 😆 N was so full that he was ready to take a nap, but for some reason I was full of energy beans. I have no idea where all that energy came from. All the sugar in my shake, probably! 😂

So I decided to do a power yoga session when we got home, to use up all this excess energy that I seemed to have. I forgot just how hard yoga can be! I’ve been doing more of the relaxing ones or the ones that are more about stretching and flexibility, and only in 10-minute bursts, but today’s session was all about power and strength. And it was tough! But totally what I needed. I’m so glad I did it today 👍

And then in the evening, we went out for Korean BBQ in Causeway Bay with a few of N’s workmates – well, 18 of them 😂 One of the guys is from Spain, and that motivated me to learn some Spanish before I see him again at the next dinner / drinks event. The last time I saw him was a good few months ago, so surely I can get through an entire Spanish textbook for beginners in a few months?? It’d be nice to practise even just basic Spanish with him next time. Man I love learning languages! #polyglotgoals 🤓

Since I was out quite a fair bit today, I noticed something else that I do now whenever I’m outside: I assume that everything I touch is infected. Which means that as soon as possible, I need to wash my hands or at least use hand sanitiser. So I’d add this to my list of things that I do whenever I’m outside now, which I talked about in a recent post. So continue to stay safe and take all the precautions that you need to.