Staycation and knitting

It’s staycation day one! I’m back house- and cat-sitting for my friend for a few days again 😊 I’m only here till the end of the week, but it’s still nice to get away. I’m still wondering if she remembers me. She still seems a bit unsure about me, still not really letting me pet her. Hopefully she’ll warm up to me soon enough, as I’m not here for too long this time!

I want to go buy some more knitting ‘stuff’ while I’m on this staycation. There’s a shop near here that sells things for knitting enthusiasts and dabblers alike, so hopefully I’ll find some stuff there that will suit my needs. But first, I need to find my next knitting pattern so I know exactly what materials I will need to make them. I want to make socks for my closest friends – whether or not they want them! 😂 And like with the baby booties I made, all of these socks will be practice, so it doesn’t really matter if they’re all that great. And they’re for my closest friends, so even if the socks fall apart, I won’t feel as embarrassed. We’ll just laugh it off and put it down to experience 🤣

Packing and knitting

I have started packing for my next house-sitting stint. It’s only for a few days this time, but I’m sure it’ll still be fun 😊 It’s the same friend with the cat, so I’ll probably take a lot of photos again of my feline companion. Plus it’s just fun to be staying in a different part of town. It’s effectively a staycation 😆

I was thinking of maybe bringing some of my knitting materials with me, but then remembered that there’s a shop near their place that sells knitting stuff! So I might just head over there and buy a few knitting needles so that I have a bit more variety in what I can make and not just be making baby booties all day every day 😅 I might look for a pattern that I’d like to try, and then buy an appropriate pair of knitting needles and some yarn for that project. And then maybe I can focus on completing it while I’m over there. That could be a short-term goal of mine. That’s exciting 😆 Now let’s go and find a pattern that I can work on…

A solo staycation

I booked a staycation! 😱 It’s sorta a momentous occasion for me for two main reasons:

1. It’ll be my first holiday without N. And that is truly heartbreaking 💔
2. It’ll be my first solo holiday, so that’s a cool ‘first’ – in complete contrast to the first one!

I also only booked it two days in advance, which is basically defined as ‘spontaneous’ in my mind! I’ve been trying to be more ‘fluid’ with my plans – i.e. trying to be more adaptable and not planning every single thing in my life to the nth degree. Yes, I know this isn’t the correct definition of spontaneous, but this is as close to it as I can probably get! 😅

I borrowed a few books from the library, and I was thinking of maybe bringing one of the books with me. But now I’m not so sure because apparently they have their own library there! Should I start yet another book while I’m there?? I guess it won’t hurt to bring my own book in case I don’t like anything that they have. And if I do find something that I like, then I can always borrow it at my library when I get home?? 😊

I’m glad I’m doing this. I’m sad re. point #1 above, for sure, but also excited about point #2. It’ll be a bittersweet memory regardless. Well, that’s assuming that I will enjoy myself this weekend. Otherwise it’ll just be a doubly bitter weekend! 😂

Going home 😆

I went back home today – for five minutes 😂 I forgot some fruit in the fridge that I wanted to take with me on my ‘staycation’ and I didn’t want them to go to waste. I also took the opportunity to pick up some more clothes as well, after realising that I may have gone a bit too minimalist in my original packing 😅 I could do without the additional items, sure, but now I’ll be that little bit more comfortable 😊

And after taking out the fruit, my fridge is going minimalist too! 🤪

There is one thing that brings happiness into my life at the moment: my new home. As soon as I open the front door and enter the house, a wave of joy just sweeps over me. It just makes me feel so happy 🥰 Everything about it is just so perfect for me, from its size to its location and everything in between. And now that I feel everything so strongly, this feeling of happiness and gratitude is just that much stronger. Just looking around the house brings so much love and joy into my heart 💕 Yeah, I’m happy to house-/cat-sit, but mannn, walking into the house today just made me miss my new home 💕

But there’s one thing that’s missing: N. And every time I remember that, it makes me so sad. I think he would really like this place too. We couldn’t live here together, though, it’s too small. But if we chose a place together, we would have chosen something similar, we just have similar tastes. But obviously he would bring more masculinity into the house 😅 So I try not to think about that and just focus on everything else about the house that I love – ie everything! 😂

Sorta on a staycation

I went shopping with my mum today. Boxing Day sales were on today, and the major department stores opened early. And now that I’m a morning person, I got to the shopping centre pretty much when they opened. So I did some shopping for over an hour before my mum had even arrived. I’m not much of a shopper, as you may know if you’ve been reading my blog for a while now, so I get bored very, very quickly. So I was pretty much done by the time I met up with her 😂 Plus my minimalist tendencies are now well and truly in place, so shopping is now even less appealing. Nonetheless, I figured it’s still worth checking out the sales in case I actually do come across something that I need or love.

But I invited my mum to come out with me more for some mother-daughter bonding time, not really for the actual shopping. We also invited N’s mum to join us, as I thought she might want to spend some time out of the house for once. It turned out she was happy to stay at home, so it was just my mum and me.

My mum wanted to buy a dress, so we pretty much spent the entire morning looking for a dress for her. She managed to finally find one that she liked in Uniqlo, but they didn’t have her size. Such a shame. But she found a jacket for my dad, which I think would actually suit him, so at least one of us found something today! 😅

And then in the afternoon, we went our separate ways and headed back to our respective homes. I somehow managed to find the energy to head down to the beach again, where I found the crowd even larger than yesterday 😱 I did get to the beach a few hours earlier today, though, so that makes sense. I brought an actual book with me today. This is one of the rare occasions (perhaps the only occasion?) when I will read an actual book as opposed to an e-book or audiobook – when I’m at the beach! I can’t really see my phone screen when I’m at the beach, and the sun also heats up my phone too much, so the whole experience just isn’t very pleasant. So it’s much easier to just bring a proper book 📕😅

I’m reading The Guest Cat, which I am rather enjoying! It’s the first fiction novel I’ve read in recent months. I’ve been focused more on business books and personal development books, so this is a nice change. Plus I feel like I’m sorta on a staycation this week, so this is a good time to relax and just read for the pure enjoyment of it 😊

I have ‘checked in’

I have ‘checked in’. I’m now lying on what will no doubt be my bed for the next few days. How fun. NOT 😆

I have asked for a semi-private room. I figured that was a nice compromise between a shared room and a private room. And because it seems so quiet in the hospital at the moment, I figured that might mean I’ll have the room to myself anyway. Sorta like when you hope that no one will sit next to you on the plane 🤣

And today, that’s exactly how it is! The bed next to me is empty – woohoo! I hope it stays that way! 😁

It feels almost like a hotel. I have my own room (so far 🤞) with my own bathroom; I have wifi; my own little cupboard to put my personal belongings in; I can order meals (at a cost); I have a TV; I got a little ‘goodies’ pack with a comb, toothbrush, and plastic mug. Not to mention that it costs the same as staying in a hotel! 😒 You just don’t have nurses barging in every so often to check something when you’re at a hotel 😂 And you can change the angle of the bed, that’s pretty cool 😆

Anyway, I’m ready for tomorrow. It’s just on 10pm now, and I’m ready to go to sleep, surprisingly. This never happens at home! Why not?? It’s so good! It means I can get up early. And at home, it doesn’t mean getting up early for an operation 😆

I’m still trying to think of this whole thing as a staycation to take my mind off everything. I hope everything goes well over the next few days / weeks 🤞 Hopefully I’ll be well enough to be back writing in here tomorrow!

A new treadmill and a ‘staycation’!

I was a little tired today, I’m guessing it was the heat. Summer seems like it’s here now 🌞 Despite my tiredness, though, I actually wanted to go for a bit of a walk, but it was just too hot. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it too much. And N definitely wouldn’t! So instead, I walked a little bit on our new treadmill! 😊 Our friend that’s been staying with us on and off for the past few weeks has given us his new treadmill. He’s been using it at his other mate’s place where he’s been house-sitting when he’s not staying with us. But once he moves into the hotel, he won’t need it anymore since the hotel has a gym. So we scored a free treadmill 👍 It’s nothing fancy, but it does the job. It certainly beats walking up and down the house to close the rings on my Apple watch! 😅

I didn’t get a message from the hospital to tell me that my PCR test was positive, phewww 😅 They said it would take a day to get the test results back, and I was anxious all afternoon while I waited to hear back from them. I thought they said that if my PCR test was negative, I wouldn’t hear from them, and I haven’t. I think it’s a bit silly that they do this. Why don’t they just send you your test result regardless if it’s positive or negative?? You’re paying for it either way 😒 Yes, I have to pay for it. HK$300 (~A$60), so it’s not cheap. But given the price of the rest of my hospital stay, it’s a drop in the ocean 🙄

I’m still trying to keep my mind off this upcoming hospital stay. I’m trying to think of it as a staycation of sorts haha I’m even packing for it as if I am going on a staycation. This time tomorrow, I would’ve already ‘checked in’ 🤪 and I’ll probably be sitting in my hospital room trying to relax and not stress out about the following day’s surgery. Hopefully I’ll just have good things to share with you over the next few days! 🤞

Another write-off of a day

I feel like this week has been a complete write-off. I hope it’s not a sign for the rest of the month! 😦 I slept for a few hours this afternoon, probably because I didn’t get enough sleep last night. I then read in bed for a bit, and by the time I got up, it was 6pm 😳 We decided to order in. I wanted to watch Shutter Island, so we watched that while we ate dinner. It sorta reminded me of A Beautiful Mind, so of course I enjoyed it 👍🏻

Our friend invited us to stay over at his mate’s place again this weekend for a little staycation, so we’re supposed to head over there tomorrow. But I’m not really in the mood to be social at the moment, so I’m thinking that N can just go on his own and they can have a bit of a boys’ weekend instead. But let’s see. Maybe I’ll feel a bit better tomorrow.

Sai Kung, HK

We’re in Sai Kung! It feels like we’re staying in a small village but with modern facilities and decor. It’s really cool 😊 It has a totally different feel here compared to HK Island. It really feels like we’re on a staycation. We haven’t seen the area during the day yet, so I’m hoping we’ll be able to do that tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be quite depressing over the next few days, though, so I don’t know how much we will actually see 😔 And I also brought my drone! But again, I don’t know if we’ll be able to use it if the weather is crap. Booo 😒 We might have to come back another time.

We’re on the very east side of HK!

I think there are other people coming over tomorrow night, so I have to remember to get all my daily things done first thing in the morning – or now! 😆 I have all these things that I do each day now, and I don’t want to lose my daily streaks on any of them just because we’re on a staycation of sorts. Discipline, man, discipline 👍🏻

A few annoying things

It was a pretty lazy day today. I just watched more tennis, and then we went to Wan Chai to check out I Love Cake (it’s this store for people who love baking), to buy some almond flour and almond butter (because we are still in bizarro world and I do a ton of cooking now! 😂). They only had this teeny tiny 100g packet or a massive 1kg packet of almond flour. What is up with that?? 🙄 I decided to go for the 100g packet, but in hindsight, maybe I should’ve bought 2 x 100g packets because I can’t really make anything with just 100g! So I might go back and buy some more later in the week, if the teeny tiny packet isn’t enough for whatever I feel like making.

And they didn’t have almond butter. This is one of those days when I miss Australia. These ingredients would be so easy to find in Australia, and you would never run out of them! Shelves at Coles or Woolies would have all these different products. And they also wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg! Sighhh… It is easy to be healthy in Australia. That’s another thing I took for granted my entire life 😔

Speaking of Australia, we have friends stuck there and they can’t come back to HK. There is still a ban on people from certain countries entering HK, and one of those countries is Australia. So if you have spent any time in Australia in the last 21 days, you can’t enter HK. So they’re stuck there until the ban is lifted. It’s a real hassle 😔 I don’t know if this zero COVID policy / ideal that the government wants is achievable, especially with this more infectious Omicron variant. Regardless, we’re still stuck in this bubble until these restrictions are lifted.

I was hoping to do a staycation during the 3-day Chinese New Year (CNY) public holiday period, but there isn’t really a point. We can’t eat out for dinner; gyms are closed; and it’s too cold to go swimming. And pools might be closed anyway! So we can’t really use any of the hotel’s facilities, so we’re just paying for the room. I don’t think that’s good value, especially given how expensive hotels are in this city 😔 So we might just do day trips around the city instead. Sighhh… Another subdued CNY, thanks to 🦠 😒