Sounds like an excellent plan…

N is feeling the mental strain because of the 🦠 situation in this city 😔 He can’t do what he normally does. He can’t even go into the office! They’ve all been told to work from home until the situation in the city improves. But he can’t do any of the other things that would usually keep him occupied: gym, karate, and even going out with mates. All of them are in Oz at the moment!

A few of his friends and colleagues have actually suggested flying back to Oz to get out of the craziness that’s happening here. Trust me, it is TEMPTING!! There are flights available, and we can actually spend some time with friends and family in Oz. Something that we haven’t been able to do for over two years now 😔 So people are suggesting that we spend a month in Oz, and then spend a few weeks in another ‘approved’ country and just spend the minimum required number of days there so you can say that you haven’t been in Australia for that length of time so that you’ll be let back into HK. It sounds like an excellent plan, and a few people are actually planning to do this. But the risk averse part of me (which is a huge part of me) still finds it all too uncertain. I don’t want to be stuck somewhere and not be able to get back into HK or be separated from N for whatever reason.

So for the time being, we’re staying put. But if we do decide to actually take the risk and fly back, of course you’ll be hearing about it! 😆

More 🦠 and more 📚

The number of cases continues to grow. It’s a never-ending story right now, sighhh… 😔 I feel like I’m not doing anything outside the house right now – well, I’m not! We go out for lunch once a week and we’ll go and buy groceries (like I did yesterday 😂), and that’s about it. The rest of the time, I just stay home. It’s not that I don’t like being at home. It’s the fact that I can’t really go out at the moment without the threat of COVID or quarantine looming around me when I do 😔 My

This map shows all the buildings in HK where there has been at least one positive case in the past 14 days:

Buildings in HK with at least one positive case in the past 14 days

Basically, that says there are cases everywhere. So I just feel like it’ll only be a matter of time. I feel like we’ll reach herd immunity at this rate!

One upside to all of these cases is that an expert is now saying that banned flights into HK should now be let in, to allow HK residents stuck overseas to return home. Before the cases exploded here, sure, they posed a risk, with next to no cases in the local community. But now, they would only be a drop in the ocean if they did come back positive. So if the government chooses to listen to him, our friends might be able to return to HK soon 🤞

So I finished another book today: The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan, which was pretty good. It wasn’t my favourite book, but it was good enough. I finished it, and I only tend to finish books that manage to keep my interest. So it couldn’t have been too bad 😅 And now I’m reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Now this book is more my type of book. It’s feeling a bit dystopian, and I love dystopian novels. Winter is coming to an end soon, so I’m going to change themes next week! I am currently thinking either classics or kids’ books. I might go with the latter as they’re quite easy to read! 😊

A coronavirus update from HK

I’ve been watching these YouTube videos the last few days of all these train trips that people have taken over the past year: trains in Japan and the Rocky Mountaineer in Canada. I want to ride on all of them! I feel like I need to start planning our next few trips once the borders reopen: plan the itineraries and also start saving! 😅

Although that last bit is sorta going to be imposed on us over the next few months anyway. It’s an inevitable outcome of all the restrictions in HK at the moment, along with my reluctance to go out. And they have just tightened the restrictions again today:

• Bars, gyms and hair salons will remain closed until 20 April;
• Flights from nine countries (including Australia, Canada, the UK and the US) will continue to be banned from flying in until this date as well; and
• No dine-in services at restaurants after 6pm also continues, but now there is a blanket maximum of two people per table when you can dine in (before, some places were allowed to have a maximum of four people per table).

And they have brought in a few new things as well, two main ones being:

• Universal testing for all HK residents in March 😱; and
• School summer holidays will be brought forward to March – April, so schools can be used for mass testing, vaccinations and as isolation venues 😓

Isn’t that just fantastic. Needless to say, I don’t see international travel on the horizon any time soon. I will just have to experience these train trips vicariously for a little while yet 😞

My mum’s birthday

I spoke to my mum again today. I think she wants to celebrate her birthday but she doesn’t really have anyone to celebrate it with 😢 One of her closest friends is too scared to go out coz of COVID, understandably, and other friends are unvaccinated for one reason or another, so they’re not able to eat out at restaurants because of the rules in NSW. It’s a milestone birthday, and she’s proud to have reached such an age, so of course she wants to celebrate. But she can’t. And we can’t go back to celebrate with her coz then we’d be stuck in Oz too like a few of our friends. Sighhh… She was a bit sad about it when I spoke to her, but because she’s such a happy person, she didn’t let it upset her for too long and in literally just a few seconds, she was her cheery self again.

But I’m not wired in the same way, and the sadness is still lingering in me. She’s a very sociable person, and celebrating this milestone birthday would be something that she would have wanted. She’ll still go out for lunch with my dad, but it’s not the same as having a group of friends to celebrate your birthday with you 😔 But like she said, at least she’s still healthy and fully vaccinated and can actually go out and celebrate 👍 I hope to be as strong and healthy as her when I get to her age 🤞 I had the same thought when she was my age, and now I’m at that age. I think she had more energy, but I don’t think I’m doing too badly😅 So hopefully I can continue to keep up with her as I make my way through the second half of my life…

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 🦠 😒

COVID and more cooking! 😲

So they’ve extended the restrictions from two weeks to four weeks, and flights from certain countries (including Australia) also continue to be banned. And now these restrictions will still be in place during Chinese New Year (CNY). So CNY celebrations will be dampened this year, as families cannot go out for dinner as they traditionally do during this time. So that’s a bit sad. Everyone was hoping they’d be lifted after the initial two-week period, given that CNY is not that far away. But realistically, I figured this would happen 😔 The government basically has a zero-COVID policy, I’m guessing following in the footsteps of the mainland. So the rules here are much stricter than most other places around the world. I don’t mind, but at the same time, it would be nice to be able to travel outside of HK soon! 😩 They were actually talking about opening up the border between HK and nearby Shenzhen, which would’ve been a nice perk. Although, again, I’m not sure if we, as foreigners, would have been allowed to travel as part of that agreement anyway. But that doesn’t matter now because they’ve shut down discussions because of this mini-outbreak. And Shenzhen / Guangdong (Guangdong is the province – like a state, basically – that Shenzhen is in) are seeing more cases now too, so all the warning bells are flashing. Sighhh…

So I’m choosing to stay home as much as I can these days, still cooking like a crazy MF 🤣 I cooked spring rolls today! 😊 I found a recipe online, which was more complicated than I expected it to be, so it took me over 2.5 hours to make them. And I also skipped a few of their steps! If I had followed the recipe to a T, it would’ve taken me all night to finish them! Anyway, they were actually okay, despite my taking shortcuts – and with the usual caveat of not knowing wth I’m doing in the kitchen 😂

And yes, I strayed from my sugar detox today: I ate the spring roll wrappers. Not good. But hopefully I can get back on the straight and narrow and finish off strong 💪

And after tonight, now I want an airfryer! Given how much I’ve been cooking lately, and how much I expect to be cooking in future, now that I seem to have started this very healthy new habit 😲, I think an airfryer would be an excellent addition to my ‘health’ theme for this month (which will of course continue for the rest of the year, and hopefully beyond 2022 as well) – and to our kitchen! 😆 Anyone who has an airfyer seems to absolutely swear by it, so I feel like we should jump on the bandwagon too 😊

The new restrictions 😔

So they’ve brought in the restrictions. They are coming into effect tomorrow, 7 Jan: bars, gyms and cinemas to close for two weeks, and dine-in services finish at 6pm. And people from 8 countries, one of which is Australia, are banned from entering the city for two weeks. Sighhh… So a friend of ours has to reschedule his flight back (and his quarantine hotel accommodation), and a few of N’s colleagues won’t be able to return either.

At the moment, Australia is thankfully not on the list of high-risk countries where, if you’re coming back from one of them, you have to spend 4 days in this quarantine facility that everyone says is pretty much like you’re in jail – before spending another 17 days in a quarantine hotel. Hmmm… I’m not sure how this additional step differs from just spending the entire 21 days in a quarantine hotel, apart from making you feel like you’re in jail for those 4 days, but it’s there. I think close contacts get sent there too. So I’m also worried about getting sent there if I’m a close contact! 😩At least in Oz you can just isolate at home. Here, you get shipped out to this quasi-jail like it’s your fault you were in close contact with a positive case 😒

I’m so glad that we managed to get our staycations in last year. I don’t know how long these restrictions will last now, nor how quickly COVID will spread here. But Omicron seems to travel around really easily, and given the cramped conditions in this city, I’m guessing it’s going to hang around for a while 😔

On the plus side, the Australian Open will start soon, as will the winter Olympics. So all that sport will keep me distracted! 😊

Everything can change on a dime

I went to Muji today to buy some bergamot – and they didn’t have any! 😱 OMG what I am going to do if Muji HK runs out of bergamot?!?? I totally understand how addicts feel! Thankfully my addiction is completely legal and harmless – and cheap! 😂 But on a more serious note, it must be sooo hard for addicts to wean off their drug of choice. You can’t get enough of the stuff 😔

Some announcements were made in HK today, all around restrictions coming into effect soon: people flying in from certain countries will not be allowed to enter HK – including Australia 😔; dine-in services will stop at 6pm; and bars and gyms will close again. Yep, we have entered the fifth wave. Our numbers are piddly compared to so many other countries, but I guess the government wants to keep it that way. Much better that the numbers stay in the double digits than start heading north to triple digits.

How so quickly everything can change on a dime. We’ve had it so good for months now, and all of a sudden, Omicron landed in the city, and we’re pretty much back at square one once again 😔

We were also warned that prices of some essential goods will increase dramatically over the coming weeks, with supply chain issues dramatically cutting supplies into the city. For crying out loud… Like this city wasn’t expensive enough 😓 So maybe Muji is having issues getting stuff shipped from Japan at the moment… 😔

Back home

We checked out of the hotel at the latest possible time: noon 😂 A late check-out time is one thing that I definitely like in Asia! In Australia, it tends to be 10-11am, and obviously 10am was very difficult for us. 12pm is sooo much better 😆

We went and had lunch at a nearby shopping mall, and then wandered around Tuen Mun Park for a while afterwards. They have a small reptile house in the park, which of course we had to go check out. Some of the enclosures were a bit too small for the animal living in it, which always makes me sad to see. It’s the same at HK Zoo 😔 I always wonder why the size of the enclosure can’t always match the animal living in it and if something can be done about this.

Tuen Mun Park, New Territories, HK

We then just made our way home, and I went to go check out my plants. The kale and the lettuce are growing like crazy! 😱 And the coriander is looking more like coriander. And the others are slowly growing nicely too 😊 I think I still have to wait around 2 weeks before we can start thinking about harvesting anything, but that’ll be just in time for my 21-day sugar detox, so that’ll be perfect. So exciting! 😁

I also started reading a new book: Stephen King’s 11/22/63. I think it’s going to take me all winter to read it, it’s sooo longgg! 😆I have decided that I am going to extend my autumn theme into winter, since I didn’t really give it much of a chance in autumn. I haven’t actually read any Stephen King novels before. He writes a lot of horror books, which I’m totally not interested in, so I’d like to try reading some of his non-horror stuff, since he’s such a good writer. And I had to start with this mega-long book! 😆

I didn’t realise that tomorrow is actually a public holiday. I think I would’ve stayed in Tuen Mun for one more night if I had known, and just explored the area a bit more. It’s not exactly a tourist destination, it’s probably like any other typical neighbourhood in HK. But it’s different to a typical neighbourhood in our neck of the woods, and that’s a good enough reason for me to explore the area 😊 So much more space out there, for one!

But this weekend might be our last time in Tuen Mun. There are other places in HK to explore, and if travel resumes again next year, the rest of the world beckons. So I’m glad we managed to spend a few days there, at least 😊

Relationships and a time-lapse video!

One of my goals for today was to focus on relationships, so I decided to ring my parents to say hi. My mum is always happy to hear from us, so I try and ring her as much as I can. She’s one of the most positive people that I know, and after re-reading The Happiness Project, I have vowed to be much more caring towards positive people. I thought being positive just came naturally to them, but it doesn’t. Just like with any skill, they work hard at it, and they don’t get credit for it. So even if being positive comes naturally for my mum, it doesn’t mean that she doesn’t work hard at staying happy. So I am going to make a concerted effort not to bring down positive people from now on, including my mum, of course. And if anything, I’m going to try my best to help them stay positive. Happy, positive people need just as much support as everyone else; and if anything, they probably need more support, because people probably give them less than what they would give to others, thinking that they’re just naturally happy people! So next time I come across a naturally positive person, I have to remember that they have probably put in a lot of effort to maintain that positive attitude in life. One quote that I really liked from the book was “It is easy to be heavy, hard to be light”.

Maybe that can be one of my resolutions: to look for these positive people and make a conscious effort to support them in some way, even if that just means to compliment them on their positive attitude to life 😊

And then we went for dinner with a friend. We went to hot pot, and I ate too much 😔 But hot pot is so good! And we only go maybe once or twice a year, so a little indulgence is okay 😇 She travels a lot, and so she’s one of the few people we know who has spent a lot of time in quarantine! She’s an expert! 😂

And I set up my camera to take a time-lapse video of my indoor garden growing 😆 N suggested it this morning, and so I decided to actually do it! I took a time-lapse video on my phone for a few hours this afternoon, and you could actually see movement even in that short space of time! It’s so exciting! I really hope the one on my camera works. It will be soooo much fun to watch back after a few days 😁

There’s movement! 😆