Sensory overload

There's a lot happening around me right now and I'm trying to take it all in. So much to see, so much to understand and absorb!

Let me go back and explain it again. I'm right now in Hong Kong on vacation with my family. And coming back to Hong Kong brings back vivid memories of my childhood when I used to come here with my parents during summer vacations.

I came here last in 1997 when I got married and I felt the instant disconnect at being in the same place as my parents, especially my father, had been and not having them around. I felt so overwhelmed and saddened for some reason that I cried for almost a whole day, pissing off my husband in the process and making everyone else uncomfortable.

Then slowly things started getting better and I enjoyed my stay there although I couldn't help comparing how things had been a few years before when I had been there and how they were then.

Now, it's been 14 years since I came to Hong Kong last and I thankfully didn't have that embarrassing episode of crying or nostalgia. Hong Kong is again a new place to me, new territory to explore and learn.

It could be because we are no longer staying at the same apartment as we were the last time. It could also be because I have kids of my own and I'm watching them take in Hong Kong for the first time. Anyhow, it's different and I'm glad of it. Nostalgia can be an uncomfortable feeling at times as it can bog you down and not let you enjoy the present.

So, here I am. Sitting in Hong Kong with kids all around, looking out of the balcony at all the high rises and feeling amazed at this wonderful city. Will be writing more about it later, hopefully in my next book, but until then, here's a little tidbit.

My bro, Jun, lives here in Hong Kong and he had come over here yesterday (we're staying in another place) and we had all gone to the beach. On the way, I was sitting next to him on the bus and we were discussing Hong Kong and he was telling me about James Clavell's Noble House (a big fat book he has and I can't bring myself to read yet) that this woman tells the hero in it that there's a peculiar smell in Hong Kong (it hits her when she enters Hong Kong first). And he tells her wryly that "it's the smell of money". I was like, err…I wrote it down in my notebook too…that Hong Kong indeed has a peculiar smell (could be all the odd cooking smells, the fishy smells..or whatever.,…there's something unique about the smell of Hong Kong) and I was dang it! Someone else always gets the best lines before me.