What Ordinary Moment Brings You Joy?
November is a good time to be in Hong Kong. The cooling weather means that hiking season has officially started, Bauhinia × blakeana are in full bloom, and we can leisurely explore the city.
Moments of the Week
In preparation for next week’s No Boundaries, Jero had a bike test which brought him back to his Berlin biking days. On Monday, he has canyoning and Lea prepares for The Hong Kong Hustle, a student-led scavenger hunt throughout Lantau and Hong Kong Island.
Feris wanted in on the Grandparent's prize money, so she created a list of 6 piano songs; First 3 are Every Breath You Take, Hallelujah, and Killing me Softly.
It was Parent Teacher Conference week for Secondary. Maricar is popular and had 40+ back to back 5 min conferences on both Tuesday and Thursday. As a parent, I scheduled only two and I missed them because I mixed 16:40 with 6:40. Fail.
Every other week, there seems to be another Covid restriction peeling off. This week? Schools are no longer required to use clear plastic dividers between students. They made the announcement over the school speakers and the kids erupted in cheers.
Watched our 3rd movie in an HK Cinema, Wakanda Forever. I gave it 3/5 stars. Story was good, but the lead character and the climax wasn't strong enough for me. The rest of the family gave it more praise.
Swung by World Wide Plaza to check out all the Filipino stores. Walked out with an assortment of desserts for the kids to experience: Buko, Mango, and Ube Pie, Ginataang Bilo Bilo (rice balls and tapioca in sweet coconut milk), and Suman (rice cake). I ended up eating most of it.
On Friday, had dinner at Moofish at the other end of DB, to hear the live acoustic music. Felt like we were at a resort because of the views.
Thinking Out Loud
What ordinary moment brings me joy?
Back in the US, we ate together at most, once a week because I either got home late, there were evening obligations or to get everyone fed, we had to divide and conquer. Since moving abroad, we eat 98% of our dinners together. The only time we don’t eat together is when Maricar and I sneak off for a date night which doesn't happen often. Dinners are spent reminiscing about our past or recapping the highlights of our day. It's disorderly with multiple talking at once, but by the end, everyone shares and is heard. Priceless.
Excerpt from Ryan Holiday’s Blog Post There’s Nothing Like This
There’s something haunting about the thought of how much life people throw away because they think they need a lot of money. Or because they are always chasing the newest, coolest, most extreme things. Because they don’t realize the greatest things in life are cheap, if not free.
On The Move
See You on Strava - 44.72 mi, 3,527 ft Elevation
I took my runs easy and dropped my weekly mileage, but I probably should have gone a step further and spent a few days off my feet.
Led Tuesday’s workout with countdown tempo intervals. 5K pace for 5,4,3,2,1 min intervals with 1 min floats at a marathon pace. Helps to get a better feel for your body - form at faster paces, breathing, active recovery, dialing in a pace.
With easy miles, I created new segments and then named them after popular 80s songs such as Never Gonna Give You Up and I Wanna Dance with Somebody.
Kicked off hiking season by taking on Sections 4 & 5 of The Wilson Trail; 10 miles, 2000 feet of climbing over 6 hours. 5 more sections to go. All the climbing was upfront in the first 3 miles and it was brutal on Feris. There were tears. After the climb, life was good. Halfway through Maricar and the kids got sodas and cup-o-noodles. I got a homemade bowl of tofu pudding and a soy-based drink. The ginger tingled.
Other than all the sweating in nature, what happens on these hikes?
The kids open up and talk. It might be because they need something to do to pass the time. Jero usually talks about what he is going to do in Minecraft or Breath of the Wild, things he’d like to buy, or asks “Would you Rather Questions”. Feris likes to take turns naming fruits, sharing her nightmares or random things she learned on YouTube like 30 times animals behaved better than humans… all while holding my hand. Lea is competitive and was running up front listening to the limited songs on my iPod shuffle. She can now confidently retell the story from the Pina Colada song.