Hong Kong and Korea in All Good Things

Well, what can I say? From a financial point of view the trip was a bust, since I ended up with only half the amount of work I’d been promised, and it was all pretty shit work, at that. But at least Korea was okay, and I actually really enjoyed it. Annette and I spent many hours just wandering around the city in sub-zero temperatures, then finding somewhere warm to hole up and discuss everything that’s been happening since September. We’ve both been learning a lot, and I was pleasantly surprised by how open she was to seeing the truth of so much that she’s been denying for so many years. It was good to get some distance, and to also be in a complete foreign country that we’d never visited together before. It was a kind of neutral territory.

Hong Kong is such a joy in January that it made me sorry I no longer live there. The skies were blue, the sun was warm, the breezes off the sea were cool, and I spent as much time as possible either on the beach or hiking in the mountains. I know that’s not what most people think of first when they think of Hong Kong, but that’s what I love about it. It’s a city where you can be on a golden tropical beach in less than half an hour from downtown, or deep in the jungle in the mountains in about the same amount of time. The problem was, I’ve only been there in July, August and September during recent years, when it’s so hot and humid that just crossing the road from the hotel to the bus stop leaves you drenched with sweat and feeling faint, so this was an absolute delight.

The work was hideous, a reminder of every reason why I want to leave this world far behind me. The office completely messed me around, and suffice it to say that I don’t think I’ll do another job for them. It wasn’t worth it.

But it WAS worth it on a personal level, for me and Annette, for processing and coming to terms with so much of what’s been happening over the past year, especially the past five months, and also for getting back to nature in a place that I love. I spent the whole of yesterday sitting on the rocks in the sunshine above the clear lapping water, meditating and ruminating and relaxing, and now I don’t mind at all being back in frozen leafless London!

I nearly went to Liverpool tonight to catch up with my other friends. It’s really hard not to be going. But I’m going to Paris next weekend instead, and I had to prioritise....