A day of over-itness

Because I went to Uni in Australia for the last four years, I haven’t spent more than 2 months at a time in Hong Kong.

My time in, what I still regard to be my home town, has always been brief and beautiful, filled with all my favourite things and catching up with people who blow in and out of town.

Today I got frustrated with the crowds and the Banking bullsh*t and the heat and I cracked and had a bit of a meltdown. It is stressful trying to organise Canadian Work visa’s for an Aussie from here. There is a lot of f*cking about and having to post stuff to prove who I am…

Sigh.

So I went out and took some photos of this beautiful town to remind me why I love it.

Big Wave Bay

PacLady

View from the ICC 118th Floor

Beauty in the Urban Sprawl

Romeo and Juliet explained

I have been doing some work in Year 7 and they have been studying A Midsummer Nights Dream.

I drew this comic to explain another of Shakespeares plays, Romeo and Juliet.

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet

Something Creative

Being an outgoing, enthusiastic, slightly manic person, I tend to do lots of socializing and as such, after only three days, my personal challenge of writing a blog post every day fell flat on its face and died.

As a gesture of goodwill to myself, despite how freaky it is to share your poems with the world, I have decided to post one that I wrote a while ago online.

Enjoy

Powder Face

She takes her face out of her bag
And applies it as she has applied it before
Accidentally drops her eyes
Rolls and skitters across the floor
Reaches a manicured hand under the seat
Adjusts the straps around her pedicured feet

Flips open the compact
Pouts her lips, fluffs her hair
Slides her hands over the silky black clothes
She’s chosen to wear

Pops a mint onto her luscious red tongue
Pops open another straining button

Tonight her signature
Will be carved out in concrete
By the staccato of stilleto’s
And a steady heart beat

Written by Paris Herbert-Taylor

Hong Kong Sunday

I love those glorious days when the last of Winter disappear and Spring is in the air.
Today was my first day of the year wearing a dress without tights and it was lovely.

A weird thing about Sunday in Hong Kong though is that it’s Filipino day.
The maids in Hong Kong are mostly from the sunny Philippines and they only get Sundays off. As a result, all the public places in this city are taken over by groups of women eating, talking, dancing, singing and generally trying to make the best of the fact that they are far from home and not paid very much (I think minimum wage for them is around $3200HKD per month for 24/6).

The Hong Kong government even shuts down certain roads as the (mostly) women gather there on picnic rugs and often cardboard boxes flattened out.

These maids, aside from cleaning and cooking in the homes of Hong Kong, are also often responsible for raising many of the Hong Kong youth. I was certainly raised at one time or another by various maids and its a funny relationship. Although technically an employee of the family with their own space, friends, meals, they become another adult figure in Expat kids lives. It is therefore a tenuous relationship because the maid or “helper” can’t really punish you, but they are in charge of you. They are a huge part of your life and development, but they have their own families that you don’t know, and they could get fired or quit and change families or jobs at any time.

It’s just another one of those weird expat kid experiences…

Here is what I saw today:

Guiness. Camoflage Cat

Delicious Mangoes

Maja

PHT

Austra-Alien Pressure

Sometimes it sucks to be a Third Culture Kid or a Global Nomad. I have friends in Australia who are so homegrown their blood practically runs green and gold if they get a cut. They’re from the beaches, or the big cities or the country, and it doesn’t matter which part of the weirdly shaped and extremely isolated continent they are from, they are united under the southern cross which guides them home.

No such luck for me.

Born in Perth to first time parents, I was practically popped out, put on display and then whisked back to our expat life in Singapore. My parents met in Sydney, which is where my Mum grew up, but she is a New Zealander by passport and birth. Dad is from Perth and that’s where his/our extended family is, but I’ve spent a total of 6 months out of 22 years there.

After Singapore, my parents moved to Macau where, at the time, there wasn’t much and almost no one spoke english. I’m told it was a lonely time for my parents. After Macau we moved to Hong Kong for a few years, Brother 1 was born there. We moved to Kuala Lumper when B1 and I were shortly joined by Brother 2.

So I was 7 years old by the time my parents had had enough of Asia and moved us down to Sydney where I quickly grew into a North Shore valley girl. After some glorious years beside the harbour, when I was 14 my parents decided to move us all back to Hong Kong. I was furious and had totally lost my love of Asia. I loved Sydney, had made friends and had my first ever Middle School boyfriend (who was Asian strangely enough).

4 years in Hong Kong saw me through High School at the Australian International School. My parents split up, Mum stayed in Hongkers, Dad moved down to Perth with B1 & B2 and I got into the University of Sydney (it’s funny how circular things seem to be).

And so here we are, four years after that (well… getting on for 5) and I’ve been ensconced in Aussie culture at University, feeling like I didn’t quite fit in with my Australian counterparts.

And now this.

One Huge world.

1/6,775,235,741 (according to Wiki)

So many countries – where to live?

My dream is to work in Film and Television and that means probably the US of A.

Currently I feel like a person with a heart split into four.

Mum gets a piece up here in Hong Kong. Dad, B1 & B2 get a piece down in Perth, Boyfriend in Sydney gets a piece, and there is a piece for me, screaming “GO, CHASE, RUN, DREAM.”

If only they could all be stuck together and pump to one beat…

Here are things I saw today:

IFC building. It feels like summer but I'm reminded it isn't.

Building

Then because I was frustrated and stressed I went and sat on the roof.

Roof Supplies

Our Building is only 7 stories high, so it’s a unique view.

The view

PHT

A Great Day to be Alive

Apart from the fact that I am PMSing the F out at the moment (which is really fun for the people around me eg. Mum in person “Should we go get pedicures to make us feel better?” and Boyfriend via skype – me: “No one loves me, i’m going to die alone” him: “I’ll talk to you later…”) and the fact that my floor is so clean that as I was wearing stockings, I fell over really hard on my bum, it was a glorious day in Hong Kong.

It’s not often that you get gorgeous blue skies and minimal pollution in the air so with that in mind, Mum and I got up early(ish) to go for a walk through the interesting streets around her apartment. Below are some of the things we saw.

 

Hollywood Road Sheung Wan, Not in LA sadly

 

Goat guarding the antiques store

 

Chinese Opera, Moving in for next weeks Ching Ming Festival

 

Snatches of Sky

 

Any Ideas?

 

Beautiful City

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mum and I have both been sick over the last few days. I have been doing a bit of casual English teaching and so it could be my exposure to the little germy kids I’ve been around, and it’s meant that I haven’t really left the house much this week.

However, I had to get out today to have lunch with my gorgeous friend Charlotte who is in Hong Kong for 3 months doing an internship with prestigious PR company Edelman. She is staying in Causeway Bay in the funkiest self-serviced apartment ever. Welcome to Hong Kong babe!

 

Two Austraaliens! (Charlotte on the right)

 

Charlie got right amongst the local Tech-savy vibe by heading straight off to Fortress to buy a new digital camera and new phone for her Hong Kong sim-card.

 

Charlie at Fortress

 

I know she’s going to kill it in this City and she told me today that she just found out she’s been accepted to OXFORD UNIVERSITY for October!!!!!!!!! Congrats to you gorgeous gorgeous girl. Very proud of you, lets see what Austraalien adventures we can get up to while you are here.

PHT