Bambini Ripe

Yep it is funny to think that in a moment, I will have a little person that will call Hong Kong its home, in the same way I do Australia. But for the whole life stretched ahead this will be the birth city of my second child's life journey.

I knew I had 12 months in a city to be a tourist. And the minute that year clicked over, I felt like this is the place in which I live. Yes sometimes it feels like I am living in an episode of Madmen, but it does feel like my life now, one that we have created for ourselves.

So if I don't post for a few weeks, it will be because I have managed to have my baby on time. But if you do hear from me in the meantime, spare a thought for cranky overdue me.

So let me leave you with this little momento of my HK pregnancy, it sums a lot up really. My iphone was pinched last week, and I have downgraded to the old world of Nokia (I realise I sound like a wanker, but it is so hard to go back). I have been trying not to throw this new phone at the wall every time I cant seem to use it. But last Thursday I decided to listen to a new Calmbirth meditation on the peak hour commuter ferry, to, well, get me in the mood. The headphones, didn't seem to work very well, and I grumpily accepted it as part of the reality of my new lesser phone. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and tried to proceed on the birth imagery that was being told to me. Just as I got to the part of my ver-jay-jay opening beautifully like a flower, the very kind woman next to me, informed me I had the meditation on speaker phone and not through my head phones. Speaker phone seems to be the only thing that works very well on this phone.

Yes to all those crammed on the 540pm ferry last thursday, I hope you can take something away from this very humiliating experience. Even if it is to always double check your headphones.

Signing off,

Aimee in Hong Kong

Moon River

Hong Kong is not one of the great busking metropolises in the world. Not when you think of the great theatrical & busking festivals the world over - Edinburgh, Paris, Venice. Its true HK is a working town, where mostly it is a place where money talks (ouch I know). However there is one busking experience that left a deep impression on me here recently. For the purposes of this blog task, I was lucky we thought to take a photo.

On a Saturday night a loan busker filled the echo of a familiar tiled walk from the Central escalators to the Ferry Piers. He was cradling a wireless mic and equipped with a portable amp. When we first heard him, the slightly flat, thick Cantonese accent, the very very cheesy croon travelled up the tunnel. It was nevertheless, a heartfelt rendition of Moon River. Done with all the nuances Audrey brought to the song on the fire escape in Breakfast at Tiffanies. But when we got up close, we realised this lone performer was wearing a fabulous pair of glassless white rimmed retro glasses. Why, you might ponder?? I certainly did. But it fitted the mood perfectly. We laughed and were uplifted in a Hong Kong crazy kind of way. He laughed and seemed happy enough to pose for this photo. Of course I rewarded him his efforts and sheer audacity (read shameless bravery).

Yes it was a quintessential Hong Kong artistic moment. Offbeat and odd yet kind of funny and fairly bad!

Task # 31

Buskers can be terribly good or terribly bad - which is it for you this week?

A working river

I've been pondering over this blog topic for a little too long this week. I've been trying to be inspired by a water source other than the Thames. Trying to think of another stream, creek, bog to write about other than the blatantly obvious river that has woven its way into my every day life over here. I've given in - the Thames and all its beauty, power and history has got the better of me. It’s a river that has framed my time here in London. I've cycled along its banks from Westminster to Richmond, experienced the thrill of a jet boat ride from Embankment to Canary Wharf, cheered for rowers in the Head of the River competition, walked along the river path from Southwark Cathedral to the Tate more times than I can remember and been inspired by the iconic Thames barrier that controls the ebbs and flows of the longest river in England.

Recently the Thames has started to weave its way into my work life. In fact I'd say in planning for a certain event in a little over a years time this river is slowly but surely demanding to take centre stage. As a result I've started spending a lot of time with people who work with the river on a daily basis and it is these people who have begun to extend my tourist knowledge of the water that passes through London day in day out. To them the river is many things; a hive of tourist activity, a leisure source for boaters, rowers and the like, a security asset to be protected and more and more a working highway that services London and the towns and cities it passes through in the UK. With a growing passion for sustainability and corporate responsibility the Thames is now being thought of differently - banks are being widened for barges to access more of its canals and locks thereby taking freight off the roads and more piers are being reinstated for ferries to move workers from home to office.

A leaf dropped into the Thames could end up at its rise at Thames Head in Gloucestershire or at the other end in the North Sea depending on its tide that day. On a drizzly rainy day in London I hope my leaf ends up in Richmond just as the afternoon sun breaks through the clouds. I'd sit on the river banks watching it float by.

and not a drop to drink

Well firstly - I can't believe Greer stole the polluted running water blog! From Sydney!

As depressing as the lonely green detritus trickle of White's creek is, try this on for size.

This images came from the South China Morning Post (courtesy of Scott). It is plastic bottles

floating down the Yangtze after a big rainfall. They are at least being collected, but it makes you re-think your next bottle of Mount Franklin doesn't it.

Also over the week of thinking about moving water and what it means to me, much of my thoughts were with the Australian's that have been affected by flood and cyclone and drought over the past few years. Water is as it always will be, the essence of all life. I often imagine the surging rise and fall of the ocean as the rise and fall of human breath and the life it sustains.

I did choose this topic because I love the water, I dream of it constantly, I spent much of much childhood lying on the bottom of rivers, pools, oceans and looking up at the world from the bottom. Its often referred to in our family that we could swim before we could walk, but I think my sister was the real fish in that department.

Scott and I share a love of Bondi Beach in Sydney and it will always be our home.

I desperately wanted Hugo to be a water birth, gliding freely into the world through the sanctity of water. He was more of a spinning tornado in the birthing pool, but kids have that amazing way of redefining your ideas for them.

My most precious memory of running water is the Orara River I grew up on, that stitches alongside the coast west of Coffs Harbour. Pristine, tranquil, clear water, that is so fresh it takes your breath away. Every afternoon was spent exploring the dark waterholes of the river. It is my most real memory.

Heartbreakingly beautiful isn't it.

Consequently coming from the Australian coast, I have HIGH expectations of what moving water should be like. It has been a constant internal struggle to redefine notions of water and what it means here in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a series of islands in the South China Sea and much of the lifestyle here looks outwards to the sea, there is plenty of water. But water means one thing.......industry. I live on the Harbour shore of one of the worlds busiest ports. We travel each day by boat through international shipping lanes. And a few days ago two barges and two tug boats came and camped out directly in front of our yard. Much speculation was spent

determining the purpose of these large rusty vessels. But it was Hugo who claimed they were here to dig sand. And so right he was, this is a video taken yesterday, clearing space in our ferry terminal.

OK so the intended audience of the video was for a 3 year old boy, some of you may not find it as interesting!

The uses and lifestyle of water cant be compared between China and Australia. It would be naive and a tad self-righteous of me to compare a developing nation of 1.3 billion people and their needs to Australia's synchronicity with aqua.

However, in the next few weeks when this new little baby will come into the world and he or she wont be a water birth, I hope to again use the benefits of calmbirth meditation that relies on immersing yourself in a special place. And this will be my sanctuary and legacy to pay forward,

Whites Creek

"Hey, gang, wanna go to the park?"

"Sure, Mum. Come on, sisters. Let's go!"

"Are you coming?"

"Hey, Lola, slow down, would you?"

"Why?"

"I just need to have a look at this creek."

"Why?"

"I just do."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Mummy, why are you throwing that leaf in the creek?"

"It's for my school project."

"But why?"

"Because Aunty Aimee said I had to."

"Mummy, why isn't the leaf floating away? Didn't your school project say you had to find moving water? This water isn't moving. It's just a manky motionless stream full of rubbish and detritus. Sure, it eventually flows into Rozelle Bay, which is part of Sydney Harbour, and there's this really great wetlands right nearby, but this part of it is kind of...eugh."

"Can we go now?"

Task # 30

Moving water. Remember as kids when you threw a stick into a creek and watched it float away down stream. Can you get to any moving water near you and throw in a stick or leaf? Where does it lead to - Sydney Harbour, the South China Sea, or the Thames?