One week of the year

Hong Kong is classified as a 'sub-tropical' island. Which roughly translates to 3 months of stinking hot, humid weather, 3 months of moderately hot weather, 5 months of temperate weather, 1 month of cool weather during the winter. Occasionally, during winter you might experience one week of cold weather. Not biting cold, but moderately uncomfortable weather. During this time, it's not unusual to see an over-reaction to the cold from the local populace. This over-reaction rears its head in the form of down jackets, gloves, scarves and beanies. 

Last year's winter was so moderate I don't even think I used a jacket, did I? Whereas in 2016 it got numbingly cold as the mercury dropped below five degrees Celsius. Most people will say that this year's summer was not as 'hot' as previous years, or cooler, which brings me to this winter, it definitely feels cooler. It could also just be that my apartment feels colder and indirectly, I feel colder.

I have been fundamentally opposed to buying a heater that will be used for one week of the year, only for it to end up in storage. Especially in a country where abundance of storage is non-existent. However, now that I am an official Hong Kong Resident I am entitled to my very own winter over-reaction, a heater. 

I'm too old to be cold.

The Silly Season

Towards the end of August, I found myself on a short hike out in Ham Tin. The day finished with seafood and wine in Sai Kung town. The following day, I woke up with a very achy sore right foot second toe; at the time I attributed the soreness to walking 45 minutes (yes, it was a short hike) in thongs. The soreness lasted a couple of months. Fast forward to Christmas Day and once again I've woken up with an incredibly sore foot. Specifically, where the big toe meets the ball the right foot. Different toe, same achy pain. Curious situation. I didn't kick a cinder block, or walk any substantial distance, I wasn't wearing new shows. Two separate instances that I've woken up with a sore toe, with no obvious moment of trauma.

So me, being me, I do three things. The first thing. I try to identify shared commonalities with the lead up to both events. One day of walking, one day without much walking. One day with lots of wine, one day with lots of wine. One day of outdoor activities, one day of socialising. One day with lots of cheese and seafood, one day with lots of seafood and purine-rich foods (think: liver and red meat). The second thing. With the help of the internet I jump to conclusions. The third thing. I go to my doctor and tell him that I think I have gout. He seems skeptical about this non-medical diagnosis based purely on my symptoms and my previously low uric acid levels appeared to suggest that gout did not seem likely. He then refers me to a foot specialist.

The Orthopaedic surgeon - she also doesn't think it's gout. Overarching medical consensus is that I would not be able to walk and that I would be experiencing more pain, even with acute gout. One thing that I've realised with my year of interaction with the medical system is that it's a lot of trail and error, attempting to diagnosis the symptoms with the aide of scans and test to come to a conclusion. We take an X-ray and find that there's no fracture, however there is a bit of bone that is floating right above the big toe. Which although unusual is unlikely to be the cause of my sore right toe. 

Here's the report:

The patient complained of right big toe pain and second toe pain for a few days. There was no history of injury. There was no family history of gout. The pain was exacerbated on walking. There was no rest pain. He also complained of left ankle instability symptoms. There was history of recurrent sprain for years. He last sprained his left ankle in mid Nov 2020.

On physical examination, there was minimal hallux valgus and bunionette deformity. There was no claw toe. There was mild callosity over the right second metatarsal head. There was a 5mm mobile roundish bony swelling at the right foot dorsum at subcutaneous plane. It was non tender on palpation and the Tinel sign was negative. 

For the left ankle, there was tenderness along the anteromedial joint line; there was also tenderness over the anterior talo-fibular ligament (ATFL) and the calcaneo-fibular ligament (CFL). The posterior talo-fibular ligament was non tender. Lateral laxity was grade 2.

X-ray right foot showed a bony loose body around the first metatarso-phalangeal joint, and minimal hallux valgus deformity.

So the soreness is likely to be caused by mild Hallux Valgus, or poor foot stability. However, in the space of 24 hours, I've gone from thinking that I have a uric acid problem, to finding I have a free floating piece of bone in my right foot, to having to get an MRI on my left ankle. It really is the silly season.

Boxing Day

It's a weird feeling being grounded in one place for such a long time. Living in Europe and Asia has provided the ability to travel with very little planning, thought and even gratitude to having access to so many destinations; It's something that I had definitely taken for granted. As we draw towards the end of the year it is kind of nice to have everybody in town. Christmas and New Years in Hong Kong always feels like a partial affair, most of the group are away traveling, visiting family back home or just making the most of the winter holidays.

I like to think that this year's Boxing Day is an ode to previous Boxing Day's in Sydney. Me on the sofa, with little appetite from the Christmas Eve and Christmas day over eating. I'm watching the Boxing Day Cricket test, eating Tim Tams and Minties, while navigating the "virtual" Boxing Day sales with some online shopping.

Pranayama and Meditation

The Anahata Pranayama and Meditation course is held twice a year. The pace is noticeably slower compared to the foundational course that I attended earlier this year. The emphasis less on Asanas (poses) and (not surprisingly) more on Pranayama (breathing) and Meditation. There are 16 students enrolled in the December class which suggests that there is less interest in the topic compared to the Asanas, or potentially the effect of Covid. The start of the course coincided with the fourth wave in Hong Kong, and aside from two classes that were held in the studio, all the classwork was done online.

There is some overlap with the chakras, kriyas and bandhas but majority of the content was new. I particularly enjoyed the breath work content. Once again, there is a practical component, which requires the student to walk the class through a meditation technique as well as a pranayama technique. Three teachers, Anurag, Dhiraj as well as Yogananth guiding us through the practise. 

15,500 HKD (~2,000 USD) - lucked out as work paid for the course

High school Reunion: 20 years on

Earlier this year a group invitation popped up on my socials for a "Canterbury Boys' High School class of 2000 reunion". I remember being overseas for the previous 10 year student reunion and it looked that 10 years later I would also be in the same situation. High school reunions fall into the "nice to attend bucket", not something you would explicitly travel for, but definitely something worth attending if accessible. As I scrolled through the list of invitees, names popped up that looked familiar. Others names, not familiar to me, forced me to pause and think "who's that?". The class of 2000 was small, if memory serves me right there were around 60-70 students who went all the way to year 12 and not remembering these names was really no excuse.

Fast forward to December of this year and a collection of photos starts to populate my feed. An afternoon event held at an ex-student's food truck. I scroll through the photos, so many familiar faces as well as some that I don't recognise. The photos are all smiles. I see faces from my group, and the odd handful of friends that I still keep in touch with. There are also students who started and left our school through the years. Our old grade teacher, Ms Player also attended which looked to be a nice touch.

It's an odd feeling looking at these photos. Passing of time, these are the people that I shared some of my formative yers with, shared growth, laughter, adventure and was so competitive with, now they're settled back into suburban life. These are the events that break the flow get me in a strange odd mood. Birthdays, new years, it's a reminder that we are mortal and that time waits for nobody. I imagine the conversations that were exchanged. The proverbial answer to "What have you been up to since I last saw you?", or the more extreme "What have you been doing since 2000?". Which I guess is the equivalent to small chat, what I would have loved to be apart of all the memories and stories shared from those years at Canterbury Boys. The characters and the incidents that graced the halls of Canterbury Boys' High School from 1995 to 2000.

Week off

I had grand plans for twenty-twenty travel. It was 90% planned out, Hawaii and India in the first quarter. Sydney for Easter, Singapore end of April, New Orleans and Texas for May, New York and Chicago in September, Seoul and Bali in October, Sydney for Christmas. The weekends were scheduled and the annual leave was approved. Then, somebody ate a bat and all plans for twenty twenty were dashed. 

When annual leave cannot be accrued, it changes the way you use it. I have taken the odd day off from work to recover from big nights, or to study for exams, but for as long as I can remember, blocks of annual leave have been reserved for overseas travel. I realise as I type this, this sounds like the ramblings of a privileged douche bag, however the point is not to talk about travel, but to describe the relationship I have with annual leave as an expat living abroad. Given the current circumstances, work has granted employees the ability to carry over 10 days of annual leave, which means all remaining leave must be used, so here I am taking an entire week off purely because it's a use it, or lose it policy. So here I am with one week of no work to spend in Hong Kong.

Initially my plan was to rest and recover from the ablation, that coupled with the fact I had a sprained ankle (this ankle sprain will come back and get me, see future post) and a shoulder impingement meant no real exercise. So I had decided to treat myself to alarm-clock-free mornings, catching up with friends and some home cooked meals. However, the reality of spending an entire week at home during Covid doing nothing dawned on me and I ended up trying to find things to keep myself productive. 

Here's where I eventually landed. 100 Hour Meditation and Pranayama Teacher's Training Course, twelve mornings, 9:30 am -12:30 pm, I have also signed up for two Coursera online courses: An Introduction to Psychology and Portfolio and Risk Management.

Care Package

 Well timed Christmas hamper from Oz!

Currently reading: "Born a Crime" - Trevor Noah