Tree of Strife

What is it with Hong Kong people and the environment. It was with great disappointment that I read the lead front page article, "Tree of Strife" in Tuesday June 15th's The Standard, my disappointment being with the accusatory style of reporting by The Standard. I feel sorry for the unfortunate cyclist and his wife and family, but the barely concealed tenor of the report was to try and blame someone for this accident. Am I not alone in thinking that this was indeed just an accident, and that those seeking someone to blame could better just accept that accidents can happen, so long as people have taken steps to prevent them. However, prevention must draw the line somewhere, and from the report it appears that this tree was inspected less than four weeks previous to the accident. Provided the inspection was not negligently conducted (which is the suggestion of the writer and some of the persons interviewed), what more could be done? Would the solution be to tear down all the trees that dare to present a remote possibility of falling branches anywhere near the densely packed 7 million citizens of our concrete jungle of a city? Shall we concrete over the whole city, put rubber bouncy pavements everywhere and remove any form of danger or mishap from our citizens? Or should we encourage our cycling citizens to wear helmets when riding their bikes, as whether or not the unfortunate victim was wearing one is major fact that is glaringly missing from the report. Given the horrific head injuries suffered by the victim, it does not require a large leap of intuition to come to the conclusion that the severity of this accident could have been mitigated by the unfortunate victim himself, not by tearing all our trees down. Please can we have some sensible and balanced reporting and some acceptance by people that their lives are in their own hands and not there to have every single possible eventuality taken care off by the state? Shit happens, that is life and nature, this should not be front page news for anyone. Grrr!

Perfect Birthday

Sometimes, despite the doubts and fears and the cynicism, things come off brilliantly and you can get a real sense of glee out of something that you were involved in, no matter how little your own contribution was.

My hat goes off to my wife who did a brilliant job of organising a joint beach party for Kai's second birthday. Despite looking like a raggle taggle bunch with bin bags full of plastic beach toys, suitcases full of food, which then doubled as tables, the kids' toys' time out boxes full of beer and ice and ice cream cake on order for delivery to 28 degree heat, the party was brilliant.

It was well attended, the weather was great - not too hot, the food was excellent and in the right amounts, we had enough booze, juices and biscuits and everyone seemed to have a great time. I did not get to speak to anyone for any length of time as I was busy running around serving and topping up champagne, running to a restaurant for a knife to cut the cake, stopping Sean and Hunter from drowning and generally having a good time, slightly buzzed on the champagne! The ice cream cakes arrived, duly intact and very cold and hard and did not even melt all that quickly! As far as I am aware no one drowned! People were fed and watered, the pinata was ripped open to spill out toys and sweets and cookies, the dozens of cheap plastic beach toys were used and taken away (although we do have about 20 rakes in a cupboard now!) and we all were tucked up in bed for a well-deserved nap before 2pm!

I am so proud of Eimhear and her skills in reading this one just right - 2 year olds on the beach need very little entertaining - the sourcing of the toys, food, drink and ice cream cake! She worked really hard and I am so happy it was a success. I never need reminding that I am a lucky man to be married to my wife, but I was reminded on Saturday how brilliant she is. I am still beaming from it. Kai too! Poor Sean can't contain himself for his birthday!

Living in the Now

Sometimes it is very hard to live in the now. I have been trying to do that, because I am prone to being someone who has had a "grass is always greener" complex. No wonder my family and I have moved countries three times in three years. Therefore, I don't profess Buddhist qualities and an ability to defer pleasure, as I can get caught up in the hedonism that exists somewhere near to the bottom of a bottle of wine just like the next weak-willed Irishman, but lately I have found myself looking ahead, both in terms of weeks and years. It is probably inevitable as the three questions as an ex-pat gweillo you get here in Hong Kong are "How long have you been in Hong Kong" (past tense), "How are you enjoying it," (present tense) and "How long do you plan to stay?" You are usually left with that last question hanging in your head after you have given the stock answer and with a lingering sense of justifying your decisions, attempting to rationalise in your own ahead just why you actually came here in the first place, and where you are going. It can be an unsatisfactory state of affairs going on in your head when you are not someone who has the five-year plan mapped out in detail, rather just sketched, rubbed out and put on the long finger.

Anyway, I am not trying to get ahead of myself too much, as there is living in the now to be done, or pleasures to look forward to in the short term. I got the hairdresser question today from an old colleague in Dublin "Any holidays planned"? And my answer?

"Yes, holidays in 5 and a half weeks' time, heading to some little island, kind of an odd place, with lovely people, who can have a laugh despite their problems, who with their newfound success 10 years ago, a bit like when they get the drink in them, lost the run of themselves. A beautiful place, a depressing mood, a bleak future, but a land of smiles and chat and lovely scenery and golf courses. A place of expensive property and unemployment (eh?).

It has a land border with a part of its larger and richer neighbour, which also has a minority coalition government and its own financial woes and 50% top tier tax rate, and over that border mad men walk down streets that don't belong to them, playing flutes, drums and pipes and ridiculous uniforms by day and balaclavas by night.

I will be in the West of that country for a time, passing to its border area for a wedding and on to its northern lands, which some call "God's Own Wee Province". Inevitably it will rain a lot, be 15 degrees cooler than my country of residence and we will get sick of the very people we have come to see!"

When you put it all like that, you wonder why you are looking forward to it?!