Friday, August 22, 2014

Full Circle (sort of)

So.

The Fates have decided that we move to Singapore in the coming year.  

I can't say that I am unhappy about it.  I will be close to my parents and at their age, it is great that I will be able to spend more time with them.

I will be able to reconnect with friends, both long-time and recent.  Many good friends from Beijing have relocated to Singapore over the last few years.  Reconnecting with old friends will be quite different though.  I find my views & attitudes about social mores, parenting, education, well, heck, life in general, have changed over the years that I have lived away from there.  I am not sure how well received those views will be by some of them.  I'll just have to wait and see.

However, moving there will mean that Z. will not be able to visit, for reasons which for now, best remain un-revealed on the world wide web.  Both boys would prefer that we remain in Hong Kong or move back to the US of A.  But A. has to move where his job brings us; after all, there are still college tuition fees to be paid (less one after this semester, yay!).

So for now, Singapore it is, for better or for worse.

As for Hong Kong, well.....I never was in love with this city.  But for what it's worth, it's been a good respite from living in China, and the dim sum has been delicious.

Sunday, August 03, 2014

A Wedding and A Funeral

This has been a summer of joy & sorrow.

In the heat of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, I saw my sister's daughter marry the love of her life in an idyllic lakeside setting.  My boys and my sister's children spent a precious two days together; the cousins had not been together in the same place at the same time for six years.

Yesterday, a beloved favorite uncle passed away after a long and valiant battle against chronic myelocytic leukemia.  He was a radiologist by training, a highly intelligent and musically gifted man.  His quick pun-ny wit and sense of humor meant that much of the time spent with him was filled with side-splitting laughter and tears spilling over from mirth.

This week, I will head into the winter weather of the Southern Hemisphere to say a final goodbye to him.  I will reunite with cousins of my own whom I haven't seen in years.

Rest in peace, dear TKF....

Afterglow - Helen Lowrie Marshall

I'd like the memory of me
To be a happy one.
I'd like to leave an afterglow
Of smiles when day is done.
I'd like to leave an echo
Whispering softly down the ways,
Of happy times and laughing times
And bright and sunny days.
I'd like the tears of those who grieve,
To dry before the sun
Of happy memories I leave
Behind - when day is done.