When I was 21 years old I went through a horrible breakup. I’ll spare you the details, but as a brief glimpse into the emotional roller coaster which lasted for more than six months, it was the breakup from a five year relationship that I thought would forever taint my idea of love.
Despite what you’ve been told, millennials are extremely loyal.
Despite being a millennial, I have never viewed myself as not being loyal. This is quite interesting, because I have been labelled a ‘job hopper’, I have five bank accounts open and I have a dozen loyalty cards in my wallet proving I can’t commit to a relationship with just one barista.
You don’t have to give up avocados and coffee to save money
I’ve been eating avocados since I was 12 and drinking coffee since I was 21… and except for a few more embarrassing stories, some extra wrinkles, having a ‘real’ job, and well, moving overseas, not much has changed.
Moving to minimalism
My old housemate and I used to talk about minimalism a lot. We day dreamt about the possibility of only owning 100 items…including undies. We talked about how each item would need to be carefully chosen, with thought given to each… is it multi purpose? How long will it last? Will it improve my life? and so on.
Markets, beach towns and a red light district
I’ve nearly turned vegetarian multiple times since arriving in Hong Kong.
It all started at the wet market, where I noticed the live chickens being cooped up in small cages, waiting for the prospective buyers to come and pick which one they liked before it was taken through the back door.
Milk shakes bring all the boys, because no one knows what a thick shake is
This week all started and ended with thick shakes.
Well to take it a step further, it all starts with one memory I speak fondly of from when I was living in Japan, which to be honest sounds like the beginning of a bad joke…
Fishing villages, parks and street performers
I am a people person. There’s no question that I’ve always worked hard to surround myself with family and friends, and anyone can see that I thrive on having them close by. And for the most part it works fine…dinners, movies, games nights, drinks and so on, until I move away.
My ‘Dolce far Niente’: gardens, nunneries and Rugby 7s
People have often said to me that they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves if they didn’t work…which I’ve never understood. During my three months of not working, I’ve never been bored or wishing I was back at work. Instead, I’ve been embracing one of the good old Eat, Pray, Love lessons to practice ‘Dolce far Niente’, the sweetness of doing nothing.
Living out our own 80s Hong Kong movie
This week we moved into our home… picture a scene out of an 80s Hong Kong movie and that’s basically where we are living. Our run down old building is home to quite a mix of people, including the flower cart owner who sells fresh flowers during the day downstairs before carting his stock up the stairs to his home, the lady on level two who burns ‘hell papers’ in a metal bin outside her apartment in the stairwell
An arty week
There’s a huge class gap here in Hong Kong. Little do tourists know, but there are people who are living in cage homes, elderly who have to collect and sell cardboard at all hours of the morning to make ends meet, and foreign domestic workers who are often exploited – and sometimes treated like second class citizens.
