supplies and sufficiency

as your days, so shall your strength be.

- deut. 33:25

i look back over the past year and see that it has been so. 

my heart is full, as is my cup.

hk-macau-zhuhai bridge

the longest sea crossing and the longest tunnel in the world.

opened in mid-october this year.

we take the express bus from macau back to hk over the bridge and feel like we are taking a part in history.

as well as figuratively walking on water.

hong kong

we visit another old friend. it is really nice to speak cantonese again. it's funny how in multi-lingual singapore one doesn't really get to speak it as freely as you might expect. 

the food, as remembered and as expected, is good. it's hard to go wrong in a city that takes pride in hawker-style fare and it's hard to go hungry in a city that stays awake. EXCEPT when they lace shrimp wantons with pork. ugh.

it'll be lovely weather, HOM tells me. pack light! i believe him and pack shorts and forget that december is their cold month. my bad.

it's a lovely escapade to end the year with.

day trip

HOM and i trip over to macau. he brought me there twenty-eight years ago, he tells me. i forget. anyhow, here's my ode to macau (the old casino bit near st paul's, mind you, and not taipa, or coloane):

• it's crowded. like, fire hazard crowded, or claustrophobia-inducing crowded but out in the open where in other places you get this crowded only indoors
• it's really good for walking, what with their traffic lights at every street corner and apparent pedestrian supremacy. it does make being in a vehicle a bit of a nightmare though
• them portuguese tarts are over-rated. gimme a nice tai cheong bakery egg tart any day
• speaking of portuguese, here is where my pidgin italian and bastard spanish fail me. to my disappointment, they don't exactly port over
• i don't know if it is because we explore too circumscribed an area, or if the macau people are really generous with their free admissions to ruins and churches and mansions and museums. but hey, i am grateful!
• there is the pawnshop and the goldsmith's and the gilded and the fishmarket

grand ol' lady

i like KL too. the city of my youth, now lately wrapped in glitter and gilt. it's beginning to look a lot like singapore, i think. 

and then a speeding car almost takes the unsuspecting pedestrian down. we get stuck in the gridlock that is KL's afternoon traffic. and i realize, to my secret relief, that KL is more like manhattan than like singapore, all messy haphazard startling unpredictable grubby charm underneath the new concrete and lights. 

meeting in manhattan

we spend a weekend with J1 J2 and Y stolen out of uncompleted tasks and busy commitments. 

i have missed this, i think. i have missed the easy companionship and playful ribbing and sharing of hopes and plans and anxieties and disappointments. i have missed the physical proximity and easy availability of years and times past.

i am much blessed, i think. i have young adult children who have jobs and dare to dream and wish to soar. i wish you may each soar high and catch the sun and rise on the wings of the wind. and when you fly, remember who you are and be faithful. when the way is harder, remember your dreams. you are well prepared!

i am thankful. my cup is full enough. and my old friend HOM walks with me still.

hello, old friend

it's been a time since HOM and i were here.

i feel the old tug of energy messy order and grubby charm.

the sidewalks are crowded and busy and loud and just a bit familiar.

the outskirts are gentler and merge with my memories of my other favorite cities.

at the end of a long year, i'm glad to be visitin' again.

the emperor of all maladies - mukherjee (2010)

this book is most informative. it is breathtaking and magnificent in breadth of scope and ambition. but the writing is ponderous. it's really too bad. 

that's all i can say.