Summer At Clear Water Bay

Kevin, my roommate, brother from another set of parents and, most importantly, my sister's significant other, works for a company that used to be based in Hong Kong. They moved to Taiwan for a variety of reasons, as did Kevin. Coincidentally, so did Lily and I. The boss of the company owns a rather nice house overlooking Clear Water Bay. He moved to Taiwan with everyone else, but he still owns the house. Most of the people at that company probably see Taiwan as a temporary assignment. Hong Kong is their home.

More than a few years ago, the boss asked Kevin to house sit while he was away on vacation. In Chinese culture, that is pretty much a power move to show everyone who is boss. The message to the entire office was that, even though Kevin is taller, stronger and visibly more Canadian than everyone else, the boss is in charge. Kevin's point of view was a little different.

When this all started, we lived in tiny Chinese box apartments, each with one tiny bedroom, tiny bathroom, a sink against the wall as a kitchen, and absolutely no counter space or view of anything besides other tiny Chinese box apartments. The Clear Water Bay house is a little bigger. It has 4 bedrooms, one of which was larger than my entire apartment at the time. It has 4 bathrooms with both showers and bathtubs, not a common sight in China. The kitchen is large enough for a professional chef, with a real oven, more counter space than I know what to do with, a jumbo size refrigerator, and all the latest appliances. On the ocean side of the house is an outdoor terrace with an outdoor cooking area, swimming pool and hot tub, and large windows with ocean views.

When Kevin first had access to this house, Lily and I stayed without reservation. Getting to work took longer and required more MTR transfers, but the swimming pool alone was incentive enough for me. The kitchen was the first place in Hong Kong I was able to do any real cooking. My apartment had a toaster oven and two-burner stove. It is amazing what a difference a real oven and counter space to knead dough can make.

When we all moved to Yau Ma Tei, we had far more of the modern conveniences that are frighteningly easy to miss. But we continued staying at the Clear Water Bay house every year because it was available and had that swimming pool. I did not go last year, for medical reasons, and could not go in 2018 because Kevin's boss went on vacation while I was working in Spain. I found the timing annoying, but Spain is beautiful. The year before that, I was recovering from surgery. My primary activities were sleeping and vomiting, and the doctors told me not to go into any swimming pools, so the big house was useless to me. This is my first chance to go since 2016 and, even though I live in a different country now, I have every intention of overusing that pool.

Kevin will stay there all month. This is his summer vacation. Lily has a few classes, but she will go whenever she can. Since she is working on a graduate degree, she has more leeway as far as class attendance is concerned. I have a steady job, so I can't go for the full month, but I can probably drop in from time to time. Since we all have to fly there, it will take a little more planning than simply hopping on the MTR.

Kevin plans to sit around and do a lot of nothing. With a pretty big chunk of the world out of commission for vacations, he will go away to somewhere familiar. Lily's top priority is getting me to bake as much in that jumbo kitchen as possible. I am trying to gain weight, so I don't have any problem with that. I can and do bake at home, but that jumbo oven seems to get hotter much faster, and that jumbo refrigerator can hold more ingredients than I can ever use. My top priority is that swimming pool. I have no medical restrictions this year, and I plan on swimming every single day I am in that house, rain or shine. This is the rainy season in Hong Kong just as much as Taiwan, but I can swim in the rain. And if a typhoon hits while we are in Hong Kong, no problem. Taiwan will protect us.