How Am I Doing?

One week left in Hong Kong and I’m regularly being asked – “how are you doing.”

On a physical level, the answer is, not great. I haven’t been sleeping well, which is probably natural, given the stress of moving to a new country. There’s a small, but important list of work and personal commitments that I need to wrap up before leaving; as well as the usual litany of loose ends to tie-up (housing, mobile phone, banking, etc).

Add to that enduring the worst bout of sciatica I’ve ever experienced; I could barely walk last Sunday and Monday. Several sessions with my Sugi (Korean) accupressurist has helped loosen me up a lot. But, it’s been a rough week.

That’s putting pressure on what had been a fairly loose state of mind. As I mentioned last week, this has been a pretty systematic goodbye season. But, I did have plans to see (and photograph) a few places in Hong Kong this week and that hasn’t panned out too well.

Looking forward, I’m pretty calm about starting out in Singapore. Sure, it’s a new city (and country), but right now the move feels less daunting than Hong Kong did when I arrived here (and far, far less daunting than Delhi!). With housing and schooling already sorted and a pretty good idea where to buy everything from curry leaves to flat screen TVs I’m feeling OK about the transition.

That said, I really need a break. I’ll be taking two weeks in July and unplugging (I’m tempted to extend that to a month). No internet, no email, no SMS. Mentally, I’m not fried, but feeling like I could end up there soon.

Plus I need a chance to regroup and do some big picture thinking (50,000 feet perspective, for you GTDers out there). The past two years I’ve done lots of amazing and cool things. But, I’m struggling now to piece it all together. I know that the kind of thinking I need to do doesn’t come when life is thinly sliced into a series of activities.

Walking around Hong Kong these days I have very mixed feelings. There are things I will miss; people and places that have shaped my life here (especially over the past couple of years). But, there are also daily reminders of why I realised, back in 2009, that I could never really settle here.

Tonight I’m off to a dinner with some fellow photographers (Hong Kong has so many good photographers). I’m sure it will be a good evening with a bunch of cool people. But, it’s pretty rare that I get the chance to go out to dinner with a group in this town (it only happens two to three times a year). Like so many experiences this week the pluses and minuses of living here are highlighted for me.

So, I’m tired, sore, and a little stressed, but more than ready to face the next adventure. In other words, I’m doing OK, thanks.