I’ve been sick again, worse this time, and had to stay home from work on Friday to lie around resting and tentatively sipping water and nibbling away at a piece of toast. It may have been a stomach bug or a problem with some food. It seems to be easier for me to get sick here than in Australia. A lot of colleagues and students at school have been sick recently with respiratory symptoms; my principal suggested that it’s probably the same thing but has affected my digestion instead. I feel better today although still a bit weak and slightly headachey. I have only nibbled on morsels since being sick and will keep doing that until I’m really better.

The weather is so beautiful. This must really be the best time of year in HK, as several people have told me. It’s mild, clear, sunny and not hot. I feel lucky being in this apartment, with its lovely view of the sea and the mountainside. Also luckily, I will soon get to see more of Lamma island, as a local tourist bureau is running a series of four free ferry circumnavigations of Lamma, and I’ve reserved a ticket to go on 1 December. It will start at Yung Shue Wan early on Saturday afternoon, and travel anti-clockwise around the island, passing my own village and stopping for an hour at Sok Kwu Wan before continuing and returning to YSW.

Yesterday afternoon i made a short gentle trip to Aberdeen to pick up some sickie’s essentials (like Vegemite, which surprisingly is both available and cheap at the supermarket). Extensive Christmas decorations have appeared in the central plaza – much appreciated by the very small children, several of whom I saw waving excitedly to a smiling snowman-like figure mounted high up on the arche at one end of the plaza. One of the nicest things here is seeing families relaxing together in the evenings or weekend afternoons, especially because so much of life here seems to be dominated by work and by pressure. It’s lovely to see a young father chasing his gleeful children around columns in the plaza, and other little moments of relaxation and fun shared by families. Some couples here, including especially older couples, stroll hand in hand; I didn’t expect it in an Asian culture, but it seems very natural.

The inextricable merging of cultures into something whole and self-sustaining is visible here but I guess it is the same thing that happens everywhere, in every place; every culture is the merging of what has come into it.

Proportionate to the number of people, there seem to be many more people here with visible orthopaedic disabilities than in Australia. They tend to be middle aged or older – maybe the younger cases are now being treated with surgery that was not available to older generations. It is common to see people walking slowly along, and struggling up and down stairs, with a walking stick or crutch and specialist footwear built to compensate for one much shorter leg, or with various kinds of foot deformity.

I read The remains of the day last week and have just started The sea by John Banville. I love his writing and have previously read Athena and Kepler.

A gleaming, pale turquoise butterfly just shimmered past the open glass sliding doors, tantalising Crosby who watched from behind the homemade baby gate that keeps him inside and off the dangerous balcony.