Photos from Hong Kong

I promised some photos upon my return to Japan. Here is the view from my room - day and night. I hoped all week the sky would clear, but the smog only got worse and on the last day we couldn't see the mountains because it was raining. Still, not a bad view considering we were in youth camp accommodation.

Breakthrough Youth Village. Our accommodation for the week. It was very comfortable but not too grand. The water heater in the bathroom, for example, heated the water in waves. From very hot to not at all.

 Here is part of the campsite, outside the dining room. Day and night.

And here is where we spent most of our days. Writing or being taught about writing or listening to other's writing.

On the ferry with fellow Aussie, Christine Dillion.

From the ferry on Hong Kong harbour.

From Victoria point looking over a portion of Hong Kong. To get here we drove, in a double-decker bus, up a scary road - hair pin turns and at times on the edge of plunging cliffs.

From the top front of a double decker bus we saw just a tiny bit more than we wanted to of down-town Hong Kong traffic.

A beautiful fountain on our way from the bus to the ferry.

My humble room. Comfortable and quiet. I am thankful for the break away. It is, however, good to be home in Tokyo with my husband and noisy, rambunctious boys.

Mopping up in Hong Kong

One of the great things about this week is that I've been able to chat with my family every day on Skype (barring the day I travelled). Skype is wonderful and amazing. It makes you realise, though, how hard it is to have a conversation with a 5, nearly 8 or 11 year old boy. Mine, at least, don't make conversation easily. Not that they haven't had a good model. I am always trying to model good conversation with them - at almost every meal (and we eat 2 to 3 meals together every day on a usual week).

Now most of the workshop attendees have left. I am still at the conference centre. I decided to stay and extra night and fly out tomorrow morning. The evening/night flights would have left me without a night of sleep - which is never a good thing in my books, if you can help it. A mum of three lively boys needs all the sleep she can get.

One of my husband's concerns about the week was that the other writers would be serious, hard to get along with people. His fears were unfounded. There were two other Aussies, one of whom was even louder than me. A Canadian mum of three boys also lit my day. Several Asian women from a variety of countries. Guys from America, Germany, Singapore and the Philippines. We even had two boys - a toddler and an 11 year old to make me feel at home. Plenty of humour and laughter (when we weren't writing in silence, as we did for about 20 hours).

It is raining here today. Hoping that I can bring some back to Tokyo with me. It has been so dry there. So hot. So humid. I've heard reports that it has been the hottest summer in decades and that there is no end in sight yet. Usually during September the temperatures cool and the city enters into one of the two most pleasant seasons - autumn. Everyone is longing for the change, wondering how much more they can stand.

Tomorrow I leave for the airport at 6.30am, catch two buses to the airport, the plane at 9.45 and then a bus and train home. I hope I'll be home for tea at 6pm, but that will only happen if the plane is early and the luggage comes out quickly. The next bus leaves only 35 minutes after we land. If I miss that then I'll have 2 hours to kill at the airport before the next bus and only just make it home in time to see the boys in bed.

But still, I should be able to sleep on my own bed tomorrow night. I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to getting into a usual routine and putting the things I've been thinking about doing this term into practise. I'm looking forward to hugging my loved ones again.

Day four - serious and fun, hard work and play

Today. I wrote and editing my writing from about 9.30 till 2.45 with only a break for lunch. In that time we weren't to talk to anyone. I have to say, this week has been a profoundly quiet experience, but with just enough talking to make this overstimulated extrovert feel quite balanced.

After 2.45 we did a fun exercise. Writing a fictional story as a group. We had 10 minutes to decide on two characters and a basic plot. Then 30 minutes without consulting with one another we got to write our section of the story. After this we read it aloud to the group. Some bits were very funny. Especially the group who used names like Fred and Wilma as characters. It was light relief to the heavy writing we've done in the last two days.

After 5 I did a totally different type of exercise. Playing half-court basketball with five other people. After only 20 minutes I was exhausted. I sat down to Skype my family straight after this. With sweat trickling down my back and around my eyebrows, they wondered what I'd been doing!

Tonight we've had the fun of reading our work to the whole group for 15 minutes and receiving feedback. That might sound scary to you, but I actually enjoyed it. It is not often you get instant audience feedback to stuff you've written. Last month a story I wrote more than two years ago was published in various places. People responded to it, but the gratification from writing it is very delayed.

Even better than reading our writing, we got to pray for one another and be prayed for. I confessed my struggle to find a way forward from here. My vision of what I'd like to do with my writing, but the difficulty of getting there. I long to tell the stories of ordinary women who happen to be missionaries. It was encouraging to have someone pray that God would bring people across my path whose stories I could tell. We'll see what becomes of this passion. 

A long outing 'downtown'

Last night we had the evening off, so about half of the writers went 'downtown'. We were led to believe it would be a relatively short expedition down to a ferry to see the harbour. Little did we realise that to get to the ferry we'd have to walk down the steep hill we are on, catch a bus for an hour into the city and walk another 20 minutes to the ferry.

The ferry ride was indeed short, but when we got to the other side someone proposed we go for a bus trip up "The Peak" for a great view of the city. Sounded do-able, so we took off to find a bus. It turns out that "The Peak", which is indeed a very impressive large "hill", has a road up it that is very windy. Lurching around blind corners at the top of a double decker bus seemed fun to start with, but I soon grew woozy. By this time I was ready for bed, but we hadn't even started back to our lodgings.

One of my fellow Aussies also expressed extreme weariness and was experiencing motion sickness too. I knew we were in trouble when she fished out her personal sick bad and held it in her hand, 'just in case'.

At 11.15 we were still a good half an hour from home when one of our group came up to the top level of the bus to tell us our friend was throwing up. We quickly decided that three of us would get off the bus with her and take a taxi home.

I didn't get into bed until midnight. At least it cured me of the difficulties I've been having getting to sleep recently. I slept soundly until 8am, rising only just in time to catch breakfast.

Today has been more teaching about writing and writing. A little less teaching and more writing. I did get to spend half an hour with our speaker. She went through one of the articles I wrote yesterday and after making quite a few fairly cosmetic changes declared it publishable. Wow! Such an encouragement!

On a less lofty note, my bottom is sore from sitting. Obviously I need to get out and do some more exercise, although I think the start of last night's adventure, walking down our steep hill, probably hasn't helped my glutes too much.

Once again it is dinner time and then another two hours of writing-related time. We're listening to excerpts from everyone's writing. That means I need to read something too. Good thing I've been doing a lot of writing this week...

Writing workshop Day 2

These last two days have included two main activities. Being taught about writing for publication and writing.

The first has covered topics like making your writing interesting, organisation, knowing your market, submitting for publication and writing in a Christian way.

The second has been more free choice. Most people here have one or more books they are currently working on. I do not. I do have a number of magazine articles I want to write. Some are stories I told while we visited churches on home assignment. So I’ve been working on those. I got a good first draft on two articles just today. Yesterday she asked us to write a story for quantity – so I wrote a 2 200 word true story in 1 ½ hours. I cannot remember the last time I wrote so many words on one day. I am not sure what I want to do with it now. But it was a fun challenge to write.

Last night our programme ended at 9pm, which is 10pm on my body clock, Hong Kong being an hour earlier than Tokyo. I was so pumped, however, that I didn’t turn my light out until two hours later. And only then because all room lights go out at that time. (This is a place they have youth camps and programmes at – a very useful feature, centrally controlled room lights, wish they’d had them at the campsites I was a leader at in Australia in my younger years). It is pretty usual for me to get wound up at conferences and camps. I am an extrovert after all. This writing business, though, gives a high that is quite impressive. I’m having a great time.

Tonight we have the option of doing a tiny bit of tourism, by way of a short break. We’re taking a ferry somewhere. It will be a lovely sight, all the lights at night. Hong Kong has amazing geography compared to Australia. Heaps of tiny islands and steep mountains. Like Japan most people seem to live close to the ocean. Unlike Japan most people seem to live in massive high rise buildings! Our accommodation is a bit up the side of a mountain. If the smog weren’t so bad it would be a beautiful view. But the darkness hides the murky atmosphere at night time and the twinkling lights on the tall buildings are magical. I forgot to bring the cable which connects the camera to the computer, so I cannot download photos for you to see. You’ll just have to wait.

So, while I’d planned to do some work tonight (our news/prayer letter, for example), I’ve decided to go on the trip. Other things will have to wait until later in the week. Breakfast is late, maybe I can squeeze some in before. Our rooms are light hours before breakfast, so I read for ages this morning before going and checking my email in the lobby (no internet in the rooms).

Now I rave. Good time to stop!

Short post on Day One in Hong Kong

I've run out of time to write this post, but I have been doing a lot of writing this morning. Uninterrupted writing, a real novelty.

But it is better than yesterday. Yesterday I got up without an alarm at 4.30 (I'd been awake most of the night) and caught my train, then bus, then plane and then three more buses. I got lost at most of the tranfers! But after a awful start to the day where I fought anxiety and nausea for more than two hours, I made it okay. My husband kept reminding me to expect adventures.

The biggest adventure was when I missed getting off at the correct the bus stop on the bus from the airport, but didn't realise it for about half an hour. God gave me some angels. Two ladies without English tried to help me, then a bunch of kids with a basketball took me on a merry walk, they guided me to another bus which would bet me back on track and I got to my destination not too much the worse for wear. The whole journey took just over 12 hours. Not too bad.

I slept fairly well last night in a strange bed and feel much refreshed this morning. And we've gotten down to writing. I wrote over 2000 words in about 1 1/2 hours this morning. It needs a lot of editing, but it is great to have unbroken writing time! Something I've hardly experienced for years and years.

It has been exciting to meet other OMF writers too. People, just like me, who are doing other jobs and trying to fit writing around those things. Two Aussie women are here too. Names that I've heard and read about, but never met.

Anyway, it is dinner time and I need that to keep going. More later...

Feeling nervous

Tomorrow morning I travel alone to Hong Kong for a week-long OMF sponsored Writing Workshop. Strangely enough I am more nervous about the travel than the workshop! This is tomorrow:

5.26am I catch a train for three stops
5.40 Catch a bus direct to the airport

10.10am Fly out of Tokyo direct to Hong Kong
1.35 pm (Hong Kong time) arrive.
Catch the A41P bus from the airport to Shatin Hospital stop
Hopefully there will be someone waiting at the stop when I get there who'll help me catch the mini-bus up the hill to the site of our workshop.

Believe it or not, it was the first two of these that caused me pain at about 3am this morning. I had a dream in which I woke up tomorrow at 5.30 - too late to catch the train . . . and it all deteriorated from there. Catastrophising about anything and everything that could go wrong. Until I ended up in the little room with rumbling insides.

I'm praying that I'll sleep better tonight. At least I'll be able to get up early and get on with it. I hate nerves like this. They take over your body and mind. They get out of control and I hate feeling out of control of myself.

I'm sure that once I'm in that bus and even more, waiting to get into the plane, I'll be fine. If only I could skip these waiting hours.