Making Up For Lost Time

These last couple of weeks have turned into a sinkhole!  Somehow it was Halloween and then I went to the US and somehow yesterday was Thanksgiving and today is my birthday and we are wrapping up 2024.  I have no idea how this happened.

My trip to the US was great, but truly a never-ending whirl of things: I saw my parents, saw my grandma (who was sadly in the hospital at the time, due to feacturing her ribs and pelvis from falling), saw my sister, met my brand spanking new nephew, Maxwell, dropped off a bunch of kids' things to share and pass along to my cousin's kids, attended meetings in NYC, saw my team members, met and squeezed in numerous coffees, lunches and dinners (including a very memorable and fun client dinner at the Modern, the heart-stopping Israel/Palestine protests and stress of being shouted at as I entered the barricaded premises notwithstanding), handled some life admin stuff like getting papers authenticated and fitted for a retainer, had lunch with my parents again at the one and only Gino's - before flying out to Southern California and seeing a new city (San Diego, how exciting!), catching up with Katie and Christo and meeting their kids in Ventura, then moseying around Santa Barbara and Montecito, before flying out of LAX.  

For one of the first times in my adult life, I rented a rental car on my own (in the past I've always been with girl friends, roommates, or Michael) and drove it on the freeways up the Pacific Coast Highway - not for the faint of heart, especially for a city dwelling girl like myself, who never drives...

Before I left for the US trip, it was also a slap bang dash of activities, including lamb hotpot with dear old friends Bonnie and J, birthday parties, Lola getting prescription glasses (doh!!!), participation in an art event for the HKSPC where the kids submitted an original artwork of theirs demonstrating the theme of "Play," the boys getting lucky and playing "rugby" (really just running around on the pitch playing games) during half time of the Hong Kong Brazilian men's tournament at the HK football club and, in a moment stolen here and there for myself, getting to view some beautiful serigraphs of Zao Wu ki at Villepin and stunning originals of modern and contemporary artists at Sotheby's before their auction, including inside their vault where I got to stand thiiiis close to a Rothko and an epic Zao Wu Ki lithograph.