Last Friday night, I kept up my impressive streak of getting out of work in time for personal dinner during the week (three nights in a row - practically unheard of (well, this year)) and went to eat Italian with some girl friends at Panevino on Robinson Road in Midlevels.
The restaurant is on the corner of Robinson Road and Mosque Street, right next to the Lily Court corporate housing where I first stayed when I moved to Hong Kong.
I rarely come up to this part of Midlevels, though it is only a few steps away from where I currently live, and for some reason, seeing the Lily Court building, the site of my first residence in this city, I was brought up short by a wave of nostalgia. I was struck by how familiar the building was, and how much it looks unchanged from the image in my mind's eye.*
After a long dinner munching on bruschetta, swirling generous portions of pasta and sucking down sorbet at Panevino, we went to Portobello in Soho for some late night tea.
What does it say when your idea of fun is sitting with some girl friends on a Friday night sipping Moroccan mint and red lychee tea? Probably that you are getting old, but probably also that you have some nice friends. We stayed out until just after 1 am, well past the hour that I have been staying out lately. I could not stop yawning and was embarrassed at how my yawns seemed to have a life of their own, nearly taking the hinges off of my jaws as they slammed into one another like giant riptides.
*I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. I have lived in Hong Kong for nearly two and a half years. It feels both really short and really long. I still think of myself as a newcomer to the city but in so many ways I am not. I still remember being picked up at the airport, slicing through the peaceful, dark Hong Kong morning in a beautiful Mercedes, its powerful engine purring effortlessly up the steep and utterly unfamiliar streets of Hong Kong at the ungodly hour of 5 am.
The car delivered me to that very spot, where I embarked on an adventure in a completely foreign city. At the time, it seemed like a really special time to arrive in a new city, the surroundings hushed and still wrapped up in the slow, dreamy process of awakening. As dawn slowly unfolded, so the city seemed to be ushering and welcoming me into a new life.
The restaurant is on the corner of Robinson Road and Mosque Street, right next to the Lily Court corporate housing where I first stayed when I moved to Hong Kong.
After a long dinner munching on bruschetta, swirling generous portions of pasta and sucking down sorbet at Panevino, we went to Portobello in Soho for some late night tea.
What does it say when your idea of fun is sitting with some girl friends on a Friday night sipping Moroccan mint and red lychee tea? Probably that you are getting old, but probably also that you have some nice friends. We stayed out until just after 1 am, well past the hour that I have been staying out lately. I could not stop yawning and was embarrassed at how my yawns seemed to have a life of their own, nearly taking the hinges off of my jaws as they slammed into one another like giant riptides.
*I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. I have lived in Hong Kong for nearly two and a half years. It feels both really short and really long. I still think of myself as a newcomer to the city but in so many ways I am not. I still remember being picked up at the airport, slicing through the peaceful, dark Hong Kong morning in a beautiful Mercedes, its powerful engine purring effortlessly up the steep and utterly unfamiliar streets of Hong Kong at the ungodly hour of 5 am.
The car delivered me to that very spot, where I embarked on an adventure in a completely foreign city. At the time, it seemed like a really special time to arrive in a new city, the surroundings hushed and still wrapped up in the slow, dreamy process of awakening. As dawn slowly unfolded, so the city seemed to be ushering and welcoming me into a new life.
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