Improvise

A year after travel restriction in place around the globe, the unprecedented threat to the emotional toll of boredom remains difficult to beat. But it's worth saying that improvisational travel adventures may still be the ticket to globe-trotter's pleasures.

Small as it might be, Hong Kong can offer us quite a number of captivating countryside paths to explore.

The farther we explore into the countryside, the more we love the hidden green places. With flight trips off the agenda for now, countryside walk has become our family’s pastime.

No two hikers agree on the best local hiking route, but a good starting point would be those falling off the radar of the public. Be aware that popular hiking trails could be too crowded to give us a leisurely weekend break.

Often, even without highly revered attraction (think sweet gum trees in autumn, bell-shaped Chinese New Year flower in spring, or cherry blossom in Japan, for that matter), a dash of imagination is good enough to help our family capture the best of nature. There’s nothing quite like being far from the madding crowd, our creative minds running wild. In this I owe much to the ingenuity of my wife and daughter, who always make their own games, a state of mind as quick-witted as Julia Donaldson. Today, we spent an afternoon putting leaves on the zigzagging downstream water along a pretty stream near Luk Keng, the way Englishmen enjoy punting in Cambridge. Such an unbelievable way of having fun.

Birder

It is no secret that birds have a way of getting people hooked. So fascinating is bird-watching experience that it is more than grateful for me to find out the BioNTech vaccine station is within a stone's throw of a wetland in the north-west New Territories.

The sheer wonder of getting an excuse to take a relaxing afternoon off to have a jab, away from everyday chores, and then follow birds through the camera viewfinder!

The rewards from opening up to the world of birds are simply endless. The soothing green of the vegetable fields where birds flock. The whoosh of wagtails flying overhead. The blur of motion froze by each click of the shutter.

And now, I must say, I look forward to my second BioNTech shot three weeks later.

Burning

If I am stuck with finding fiction books to read, the first and most sensible way is crowdsourcing. A pretty good source is looking up the book recommendation from The New York Times. That's how I come to hear about Megha Majumdar.

No single word better expresses the essence of what makes her debut novel a powerful one than "Burning." No less important is the way Majumdar entitles the book A Burning.

One of the main characters, Jivan, was accused of sedition in the aftermath of a terrorist attack at a railway station. A few nights after she posted a careless comment on Facebook, she was dragged up in her nightie by the police. The next morning, at the courthouse, Jivan was told by the judge the list of charges against her.

"Crime against the nation," he said. "Sedition." (Call me a coward if you will; I dare not cite Jivan’s anti-government Facebook post here.)

No more than a few hours after Jivan was arrested, she was transported from temporary lockup to the prison. I could imagine the scene she cried, my own eyes dry and throat burning. Of course, you'd read more burning stories behind bars. Take Americandi, her cellmate. She pushed a man who was trying to snatch her necklace but then fell, struck his head on the pavement and became comatose. That's how Americandi ended up in jail.

As I read on, I heard and saw more burning of scapegoats, or maybe I imagined it. Maybe.

Soul

On the day public libraries reopened, I went there to borrow dozens of books a fortnight ago. Before the calculation of overdue book fines is to be resumed tomorrow, I finished Brit Bennett's novel The Vanishing Half today.

At the same time, I realized the chance to watch Pixar's production Soul is long overdue, after closure of cinemas in the fourth wave of pandemic in the city. Ultimately, our family have the chance this afternoon.

The stories of Vignes twin sisters separating, and that of jazz pianist Joe Gardner bumping into a delinquent soul named 22, are both prime examples of how intertwining the fates can be. In different cities, across different skin colours and different generations, and even different zones from unborn to afterlife.

It cannot be said too often: all life is one.