Sunsetting Summer

I grew up in South Africa. For us ‘Summer holiday’ was always something American children did in the movies. Our Summer holiday was over Christmas, and it lasted about four weeks. The rest of that fabled two/three month holiday was spread out over the other holidays in the rest of the year (I think).

So now that my boy’s going to school in the northern hemisphere, I’m realising how long a Summer holiday really is. We managed to spend some time in our apartment, then took a month-long holiday in South Africa, before coming back and spending another month at home.

It’s been great. South Africa is an especially good treat when you show up with foreign currency and free time. There’s always a restaurant with good, affordable food and a playground for the kids. And the local kids are extremely social. They don’t need to share a language to play, and my boy ended up spending hours with kids who only spoke Afrikaans, or Sepedi, while he only really speaks English.

We spent time on game farms, went to the ocean, got in a serious car accident (no one hurt), and caught up with family we haven’t seen in over a year. It’s bittersweet to watch everyone visibly ageing in the intervals you see them. You take solace in knowing that you and they are both living the life that’s best for your family.

It’s hard not to remember your childhood with rose-tinted glasses. You see how much your boy loves the outdoors, how much he craves the more social atmosphere. You start talking with your wife about whether it would be better to raise him there. But you pull back, remembering that being a tourist with a holiday budget is not the same as living in a country.

Still, it’s special to share a little of your childhood with your boy. I can’t help but marvel at how much he grows over the holidays. Maybe it’s because we were together 24/7 then and I’m more prone to notice changes, but it really seems like massive neurological leaps happen over every long holiday. His vocabulary improves, his powers of reason (and unfortunately his negotiation skills) skyrocket. He understands the conversations around him in a way I hadn’t remarked on before. And the Afrikaans my wife and I talk to clandestinely discuss Christmas and birthday gifts become more porous every day. He’s starting to put two and two together.

Then just as suddenly, it’s time to go home.

We’re back in Hong Kong. The heat and humidity here isn’t really something you can accurately convey through a screen. So the best I can do is to say we’re directly east of Egypt, and we live in a city that tends to forget it was built in the jungle. So we have nine months of Summer, and then a little snivelly weather for a while over Christmas and Lunar New Year. This makes it hard to go outside and play. It’s difficult to go be social if you don’t spend money on indoor activities in shopping malls.

So you end up building a LOT of Lego blocks, building a LOT of Tomica tracks, and allowing far too much screentime just so you can get work done. I managed to contract a new artist for a cover for my novel: Raven Pages Design. They start work on my commissions in November, and I am stoked to see what they come up with.

Behold my finest creation.

Eventually the time rolled round, and my boy started school. He had his first day today. Half day. But those rusty work-wheels are turning, and I have to say, Summer holiday was good; but it’s been long enough. I am so ready to get back into the thick of things. So expect more regular updates on the site.

Another sunset image, just because it was pretty.