THE END OF COVID YEAR

It's almost over. The dreaded year that ever was since like WWII or the Great Depression? And I have to say today was one of the crappiest days of all. First, we have had to endure the endless drilling assault of an apartment renovation directly below ours. There is no sleeping in when the assault starts. You can't think, you can't hear, you can't focus on anything except the desire of getting the heck out of the apartment. Now that everyone is staying around HK and also working from home, the renovation projects are going forward. There's a massive amount of construction everywhere in preparation for post covid real estate frenzy by the greedy developers.

Then around noon, no water. Nada. The main water pipe burst and that was the end of it. I had to get out! I had the perfect excuse of doing some X mas shopping, and as I mentioned, the joy of shopping in HK is like no other. I usually take the MTR to the Kowloon side, but since the covid cases have not subsided I decided to drive. It's always a fun adventure driving to the Kowloon side, but you never go in the direction you think you are going when you follow the stupid GPS which can't tell you when you need to go on the overpass or go straight or be in the second to the right lane which will eventually take you to another planet. For those of you who have gotten lost on the Kowloon side driving, I'm sure you can sympathize. I mean, it was so bad one time that we had to hire a taxi and follow the taxi to get to our destination. This kind of pathetic scene doesn't happen anymore, but I get lost numerous times even on the HK side. You take that one wrong turn, and you end up in the central tunnel and end up on the other side of the island and lose about 15-20 minutes.

Jorg Wanderer Photography

After the Xmas shopping, I had called several craft shops for art resin for a specific art project, and the two shops claimed they had it, but they didn't. That was like 3 hours of driving around town, stuck in massive traffic due to I am guessing last minute x mas shoppers only to find out that they had to be ordered online.

Then came the hunt for the pasteurized eggs for the royal icing for Xmas cookies. None to be found except of course in the most expensive supermarket in the world called the City Super. Screw that. I resort to the tiny and the busiest shop in town, I LOVE cake in pursuit of the pasteurized egg substitute, meringue powder, but none was to be found AGAIN. But they did have egg white powder. Good enough. Why all the fuss about this year for pasteurized eggs? In the past, I just used any egg whites. Thea even made them and sold them! Thank God, no kid got sick from salmonella....I am a firm believer in the motto, "Ignorance is bliss". I wish I never read the word "pasteurized" and just skimmed over it as I have in the past.

Then came the hunt for the Cream of Tartar to make pavlova... I saw rows of them at a supermarket 10 minutes away from me, but thought "I know we have those already". WRONG! My friend went to her supermarket, and it was sold out. My other friend went to the dreaded City Super, sold out again. Forget Pavlova, the dessert I had dreamed of making for my Xmas eve dinner party. We resorted to the ready made chocolate pudding and fruit. And that was enough. A Hearty meal shared by a good company was enough. Oftentimes, you just have to settle in HK. Especially when everyone including the expats who mostly leave town during the holidays, stay in town thanks to Covid. During the major holidays in HK, I used to enjoy driving around the empty streets and not having to resort to any ingredients, but thanks to Covid, that has changed. The "Joy" of Expat life in HK will not end here, and one day, I will remember these painful moments fondly, and grab every Dijon mustard, Cream of Tartar, and pasteurized eggs when I spot them even though I do not plan on making Caesar salad, pavlova nor royal icing.