Juanjaime: A few words before leaving

Sunday 13 September 2009

A few words before leaving

I'm about to return to Edinburgh, and no I am not going to say goodbye to anything or anyone in particular, because they know who they are and I'm not good at saying goodbyes to people who I have just made a brief encounter with and am absolutely lost for words when it comes to people who mean a lot to me.

So goodbye to whoever feels my goodbye.

Hong Kong summer was for me, an overseas student in Edinburgh, a wee bit too hot. So one of the favourite spots for me became the swimming pool downstairs. I had a thought the other day when I was trying to feel the feeling of my hands in the water, not trying to use my hand to grab hold on to anything in particular, but trying to stay still and feel the loss of sensation on my hands because there was no differentiation between one object to another under water.

This is what I was thinking:

I thought of public swimming pools (or fountains or simply a pool of water without any 'No Swimming' signs) on either sides of the Victoria Harbour front. After entering the Tsim Shai Tsui public swimming pool and jumping into the pool, you find yourself on lane 5 with the end of the "T" shape directly pointing towards the Bank of China building. After a few laps of the Bank of China lane, you rest on the ledge of the pool, let your body rise and fall with the ripples of somebody else diving from a board with the Cultural Centre as his background while you gaze over the poolside to absorb the harbour view. Ships negotiating their way through the busy water traffic, the sound of Star Ferry making her brief stop in the distance, glittering sparkles of sunlight dancing on the sea while water drips off the tip of your hair and you wonder, 'when will I ever get to swim across the Victoria Harbour again just like our grandfathers once did.'

Here's a picture of people using the benches in the new Central Star Ferry.