Convenience

20Jan11, 7:15am Body Pump with Kelvin

21Jan11, 7:30pm Power yoga with Serena Chan

8:45pm Pranayama breathing and meditation with Devea Biswas

22Jan11, 9km hike with one particularly vertical portion called Pyramid Mountain

23Jan11, 11:30am Power yoga with Michael Lau

24Jan11, 7am Hot yoga with Michael Lau

Consecutive days where I've not eaten after 10pm: 9

Consecutive days of water consumption logging: 9 (only 2 of which were 3L or more, but still...)

I wanted to talk about my meditation evening from Friday, but something just came up this evening that made me get on my computer to write.

As I've written in the past, there have been a few aspects of my lifestyle here in Hong Kong that I don't agree with but I've had to deal with until I find a solution that is in line with my values. For most of them, I have, and I am happy and proud of myself with each solution. However, there are still other situations that bother me that I cannot change... not quickly at least. For example, peoples' attitude or I guess I could say peoples' perception of convenience. Words that come to mind are the following: now, short-term, acute, immediate... There is a lot of waste, for example, and a lot of that has to do with packaging and cheaply made "now" items. There is an emotion regarding waste here too, an emotion of indifference, i.e. it doesn't matter because garbage will be shipped to China or another Asian country, anyway. That's my perception and I'm starting to see more of this unwritten animosity between Hong Kong-ese and any other Asian. So, if the garbage is going to China, who cares, because disposable is convenient!!!??? Or is it?

One particular incident came up this evening that was a true testament to the indifference I sense about waste.

Let me back up a bit... I have an induction cooker, basically a one-burner hot plate, and if you know anything about the particular models common to the apartments in Hong Kong, you know that they are major fire hazards. They heat up fast and to very, very hot temperatures... even on the "warm milk" setting. My apartment came with a few "cooking utensils" one of which was a wok/skillet hybrid... it was neither one nor the other, and so that means it didn't really have a flat bottom either, which is not good for induction cookers. That's the first strike. Strike two is that it was a teflon-type pan, for which I'm against. Thirdly, and worst of all, this poor pan had been abused, likely by the induction cooker. Teflon (or whatever brand) was coming off, and the bottom of the pan was warping. Yes, I've used this pan a few times, trying to use the area that's not been abused or else making sure whatever I was cooking was liquidy so that it wouldn't burn. I know.... I do not feel good about this decision, but there are so many things... Anyway, I had finally decided that I was going to tell my landlords about it. I have to space out my complaints because otherwise they won't be as effective, and I don't want to be "that girl" because that won't get me anywhere either, especially in HK. I had thought about just buying a small one of my own that was stainless steel or some other safe metal (our favourite cast-iron would not have been practical and does not work on induction cookers, sadly), but it was kind of that debate in my head as to whether I should be buying stuff like that since I'll only be here for another 4 months. Ugh!!! So, I took it to my landlord and they said they'd bring me a different one. There was no question. Sometimes I wonder if they just test people's limits... if they don't complain... oh well, they can continue using an unsafe pan... no problem. Anyway, they took the cancer pan and said they'd bring me a "new" one.

I went to my room, some call it an apartment, I call it a room. I proceeded to cook an egg on my other pan, which is more like a pot, such as one you'd make soup in or boil eggs in because doing that in your electric kettle is a bad idea. Trust me. I digress. I made my ridiculous dinner of one organic egg, one piece of tapioca bread toast, some hummus, and an organic carrot, a large one. I ate it. There's a knock on my door, and it's one of my maids. Yes, I have two! I have two maids! That means I have one maid per 50 sq. ft. of apartment! Emily hands me a new-ish skillet... a real skillet this time with a glass lid. The skillet is teflon but not peeling. I take it.

Emily looks around as she is standing there in the doorway and asks what happened? I presume

she means, "why do you have every piece of clothing hanging from every possible hook or bar or curtain rod in your flat?" I say, "oh nothing, I just did laundry." She asked why I didn't use the dryer, and I explained to her that I could easily just hang everything to dry. I only use the dryer for one small load every other week, and that consists of pyjamas, socks, and towels... in my mind all things that are better off dried with the dryer.

"But you pay for laundry, you should just use the dryer, it's so convenient," she says.

"Yes, but I think it's a waste of energy."

"But you paid for it."

"Well I think it's better for the environment if I use less energy."

"It doesn't matter. You already paid for it, you should just use it."

"No, I don't believe that way. Thanks for bringing me the skillet. Goodnight."

I feel good about hanging my laundry. Most of my clothing doesn't do well in the dryer anyway, such as my abundance of Lululemon work-out and yoga apparel which I LOVE! The last time my hanging my laundry came up was with my other maid and was quite a funny conversation (rather than an environmental responsibility conversation like I feel this one was). I do not know my other maid's name, and she only speaks Mandarin. So many people here can't understand here either, but she strangely thinks that everyone can understand her. One night

as I was bringing my laundry upstairs, she was apparently recalling that I hung all of my work-out wear, and made some motions of a dancer. To me, her motions looked like Flamenco, which wouldn't make ANY sense coming from a tiny old Chinese lady. After taking her with me to one of the other maids to figure out what she was saying, I finally learned she meant that she thought I was a belly-dancer. This also explains the look she always gives me with her eyes and the tiny chuckle... here, a belly dancing is not just a fitness class you can take at the gym... I demonstrated some yoga so she knew that was what I mostly did when wearing those tights, short shorts, tank tops, and sports bras. Now when she sees me, she calls me "yoga" which sounds more like "yorger." Anyway, that's my other story... quite a bit more light-hearted I'd say.

I love hanging my laundry. Not using the dryer prolongs the life of my clothing, especially the pieces with elastic-type fibres. It's not rocket science. Plus, I have this fear of shrinking my clothing as it elicits this whole other cascade of emotions in me. So, it's just easier to avoid drying most of my pieces. I guess the only time I wouldn't love hanging my laundry is when I'm cooking a delicious curry dinner, when it is simmering on the stove for hours and hours absorbing all of the beautiful spices like cumin, coriander, turmeric... rice is cooking in the rice-cooker, and so you can also breathe in that nutty steam... and I may be cutting up some fresh coriander to garnish... wait... I forgot, I don't have a kitchen and said hotplate would not be conducive to this meal... I'm dreaming. My point was that I don't like all of my clothes smelling like curry. I do love that they smell like the eucalyptus all-natural eco-friendly laundry detergent that I use and sometimes take on a bit of the sandalwood or vanilla from the incense that I burn... I also think hanging laundry is beautiful, not in my case, but in general. Here are a few gorgeous images I found with credits hyperlinked to each, as they are not my credit.