On Friday afternoon Lee played hooky and we went to the beach at Shek O. It was a lovely if somewhat hazy and definitely HOT day, perfect for lying under an umbrella at our favorite beach. Lest anyone think my husband was laying down on the job, he works long hours all the time and there is a public holiday in Hong Kong tomorrow that he will miss because he just left on a flight for Singapore. So there!
When we got to Shek O it was just as we hoped. On weekends this beach is very, very crowded, so much so that if you don’t get there early there is no place to park, let alone put your umbrella. By going on a weekday we found a mostly deserted beach with lots of space and some surprisingly large waves. This was unusual. There is one beach in Hong Kong – Big Wave Bay – that boasts of being a “surfer beach” and I actually do know people that go there to surf, but for anyone from California, Australia or Hawaii the waves are laughable. I suppose it’s probably a good place to LEARN to surf, but anyone that really surfs would find it pretty boring. To give you some idea of how boring, there is a real problem with people flocking to the beaches to surf when a typhoon hits Hong Kong. THEN we get some waves!
But on Friday there was no typhoon anywhere near Hong Kong. There was a typhoon up by Taiwan and Japan, but that’s over 600 miles away so it doesn’t seem likely that was the reason for the waves. At any rate we were impressed. It really looked like an ocean and it looked like fun.
I’m kind of a big chicken when it comes to the ocean. I have a lot of respect for it and treat it with caution, so I went out slowly. The tide was out (I think) and the beach was really, really shallow, with lots of strange currents and a pretty strong undertow. Yes, the warning flags were out on the beach. Lee came in too, but he’s more blasé about these things, and left his hat and sunglasses on.
We made it past the first breakers and started floating happily in water that varied between hitting our thighs and our chests. When a big wave came we jumped up and rode it over. Then a REALLY big wave came. We both misjudged it. I tried to dive under it but didn’t time it right and got summer-salted through the water. I held my breath and stayed calm, and except for a bathing suit top malfunction regained my footing without too much trouble. I did have about a pound of sand in the bottom of my suit, not to mention my ears, eyes and hair, but other than that I was okay.
As I resurfaced I heard a distinctive SHIT! It was Lee. He had lost his very, very expensive prescription sunglasses in the wave. It was just one of those things. Once it happened we both thought we should have known better, but we didn’t really realize how strong the waves were until after we were out there. We searched for the sunglasses for quite awhile, but they were gone.
Lee took it very well. There was nothing he could do about it and he managed to stay pretty calm and philosophical about it. I would have been just furious with myself so I really was proud of him for not beating himself up over something he couldn’t help. What is it about sunglasses? You never lose the cheap junky ones; just the really nice expensive ones. My Kate Spade sunglasses belong to a time-warp continuum of some sort since they are both really nice AND expensive and I’ve had them for years now.
So Lee has left for a business trip and I’m all alone in Hong Kong and I’ve watched all of the 3rd season of the West Wing and the 4th season is waiting for me in the US and I can’t watch The Wire without Lee. What to do…maybe I should do something wild and crazy like go see Mama Mia by myself! Ha.
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