Pictured here is the beautiful old Man Mo temple. Very different experience to going to church in the UK – though the shiny things, icons and incense aren’t a million miles away from Catholicism. Devotees worship by ritually waving incense around; attaching prayers/messages to lanterns or huge incense coils suspended from the ceiling; or, my favourite, banging a big ceremonial drum and hitting a giant bell, both of which you see in the gloom in the background.
A place of worship that hinges around family and ancestors and where locals go for rites of passage feels sadly appropriate today. The negative trade-offs of expat life bit for the first time.
Firstly, we missed Claire’s uncle Steve and his now-new-wife
Esther’s wedding. We were thinking of them all day, working out what time it
was there and counting down to the ceremony. Congratulations to them, and we
wish them every happiness. We were very sad that the timing of our move meant
that we could celebrate with them and the Priestley/Adcock clan.
Secondly, my great aunt Hazel passed away in the early hours.
She had been ill for some time, and she slipped away peacefully with her
friends and some family at her bedside. Our thoughts are with them and her good
friends at her local church; and we are sad that the amount of support we can
give to my dad and aunty Annette from here is limited, and that we will not be
at the funeral.
We know we will gain a lot from this move to HK. But this
Easter weekend has brought home to us that moving to the other side of the world
means we will miss out on some things, too.
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