Dim sum mum
Oh baby, let’s stay(cation) together Staycations are the new vacation, as told by Becky Love I have an image of 2020 in my mind. It looks a bit like me circa 2010, waking up with a red wine hangover in the same clothes as the night before, searching for my phone with one eye open wondering what the heck happened last night. Because seriously, what on earth is this mess that you have served us, 2020? Who would have thought that as the clock ticked over on New Year’s Day, as we set our intentions and threw our arms in the air screaming ‘best year yet” that this is what we would get? Did you predict this? Yeah, you. Because I sure didn’t. I don’t think any of us did. And for a while there, I was a little bummed by it. Firstly, it was my son’s very first year on planet Earth. I had plans for him. Plans that had to be put on hold due to closures, distancing, rules. I felt upset for him and guilty that I had brought him into this world only to let him down. But then I came to my senses. I thought, hang on – I’m here, aren’t I? We’re all here, my family and I. We are healthy, lucky, together. So, what is a family to do when they can’t jump on a plane and vacation during a pandemic? How does a family break away from the same routine, day in and day out? They staycation, baby – and that’s exactly what we did. Ours was in no way planned, which is the first wonderful thing about a staycation. There’s no need to book flights, hotels, airport transfers. You call, you book, you’re off. It just so happened, one evening after a beer or two my husband returned home, jumped on the phone and booked us in without discussing it with me first. This surprise was certainly very welcome and I made a mental note to let him out for beers more often. We arrived at the Grand Hyatt via a ferry and taxi ride, heavily sanitized, with smiles hidden underneath our frequently changed face masks. Not exactly ‘grand’, nor glamorous - but I think ‘glam’ went out the window as soon as
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face masks and humidity combined to create the most hideous version of myself, daily. We took the lift up twenty-six floors and with our one-year old in the carrier, sweaty faces and luggage in arms we swung open the door to our room. Wow. If you’ve never seen Victoria Harbour from twenty-six floors up, you need to get onto that. It’s the next best thing to being on a plane, because you literally feel like you’re up in the clouds. “This is a pretty good
start” I thought as I collapsed onto the bed (one-year old now out of carrier, by the way). As this was just an overnight stay for us, we wanted to do something extremely important whilst we were away and we wanted to do it well. Something that was close to our hearts… or should I say, in this case, a little further down to our stomachs. Yeah. Something close to our stomachs – and that was eat. We popped down to the restaurant for a late lunch, heck, okay, it was a second lunch, then sat out by the ‘closed’ but still very pretty swimming pool for a sunset drink. As those with a one-year old will know, time seems to go faster with one of them hanging around. You’re so busy getting them organized, fed, happy, entertained, safe etcetera that you blink and it’s bedtime. So rather than head back down to the restaurant, we decided to order room service. Always fine by me because it means I can eat like a sloth in my hotel robe after a fast but long day. To our surprise, this turned out to be the highlight of our staycation. As our little one missed his afternoon nap due to his over-excitement of the events taking place, he was overly tired and ready to sleep. Yes! We popped him in his cot, set up our room service meals at the table and finally had what felt like a mummy daddy date night. Although we didn’t look too crash hot, had to eat very quietly and speak in code and whispers, what we did have was an uninterrupted million-dollar view of the Harbour and the best company you could ask for. And to top it off, of course – a sleeping baby. So, if you’re missing those frequent vacations or just feeling a bit of cabin fever – perhaps consider a family staycation. Not only is it a great way to reset but it will remind you why you love this city. For us, Hong Kong became a good friend again, not just an acquaintance.
