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The thing that has kept me going is that I have prior experience with this. I know if I just wait long enough it will get better. I just have to be patient…again.

And even now - it’s been almost six weeks - I do feel a little more settled.

Thus I find myself starting a new life in Hong Kong, with my husband and daughter and hopefully another baby before too long. Alex must become a secret but beloved part of my past.

I was so disciplined those last few weeks in Sydney. I wanted to call him every hour of every day. Sometimes I even got as far as picking up the phone, but I talked myself out of it every time. I am so proud of myself about that.

It was only when I made it through the airport departure gates that I felt safe to indulge myself. In the Duty Free store I bought some Dolce and Gabbana aftershave. Not for Tony, just for me. I knew I was being foolish and sentimental but I couldn’t help myself.

19

Discovering the Bay

I thought my short but brilliant writing career had run its course but I’m finding I still have the creative urge. I’m now thinking of starting up my own blog about the expat lifestyle - the pilot’s wife blog market seemingly already cornered - horrible egotist that I am. Let’s face it, I don’t have that much else to do at present. I had a tentative look at the local pharmaceutical job market but Tony is not at all keen on me working because he wants Issy and me to accompany him on a few overseas trips this year.

That was the plan when Tony and I first got married but because I was working full-time those romantic getaways at company expense hardly ever eventuated - part of the problem, possibly. This year, before Issy starts school, must be the year then. Planning a few trips to Europe should also help with the homesickness I’m currently battling. Art galleries and restaurants in Paris sound like the perfect medicine for me.

Of course the other, implicit, reason I’m not looking for work is that we are hoping for another baby. At least I think I am hoping for it - for some reason after my last pregnancy I’m not exactly storming the barricades to embrace motherhood again. In any case we have both agreed that we are not going to get hung up on it. If it happens it happens. We’re following the herbalist’s instructions, and I’m taking her foul potions and my prenatal vitamins, but my conception obsession is over. That was definitely part of the problem. Our new philosophy with respect to sex is ‘recreation, not reproduction’. Yes, Tony and I are actually discussing things in advance - alert the media - and so far so good.

It’s now late January and we’ve been here almost four weeks. There is an impressive mountain behind Discovery Bay and the three of us went for a hike up there last Sunday. Isabel started whining that her legs were hurting before we’d even ascended halfway so poor Tony had to piggyback her most of the way, but we all agreed it was worth it in the end. It was an unusually clear day for around here so when we reached the summit we were treated to a panoramic view of our new home town, Kowloon and the New Territories and, glinting through the haze, the skyscrapers of downtown Hong Kong. Get away from the main settlements and Lantau Island is remarkably untouched and unexpectedly beautiful. Initial impressions that we’d moved permanently to a holiday resort have faded but it still feels less like China than I expected.

There are twenty-odd thousand people living in Discovery Bay. Apparently after you’ve been here a while it becomes, like any town of similar size, an ‘everybody knows everybody’ situation. About three quarters of the residents are expats: Aussies, Brits, Americans and quite a few Europeans. The expats like DB because it’s more family-orientated than Hong Kong Island and it is possible to live in a house here without bankrupting yourself. DB real estate would hardly be considered cheap but the rents for some places on the island are astronomical.

On top of all the professionals and