I’m sit­ting in the Vancouver air­port, wait­ing for the con­nect­ing flight to board. It’s 2:08 am back home, 11:08 pm here, 3:08 am in Hong Kong, and the ter­mi­nal is almost emp­ty. I caught scat­tered glimpses of the lit cities on the way over, lights bright and del­i­cate under­neath like rows upon rows of gild­ed chains.

A loud Julian sat next to me on the flight, telling me about his accom­plish­ments in the IT sec­tor, a bright young work­er who’s made his way into a great posi­tion in a recov­er­ing econ­o­my. Only the sound of suit­case wheels grind­ing on grooved floors can be heard here, with an occa­sion­al announce­ment over the loud­speak­er.

I can feel myself get­ting excit­ed, final­ly, sit­ting here remem­ber­ing all the great times I’ve had in Hong Kong. The fire­works, the fam­i­ly, the food.