Sebastian’s Handover
My friends, this is Handover Weekend: a three day holiday weekend. This morning on the way to work I explained to my wonderful children that Sunday, July 1 is Hong Kong’s birthday. This idea went right over the Terrific Trio’s head… they were oblivious. But Sebastian was quite interested in the concept of a location having a birthday. “Would Hong Kong have a cake for everyone?” he wanted to know. “Probably not,” I explained. That would be a very big cake.
The point, though, is that Sunday we will all head to Dad’s new office in IFC to see the fireworks. I explained that we would get to stay up late… the fireworks start at 8 PM, after the triplets’ bedtime. “Yeah,” said Sebastian! AND, we would probably go early to avoid traffic and also have dinner at some place like… McDonald’s. “Oooooo,” responded Jasper. We would then go to Dad’s office, make popcorn, sit next to the big window in Dad’s office conference room and watch the fireworks. “POPCORN!” exclaimed Sela with delight. AND, I explained, the fireworks will have a lot of noise, like thunder, but no one should be scared. “We won’t be scared,” reported Carys, matter-of-factly. The kids dropped me off at work. I rose up the escalator to look down on the car as De drove away. Sebastian smiled and waved. I mouthed, “I love you,” and I could clearly see him screaming back, “I love you, Daddy,” even though I didn’t hear him through the car window.
I was sad. Sad because today was a milestone: today was Sebastian’s last day of school. So, so hard. Should I be sad? Is that wrong? How is it possible that some moments kids can drive you crazy and other days they melt your heart? I remember Sebastian’s first day of Kindy… not even a full three years old. I recorded that day on my little Sony Cybershot. Through the window Sebastian screamed in delight, “Bye bye, Daddy!” I went to work to share the video with my dear friend Paul. We looked at it, Paul’s an MBTI “F” so he was all misty, and we both agreed, “These moments don’t last forever.” The sweetness, the cuteness, the innocence. Today looking down on Seb, while I rose up the escalator, all these thoughts and memories swarmed through my head. As 11:30 AM approached I prepared my mad dash from work for an early lunch that would really be a quick visit to Seb’s school. Tess called to say she was on her way to Small World. I told her I would be there in ten minutes. A little while later I arrived as Sebastian exited his classroom. We took pictures, congratulated Sebastian, and said good-bye to his teachers. Sebastian wanted to know why Tess and I were both at school. “Because this is an important day,” I explained to him, “You have finished kindergarten and now you will go to Kennedy. This is a big day, Sebastian!” Seb smiled and over the next few minutes we took several pictures, walked out into the rain, hustled everyone into the car and drove off. We have started the handover of Sebastian from Kindy to Primary, which will be a very different world for him. Meanwhile, Hong Kong celebrates its 10th Anniversary of its handover from Britain to China. Stay tuned for lots of cool and melancholy updates. It’s Handover Weekend.
Tess and I were both in Hong Kong for the handover. To read a day-by-day, play-by-play, of the few days leading up to the handover, please visit this link. The page still lives on the old site where we originally posted. Almost – we had to migrate ISPs once. There is no avenue to leave comments on the site. If you are moved to comment, you have to come back here… sorry!
