The NO joy of walking

Sounds ridiculous when I say that in the HK context and no i am not talking about weekend hikes or trail walks amongst lush greenery as mentioned in countless trail guides, I am just talking about everyday simple walking. Like walking from home to the supermarket, from school to home, walking across just to meet a few friends, or walking just cause you want to…..I used to love walking when we lived in London. Walking for 20-30 minutes to get from one place to another was considered quite normal out there and did not break you out into a hot sweat, or sun burns. Alright so it’s not fair to blame the weather, but what about some crisp, clean, fresh air then? or footpaths for walking where you are not worried about cars coming right on to the kerb to take a turn? or zebra lines that can be actually used for safe crossing without being worried about a car running you down? Where I live now is considered to be one of the ‘greenest’, ‘open’ space in HK but I can’t walk from one place to another without being covered with a thick mask of dust or having a fit of dry cough! My kids used to love scooting on their Micro scooters to most neighbourhood places in London. We scooted to school, to the library, to birthday parties, for playdates, almost everywhere we could. It was not just environmental friendly, it also helped to keep us in good shape. We tried hard to continue that when we first came here. But besides the noise, dust and the absence of proper road safety rules, the mountainous terrain of HK with its slopes going up and down makes it difficult for the boys to control their scooters and at the same time they need to be adept at managing the lamp posts and other poles that suddenly spring up right in the middle of a footpath! After a few scary incidences, we gave up and now the scooters adorn my balcony waiting for our next holiday to England.