Call of the wild

OK, so not exactly the wild (unless wild means extremely organised and manicured) but I have finally found it– the baby-friendly place where no-one insists you buy a drink, where you can enjoy the water and the sunset and the grass without someone telling you that you are not allowed to sit down and where, at least until now, there are no mosquitoes...! It's called the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park, and it happens to be located at the foot of our building.

We've been watching this park being built for what seems like years now, and as I watched the lawn being rolled out and carefully watered, never did I imagine that we would actually be able to walk and sit on it.

Hong Kong - at least in my experience - has a habit of keeping people off the grass, when there is actually grass to be kept off. Whether it's an effort to keep the homeless away, a discriminatory action against the Filipina maids who like to hang out together on Sundays, or just a way to keep Hong Kong clean (a likely story), it's just very difficult to find a place that isn't a bar where you can just sit down and enjoy being outdoors.

But this park has it all - a big lawn, as mentioned, a playground for when bambino grows up a bit, and soon there will be a swimming pool, too. There is also "Four Desperados Corner" (not sure what that is), a "Reflection Pool" (actually just a fountain) and... a breastfeeding room! Not that I checked it out - despite my years of being prude as a teenager, nowadays nothing can stop me from whipping out the mobile milk fridges so that I can feed my son without missing a minute of the action. I don't want to sit in a tiny room on a stool for half an hour while everyone else enjoys life without me!

Now I just have to wait for the stifling Hong Kong summer to fade away, and then the park will be our hq until the winter...