The idea of this section comes up during the walks with my daughter (M). Since I travel the city with her in my backpack I find it more difficult to take pictures with the camera because she loves to stretch her arms as much as possible to reach the camera strap and shake it while I struggle to keep still (which has generated a series of moving photos on the other hand). Thus, itineraries appears as a space where each post will consist of photos or videos taken mostly with my phone, accompanied by a brief text, more informal than in the articles, trying to represent those walks, mainly in Hong Kong.
Observing the city with a baby as a copilot awakens your senses, especially if you walk slowly enough to allow things to catch the child's attention. One is aware of how gray everything is when she jumps towards a bright yellow pipe; or the noises that surround us, the ambient noise and the noises that protrude (and shock her) above it, when she turns her head to look for its origin. You also feel the rhythm of the big city, M has gotten used to that movement; when we see the streets from the main window of two-story buses she feels in her natural habitat, until a red light makes her grumpy. I become aware of the sun that we cannot see, when its light bounces on some of the glass facades that surround us and reaches her eyes and she gets angry because she cannot continue to discover all those things she saw a few seconds ago. At night, on the contrary, I can see the neon lights that come from everywhere reflected in her curious eyes.
Immersed in that rhythm, people do not observe what surrounds them. M looks for reciprocity while we walk down the street but she gets none. The constant, almost obscene, flow of people does not stop even in the presence of a baby who is learning everything. In the subway she has a bit more luck, because people have no escape and M scolds the whole car until someone looks up from the mobile and smiles. Older people, without dependence on the screen, are always much more receptive. If they do not pay attention to her, M will look at the car screen carefully.
Other things that one rediscovers (paternity is all about rediscover), are all those leftover spaces to which the city has given its back: those corners between a building and a raised highway; a small alley that noise and smoke cannot reach; a crossing of streets in which a chamfer has generated a space outside the flow of pedestrians. We often need to stop, tidy ourselves up, prepare some milk, look for tickles, anywhere. On the other hand, we also frequent big shopping malls, inside these buildings there are fewer corners out of control than in the streets (although we have found some excellent corners, even with sea view). We visit these huge, shiny, scented buildings in search for a changing room to change M´s diaper, and take a little break. We live immersed in the pursuit of comfort and these shopping centers represent that aspiration perfectly. Critics aside, those breaks come in handy and we will even talk about these itineraries looking for a changing room.
In the coming weeks l will post itineraries in villages near Tsuen Wan, buildings of the 50s with many corners and people in Mong Kok, football courts with sea views, skyscrapers with a skylobby to do whatever you want, etc., etc. By the way, M already started using the camera, this is her first photo on a ferry to North Point.
