I didn’t know I enjoy…

The jump-off line is from Things I didn’t know I loved by Nazim Hikmet. 

I didn’t know I enjoy stories featuring animals or emphasizing cuteness. I’m not much of an animal or cutesy person but I’m very much empathic. I can dive into others’ passions and what they enjoy, through reading. 

I didn’t know I enjoy travelling. There is a caveat though: I like to travel with Mum. Just the two of us. No rush. We just casually stroll at our pace. I hate being rushed. 

I didn’t know I enjoy watching dating shows. There’s some kind of goodwill and hope associated with seeing a successful, seemingly right match. Even when I realised later that they were set up just like other reality shows, they were largely entertaining. In various ways. Showing a glimpse into the skewed, anxious society of the modern mainland China. I was born there but I was never quite part of it. So I could look with a critical outsider’s eye upon the scene. I don’t like much of what I see. That is the honest truth. 

I didn’t know I enjoy spy thrillers. Apart from James Bond, I never thought of it as being a genre onto itself. Not until Mum and I started getting into mainland Chinese spy thriller dramas. I grew up in Hong Kong and everything there was just fast-paced. Down to TV dramas. So that’s the pace I’m used to and like. So spy thrillers it is for me. 

I didn’t know I enjoy… I tried to take on a new experience every week with an activity that I have never done or have not done for years. But that faded out. Perhaps I should take it up again. There’s a thought.