Moor Adventure

07/12/2025

We started this year in Hong Kong and as the year draws to a close we are back again.

Hong Kong is one of those places that is a nexus for history, civilisations, technology- this time we cut short our adventures in the Philippines because of typhoons and also visiting family.

The Hong Kong history museum has long been a favourite spot. Their exhibitions reflect and tread a fine line between what is happening socially and politically in the region. The current permanent exhibit is about overseas Chinese. It is always fascinating to see your identity and life path reflected back through the lives of others. My own family migrated from Hong Kong to the UK in the 70’s, back when the UK were more welcoming of migrants.

There is currently also a visiting exhibition about national security on at the museum showing the span of Hong Kong’s history, from being ceded to the British to the colour movement and civil unrest and the subsequent changes in legislation to proscribe the movement and put a stop to the disruption. Then of course all the various advances that Hong Kong and China have made in all the very many different areas from space, to militarisation and environmental sustainability.

The exhibit is fascinating in that the perspective is so dramatically different to much of Western or English language media. China is often portrayed as this malevolent force in Eurocentric and American media and business. For my worldschooling kids in particular, access to this perspective is vital- it presents a different voice, a different way to look at the world, a way to re-orientate; an alternative.

Knowing that there is more than one way to exist is so important because for a very long time the mainstream in our lives and still pervasive Western discourse is that if anyone or anything disrupts the global financial order; the corporatocracy- then they are either criminal and despotic, or dope smokers, verging on the insane.

China is not a panacea by any means, it is notoriously conservative and closed in some respects and has acute trust issues. This exhibition had no translation service available and was largely in Chinese, so while bus lots of Hong Kong school kids were shuttled through with guides clutching their worksheets, George and Alex made do with my rudimentary Chinese and Google translate to piece together the message.

Their take away was that China doesnt want to be f*cked with: a rejection of Trumpist belligerence and Musk conflict fomenting.

15/07/2025

03/06/2025

In a corner of an island where the ravages of tourism have not yet obstructed views of the ocean & the hustle culture is not so evident, where people just do nice things for each other because they have time.

Meet George’s new underwater friends. George’s 8th dive and he has discovered a whole new world, new life and a way to be.

As parents we can hold our kids back because of our fear, our own internal risk analysis and our worry. Don’t or shouldn’t end up being said too often, when really they are choices that children can make for themselves, they have their own internal gauge and they know what they are capable of - if only we adults, in our adult world, insured world- would allow kids to explore, find their own limits.

If the constant messaging is what a child cannot do, they grow up thinking about what they cannot do, rather than what they CAN do. I will tell my boys in quieter peaceable moments they are capable of anything they want to do but in the busy, frenetic in betweens of travel I still find myself telling them don’t do this or stop that - I find it hard to turn this off.

The reality is that you can never turn this off, mothers spend so long thinking for their children in the early years it becomes a habit, a mindset that we continue well past its best before date. When allowed they do amazing things and reveal amazing abilities that we never knew they had.

My eldest child has fear, he has anxiety but he has an uncanny ability to control it, swallow it and push through it. He was apprehensive about diving before he did it but now it’s his thing. The thing his 6yo brother cannot do, that his mother cannot do - because she’s attached to the 6yo. It’s a watery road he walks by himself & he is stronger, more confident & leads the way. At 10yo kids can plummet 12m below the ocean.. if we let them. Bonus- There are also chapters of e-learning, quizzes and a test that go with the junior Padi, if he wants something he’s got to work for.

lighthouse not a helicopter, George is capable and able. If I take a step back, don’t make it about me & about how I feel & let him shine ✨

12/05/2025

Det er besynderligt, at en folkeskolelærer udfører en vigtig samfundsopgave, men når en hjemmeunderviser gør det samme, er det en byrde