Due to Foreseen Circumstances

This true story is for anyone whose plans have veered alarmingly off-piste. It will make you laugh. It might also make you cry. Jennifer Gardner quickly discovers that going to Hong Kong to live a beautiful and rich new expatriate life is - as the Chinese proverb says - like looking for ivory in a dog's mouth. Her new home, unlike those of her favourite authors, is not Tuscany or Provence. Neither is it toddler-free. She should have seen it coming, really. Enduring extreme heat, isolation and strange expatriates turns out as easy as a snake trying to swallow an elephant. Jen's husband has work problems and the local food, throngs and hospital all intimidate. Jen's cheery resolve, and her health, waver. Then disasters strike. But with them come surprises. Happiness - and hope - hide everywhere. Who can resist a Chinese opera-loving taxi driver with eyebrows like blackbird's wings, or dreams that really happen, or an oasis delivered to one's door? Or befriending a wise and magisterial woman who can kill a rat with one stamp of her foot? This inspiring tale celebrates the treasures awaiting us in life's toughest seasons. Introduction: Is this story really true? The answer is yes, at least 98%. I have changed the names and some details of the characters to avoid causing embarrassment, but I have recounted actual conversations and events using my journals of the time. The slightly hapless and quite naive Jen Gardner is me, and my older (and oh so much wiser) self looks back at what she got up to and laughs, cries, cringes. Please accept my apologies in advance. She is not completely flaky. Honest. So much happens in this story; it was such a rich, complicated and confusing time, with crazy, roaring Hong Kong the main eccentric character. However, the quiet heart issues - the parenting exasperations, the grief and loss, the search for purpose, and the fluctuations of faith - could happen to anyone, anywhere. And so, I am sure, can the same humour, and the same hope, and the same mystery. I hope this story casts new light on all the wonder hiding in your life. Katherine Barker