The power of everyday habits.

Some people love exploring new places, they would rather risk something that keep their everyday the same, but for me, I love making my places mine. Although I am an introvert in every possible way, I enjoy being recognised in my favourite restaurants and cafes. Even a simple thing like going to supermarket get so much easier when I go to my usual one – I know where to find things I need and I have the same route inside to visit all the alleys with my favourite products. I would always shop clothes in the same shopping mall where I know how to get to my usual clothes stores.

I am strongly controlled by my habits and even more so now when I’m in Hong Kong – foreign land for me.

When I was visiting Hong Kong first, I would always stay in Excelsior Hotel in Causeway Bay – a pretty historic landmark apparently, which is soon to be closed and transformed into office space. First few times I would be very confused and get lost pretty much all the time. You must know that Causeway Bay is one of the most crowded places in Hong Kong and it really is easy to lost your way. When I got used to the area, I would never really want to go further out, as it would mean unknown land and a risk of not knowing my way back.

Then, I moved to Hong Kong for real and started living in Sham Shui Po, which I mentioned already before (see here) and I slowly settled down here. Now I have my favourite grocery shops, where I always buy the same things. We eat in one cha chan teng, where I’m known for ordering the same dish of Eggplant rice and for being “girlfriend” of one guy working there – or so he says – I bet he has a lot of “girlfriends”. We also have our family there – my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and the family eatery down our building. Needless to say, the area is the most convenient place ever – we have access to metro, buses, minibuses, there are shops, supermarkets, restaurants everywhere and there is almost no need to leave the area to get what you need. There are also many cafes, like Coffee Matters and art spaces – just last weekend we went for ceramics workshop! Just a short metro trip away, I can shop for fresh coffee beans and equipment. Oh, and my Pilates class is just a walk away too.

And now, we might move to a place that is less accessible and less interesting than that. A block of flats located on a hill, like a castle, that might look convenient on the map but in reality requires you to change buses and metro lines few times before arriving to civilisation. Of course, there are no coffee shops to look for a coffee fix for and to buy coffee beans I would have to make it a day trip to the city.

Why would we move there? The apartment would be three or four times bigger, the view from the windows would be nice, it would have parking spot for P. and well, we would pay tiny rent only. Considering we might or might not want to make our family bigger in the future, as well as we would want to have some space for our friends or family to visit us in Hong Kong, it would be nice to live there.

Even though my whole life I used to move to new places, change schools and change environments, I do not like it and I am very worried about this move. What would you do in my place? Is it worth staying in our tiny apartment just because of the convenient area? Is it time to move on and start new habits?