MY FATHER prepared to join his ship at the Sasebo naval base in Japan. I was enrolled in Kowloon Junior School, and kitted out with several pairs of khaki shorts and white short-sleeved shirts, on to the pockets of which were attached a chocolate-brown and yellow school badge, held in place by press studs. My mother frantically wrote letters to inform her many correspondents of our change of address. During this time, we stayed with a colleague of my father’s in a spacious bungalow at Mount Nicholson halfway up a mountain on Hong Kong Island, which I was told was known as Hong Kong-side, the peninsula upon which we were to live being referred to as Kowloon-side. Indeed, many places were suffixed with -side: I’m going shopping was I go shop-side, beachside (swimming), office-side (work), school-side (school) and so on. A car collected us from the Grand Hotel and drove us over the harbour by way of a vehicular ferry. En route, we saw the Corfu departing on its return journey to Southampton.
