《我們青春的三言兩語》

他跟她是隔壁班

每當他出現在她的面前

她都愛靜觀他的一舉一動

然後幻想兩個人在一起的畫面

中學時期過了

當然兩個人也沒在一起

是他因為害怕而錯過了

二十年後

他們重遇在他的工作室

成了要好的朋友

她問他有沒有喜歡的人

他愣住了

然後微笑著説：「有。」

「那中學時期呢？」

他凝視著她半分鐘，

然後説：「當然有。」

「我就知道。」她輕鬆地説

「妳生氣過我嗎？」他鼓起勇氣問了

她看著他，什麼都沒説

兩個人默默地捧起面前

        冒著煙的杯子

吹著杯裡的茶

然後轉頭望出窗外

瞻望頭上一片寂靜的銀河

Old habits die easy... Happy 2020!

Recent change in lifestyle arrangements has afforded me more time on hand and prompted me to revisit this abandoned blog. Rereading past events as far back as a decade and a half ago made me cringe at times at some of the silly things I said and strange expressions I used, and laughed out loud at other forgotten snippets of life. The little things that actually matter. I came to realise the true value of journalling and now decide to continue doing it.

Another lesson learned from rereading these gold nuggets is that I wish I could have been more diligent in elaborating events where I had been vague at best and, now worse with the passing of time and loss of unrecorded memories, frustrating.

So here I am again, writing down apparently mundane daily events and thoughts which I now know will turn into sweet barrels of wine as they age in the cellar of time. I look forward to tasting these words in a decade's time, if God allows.

Says who #21

Sunday night... the universe is quiet again. Every working man and woman goes to bed mildly disturbed by the rumination on life's mystery.

Says who #20 《說我說的 第20章》

緣份是生命裡的旋轉門
錯愛是暫時性的夜盲症
感情是兩顆心的進化論
相處是了解後的不可能

My way or the tollway?

I went to CityLink yesterday to pay a toll. The man who served me happened to wear a condescending attitude and would rather give a lecture on tollway jurisdiction than assist customers with relevant information and send them on their way.

The plot thickens when he was to be embarrassed later when his colleague next to him delivered exactly the thing he said earlier couldn't be done.

Now here's where the real twist happens and makes the story well worth telling. As I later thought I was being gracious to downplay his embarrassment by not making a scene or not asking for his name so that I could later address him in the letter of complain he would remember the rest of his sorry life, another thought hit me like a lightning bolt: I shouldn't have at least let the opportunity slip by to commend the lady who assisted me with what I needed to get done.

When we are inconvenienced we feel justified to complain, don't we? But how often do we let people know when they've actually done a good job? Not often enough.

Says who #19

          DR. WILBUR LARCH
Goodnight, you princes of Maine, you
kings of New England.

(The Cider House Rules, 1999)

"Pequeño Soldado" (Little Soldier)

Pequeño soldado, my true north,
You orient my world and set it forth;
Whenever my hope is gone,
I think of you and march on!


Pequeño soldado, my guiding light,
You taught me love and how to fight;
To me you know just what to say,
You never have too little to give away.


Pequeño soldado, my inspiration,
You're spoken of from nation to nation;
Who would've thought that a little boy
Could wield power so lightly from joy?


Pequeño soldado, you will be known
For freeing hearts when you have grown;
For now your skills you will refine
By practising them on freeing mine!

I've since realized that in Spanish most adjectives come after the nouns, so I've actually come across as saying "Soldier Little"... though there was in fact a "Stuart Little"! Ay ay ay... the joys of learning a foreign language.