為免犯上小氣之嫌，所以等到現在才說出來－－Genghis快要做哥哥了！
上星期剛照過超聲波，醫生有點鬼馬地說，絶對錯不了，一看便知是個男的。最開心的當然是Genghis，很快便有個弟弟跟他玩。
關於這名老二，其實還有很多話想說，不過大肚婆要多休息，還是改天再寫罷！
遲到總好過無到，應承了師奶讀與吃應戰擂台，當然不可食言。雖然明知贏不了孜媽，所以唯有以多件數取勝。
（一）最新──純棉連身裙
什麼時候買的？三星期前
衣服類型？連身裙
價錢？US$5.00
牌子(如有)？H&M
對衣服的評語？減價貨，款式雖然不怎麼樣，但純棉質料好洗好著，而且可作裙子或用來襯leggings，最適合三藩市忽冷忽熱的夏天。
（二）最愛──吊帶黑白圖案花裙
什麼時候買的？去年夏天
衣服類型？吊帶花裙
價錢？購自Outlet店，也是US$5.00
牌子(如有)？Rue 21（雖然是法文名字，但其實是美國牌子）
對衣服的評語？說得上最愛，當然深得我心！我愛它的剪裁和質料（純棉）都不錯，而且圖案設計非常大體，不似一般花裙的casual。
（三）最抵──斗篷大衣
什麼時候買的？大約三四年前
衣服類型？斗篷大衣
價錢？無錯，這件大衣同樣是US$5.00！
牌子(如有)？Dan Millstein – New York | Paris──老實說，我之前完全沒有聽過這牌子；五蚊貨仔，那還理會是甚麼牌子呢？
對衣服的評語？這件大衣是我在加州小鎮一家二手店買的，我實在很喜歡它的設計，而同手工也相當不錯，相信是六七十年代的出品，配貼身衣裙或窄身褲最好看。大衣上沒有註明質料，我猜大概是混羊毛之類的毛絨，挺保暖的啊！
我跟我家小妹感情非常要好，但彼此性格可算各走極端，詳情有機會再談。今天想說的是小妹綱誌一篇文章，完全是她性格寫照，也反胦了現下港女的種種。
由於實在太好笑，經小妹同意，我在此原文照錄，供諸同好。
托朋友的福，參加了她「生日週」裡眾多飯局派對之一。
用最簡單的方法去形容這飯局，就是 dinner for six。出席人數不是重點，所持態度才是。首先男女人數均等，坐位安排指定男女男女，害得我不能和壽星女認真談心誠意賀壽。還有，男的全是洋人，女的香港同胞（內心在爭扎應否用港女這字眼）。明眼人一看，就知是甚麼一回事吧。
不要緊，我對自己說，我是來戥朋友高興的。而基於工作關係，吹水是難不到我的。於是便開始和身旁兩位男士閒聊。話題不知怎的扯到「香港回歸後的情況」，英國男士對於英國曾經統治香港十分驕傲，並說他的朋友都告訴他回歸後，香港實在一落千丈。一向並不愛港愛國的我，也委實不能對此苟同。英國人於是要求我舉例，我說了一些進步了，亦說了那些退步了的事情。他不甘心，但又沒法提出具體事情反駁。就這樣，我真的火都來了。於是我正眼看著他，問：「請問你來了香港多久？」
「三年。」
「同我收聲！」
坐在我對面的德國人也忍不住哈哈大笑起來。
接著，惟有談些風花說月，令氣氛輕鬆點。說著說著，談到自己剛剛從法國玩樂回來。英國人便問我是否懂法文，我答 oui。他竟然說，你不能只說一個字便代表懂得法文呢。哈哈，於是我以法文跟他說，我的法文比您的普通話好。（他懂得一點普通話，但和很多洋人一樣，犯了不分聲調的怪病，只有聰明人才能明白他說甚麼。）聽罷他只好說，其實自己完全不諳法語，對面的德國人便充當翻譯，並加多句，which I think is probably true。
餘下的晚上，其實還有一兩段如此這般的對話，不過不提也罷。（不過如果你對我好，下次見面時或許我會告訴你。）
然而，雖然窒到那麼應棍，心裡還是不高興。原來抱這種大英主義（大白人主義？），並且自以為是到這境地的還大有人在。而，我為甚麼還要坐在這呢。
歸根究底，那位英國紳士一向遇到的香港美女，都是又天真又傻的典型，對著洋男會以高八度聲線說英語，配以大量嘻笑，小量內涵應對。再加上，這樣的場合和配搭，我又的確不能怪他的。
最後要向我親愛的壽星女說，不要介懷，其實那晚我很開心，因為很久沒有寸人寸得咁應咁放肆了。That bunch actually made my day ;p
最最後還要補充，我親愛的壽星女也算是半推半就，被人用她的生日作藉口之下，才不好意思不參與是次飯局的。鄭重聲明，她和我，與當晚其他飲食男女，絕對不是同一纇型的。
For the nostalgic photographers:
Photojojo alerted us to World Pinhole Camera Day on Sunday (April 26) and also to the extravagant pinhole cameras for free download from Corbis. They come as a pdf that you cut out and assemble yourself — warning, these are the most complicated instructions we’ve seen in a while, but they look cool! All the designs are created by Fwis, a small design firm based in New York. (via RESOLVE)
Share your work with me if you indeed made a pinhole camera of your own!
對也好，不對也好，傳統智慧自有它美麗之處，但傳統卻並不盡然。
I’d like to think of myself as creative, and so I don’t necessarily like to follow convention. I know it must be hard for some of my childhood friends to think of me as being very creative, because when I was a kid, I was the kind of quiet, obedient girl who always follows the rules. But that was just my “cover.” Deep down, I’ve always known that I have the urge to be different. This was most obvious in my writing assignments at school.
Since I was the obedient type at school, my teachers liked to call upon me when they needed someone to answer a question. They knew they could count on me. During composition class, my teachers would ask me to tell the class what I would write about for a certain topic. This had been both a challenge and a satisfaction for me. I would secretly come up with 2 answers – a public answer to satisfy the class’ need, and a private answer to use in my assignment.
So why did I need 2 answers? Because I knew that the public answer would usually be copied by some of my classmates. And I wanted to be different. I didn’t want my assignments to look like any of my classmates’. My challenge was to think of an okay answer for the class (you see, if I kept handing out substandard answers, I’d eventually lose my credibility as a “good” student), and then a better answer for my own assignments in order to maintain my grades, and, more importantly, satisfaction of being different.
This dirty little secret of mine went on for a few years. As I got into secondary school (for my American friends, secondary school in Hong Kong is the equivalent of middle & high school in the U.S.), I came clean. I felt there was no need to hide my appetite for the unconventional anymore, and that it was okay if I’m not the typical, obedient student that everyone believed I was. Not that I turned into a rebel, but I finally came to terms with myself. I did not need to use these tricks in my composition class to show that I was different.
But how our minds work! As my liking for the conventional lessened, my respect for conventional wisdom grew stronger. I started to appreciate seemingly unscientific remedies that my mom told me about. All of a sudden, bathing in rock sugar solution to soothe itchy skin didn’t seem so ridiculous any more. Now, I even make it a habit to ask my mom for conventional wisdom if I need help in certain things.
Becoming a parent probably prompted at least some of this. I hope when my son gets older, I would be able to pass onto him some conventional wisdom that I learned from my mom.
其實想寫這題目已有一段時間，只是一直未有下筆。今天給周游一篇文章挑起我的根，於是馬上寫下這篇。
事緣剛認識Mr. G.不久，有一位雜誌的同事在學催眠，當時的組長說：「不如你們幾個一起給他催眠，看看到底是甚麼一回事，然後寫篇故事來交稿吧！」
我經已忘了是誰負責撰稿（總之不是我）。那時因為好奇，也因為柴娃娃，所以便參與了我人生唯一一次的催眠實驗。
說是催眼，其實我說比較像冥想。過程是這樣的：首先我們大伙人分別在影樓的不同角落坐下，負責催眠的同事要我們放鬆，然後他慢慢的帶領我們進入沉思狀態（我們全程都是清醒的），再代入幾個不同的情景，內容大致如下（有興趣的話，可當遊戲來玩一下！）：
請用心想想，你過往的多個前生中，印象最深刻的是哪一生？
首先，我是並不相信有前世今生的，但當時我只當那是作文，所以便讓自己夢遊一下。結果我第一時間想到我是三四十年代上海一位富家女，也是中國第一位女飛機司（說錯了不要見怪，我只是在胡思亂想，並沒有深究歴史，當然沒有考究時代與劇情是否刎合了）。父母反對我跟意中人來往，我一怒之下便決定自己去「游飛機河」，後來飛機失事，便命送黃泉了。
請你回到你今生剛出生的一刻，你父母對你說出他們對你的期望。他們說了甚麼？
我爸說：「愛。要學會愛。」
我媽說：「開心，做人最緊要開心！」
現在，你走到一個寧静的樹林，碰見你的守護天使。他／她是誰？
Mr. G.
你要告訴守護天使一件你認為最重要的事情，哪是甚麼？
我說：「先坐下來聊聊吧！不用急，我們還有一輩子！」
哈哈哈，寫完也覺得肉麻得要緊，希望沒有把你嚇退吧！
It’s almost silly how happy I am about what I did at lunch today.
I was at Borders during my lunch break, and, as usual, I headed to the bargain section first. Then, I saw the 6th edition of Norton Anthology of American Literature on sale – at $3.99 per volume! I happily grabbed 3 volumes (C, D & E) – I wasn’t too much of a fan of early American literature and so I didn’t get Volumes A & B – and went to get lunch.
When I was at college, I had Volumes 1 & 2 of this anthology, which I think were the 1st or 2nd edition. At the time, all of us English majors called them “pillows,” since they resembled the traditional Chinese hard pillows, which were usually made of wood or ceramic, as far as I know. Each one of them is like 2 inches thick, and is a collection of writings from various American writers from different periods. We had to carry those around a lot, and it was quite an inconvenience because of its weigh.
A few years ago, the publisher decided to print volumes that are more portable* (thank god!) and launched the sixth edition of the anthology in volumes A – E. I haven’t seen them before, since obviously I’ve been out of school for too long to be looking for textbooks for myself. But now that I see them on such big sale, I couldn’t help but had to buy them. You see, each volume has selection of works by at least 20 writers. Some of the works are just 3 to 5 poems of one writer, but some are an entire book of fiction. So for $3.99, I get the equivalent of 10 to 20 books! It’s not a deal, it’s a steal! This should be more than enough reading materials for me for the next few months.
Oh, and did I mention lunch? I went to this fancy sandwich place (wichcraft, which happens to be one of my favorite lunch places here) after my book extravaganza and got myself a delish onion frittata, roasted tomato, and cheddar on ciabatta roll sandwich for less than $7 – their breakfast sandwich that are served all day long are the best kept secret. I’m all for cheap, yummy food.
It’s a happy, happy Friday for me!
*Note: Although each book is well over 1,000 pages, it’s still easy to carry around because they use very light weigh paper. So compare to the 2000+ pages volumes that I was using in college, this is truly very portable. Each book is maybe the same weigh as one or two regular paperback.
Last night
When I was on the train
Going through the Port of Oakland
I saw numerous gigantic cranes
Sitting along the coastline
Against the orange setting sun
And they reminded me of Tsing Yi
My ear started to hurt
My head started aching
My vision blurred a little
For a moment
I thought I was on the Airport Express
Zooming to Hong Kong Station
Thinking I was going home
Wait
I WAS going home
Just a different home
本來打算上星期貼這篇文報導的，奈何自己又大頭蝦給忘了 
～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～
美國是全球最富庶國家之一，但不見得便沒有社會問題。其中一項沒有太多人關注的是青少年露宿問題。原來這富裕的國家每天都有一百三十多萬青少年要以街為家。不要以為這些露宿青少年都是不慕正業或懶惰頑劣，事實上他們大部份都是逼不得已－－生長於問題家庭，自少便從一個foster home轉到另一個foster home，從小便得不到應有的關懷及愛護；到了十八歲，變成超齡兒童，不再受foster care system綣顧，一時間失去所有政府緩助，又沒有親友投靠，更沒甚麼專門知識或求生技能，真真正正的無親無顧，走投無路，無計可施，唯有以街頭為家，過一天便一天。
其中一個例子是這位二十二歲的少女，雖然每天露宿街頭，但最後成功完成大學課程，現己找到工作及小小公寓，正式踏上自力更生的新階段。
就算你不是居住美國，也可看看我寫的這篇相關文章及Do 1 Thing網站，了解一下强大國家的糖衣背後，也有其糜爛的一面。
I should have posted this last Friday, but then I forgot
Anyway, I think this is a really cool project and deserves a lot of attention. Although, Valentine’s Day has come & gone, you can still help homeless youth through this initiative any time in the year. Check out the article below & the Do1Thing website to see how you can help.
Do1Thing photographers help millions of teens on Valentine’s Day
*Administrative note: From now on, I’ll start posting some of the articles from RESOLVE – my “work” blog – especially those that I wrote or found particularly interesting.
I say u say he says she says