Sore throat and shopaholic

I am having a sore throat in these few days and it is getting serious today.

I had finsihed reading 'The curious incident of the dog in the night-time', I name it as 'Book of 2005' in Manki's book list. Now I am reading 'Shopaholic ties the knot', which I asked my Daddy to bought it for me. The 'Shopaholic' novels are talking about a silly young woman Rebecca Bloomwood who justified all her crazy shopping behaviour, she experienced a lot of economic crisis but overcame them finally. The books are really silly but very entertaining to read especially when you are in the crowded and noisy MTR compartment.

Gee, my throat is still painful.

Drop dead gorgeous

Last Sunday I discovered an US cosmestic brand - Benefit, was newly launched in Hong Kong.

Benefit is a very stylish and playful brand. Its most popular product line is 'Fake-it'. Literally, once you apply it, you could fake everyone's eye and cover your imperfections, and it will beautifly you subtly. I bought two products of this line - Benetint (a rosy liquid blush to achieve the sexist flush on your cheeks) and lying eyes ( a liquid eye concealer pen to correct your dark eye circle instantly).

There is another gorgeous product line called 'Bathina collection'. The package of those items are with the illustrations of a sexy blondie with curly figures, they just like those the 50-60's pop art pictures, which demonstrate the perfect combination of nostalgia and romance.

Girls, I bet you will like this brand. Boys, you have an alternative choice for all those anniversary gifts to your sweetheart.

A Book of Questions

I found out a little journal called 'A Book of Questions' from one of my drawers. It is not a lovely journel with lots of open questions, you could extend your imagination freely and fill in whatever you like. And, it means that actually you are the author of this book.

There are numbers of interesting questions -
'What things would you do to change the world?'
'If you could be a flower, what would you be? (Draw it)'
'When are the time you feel most like hiding? Where would you like to go?'
'If you could climb a stairway of stars, what would you hope to find at the top?'
'How do you like to go crazy and have fun?'
'what are you most afraid of about growing up?'
'Tell me a great joke.'
'Someone has given you a million dollars, what would you do with it?'

Bill Zimmerman is the one who brought out such questions and put them into this little journal. He was a journalist and a prize winning editor. He is also a questioner and asked himself questions all the time.

When I flipped through the journal, many pages I had written are with the dates mentioned in 1998, that means I have had this book for almost 7 years. Some content looks a bit silly now, but most of them is still my voice in my heart!!

I obsessed to collect memory, all those little memorial journals in Form 5, diaries in my 17 and onwards, cards from my friends, photos, etc. are still stored in a big drawer, stayed with me wherever I live.

Surely, this blog is also another important piece!

In between the papers

After indulging myself in two fairy-tale type novels - 'Daddy long legs' and 'Dear Enemy' in last few weeks, now I am reading another fabulous book 'The curious incident of the dog in the night-time' by Mark Haddon.

I bought it from the book fair with pretty good discount offer.

When I read this book during the first night, a book worm crawled out from the papers, I mean it literally, a tiny brown colour book worm walked on my forearm, I want to keep it as a pet, as I had plenty of books to feed it, but I was scratching my head to find a shelter for it, then I pressed it by my thumb, it became book worm puree.

This book is about the everyday life of Christopher John Francis Boone, a student of special school, a mathematic genius, a 16 years old boy with behavioral problem. He has several captivating ideas, one of them is about 'prime number as a life'.

Christopher feels that prime number is logical but you could only find them by removing all the numbers with pattern, you could never work out a formula to calculate them, even you spent all time of your life.

Is genius always weird?

The Mall

Last Saturday Jeff asked me if there is anyone on earth 'living' in a shopping mall, he reminded me the movie 'The Terminal'.

It is such a good ground to develop a dark humor story, The beginning will be like this - Once upone a time, a 'tribe' inhabit in an air-conditioned mega shopping mall, they were unwilling to leave there, or they deluded themselves there is no outer world. They worked in the mall, and then spent in the mall. They paid the whole life of their effort to exchange what were selling in that mall, and they dined there, they bathed there, they showed off to each others of what they bought from each other shop. On work days, they worked extremely hard in their small shops, on holidays, they visited other shops and fight for the things that were trendy.....

Jesus, it sounds like a place we know damn good, Hong Kong.

仲夏的日子

前晚我立下決心，放工後到了公園跑步，全程大概四十五分鐘。舒暢的感覺延至今天，多爽。

昨晚約了妹妹及大小表妹吃晚飯，這是我們成長後鮮有的四人聚會。我們到Shooter 52慶祝妹妹考試完結及小表妹考進大學。近期家裡發生了些傷心的事，我感受到我們這些「小孩」們能產生了點點凝聚力，能精神上支持家裡的大人，我感受到「家」的重要性。這是我數年前完全沒有想過的。

我們也認為自己有過反叛時期。吸煙喝酒打架胡混不完全等於反叛，而反叛的時候你是不想家，不願跟爸媽說話，不願受支配等。但當我出來工作後，我對家的感覺轉化了，因為我知道無論外面受了多少煎敖，我仍有家去依靠，讓我更有勇氣接受不同的挑戰。

晚飯完結時已是12時了，我們談了四小時，小表妹說話不多，靜靜地聽我們說著出來工作的無奈及無聊。看著她，提醒我讀大學時候的理想是貢獻社會及做有意義的工作。有人對我說，能有這樣的理想的人很幸福，因為他們從來不用憂柴憂米。這跟心理學家Abraham Maslow提出了Hierarchy of human needs 完全貼切，你生活及尊嚴的所有需要得以滿足後才會去追求真善美(Self actualization)。但是，怎樣才是滿足呢？賺多少錢才叫夠呢？

飯後，再跟阿近，寶威妮及泰亞兒(化名)喝東西。喝東西不是因為口喝，而是找個地方閒談，又坐了個多小時。

昨晚，吃了不多，喝了很多，說了很多。真好！

Friday Night Fever

Feel extremely glad that Samatha and I could manage to sneak away from office at 6:30pm. I had a big nice dinner in a Japanese restaurant with Jeff.

Any plan on the weekend? I wish to attend a yoga lesson on Sunday.

I want to take a long holiday and have a leisure trip oversea, don't know when I will have such chance. Yes, I will have an incentive trip to Thailand with the whole company soon, but you know, what I mean is LEISURE TRIP, how could you enjoy leisure if your bosses are around you?!

你的志願

我想各位猶記得小學時中文作文課必定有作過一篇《我的志願》的文章，你還能想起你當時的想當甚麼呢？

我想當時小學老師們讀著全班四十人的志願，可能悶得有點發毛，因為小孩子對職業的認知多數是簡單概括。大家的志願，大都離不開那幾個熱門的「崇高」行業：醫生、律師、護士、工程師、警察、消防員、教師、飛機師、太空人、記者等。自九十年代始頂多是加了資訊科技員。我身邊沒有一個同學兒時志願是廉政公署特派調查員/政客/酒吧老閭/工廠廠長/財富管理顧問/市場研究顧問/賭場經營者/銷售員/公關等，因為不懂寫，怕不合格；亦很少人表示自己的志願是家庭主婦/香港小姐/明星/模特兒等，因為怕不太大體或被鄰座同學發現後笑得臉黃。

我小學三年級所寫的《我的志願》是當老師，原因不是我喜歡，而是我沒有志願(看我多麼沒大志)，所以我以為在文章讚美老師對社會的崇高貢獻，春風化雨作育英才云云，巴結一下老師可獲得高一點分數。

真虛偽。