濯足日只何以濯足嗎？

Interfaith Celebration of Peace 2011

I like the "Food/Food/and More".

拜年

一家四口來拜年，探望一缸四魚。

祝大家年年有餘，魚樂無窮！

收爐的喜悅

可以選擇休息的人有福了。

祝願仍要大龍鳳的好友新年不會太疲累。

慶生

獸醫牛一，獸醫太太邀約我們一起慶祝，一行九人去了森林三樓的一間印度餐廳。

我喝了兩支青島，朋友點菜時不忘替我向侍應說：extra mild, please，於是一人叫一味，我高高興興地食了九款咖哩菜式。

我總說，老婆真係好，安排細心又週到，我都要個好老婆。^_^

外國朋友大多不介意公開自己的年齡，三十、六十...統統大大聲慶祝，唔，為什麼本地朋友圈子視年齡為秘密？

Christmas Eve

聖誕節，不知不覺要來了。

雖然已參加了Department的Christmas party，但那類party嘛，可以跟聖誕無關。

仍要感謝我們的Head花了五萬多元讓我們有快樂的一餐。

Christmas Eve，為什麼中文會是平安夜？生產前夕，豈會平安？！

祝大家聖誕快樂！

聖誕樹

人生第一次幫聖誕樹扮靚靚，多得丹麥領事送我們一室葉香。

從Senior volunteer口中得知聖誕樹的行情，她在IKEA買了一株較為細小的，四百多元，北歐店子兼做回收，在指定期間把樹送回(應是明年一月的首兩星期)，回贈你一百大元。她又說賣聖誕樹應該是香港I記的特色，在北歐沒有。

我問歐美的朋友如何處理節日後的聖誕節，他們有的說recycle，有的說當柴燒。

往花墟一趟，五至六尺高的聖誕樹要八百多元，還是幫襯I記吧。

感恩節晚餐

有火雞，有紅酒，有南瓜批，還有很多很多......

有剛榮升外祖父母的長袍老師夫婦，一講阿B他們就笑得很滿足，又研究BB可以怎樣稱呼他們，又一個笑C的晚上。

我提議孫女叫長袍老師作Laudate。

謝謝邀請！

獨處‧生日前半部

Tuen Mun Representative

New Year's Eve party at AH.

I was the only local student present (ok, I didn't count that local internation student). We were calling out friends to do something, dancing or singing or whatever you liked. When it's my turn, I heard Iosefa call out "Tuen Mun".

I must say I loved him for that. If he had called out Hong Kong, I would have left.

I didn't, and I don't represent HK. I'm a Tuen Mun gal.

Many years ago, before my dear teacher Dr Lee left HK for France, we had this little conversation in Central:

Dr Lee: HK is so good. Who would want to leave?
Me: I don't live here. I live in Tuen Mun.

I don't belong to that glittering HK with Gucci, LV shops. I live at the margin.

Dinner with Joyce

The bar opposite to our communal long table. See the lights.


Fascinated by the lights again.


Dessert menu. Dessert is called Happy Ending. A very apt name.

Two women met in the airport. They decided to go for dinner, and the food should be something more interesting since it's 1 Jan 2010. So off they went to Causeway Bay and had a wonderful meal in this restaurant where you could order your dishes in three different portions: small, medium or large.

Happy New Year

I'm bringing a bottle of red wine to AH, expecting a wonderful evening.

Happy new year, my dear friends!

(Picture taken at AH on 31 Dec 2009.)

What Christmas means to me

There was the nativity play. The school had rigged up a larger platform temporarily for the Christmas season. There were Christmas flowers bordering the platform and pupils were waiting impatiently for the party to start. They would get candies, snacks and of course there would be the exchange of gifts. Each year, a few pupils were chosen to play the roles of Mary, Joseph, the Three Wise Men and some shepherds. Usually, more boys got chosen. And usually, someone beautiful would don the costume and become Mary, looking at a baby doll with as much love as possible, making believe that she’s the mother of the baby Jesus.

I never got chosen, not as Mary, not as a shepherd, not even as a sheep.

The manger scene was perfect. All the characters were wearing make-up. The Three Wise Men had beard painted on their face. Their moms had to rub really hard to get it off afterwards. It’s fun to see little children dressing like adults, or so thought the adults. Mary looked a bit bored, or she just had held that calm and motherly expression for too long; Joseph was uncomfortable to be so near to a female being, and this was supposedly his wife with their new-born son, who unlike other babies, remained quiet and immobile in his wooden-box-turned cot. Jesus was there, a plastic doll the size of a real baby, but all the attention was on what’s around him. We couldn’t get sight of him anyway because he’s buried too deep in his little bed. Mary’s blue eye-shadow was making her feel like a real grown-up, just like the last beauty queen she saw on TV; and Joseph’s black eye-shadow made him look like a school bully victim.

Things looked perfect from a distance. The birth of Jesus Christ our savior fixed in a small hall in a primary school in a town called Tuen Mun, which is part of HK but isn’t really the HK you imagine. Jesus was in our midst, surrounded by children who were trying their best to do their part. The spot light was on these little actors and actress. Maybe Jesus wouldn’t mind being neglected. Maybe he wouldn’t mind being a plastic blue-eyed baby doll.

I never got chosen. I still don’t. I just looked on. Did Jesus feel lonely as well? Were his parents sad because they were unable to provide him with a more decent, cleaner birth place?

Maybe Jesus also doesn’t got chosen that much. Does he mind? We are still looking at things surrounding his birth: the tall and glittering Christmas tree, both expensive and cheap presents wrapped in glitzy paper that get thrown away once Boxing Day arrives. Maybe Jesus doesn’t mind; maybe he does. But anyway, Emmanuel, God is with us, and wish us a merry Christmas.

To listen to the Christmas programme with the above story as part of it, pls click here.

盂蘭節

踏入農曆七月，屋邨開放了數個供人燒衣的地方，回家路經這些拜祭的地方，空氣傳來陣陣燃點蠟燭的氣味，眼前是火光，竟喚起往日中秋節大家一起玩火煲蠟的回憶。

媽媽多年前也是燒衣的一分子。我記得一個大紙袋，內裡有我們接的金銀衣紙，祭品都是簡單的食品、香燭等，不及現在的多元。昨天我見到有人獻上數罐可樂，媽媽又提及現在燒衣會燒高清電視，我笑說那麼也要燒發電廠和電視台了。

媽媽已經多年沒有作這些盂蘭節相關的拜祭，這些年來，她也沒有在七月提醒我們不要夜歸。以往我們總趕著在零晨十二點前回到家中，或許認為十二點是猛鬼的鐘頭吧。

以往燒衣的都是婦女，今年我見到有一家大小像掃墓般拜些甚麼，也有年輕人帶著那大紙袋到指定的燒衣地點預備。我總覺得這些舉動是一代傳一代，也許是求心安理得，也許是人做我做。在我的家中，這個傳統已經沒有人接手了，反正我們從來到這個都不大認真。