Ailie in Wonderland 3

Although I don’t update here daily, but still got to say…

Will be out of town for a week.

Enjoy the fireworks, demonstrations, and a day off on 1 July the day of re-unification, and for the Americans, your Independence Day on 4 July.

And — viva speech freedom.

The tropical cyclone “Lian Hua” (aka Lotus) passed by Hong Kong some 300km away, bringing us nothing but hot weather.

SisK finally surrendered and bought an air-con for her room. I still insist not to have any in my room (in fact we’ve got one in the living room), and using only my tower fan.

Sure I don’t really like waking up in my own smell of sweat. So I am considering having a morning shower… but how about the routine night shower? Shall I go to bed in my sticky skin? The struggle comes again.

Last weekend I loaded up my fridge with soda water, limette, peppermint leavesand dragon fruit. And got a bottle of herbal tea from the nearby herbs stall to get rid of my “heat”.

Maybe I should go out instead of staying at home and let myself being ’steamed’.  This week will have lots of chances — Coco avant Chanel with JL, chili crab with D, a garden wedding (hope there will be no rain), Wu Bai&China Blue concert with Petra, and ends with R’s BD party.

It sounds much like curing a snake bite with venoms, aka 以毒攻毒…

After work I strolled around streets in Central.  Then I stopped by a watch stall.  The sign said “changing batteries and repair”.

I asked the man, “how about changing the motivation of a quartz watch?”

“Show me the watch.”  The man said.

I took out my plastic London Underground watch and handed it to him.

“Let me change the battery first and see… it would cost two hundred something for the motivation, is that OK?”

The cheap quartz watches lying in front of him cost from $25 to $200.  He took out a new battery and put it in the battery slot, and took a good examination to it.

“OK — well it’s not a very precious thing, but I like the face and the belt,” I said.

“Obviously — otherwise one won’t ask for that. It has some special meaning to you, right?”

“It’s a official London Underground watch.  Gift from a friend.”

“Give me a few days and I’ll do a better check, if it can be repaired without changing the motivation, I will call you for a quote — then it won’t cost you two hundred something.”

I nodded.   So I left my phone number and he issued me a receipt.

————————————

“My silver necklace broke.  Can I have it fixed here?”

“Sure.”

I took it out from my bag.

“OK I will fuse it with a tiny piece of silver.  So it will cost $30.  Is that OK?”

“Cool.”

“But there will be a small lump at that point, and that part will look less shiny.”

“OK.”

“So come back on Saturday and pick it up.”

“Good.”

“So you want to pay when you pick it up?”

“I can pay it now.”  I took out $30 bucks and he wrote me a note, “take your time, I will come back next week.”

In fact the necklace costed me around $200.

At the time when everything costs so little there are people not bother to repair it.   Many a times people told me, “oh madam, it costs more or less the same if you buy a new one.”  But no, I don’t want to buy a new one.  I don’t want to create more waste.  It’s still usable with just a little repair.

A ritual every year.

Some people died

Some people live on

Some people strive for their lives

Some people let money and power make them blind

Some say things should be justified

Some say the incident should not be glorified

Unsolved questions left unsolved

Bloody scenes remain unforgotten

So year by year, people

Sigh, shake their heads, weeped, debated, in silence, in whatever way

Telling themselves

Lest me forget (or, je me souvein)

Thanks CW for introducing the nice song.

Ich weiß nicht zu wem ich gehöre
(Dietrich) 

Ich weiß nicht zu wem ich gehöre
Ich bin doch zu schade für einen allein.
Wenn ich jetzt grad hier Treue schwöre
Wird wieder ein anderer ganz unglücklich sein.

Ja soll denn etwas so schönes nur einem gefallen
Die Sonne, die Sterne gehören doch auch allen.
Ich weiß nicht zu wem ich gehöre
Ich glaub ich gehöre nur mir ganz allein.

Ich weiß nicht zu wem ich gehöre
Ich bin doch zu schade für einen allein.
Wenn ich jetzt grad hier Treue schwöre
Wird wieder ein anderer ganz unglücklich sein.

Ja soll denn etwas so schönes nur einem gefallen
Die Sonne, die Sterne gehören doch auch allen.
Ich weiß nicht zu wem ich gehöre
Ich glaub ich gehöre nur mir ganz allein.