Tu es ma came. You are my drug.

I like Carla Bruni. But, like a lot of people, I was so shocked and disappointed when I learned about her marriage to Sarkozy.
   
Luckily she didn't give up on singing and song-writing. And this song is my song of the moment. Tu es ma came. I'm totally addicted.

Unexpected 想不到

That night, as usual, he said he couldn't meet up with me. But somehow, I had a bizarre feeling that I would see him.

  

My friend's sister and brother-in-law were coming back to Hong Kong and we have arranged to meet up after their dinner. Since they're going to have dinner in Wan Chai, so I suggested to go to The Pawn. It wasn't opened yet when they were last here.

   

After a few rounds of drinks, my friend's sister was whinging that the place is too "gwai lo" and wanted to go to a local bar. Well the few of us who are local actually found it difficult. Is there really a local bar in Wan Chai? We only know about the so-called "gwai lo" places like The Pawn, 1/5. Or, the girlie bars or pick up joints along Lockhart Road and Jaffe Road... At this point, the only white guy among us - the brother-in-law said, "Oh last time S brought us to a local bar - where people play dice games. It's not far from here. I'll show you."

   

Well, what could we say? So we headed towards Jaffe Road even though we wondered where we're going... Obviously, the mysterious local bar was not to be found. We were near Joe Banana's when we finally gave up. There were two bars upstairs and we just thought we should give it a go. The first one had a live band but it was way too loud to have any conversation there. Once we stepped into the other bar... the words "meat market" popped up. Seeing as none of us had any idea where else to go, we decided to have a drink there.

   

As we walked towards the bar, time seemed to stand still.

    

He was there.

    

I sent a text to him while my friends were ordering. My hands were shaking uncontrollably.

    

He was with a guy and a girl. Was that his girl friend? Or catch of the day? Honestly, I didn't want to know.

     

He didn't seem to have seen me but his male friend was staring at me.

    

In the end my friend saw him too and asked if I wanted them to beat him up. I of course said no, thank you. Not that I wanted to defend him. It's just that I'm a nobody. Who am I to have a say in this? And I've known that for too long...

    

I wasn't too worked up that night. But still I cried after I got home. 

     

那天晚上，一如以往，他說不能和我見面。可是不知怎的，我有種莫名其妙的預感，覺得會碰到他。

   
好朋友C的妹妹及妹夫從英國回來，約好了晚飯後見。得知他們在灣仔吃飯，我便提議到 The Pawn。上次他們回來時，好像還未開幕。
   
酒過三巡，妹妹說這兒太洋化了，建議找間港式酒吧繼續飲。這下可考起我們這班港燦了。在灣仔，較為 up market 的酒吧都很「洋化」，如 The Pawn、1/5 等。而其餘的，就是洛克道、謝斐道一帶的 girlie bars 或 pick up joints。真的不知可以帶他們到哪兒去。怎料身為老外的妹夫卻在此時說：「上次 S 君帶我去了一間 local bar，有人玩骰盅那種呢！就在附近，我帶你們去。」
   
就這樣，我們一行六人便向謝斐道方向走，縱然大家都滿腹狐疑 ... ... 最後，當然找不到傳聞中的 local bar。行至 Joe Banana's，我們終於放棄，看到樓上也有兩間酒吧，便走上去看個究竟。首先進的一間有 live band，但實在太噪了。下層的一間 ... ... 一行進便有一股濃烈的 meat market 氣息湧上來，很有當年 Fenwick 的風格！但既然一場來到，也不妨喝一杯才走吧。就在行往酒吧的途中，時間彷彿停頓了。
  
他，在那兒。
  
就在朋友 order 啤酒時，我發短訊給他。我的手抖得很厲害。
 
他和一男一女一起。那是他的女朋友？還是 catch of the day 呢？說實的，我不想知道。
  
後來朋友 C 都看到他了。她問我要不要替我打他出一口氣。我當然說不。並不是我那麼維護他，只是，我算是老幾呢？憑甚麼呢？
  
那晚回到家，並沒有太激動，但還是哭了。

Baking

I've been meaning to pick up baking for a while now.
 
Finally I made these muffins today.
  
I thought about making a cake for someone's birthday last week. But then I was just so swamped with my freelance stuff the weekend and I had to give up baking once again.   
  
Maybe it's really not meant for him.
 
Yesterday I managed to find an easy enough recipe for these apple muffins. The only problem was I couldn't find buttermilk in supermarkets.
  
"Dear Chef, Question - can I replace buttermilk with milk?"
  
"Probably yogurt, not milk."
  
In the end my substitute for buttermilk was 1 tablespoon of lemon juice added to the milk. It worked.
  
But I still couldn't share these with him. He's busy, as usual.
  
Well, doesn't matter. I'm sure my parents would love to have my homemade goodies. 

A note

I returned home one day to find my dad has left me a note.
  
And suddenly it dawned on me that my father seldom writes in Chinese. Although he never had the chance to receive proper education (he studied in a primary school for one or two years only), he learned his English while working at an American firm. And since then, English has been his default written language.
  
I guess this, amongst other things, has made our family kind of "open" to foreign languages. While my parents were not the kind who speak to us in (bad) English and had never forced us to pointlessly memorize new words, we don't dislike English.
 
We watched English TV programmes and listened to English songs not because our parents wanted us to learn the language but simply because we enjoyed them. Of course that did help us learn new words and expressions but it's never forced and I think that's very important in second language learning.
 
I notice from my nephew and my friends' kids that nowadays children do have a tendency to "reject" English. My nephew hates it when I switch to an English TV channel. And he would always opt for the Cantonese dubbed version of his favourite Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks animations. Come dictation time, oh dear... This never happened to us.
 
I'm getting old, whinging too much haha ...
 
The society still acknowledge that English is important - or should I say getting good grades in English is very important. And so students simply go to a tutorial class to learn from those celebrity tutors all the tips and techniques to excel in public exams...

想得遠了

今天看完黃偉文於蘋果日報的專欄，突然感慨良多。讀到這一小段，眼淚差點就湧出來了。

「忽然明白：就算今天這個人亂着衫令你束手無策，只因在那年那月那日，他/她在適當的時候穿對了一件你喜歡的衫走進你生命裏……像你需要的時候那首催淚的歌來襲。

只要對一次，已刻骨銘心。」

只是一件很普通的白色長袖Tee。在那風和日麗的下午，人來人往的巴黎街頭，那個笑容，那件白Tee ... ...

重逢已是四年後的一個晚上，我在你家門口等了兩個小時，差點以為老遠乘飛機來到被放飛機，你便從電梯出來，頭髮有點蓬鬆，神情有點憔悴。我並沒有注意到你著的是甚麼衣服，只留意到那鮮艷紅色messenger bag，很襯你。

之後發生了很多事。最後，我們還是不能一起。

想得遠了 ... ...

就這樣，我又一次哭了。

Mis(s)Adventure 不定期連載之四： Why are you speaking in Mandarin?

承上文，本來小女子以為各方友好會熱烈提供史上最屎搭訕例子，點知門庭冷落。

碰啱最近又有不識死之徒出現，唯有再次將自己的慘痛經歷獻世，希望能收拋磚引玉之效。

某個晚上約了朋友喝東西，我早到，於是邊飲邊等。不久，發現有人站在我身旁的茶几上，並對著我說話。

他：##%^#@

我：吓？

他：##%^#@

噢，原來是講國語的白人... ... 他想我讓開，好讓他可以行過，去廁所。這麼爛的藉口，真虧他想得出，做得到。

不久，他又回來，原來他的朋友們就坐在我後面。他繼續跟我講那五音不全的國語。

他：##%^#@

我：吓？

他：##%^#@

我：Why are you speaking in Mandarin? Can you speak Cantonese?

他：er, no... ##%^#@##%^#@##%^#@ （這是他的國語，別誤會是粗口）

嘩，又煩又低能又嘈又口齒不清（又唔靚仔，哈哈），於是我便轉過面，費事理他。點知他竟然毅力無比，繼續口水多過茶地練習他的國語。我實在忍無可忍，送了他一個「殊」。

他：Did you just shush me ?

我：Yeah

他：You can't shush me !

我：I just did.

他：##%^#@ （依然是他的國語，要講粗口的應該是我）

終於他放棄了，並走到另一班朋友處。耳根清靜，thank god.

#*@#%^%&##@ （這當然是我心裡的說話）

Mis(s)Adventure 不定期連載之三： What have I done to deserve this?

某日下午相約朋友在上環見面。我早到了，於是便先去買杯咖啡。一踏入咖啡店，便見到那站在櫃位前等候他 order 的食物的洋漢把我上下打量，然後還附加淫邪笑容一個。我心想，帶著黑超的是我，代表我可以肆無忌憚望你而不讓你知道，not vice versa，低能。然後...

我向服務員 order：一杯 iced latte，唔該。
他向我搭訕：噢，你知唔知今日星期五，如果你要 iced latte，我就有買一送一㗎？
我：（在墨鏡後反一下眼）哦
他：你都有九折㗎。
我：（再反眼）哦。唔該一個 croissant 吖。
他：噢弊，佢唔啋我。Total rejection...
我：（除了反眼，仲可以點？）
他：（還不識死）咦，你向呢頭返工㗎？
我：No
他：住喺附近？
我：No
他：嚟呢頭 shopping？
我：（大佬，上環 shop 咩 ping 呀。買海參定魚翅呀。不過費事再糾纏）Yeah

幸好這時我的咖啡已經到了，錢亦付過，可以閃開。The moral of the story - 下次反應要快啲，遇到騎呢人士，要即刻扮唔識佢的語言。佢講英文，你便講廣東話；佢講廣東話，你便講國語；如此類推。最好就係你轉個頭就同隔離嘅人講佢講的語言，包佢即時明晒你嘅意思。這是繼「做乜你頭先唔啋我個鬼佬朋友呀？你怕佢多毛呀？」之後，最騎呢的 pick up line。如果你有更經典的，歡迎與大家分享。