(2003, the year full of tears)

so, winter won't be so cold this year...

there are many things that brightened me up today.

1. i just received my december work schedule. God was being incredibly nice! i didn't ask for it, and He gave me 3 days off from 23rd to 25th, that's Christmas day! so i don't have to spend christmas all alone this year in tuen mun, can go to midnight mass this year, so unexpectedly! didn't think a new junior could even ask for such luxury, i was given it without asking! thank you God, i have 10 days off this coming month (that is 1 day off for every 2 days worked) and 3 days off during the week when mimi's coming from 13-20th, so i can pick her up at the airport...

2. being determined as i was, to study before my driving lesson, i popped into yuen long public library, and guess what treasure i found, that i couldn't have in a thousand years. there it stood on the shelf smiling at me, the christmas album of JOHN RUTTER! exactly 11 years ago when i was invited by the Chaplin family to have my first holiday in Jersey, i found this cd at their home. it was heavenly. i recorded it on tape (i was only 14 at that time) but lost it somehow. but the melody never got out of my brain... so you can imagine how joyful i was! now, it's playing in the cd player, and the memories of my youth suddenly rush back in a massive wave...

3. yuen long was such a countryside to me when i was still living in hong kong island. it was 3 hours away from home! had only come here one time in a photography trip at ho pei reservoir, thinking how exotic and weird this place was! and now, it's 20 minutes away from my new home, and i come here for my driving lesson every week...! i remember one time many many years ago i came here with a friend to photograph the (so-called) most beautiful sunset in hong kong, at "pak nai", i was so eager to look for this restaurant famous for their beef balls, called Winner's. we didn't find it in the end...

i finally found "winner's beef balls" tonight. though i am on my own now, i feel warm. the bowl full of chewy beef balls and noodles filled me up with such warmth and happiness. i was alone but felt the presence of another person. Um. :)

4. i always leave the most important and significant bits at the end... well, someone came up to me to talk for a few moments just before i finished work today, and it made my heart go all palpitations. in other words, it went all funny... lalalala......

night,
betty