Category: Off Topics

大溶爐

香港真的是一個大溶爐。
最近多了時間在灣仔，就更能體驗這一點。這裡有摩天大樓，又有懷舊唐樓。有亮麗的超級市場，亦有充滿人情味，熙來攘往的街市。餐廳食店就更加數之不盡。
而昨晚地鐵所遇到的亦是其中一個例子。
放工繁忙時間衝入地鐵車廂，見到兩位西裝骨骨，應該是剛剛加入勞動大軍的青年，正在高談闊論：
甲：你就好啦，可以出 Cheap ！！
乙：係呀，今次出 Cheap 仲可以帶埋 Gir Fan 去。
甲：咪係，你 Gir Fan 又乜都幫你 Pan 好哂。
乙：又係呀，佢好鍾意 Pan Cheap 咖。不過好煩，最初仲話帶埋屋企隻 Pussy Cat 去添。
甲：乜o野 Pussy Cat 呀？
乙：波斯貓呀。。。
（註：以上英文冇”寸”錯。）
實在聽到耳仔都痕，支持唔住，再行入車廂。
車廂內見到座位上有一位南亞裔青年，腳旁有一部電腦，正在用手提電話教導一位朋友如何下載軟件。這一次耳仔冇痕，因為這位南亞裔青年用的是非常純正的香港廣東話。想起來他一定是灣仔電腦城內一間由南亞裔員工營運的軟件公司。
坐在他身旁的是兩位大學生，一位像是從內地或台灣來的，另一位則應該是北美外籍學生。佢地正在交流北京有什麼好去處。呀，耳朵沒有痕，而且舒服，因為佢地用很動聽的普通話交談。
此情此景，突然有種 “Lost in Translation” 的感覺。回頭再望那兩位香港的才俊及未來，正在熱烈討論應該要講 “叮噹” 還是 “Dollar A Mon” 的時候，我笑了。
香港真的是一個大溶爐。

Hold on

I think it will be called the greatest final ever in history of Wimbledon, in fact it may be one of the greatest final of any sports. Imagine you’re still in the Centre Court after 4 hours of fighting, I think in your mind there would be only a few voices … like “Focus, focus, focus” and “Hold on”.

Center court

You know what, the last thing any players will see before they enter the Centre Court is an inscription above the entryway:

If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same

These two lines are extracted from Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If”; but in fact, the other few verses of the same poem pretty much described the situation of the final:

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”

Be prepared …

I reckon one of the hardest thing to do / achieve in the world, at least for me, is “Prepared to be better”. What I mean is … are you prepared to …

  • be a better son, daughter, brother, sister, mother or father ?
  • be a better boy friend, girl friend, husband or wife ?
  • be a better staff, boss, or coworker ?
  • be a better friend ?
  • …
  • …
  • be a better man, woman ?

Are you prepared ? If not, what you gonna do now or tomorrow ? Before it is too late …

Rumsfeld’s Poem

Stumble upon this web site today and there is a collection of “poetry”of the US ex-DOD chief – D. H. Rumsfeld. It’s really amazing that what one can speak in front of the press … and I remember this lucidly …

“As we know, there are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know there are known unknowns.
That is to say we know there are some things we do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns.
The ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

But somehow Mr. Rumsfeld missed one more thing:

“There are unknown knowns, the ones we don’t know we know …” 😎