the trampoline that doesn't bounce

The difficult part about writing short prose here is I come here with no direction. There is, I admit, an attempt at creating something beautiful though at the same time it can be argued that things beautiful come about naturally, without my trying so hard.

This is what I can tell you. I am enjoying the calmness of the evening. I like the cooler temperature in the city. I like the sound of the streets. Cars still pass by on the bridge. I can see them, here and there, from where I am sitting.

Such is my quick and quiet doodle under a scattered mind. Times like this, I have closed with a phrase I like a lot -- Tender is the night.

in the book of the grotesque

"I feel like killing myself," a colleague said to me as she was setting up the computer for presentation. I asked if she liked teaching, and she said she might consider getting a teaching certificate. We are young, healthy, and single. "We have more options than we think," I said to her.

Then I saw a girl who, a few nights before, had refused to talk at the bar but gave a faint smile every other moment. Today she also didn't talk and merely smiled the tiniest smile with the corners of her mouth. Lips closed.

Then I saw a man who wanted a second wife. "I would keep my first lady while I pursue my second lady," he said to me yesterday as we were walking down the hill. I disagreed with his way of going about it, but he claims that that is what most men do. "It must happen one at a time," I said to him.

For lunch, I had noodles with a friend and a man who felt he wasn't appreciated in the company. He was about to go home when I said to him, "Why don't you join the 6:00 English class?"

At 7:00, he asked me, "What is the topic of the next class?" I told him, and he went for the 7:00 class as well.

At 8:00, I taught my final class of the day. The students decided that I was good at telling stupid jokes. "Most stupid jokes come out at the 8:00 lesson," I said, "because that is when the teacher and the students are most tired."

the wheels on the bus

on the rare occasion that I got an unobstructed front seat on the upper deck.

on the rare occasion that I return to my new home, by bus, for the first time.

if you want

As I was walking around Causeway Bay IKEA looking for a desk lamp for my new home, I came across many young couples and I thought how nice it would be to be shopping for furniture with your other half, debating what kind of bookshelf to get and what colour of lamp would look better for your new apartment. You may be too young in your working career to have enough to buy a home, so you would be renting a home, a small home with a clean washroom, a pantry area, a wide loft-bed for two, wide windows. You would feel so proud to be walking around the furniture shop with her. She has cultivated a very refined taste and she also knows you very well, so whenever you say you like something, she would say, “I know. It’s your taste.” Even better is that she often likes what you like. She may even learn to like it because you like it.

Then the two of you saunter across Victoria Park, carrying your new desk lamp in the plastic bag. Then you decide to have some noodles together before going home. Such is your Sunday.