paraphernalia #006

remains of firecrackers_______spot the mistake
must have been in screensaver mode this morning while taking the fotos...


2002年的农历新年。
和 m.y 特地去了澳门一趟。去放烟火。

长那么大还是第一次玩。当然不会错过放一串长长的鞭炮的机会。
他们说，放的鞭炮越长，带来的好运和福气就越高。
拜托，关运气什么事。是有钱没地方花的人借机会炫耀财富吧。
那么长长长长长长长长长长长长长的一长串炮竹
九转十八弯地盘在特别设置来燃放炮竹的架子上
没完没了地烧个不停。简直闷死人。
m.y 打了个哈欠。喂，等烧得差不多了再叫醒我吧。

要知道，炮竹劈劈啪啪地燃烧的过程是没有高潮起伏的
只是烧到最后那刻，砰的一声的超级大爆破挺过瘾的。
有点像长篇电视连续剧那样，看开场和结尾就差不多了。

我们不是有钱人。只买了小小一串。
然后跟着大家排队，等负责放鞭炮的师傅帮我们弄。
挂到架子上去，连地板都够不着。盘绕的工夫都省了。
看师傅把火一点______
劈劈啪啪劈劈啪啪劈劈啪啪劈劈啪啪... ...砰 !
搞定。short and sweet。

在澳门并不是随便哪里都可以燃放烟火的。
好像是过年的时候，就会划定好特区让大家聚集在一起玩。
特区里面另外还划分区块来玩不同的烟火。

这样做应该是基于安全的考量吧。
但是，其实所有的人聚到一处同时做这个事情，一点也不安全。

放烟花的时候。
一边点火一边掩耳朵点完逃难一般地跳开的同时还要闪避旁人和他们的烟火
简直像是在战场一样。吓死人。
最最最恐怖的是供小孩子玩的那一块。
看起来似乎没什么杀伤力的小小一颗烟花弹
孩子们看着它们四处飞舞好开心，放得不亦乐乎。

冷不防其中一枚从鼻尖前划过。
我的妈呀。

paraphernalia #005

bunch of keys for opening doors to 1. the wellington street apartment one block away from de iconic central mid levels escalator and 2. lighting department's workstations 大房 and 小房 in the academy.

exorbitant property prices in hk bleeds my heart each month as i queue up in the china bank to transfer roots of evil into the bank account of my miserly landlord.

it was love at first sight with the house. that fateful day in sunwise (not sunrise. not typo) building on wellington street in central...

在典型的亚洲家庭里，似乎有着不成文的规定。
亚洲爸爸和亚洲妈妈，总是以管吃管住来表达他们对孩子的爱。
所以，亚洲孩子年纪不小了，却仍然待在父母身边。

这个道理，长硬了的翅膀当然知道，
于是，游学竟成了想飞的心最好的借口。

独自生活了两年，很舍不得，但还是心甘情愿地回来了。
不知道，现在是什么样的人和你在一起过日子。


《我坐在这里》 __________

我怕我会爱上了这个角落
是它看着我日子到底怎么样过
人来人往的出没
有什么样的轮廓
老房子如果有话说
它会说什么
有谁和谁的身影
影响过我什么
有谁含情脉脉
让我惊心动魄
窗口长了眼睛
说不定拍下来拿去广播

我坐在这里看着时间溜过
我的心会不会在这里停泊
站在这里会不会立地成佛
躺在这里会否夜长梦多

其实我讨厌水龙头的回音
滴滴答答地挑拨
告诉我有多寂寞
有谁和谁走过
灯火一下下闪烁
只有老房子记得这些人的承诺
听过谁和谁的呼吸
像潮起潮落
有某某的声音
一句句的隐没
窗帘长了耳朵
说不定录下来拿去广播

在我和某某之前
这里是谁的窝
有谁比谁快活
谁为谁而难过
留下多少指纹
说不定做过一样的动作

我坐在这里看着时间溜过
我的心会不会在这里停泊
站在这里会不会立地成佛
躺在这里会否夜长梦多

我坐在这里会否开花结果


唱.林忆莲 词.林夕
曲.lene marlin/pedersen

paraphernalia #004

eggo palm warmer. gift from a.y during first winter
对赤道的孩子来说，拥有四季是很奢侈的事情。



"winter is a season for melancholy." k.s 在那年的电邮里如此写道。

冬天。寒冷的气温中，身体瑟缩在厚厚的大衣里。
冷风扑上脸颊，乘风而来的melancholy悄悄挤进身体来取暖，
以为神不知鬼不觉。

但冻僵了的心其实清醒得很。
她不是没有察觉，只是选择纵容melancholy而已。



i miss winters.

paraphernalia #003

yet another piece of plastic_____________
broadway cinematheque membership card



only became a bc member during the later half of my existence in hk. motivation was x.z who urged me to share the 'apply-one-get-one-free' membership promotion. didn't get to use it much though. pity.

quite a gem for film buffs bc is. other than the movies screened, there's a great little tiny corner shop inside the lobby. extremely small but cosy and overflowing with movie memorabilia you cannot get enough of. next-door kubrick (bookshop+cafe+the bc library) stocks a fair share of books, magazines and stuff, but for some reason i prefer its predecessor p.o.v.

this art.house wing of the broadway circuit is on public square street in yau ma tei . there's a super cool old.fashion.style eating place nearby m.y introduced me to. anyway that's over on the kowloon side of hong kong. mostly why i never frequent bc that often. because life in hk is predominantly occupied by the academy which happens to be on the hk island.

影艺 the cine-art house is the hk island alternative and also the cinema i hang out most often on my own. it's situated in waichai, about a leisurely walk of twenty minutes walk from campus. quaint little two.theatre complex that showcases alternative and independent stuff. peaceful and ideal for chilling out.

and i must mention it was in this cinema that i saw the three.part.nine.hour chinese documentary 铁西区 during the 27th hk international film festival back in 2003_____best and most humanistic documentary i have seen. ever.

paraphernalia #002

octopus student card.and stamps




tap.and.go store value smart card that can be used on almost every mode of public transport___buses, some mini buses, mtr trains, (de expensive) airport express, kcr, trams, ferries, the peak tram even.

the very classic (and cheapest. only two hk dollars per trip, regardless of length and duration of trip) tram is my all.time favourite. these double deck tramcars are highly recommended for sight.seeing or when you're not in a hurry and it's not rush hour____the tram is a nightmare during peak periods. the limited corridor space between seats means having to shove and fight your way through to the front to alight (tram passengers board from the backdoor and pay to alight at the front. interesting eh) or risk getting shoved.

beyond that i love the tram. my number one choice if i get out of school early (no trams past midnight) to go home. the way it saunters in its aged tram tracks is very charming.

stuffed together in the octopus card holder are left over stamps from hk, norway and finland.

paraphernalia #001

finally___after fighting inertia for half a month, p#001 emerges from the box to receive its five minutes' worth of fame_________



metallic blue-coloured matchbox from a tapas and wine bar named boca. was there with c.l who came to visit. don't remember much of the food or wine, but i recall we both thought the ladies was pretty neat. the place is on peel street, off staunton street. very near the two laundries i switched between for two years. one of the three cheapest things in hk is laundry. the other two are beer and mobile service plans (for 1600 minutes worth of talk time i paid only slightly over S$30 each month). i am grateful for all three.

anyways. yes my laundry was located just off (if not inside. never quite figured out the boundary definitions) soho. i lived on wellington street in a building one block away from de iconic central mid levels escalator. everytime i took my clothes for washing, i'd stroll along the escalator and pretend to be faye wong in wong kar wai's chungking express.

speaking of wkw and laundry, one of the favourite hk encounters that i like to tell and re-tell is this one time (the first of three times i 'bumped into' him, for the record) when i spotted chris doyle a mere metre or two down the street on my way to the laundry. he was holding a bag-ful of either cds or dvds and eventually disappeared into a building next to the escalator (ok yes i s-t-a-l-k-e-d him). legend has it that the apartment in chungking express which tony leung lived in belonged to chris, so____ was this it?

making the grand entrance

the (re)appearance of the shoebox

akan datang: revelation of paraphernalia #001...

the beginnings of wuaboa

wu.A.bo.A is a product inspired by the conversation-discussion with two close friends whom i have just toasted their back-to-back birthdays with some hours ago. if all things go right, this might hopefully turn into one of the parts of a bigger project. in the mean time, here's hoping you will enjoy the nostalgic e-archival of a past fragment of this collector's coming-kind-of-close-to-thirty years' of existence.



thank you for reading.

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