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?