A Dialogue With K

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New Home, originally uploaded by: phmagic00

I am no longer a procrastinator. Thanks God for the Blog Action Day, I have actually used the staircases from the 13th floor where I live since Monday. I felt good, because it wasn’t something new to me in favor of the Campaign, it is for arts-sakes a good exercise.

Exercise is not only to those who have weight problems but as what experts say, being healthy inside is more important. Do you ever say hello in the morning if your stomach are ok? Do you open your mouth if those teeth are clean and smile at them? Did you try checking your pulse rate if they are normal? Do you say hello to your hair and probably think how many strands are still there?

I recalled a couple of weeks back, my brothers who went home in Bicol for a short holiday had asked me to see them in the Airport Express before they leave. They called, a week in advance because they seemed to know me when it comes to making a “promise” but ends up to “nothing” - they can’t blame me because I am a lazy bastard telling them unexplanatory things about a dozen dime of excuses. And there I went, on time at the Airport.

Surprisingly all were happy upon seeing me. Aba, my nephews have grown so big, it was as if ages since I last played nintendo with them. So the usual me would give them a group hug when suddenly, one of the elder one said, “Uncle, we are not young anymore, please don’t give me a kiss on the cheek”. I laughed so hard because look, “I am your Uncle and I can always do that everytime I see you” say, three months later? Well I got their point, these kids have become the ‘boys-next-door’ - one minute you feed them with congee, the next time you see them, perhaps in a bar drinking a bottle of Heneikz. For a minute there I felt so old, and I realized, things has actually changed. If only I was looking carefully enough, I have as well matured. Besides, my two elder brothers are now wearing I AM A FATHER badges attached on their left chest. I salute them for being a Bravo Dads and for doing a good example to their smart kids. My heart felt as if weakened for a while there - if only our dear Father was still alive, he would have thought that these boys are just like us. Our genes has evolved - we all look as though similar to each other.

Speaking of kids, this morning, I woke up from a big noise of a screw driver coming from the walls of my neighbors. I have witnessed a few quiet nights that these new tenants are busy fixing things in their Apartment. I understand since I did all that when I first moved here. I heard kids were laughing outside my door. I’d peek-a-boo and found out that they are a family of four, two kids - and they talk really loud, in their own language but I understood what they were talking. The father was shooing the kids not to talk so loud because one time, I mumbled when I arrived late one night. An old furniture was left just outside my door. I assumed they were pushing it to the fire exit door but it didn’t fit in. Apology accepted, but when I got inside and said to my mind, “finally I have a noisy neigbour, this floor will never be so quiet anymore”. Infact there are two other neighbors at the other end but for more than one year, I have never seen what these people look like. I’d say, this is something new to me, considering people who lives here are so notorious. No one would even dare say “Hello” or smile if you happened to ride with them in an elevator. Sometimes kindness can go a long way to make a person feel comfortable, especially in a new surrounding. I understand that it doesn’t cost a cent but it just happens that we all live in the same building. Well, good fences makes a new neighbor, I believe.

What saddened me however is that, I was told by one of the Apartment security guards that “Apah” (the funny old man) who named me the “Crazy Man” of this building, has retired from his job. We used to “smoke” outside the gate and spent a little less than 15minutes of why-I-am-here in HK and where-I-work. From coming in and out in the building, there’s this younger man of his age replaced his position. I knew that once we get older, all we seemed to imagine is to have a peace of mind, go on a long holiday, spend time to whatever things we like, or just being around with family you dearly love is something that I’d been looking forward to. It maybe a long year to go, but at the moment, sometimes seeing unfamiliar faces can give you a “lift” to carry on with life. There are people we knew would go, and there are new ones that replaces the void. Even if it’s only temporary. In Hong Kong, I have no permanent friends. The next thing you knew, they are gone somewhere, in other countries and the next day, you’d find a new friend and become a tourist guide. People just come en go.

As for this blog, it feels like I just had a face-lift. The process of importing files and entries were new to me. It took me several hours, fine - 24/7 just to fix things altogether, seems old but very new to me. Apparently, my way of blogging will always be the same - first come to mind, DON’T CHANGE anything. But being in a new “home”, there aren’t really many things to fix around. I have done this before, so whocares now if I can’t find a nice music player to my every entry? For as long as this blog is running and going, familiarity of some programs that I want to use (in Wordpress, we called it widgets and plugins) is not what blogging is really all about. Figured, few years back, I’d spent about 80% of my time changing stuff around my old blog, infact, the only thing that matters now is that someone who are very generous had helped me push-through to use this free domain as new blog with a nice url name. I am so overwhelmed. Thank you once again Ms Beng Hafner.

And a big THANK YOU to all of YOU for your continued support on clicking and reading my entries. And please don’t be a stranger.