a sea of people and a sea of garbage

There is a big news yesterday from UK. A Royal new born baby boy !
A sea of people waiting outside the palace to receive the news. "Why people are so fascinated by the Royals?" the question raised by American.

I was watching the online news with my colleagues, one of my senior said "I don't like this royal thing."

A thought, she has her point, there always 2 sides. When there is this baby whom we haven't seen his face yet. For no doubt, the ranked third baby boy will become heir to the throne.

The marriage of Kate Middleton and Prince William is a fairy tale of many people. Now the baby, the story to be continue....

On the other side, there are people who are surviving, no food, no water, no shelter. Or case not that extreme, people who are underprivileged, their kids may not have beautiful clothes, colourful toys, cell phone, etc....all they can do is, after school, collecting cardboard boxes to exchange a very small amount of money. ( a case of primary school students in Hong Kong)

At the moment, this group of people pop up my mind, they are living at a sea of garbage. The landfill harmonic, the "Recycle Orchestra"
in Cateura, Paraguay. "The world sends us garbage, we send back the Music" By Favio Chavez, Orchestra Director.

Never pity ourselves, every one is a special individual. Never give up, every one is unique.

I am happy for the new born of the Royal baby, as well, I would never forget that there are human being who live in another world and they have very beautiful mind which is beyond clothing, outfit or background.

In fact, all our lives are connected and linked, through Arts, and garbage...

Calenders

There was a time, I was obsessed by calender. Every end of the year, I would look for a handy and empty calender for the coming year. I like to write on the empty page, create my schedule and time table, use different colour pens to write on. And also there was this time that to get a new calender is a MUST for a student. I still remember the best calender I had was from Muji, for several years I used that. The texture of the paper and the size was so my cup of tea. I never chose weekly or daily calender, I like the monthly view specially, because I felt like it can give me a macro view of TIME (or life?)

There was the era of Smart phone, everyone syn their Google calender/i Calendar/outlook to the phone. Me too, there was this time, I had over then 4 calenders overlapping, Meeting, teaching, showing, running here to there. Every change of the schedule, no need to erase, what to do is only copy and paste, drag the box and move it. But I still like the hand writing calender somehow.

And there IS the time, I have no plan at all, only today, now, this moment. I leave all the calenders outside the door. what I need to remember or plan, it happen when it should happen.

However, today, I brought this new calender. For some reasons, it catch my eyes, it is a monthly view, empty boxes, handy, and very cheap, haha.

This afternoon, have a chat with a friend (through my broken Korean and her broken English), talking about some community programmes, we exchange ideas, talk about the education programmes, the students... people concern about the result more than process. And she ask me "do you think we can change the people?"  I said, " I don't know". She is so tiring at work on this aspect. It recall me that was the time, I also asking myself, it is so tiring, what shall I do? can I change the system, can I bring in some inspiration to students?

A second, PK and Mdm Goh came up my mind. As well, comrade in HK, striving for the future of HK.

"Yes, we can," I said, it need times, 20? 30? 45? 50? years.....

I realized,  I never think of change people, I myself always changing....but the obsessive of a handy hand writing calender never change.  I still passionate of what I believe and what I love, the art and human. 

What should happen it Will happen.

"Make the most of the time you have"

It cost only 2500won, HK$17.2, S$2.8 

歲月之手

昨天是村裏聚會，韓語是 달 축제 (monthly festival)。

사람과 삶 (People and life)　每個月都會在명정동 的鄉公所外面，舉行 서피랑 달 축제.
出席的大部份都是婆婆和大叔們，這次的主題的＂塗指甲＂。我們幾個同事，幫著老人家們塗上鮮艷和閃閃的指甲油，有些起初不太願意，後來看到其他人的手這麼漂亮，害羞的又把手遞過來，看到她們充滿皺紋的臉和手，特別感動。我猜，有某些老人家還是第一次塗指甲。

這些活動，在韓國的村裏很並普遍，村民每個月聚在一起，吃點心，唱歌跳舞。對我這個城市長大的，我覺得還真有意思的。想想，在香港這個都市，大多數人都是住在大廈，公屋或劏房。這種小村人與人之間的味道早就消失了。誰誰誰是誰家的兒子，誰誰誰是誰家的媳婦，誰誰誰是誰家的小叔子。

這些非物質的人文文化，也許會隨著到處的拆遷，重建，開發，一點一點消失。看到婆婆那承載歲月的手，不知道翻了多少泥土，做了多少泡菜，洗了多少衣服。問一下自己，我老了的時候，那個時代會是怎麼樣？

遠遠看著婆婆，她很老，也許是全場最老的，但她仍然樂在其中。

在樹下，我們唱歌，跳舞，還有microphone.

 우묵가사리 (콩국) ，像白色的涼粉。

韓國米酒 막걸리

這位大叔80歲了，他說，他是"獨身主義者"

偷拍他的蘆山真面目

大叔喝了點燒酒, 台風很有型吧.

不管你的歌聲美不美，大家能聚在一起就是美。

오미사꿀빵 (since 1963)

The original delicious “Tongyeong Doughnut ”.

You may know the famous street “김밥꿀빵거리”in Tongyeong, however, there is one special small lovely shop located at the alley in 항남동, 서피랑.

오미사꿀빵, one of the original 꿀빵 shop, beside Lotteria. If you want to try out the delicious 꿀빵, you better run fast, because it may sold out till 10am every day.

꿀빵, round golden bread with red bean filling, and sesame topping and syrup. It is so yummy that we can’t help ourselves to finish all.

After you have try out this watering-mouth꿀빵,  it is nice to take a walk around the area. There are many historical places remind you of the beautiful old Tongyeong city.

It looks like the Hainan chicken rice (海南鸡饭) shop in Singpoare at Seah Street  

A big tree sheltered, a small shop (mama shop), village people hangout here, chatting, what a lovely neighborhood.

Tongyeong Old map

Walking along the alley, you can see many interesting spots. Culture, human, it all just next to us.

an old lady walking along the street, she climbs up all the staircase back to home. 

Where are these 99 steps lead me to？

A house surrounded by all the greens. 

When you are familiar with a place, you may not realize the other side of it. Always keep our eyes, our minds open.