Random Thoughts by Pauline

March 2017

Bean Bean lives on

It was around this time of the year when Bean Bean lost the fight against cancer and left us. He was 15.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, we have this practice of taking a photo with our furry child. So last year though Bean Bean weighing only 3 kilo was almost a bag of bones, we still had the photo taken. He was not the cheery self anymore but lying almost limply in our arms.

We missed him very much and the house was quiet without us yelling his name or him barking for food. We couldn’t have another pet as we worried he might outlive us. Then what would happen to him?

Soon the silence in the house started to depress me. I must have another pet. We agreed that we would not buy but adopt. However, Mervyn insisted that we would only adopt a Pekingese, same breed as Bean Bean. I browsed various animal adoption websites until my heart bled. There were just too many pets being abandoned, starved and tortured. The worst would be those abandoned by breeding farms. And I discovered that dog owners are quite trend conscious. There were lots of poodles, corgis and terriers but no Pekingese.     

Just when I wanted to stop the hunt, sheer luck brought Mimi, a Pekingese to us. Her owner had passed away and the other family members did not want to keep her. She is already 10-year old, overweight with bladder stones, infected eyes and ears.

On January 24 just before the New Year, we adopted Mimi. She quickly adapted to us, the new bed, new pan, new diet and new ball. She takes all medication quietly and complies with all the urination rules. 

Bean Bean lives on in Mimi! The house comes to life again! 

Random Thoughts by Pauline

March 2017 

Unspoken compassion

I walked past the couple every time I took the footbridge leading from Kowloon Tong train station to Festival Walk LG1. Rather humbly dressed, they looked like in their 70s though the man could be a few years older. Using a simple iron cast box placed on a wooden stand as the counter, they were selling a traditional Teochew snack – the crispy candy roll. The wrapping is one flimsy white flour sheet while the main stuffing is crunchy maltose bars.

This small business was run quite smoothly with the woman collecting the money and the man preparing each order upon request. Carefully he took out one sheet of wrapping from the box, laid it flat, put a candy bar in the middle, sprinkled some sesame and coconut shreds on top and then rolled up the whole thing which he put in a small brown paper bag. They even had a speaker on broadcasting “Crunchy, crunchy, you miss out a lot if you don’t try it out”. It was the hoarse voice of the man.

I did try one. Crunchy but too sweet! Business was not exactly good.

Then yesterday as I walked out of Festival Walk LG1, I was amazed to see a queue waiting in front of the stand. But it was not the man preparing the rolls. It was the woman while another woman was handling the money.

The scene brought to my mind the news story that the man passed away last week and that the woman after shutting up herself for a few days crying her eyes out decided to resume business. The news went viral resulting in the queue waiting patiently and silently to be served. The broadcast was still the same familiar coarse voice.