Random Thoughts by Pauline

April 8 2015 Wednesday 

Bean Bean's bowl raised

Have you ever noticed how a dog eats? Like a human eating from a bowl while doing push-ups!


I feed Bean Bean with dry food which comes in small bites for senior dogs. Each time, Bean Bean has to stretch his neck and exert great strength to pick up the food from the bowl. His muscle from the neck down the back is fully strained! I feel bad for him knowing  well that he suffers from back pain.


"Only if I can elevate the bowl!"


It was Bean Bean's good luck that I bumped into a Japanese pet store offering all kinds of goods that pet owners can think of or have ever imagined! As I was early for my appointment as usual, I entered and browsed!


There they are - bowl stands of different designs and colours. One of these was a wooden one for a single bowl. It came with extensions for the legs to be adjusted. It cost $200.


I took the package home, unwrapped it and quickly assembled the pieces. But all the while, Bean Bean was barking at the stand ferociously. To him, it was an intruder! I had to tempt him patiently by putting his favourite treats one after another in the bowl placed on the stand.


Finally, after half an hour, Bean Bean put down his guard and took his dinner from the bowl. He did not have to lower his neck anymore!
Silly dig owners!

Random Thoughts by Pauline

April 6 2015 Monday 

Bean Bean is aging

People who have never had a dog as pet can never undersrand or empathize with dog owners for treating dogs as children. I, for one, take Bean Bean, my dog for close to 15 years, as my child. I don't just feed him. That is the very basic. I will care for him till death do we part!

Dogs are routine creatures and so once they behave differently, something must be wrong.

Bean Bean excretes inside the cage covered with diapers and elevated with a basin underneath. About a month ago, I noticed that Bean Bean had difficulty getting inside the cage. He put the right fore paw first on the edge, hesitated, then as though gathering all his strength jumped inside!

I took him to the vet. The diagnosis was he had back problem but operation was not advised because of his advanced age.

Bean Bean has, since then, been taking pain killers. The drugs work miracle but maybe with unwarranted side-effect. Bean Bean is back to his playful self jumping in and out the cage at ease! 

Random Thoughts by Pauline

April 4 2015  Saturday     

Being different is good!

We were dining with a friend’s family of four, our friend and wife and their teenage sons.   The elder boy, aged 18 and taking the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) this year asked what he should do in a discussion if he did not agree with his friends. He said that he usually held his silence because he dared not be different. He tried to blend in with his peers but was not happy doing so.  He wanted to air his view and have it debated but he lacked the courage to face accusations of being difficult or even taken as a weirdo!

It is truly not easy to be different because society frowns on individuality and quickly labels anyone who isn't like everyone else. This has discouraged a lot of people from being themselves. We love to belong and so end up understanding little beyond our own flock.

Here is one celebrity we can learn from – Angelina Jolie! She dares to be different. She had just had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed in a preventative measure against ovarian cancer. Only two years ago, she had a double mastectomy to prevent breast cancer.

Here is Angelina Jolie’s acceptance speech at the Kid's Choice Awards on March 28 2015.  She won the best villain award for her role in Maleficent. 

 

Different is good!

So don’t fit in!

Don’t sit still!

Don’t ever try to be less than what you are!

And when someone tells you that you are different,

smile and hold your head up high and be proud

Random Thoughts by Pauline

April 2 2015  Thursday  

         Meaningful assignment

I wanted to take their photo but on second thought, I didn’t. They were two boys of around twelve. It was only 8 early Sunday morning. They were diligently studying the railroad map on board the West Rail Line leaving the Hung Hom Station for Tuen Mun. I was pleasantly amused and so though I would be getting off at the next station, I tried to start a conversation with them. 

 

They were shy and replied rather reluctantly. I knew they were Secondary 1 classmates co-operating on a project to visit various landmarks along the rail line. They had been given 4 hours to finish the task of taking a photo at each location. And so their discussion was about how best to finish the trail in the shortest possible time. They had several information sheets to guide them.

 

That was a really engaging assignment with the boys truly enjoying the process. The teacher(s) must have put in a lot of efforts in preparing the task. These students were applying knowledge in real life situation and were practising team spirit and communications skills. 

 

But then as a school administrator, I started to sense risk there. These boys were not accompanied and they were charting unfamiliar territories. All the “what ifs” came to my mind and sent chills down my spine. For fear of accidents and the subsequent insurance claims etc., school heads find their hands tied. Primary school pupils are not allowed to run in recess. There are prefects and monitors yelling at the top of their voice “Don’t run”! We all know after sitting in the classrooms for two hours, what can be more relaxing than a good run in open space! Teachers are afraid of children bumping into each other in the corridors and so the rule is children are to walk. They only run during Physical Education lessons which are once and at most twice a week or on Sports Day and Picnic Day which come once in a year!

 

And this situation is not unique in Hong Kong. I read in newspapers that some schools in England are not holding Sports Day anymore because they cannot afford the insurance!

 

Random Thoughts by Pauline

April 1 2015  Wednesday

             Birds of a feather

What do people talk about when they congregate and chat over a cup of aromatic coffee or simmering hot-pot? People who hang out together must have something in common that they share – same likes and dislikes, same foes and friends, same fears and joys, same celebrations and problems etc. And of course, they also set up chat groups to facilitate the flow of information. In other words, even when they are not meeting physically, they keep on chatting.

Lately, I discover that the hottest conversation topic among me and my long-time classmates, whether actual or virtual, is definitely health! We would share first-hand personal experience or internet information about healthy diets, early detection or prevention of various illnesses, surgical operation details etc.  Next would be around our children but these days more about grandchildren. We also love to share our travel logs. What else? Do we bring up political issues like the Occupy Central Movement? No, we don’t simply because this would stir up commotions and sabotage the party! We prefer to hold our political stance to ourselves.     

 

 

My classmates and I were all born in the same year, only older or younger in terms of months. Previously, we did not often meet, only on school anniversaries. On the occasion of the 5oth anniversary of our secondary school graduation, I suggested that as we advance in age, we should meet more frequently. To my pleasant surprise, they concurred with me. Now, we are meeting every other month.  

Random Thoughts by Pauline

March 29 2015 Sunday

            Memorial service 

I was baptized as a Catholic when I was six. I attended a convent school from 6 to 18. In those school years, I practised my religion fervently praying in the little chapel and attending mass almost every morning. My mother was worried sick that I might want to be a nun. I didn’t but a couple of my classmates did.

After graduation, I was so engrossed in working several jobs to support my family of ten that I virtually stopped going to church. That could be an excuse. There should be other reasons. These years, church visits are limited to celebrations and commemorations. This Tuesday, I attended the mass in memory of a nun, also my Chinese Language teacher who passed away a year ago. The mass was celebrated by a young priest. He gave a brief but thought-provoking sermon. 

He recounted to us how as a novice, he and other novices, men and women, had to do community service in some of the deprived districts all over Hong Kong. That evening, they were in Shamshuipo distributing rice-boxes to the street-sleepers. They arrived at a slum under a footbridge and these homeless people were anxiously awaiting. They were the opposite of refinement. Tattooed and foul-mouthed, they did not restrain themselves even with the young ladies there. One of the male novices believed these street-sleepers had gone overboard and walked up to these men about to reprimand them when one of the lady novices cried out “Don’t! There is no need to stop them because I can see Jesus in them!”  

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, or more fondly Mother Teresa, the recipient of numerous honours including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize had this quote which, to me, should be indelibly imprinted on all teachers’ mind.

 

I see Jesus in every human being. I say to myself, this is hungry Jesus, I must feed him. This is sick Jesus. This one has leprosy or gangrene; I must wash him and tend to him. I serve because I love Jesus.”