Random Thoughts by Pauline

March 13 2015, Friday        

Let’s right the wrong!

I wonder if you have ever noticed this poster.  “LETS RUN TOGETHER”.

As an English Language teacher, I am furious that such a mistake can be made! It should be “Let’s Run Together” with “let’s” meaning “let us”. “Lets” can only be used with a third person singular noun or pronoun such as “Toms lets (allows) his wife bully him.” Of course, we can also use “lets” in “She lets (out) one of the rooms to make some income.”

Mind you! This poster is everywhere transmitting the wrong use of the word “lets” to our easily impressionable young minds! All that is taught in class can be forgotten! Or worse, students can rebut teachers when they are corrected using the word as it is in the poster. Indeed, this slogan is so eye-catching that it is adopted by many school teams in designing their uniforms. Teachers or students responsible all assume what they see in advertisements cannot be wrong.

There are two Chinese idioms that succinctly capture this situation:  習非成是 and  約定俗成.

The literal meaning of the first one is that when enough “negative” or “wrong” things or opinions or responses are collected, then cumulatively speaking, this “wrong” will be taken as the “right”! The second one means more or less the same: when many people agree to do one thing together, then a custom is formed!

Chinese wisdom works again!

Random Thoughts by Pauline

January 20 2015, Tuesday            

 Old Couples

Have you ever been touched by the scene of old couples holding hands? I have! Their hair might be thinned and skin all wrinkled but the calmness of their countenance simply induces my admiration!

In this age when relationships can be so flimsy, we tend to wonder whether people do still hold hands and grow old together in health and sickness! And when we do see or know such couples, we become green-eyed monsters saying “how lucky you guys are!”

As in all matters, “luck” plays but a small part – that no “third person” has ever appeared in their life, that no major hardships have ever put them to test etc. Even when life is uneventful, to be able to grow old together and yet still cherish or at least care for each other is not in the hands of the Almighty!

I don’t know if there are some odd old couples around you or you have heard of. By “odd”, I mean though they remain together living under the same roof and sleeping on the same bed, they hate each other’s guts to the extent that the wife drives the husband out of the apartment in the morning, gives him some twenty dollars allowing him to come back only at dinner time! Such arrangement is not for a day but is a routine!

There is no equality in a relationship, no “win-win” situation but one yielding to the other for whatever reasons! So next time when you envy a happily married couple, ask yourself how far you can bear for the sake of a life together! 

Random Thoughts by Pauline

January 14 2015, Wednesday                

So close and yet so far! 

This New Year break, my friends and I went to Shanghai for 3 days to visit an old friend. The flight to Shanghai takes less than two hours but I cannot say it is convenient. 

 

We departed for Shanghai on December 30. It was the 0830 flight meaning we had to check in not later than 6:30. I had to get up at 5. If I took the airport bus, I would be late. Arriving late has never been my habit. I left home at 5:45 and took a taxi.

 

It was my bad luck that I got on a taxi with a sulky driver. I greeted him nicely. Not only did he not reciprocate my courteous greeting, but he also did not help me put the suitcase in the boot!

 

So I arrived early at the airport, met up with my friends, checked in, took our breakfast and boarded the plane. All these were uneventful! 

We landed punctually at 10:30, took our luggage, went through customs and immigration and were warmly greeted by our friend. We got on the coach at 11.

 

 

Guess when we could sit down for lunch? At 2 in the afternoon! The 30-minute drive to city centre had become 3 hours! Absolutely ridiculous! That was my first-person experience of the terrible traffic jams so notorious of mainland cities. And because we were late, we had to eat dishes left cold if not icy. The waitresses were also very blatant in their expression of impatience!

Random Thoughts by Pauline

December 26  2014,  Friday 

You are the one!

Then came a call in November. It was a friend saying that she had a friend who couldn't afford a helper anymore now that she had lost her job. That brought us our new helper Mharscod.

 

We interviewed Mharscod and were happy to know that she had looked after a dog before. That was the experience in a helper we had been looking for. So we didn't ask too much and started the whole process of signing her. Mharscod's contract was terminated for financial reason and so the time needed for processing the papers would be shorter. Still it took one whole month.

 

Finally, Mharscod arrived. The moment we feared came.

 

"How long would Bean Bean bark at Mharscod before he stops?"

It was not long at all. He barked when he sighted the stranger. But almost immediately he stopped barking to walk round her sniffing her hard. Then he started wagging the tail!

 

It was like miracle - Bean Bean likes Mharscod! We are saved. Now we can take trips!

 

In less than 24 hours, Mharscod was takng selfies with Bean Bean.

 

Random Thoughts by Pauline

December 25  2014,  Thursday

 

Waiting for the one!

Bean Bean, my dog for 13 years had been left at home by himself (sorry, itself) for close to 17 months  since the last helper Daisy left. It must have been very miserable for him because Daisy had been taking care of him since he joined our family in 2001. In frustration, this good boy who goes to the cage for wee-wee would urinate on the floor if we returned home past midnight!

Bean Bean is very dutiful. He barks at the slightest noise he hears and the smallest dust flying in the air. Whenever any "strangers" like the delivery men or repair men are in the apartment,  he would bark from the moment they step in to the minute they step out.

We had been trying hard to hire a new helper. Not to say these days the demand for helpers far exceeds the supply, the mere mentioning of a four-legged baby is putting off many potential helpers!

So every day Bean Bean stayed in his bed with eyes on the door waiting for us to be back. He grew so tired waiting that when I did open the door, he would merely give me a look skipping the formality of getting up or wagging the tail. He did not even bother to bark.