Tuesday, May 20, 2008
SZ09
I had a good weekend. My colleague invited me to her place for dinner (My CNP friend wasn't - very luckily - wasn't interested). The cook was her husband; the cuisine was Hakka style. It just so happened that her husband cooked all the time and she handled the dish. The evening went well, with a couple of homemade simple dishes and we chatted for a while. I thought they were a friendly couple because they even invited me to go fishing with them the following day.
My CNP friend fell sick on that very night and so couldn't go for the fishing trip, apparently...
Anyway, we were joined by my colleague's sister and her son. Seriously I didn't look forward to the fishing trip. Just so that I could get out of the house and away from the CNP. Just to keep the entire fishing trip short: I caught 2 fish and picked some wild strawberries behind the fishing lake. I also had a simple lunch of big chili with chicken innards. It wasn't exactly to my liking, but I think it was worth a try because I know I won't budge a bit if I were given that in Singapore, and I had no other choice anyway because the stupid coffee shop ran out of other meat... The more exciting part came after the fishing trip. We visited my colleague's uncle, who lived in a dilapidated unit in a single-storey house. Their entire room was just the size of my toilet plus a little more? Although it was cram, the place was quite neatly packed and still, all the 7 of us managed to squeeze in it. While they chatted in their Hakka accent oblivious to my existence I quietly sipped the hot tea and think of what's to come for dinner.
Dinner was taken at a small restaurant near my colleague's uncle's residence. They served great Hakka food. Despite the food being oily and salty (as with all Chinese cuisine that I've tasted) I think I ate so much I had to go for the runs. We visited the uncle's brother nearby before retreating. By the end of Sunday I was deadbeat.
Yesterday marked the one week anniversary of the Szechuan earthquake. It marked the first of the three-day nationwide mourning for the victims. At 1428 hours, a siren would be raised and vehicles were supposed to stop and horn for three minutes in memory of the quake. I was thinking how cars could stop in the middle of the road (but then it's PRC). In the end, no cars stopped on the main roads but the blasts of horns could be heard for three minutes. The people in my office stood by the window and mourned as well. It was quite an experience actually because the last time the entire China held an official mourning was when Mao Zedong died.
Later in the evening, my CNP friend and I met with another colleague to attend a private mourning ceremony held by some tertiary students outside a mall. We were late, thanks to the CNP friend. Initially, we had decided to go for a quick dinner after work and head down to the mall to buy candles. When we were about to leave, my boss came back from elsewhere, and asked my friend (I was in the toilet) for dinner. Obviously, my friend said okay. But the thing was, my boss told him that we were going to have a steamboat dinner with some friends. We only had 1 hour to eat dinner and buy candles, and the CNP friend said okay. I didn't know how we could stuff all the food in and attend the ceremony. I was amused and annoyed with him; amused I was that he could agree to the dinner when he was making all the fuss about the earthquake and annoyed that he didn't have any sense of time management. This isn't the first time anyway. But I couldn't be bothered, I'll get free dinner anyway. It was only at the restaurant when we were left with 30 minutes and the food had just arrived that I told him that we were going to be late. He looked at the time and gave me a blank look for a while, then proceeded to say: How?
I was seriously going to tell him straight in the face that we should just skip the ceremony. But in the end I had to say, "okay, let's leave in 20 minutes time." He agreed gleefully while I sulked in silence. It just so happened that one of my boss' friend didn't eat beef, so the fatty beef slices were to be last into the pot... And there was just no time for us to wait for the slices to go into the pot. As we were about to leave the restaurant, I gave those beef slices a last glance before leaving reluctantly. Stupid CNP.
We were only on time (although 15 minutes past the slated time) for the cheering (Read: Go on, China). But it was an emotional 30 minutes of mourning as throngs of people gathered under the light drizzle. Although it was a private gathering, there wasn't any problem throughout the solemn ceremony. Come to think of it, we can't even hold such events/gatherings in Singapore.
After the ceremony. my CNP friend and I saw another colleague and he suggested to go back to the restaurant for dinner. I thought I was going to boil and explode or something. But the ceremony sort of cooled me down and I agreed (because he wanted to treat us too).
Last but not least... The PRCs don't flush down their toilet paper with their faeces. To make things worst, they don't wash their hands after that. Either they want to save water, or they can't be bothered about hygiene. Sigh. Then I think of going to Korea... I hope they wash their hands even if they don't flush the toilet paper into the cubicle.
All this time, I've been typing my entries in my bedroom that I share with my CNP friend. We share the same table and are only two feet apart. I hope he hasn't been spying on what I'm typing into the blog, or found my blog on the Internet. Before I forget, within these three days of mourning, there'll be no entertainment across PRC. No MTV, tudou.com, and KTV nightclubs are closed. So irritating. Hur hur.
Comments:
Post a Comment