See Lai

Meditation

Love is an inhibition, not an emotion

Final Option

Continued from here...

In wake of frantic behavior exhibited by Phyllis, I started sorting out the options available to me.

Scientists can exhilarate all they want about the claim that nothing is faster than the speed of light. Obviously they have discounted the speed of human brains or at least the speed that my brain reacts...

Either I could struggle with her seat belt with one hand and stop her from jumping [which of course was a hollow but perilous threat].

Or I could stop the car in the emergency lane and benefit passers-by with a spectacular scene of a Gweilo arguing with a Chinese woman on the most frequented expressway in Guangdong province.

The alternative of fakery via the only required statement that I love her was sure to doom the remaining years of my life. Wise men never tell any women that they love her. Not if they want to live the rest of their life in peace and dignity. Any arguments with this inference can only mean a serious lack of experience.

What is love? Everyone asks this question during one stage or another of their life. I will leave my opinions about the answer for some later post.

Anyway, it was evident that the only option available for me was to do something different. And within two seconds of Phyllis's ballyhoo, I pressed down hard on the accelerator while zigzagging along all three lanes.

C'mon baby, let us join the Romeo and Juliet Rave Party. You want to jump off and die, right? Let us both die the amatory death

Missing each container or soviet era truck by two feet in different lanes at 180 Km. per hour, Phyllis sat with eyes aghast as she was more than convinced that I had finally lost it for good.

The vehicle in concern? BMW 745. Always reliable when your life depends on it.

Ten minutes of horrendous driving that would make A. Senna [Ayrton Senna da Silva] wake up from his grave, it was evident that Phyllis was subdued. Her hand loosely hanging on the unbuckled seat belt, perspiration on her eyebrows, and her eyes perhaps transfixed on her imaginary grave was enough confirmation that it was time for Back To Future Part - II.

Screeching to a halt on the emergency lane, I slowly got out, moved over to her door and opened it wide for her to step down. Standing perplexed near the car she was dumbfounded when I barked back just three options:

1) Either you walk back to Hong Kong and never again appear in my life to play with me. I am way too old for Romeo and Juliet drama.

2) Or you sit back in the car in the capacity of my secretary and let us go to the factory as it is my fucking face on the line. You and I could be interrogated by passing police for creating scenes and dangerous driving and I don't want to lose my future and destiny just cuz you freakin' think you love me.

3) When you had fun with me, you had boyfriends as well. If you [had] have multiple partners before you get married, that does not make you any better than those who flirt after marriage as the days for virgins and arranged marriages are long gone baby. So cut the fucking self hypnotized true-love crap and lose yourself. OK?

After two minutes of silence, following which quietly walking back to the car Phyllis buckled her seatbelt was proof enough that she selected option 2.

Note:

Those of you who know who Phyllis, including how she looks, must think I was extremely cruel. I offer no apologies.

Meditation

Buddha left his loved ones twice because they were bitchy

Daily Circus - Part 10

New Year Day in Hong Kong will begin with almost 20,000 participants parading in We Are The World mania chanting 2003 remix versions of [blunder head's] Ten Commandments and zero tolerance during clean-up drive will begin today:

"There will also be strict enforcement of regulations requiring the removal from public places of articles that cause obstruction."

Amidst all the [aforementioned] cackle, there are cautious reminders by Basic Law drafter Raymond Wu:

"Certain groups want to use this as an excuse to create another wave of public discontent, I say, go ahead and try, and we will wait and see."

However, despite all adversities, residency in Hong Kong remains a major attraction not just for the Right of Abode seekers but for Green Turtles as well. And realizing that it is better late than never, SARS virus seems to have decided upon its [probable] return [in the mainland].

While kids might get excited by this news in anticipation of extra [SARS] vacations [like previous year], we believe that these people must control their excitement via over indulgence through drinking as only after a couple of drinks the mind sobers up and one finally accepts that the real estate boom is really over.

Unaffected by all of these, Clint Eastwood fan Lama Khyimsar Rinpoche offers solace with his stance:

Where Yungdrung Bon [teaching] differs from traditional Buddhism is that followers are urged to develop "indiscriminate love and compassion".

Our editor is apprehensively delighted that at least there is someone who understands our editor's indiscriminate love and compassion towards sentient women beings.

Perhaps, this will also help clear the misconception amongst people that our editor is not a hedonistic debauchee since Shakyamuni Buddha says so!

Credits:

All news links via The Standard who still have the courtesy to post free online news as opposed to it's outdated competition.

Relationship

That the drive to Dongguan would be challenging was expected. The shopping spree was not.

Raymond [my Hong Kong business partner] had already crossed over in his brother's car [also dual plates but a different factory] leaving me with the arduous drive with Phyllis.

Already irritated by her teenager like behavior while crossing the Hong Kong border and dumb questions like, "Can I cross the border in your car?" and "Do I also need to scan my thumb prints?" etc., terror unveiled when she announced her decision to go shopping for gifts in Shenzhen. Only dumb people shop in Shenzhen and one really has to be a man with strong feminine tendencies to be able to tolerate shopping with [most] women.

Having wasted otiose time in shopping, that too with someone who claims to love you [Really? If so, give me a break!], was almost getting to the limits that my fragile nerves could endure.

Men don't shop like that. They just go to a nearest department store, grab something expensive and give it to whoever needs to be pleased.

Here you go. This is for you... End of story.

After what seemed like eternity and as soon as we crossed over the Shenzhen/Dongguan border checkpoint without a need for any further clearance [yes the second one], she relaxed and tucked her papers away in her fancy handbag. I wished she went to sleep just then!

But the heavens weren't exactly smiling upon me as no sooner did we hit the Guangshen expressway she started:

I want to talk about relationships. Especially, our relationship...

Holy Virgin Mary waiting to be laid eternally! Why me and why now?

James told me that you fixed the corporate lucky draw so that we could be together. Which is why I did not accompany him on the vacation. Saying which, she looked at me with steely gaze [or that is what I imagined].

Ten years of imprisonment couldn't have been worse than what I was feeling in [the] one hour drive. My eyes kept darting and scouting for any distractions and in a lame attempt, I pointed at a site and exclaimed:

Look at the American, Chinese, and Malaysian flags on that site. Sure looks like a joint venture to me. What do you think?

But all attempts were in vain as unbuckling her seat belt, Phyllis almost barked at me:

Ron, you tell me this moment whether you love me or not. Otherwise I will jump from the [moving] car

What can I say? Life sucks!

Moral:

You can't drive with a angry woman trying to blackmail you when you fight for all sorts of controls [including your mental ones] at 160 Km. per hour on a bumpy Chinese expressway.

The Differential Equation

Crossing the border and driving into Shenzhen, Phyllis insisted upon buying gifts for Mr. Wong [Mainland Chinese partner], and Mr. Chen [Taiwanese partner in China] as she was visiting the factory for the first time.

The irony of the situation? Mainland Chinese come to Hong Kong for their shopping whereas local [Hong Kong] people still believe they get better bargains across the border.

In 1998, during a convention jointly hosted by the Russian Federation and entrepreneurs of Khabarovsk province in Hong Kong, one of my good friends Igor [then working for the Russian Consulate in Hong Kong] remarked that within 10 years, Shenzhen and Hong Kong will be identical.

I admit that I was naive to laugh at his suggestion [at that time]. However, today his predictions have come true, that too, 5 years too soon...

If the past 5 years are any barometer, what can we possibly expect in the short to medium term [future]?

Meditation

Life might be like a soap opera, but mostly we are the bad commercials sponsoring it!

P.s.:

Slow posting today as off to the factory with Phyllis. I must drive fast with loud music. More later in the evening...

Finger Food

Small bird

Size compared with the cigarette pack. It's family members are waiting in the background [plate].

They told me the Chinese name but I don't know the English equivalent. You are supposed to hold it by its feet and then start chewing it [bones included] head first. Tastes good but chewing the feet is rather tedious.

New Horizons

She is intelligent and hardworking

Restaurant owner at Dongguan

No, not Xiao Hung and Xiao Wai...

Reception girls at Dongguan restaurant

The elephant like man to my right is the Taiwanese partner, Gary and the one on left is the Chinese partner, Luke. The one behind the camera was Raymond, the Hong Kong partner, who definitely needs to improve his focusing skills.

Picture with QC team working the late night shift

It was 11:30 PM on Christmas eve and yes we were all working. Hope on new year's eve I will be able to enjoy.

Note:

All pictures out of appreciation for the people of Dongguan who are very thrilled with the new developments in their lives.

See Lai 2004

Despite the criticisms from those who dislike blogs, I have been contemplating about the positioning of See Lai beginning 2004.

The good news is that See Lai as well as many Hong Kong blogs are easily accessible from China. Perhaps, because most are hosted on private paid sites. This means that many in China also access information which otherwise would have been hard to obtain. In fact, See Lai's readers from China contribute [almost] 23% of daily hits.

The bad news though, is that sites like NOT The South China Morning Post are totally blocked in [parts of] China most familiar to me.

NTSCMP may have been a pain in the ass for some of us, and on the same count, some of us might have been a pain in the ass for them as well. However, debate can only result out of a dialogue. Meaning there should be two sides to express opinions for a healthy discussion to take place.

Agreed that we are not famous and can easily be classified nonentities. But our [blog's] power seems to be growing. We are warmly accepted by those who want to read opinion and who feel that we care.

This, I found out by talking to a female owner of a Xinjiang restaurant in Dongguan [last night]. I was extremely surprised that she knew me because of my picture at my blog. And more surprised to hear her say that many sites I link [including NTSCMP] were inaccessible whereas [most] bloggers were accessible!

She had a good command over English for a Chinese who spoke English as a second language. And she too praised the recent developments [of livelihood and living standards] in China, alongside the Chinese government.

Nonetheless, she felt that the opinion of many [Hong Kong] blogs provided people like her with food for thought and to a certain extent... also understand the world stage. Being an entrepreneur, she directly linked this with the WTO entry of China.

Leaving the place, I kept brooding about international events, news, opinion, sites, and blogs.

That the recent meetings with Japanese and our [factory] dealings with Canada have also added to a unique perspective about trade and politics, leaves me even more confused about how one could relay acceptable yet balanced opinion about all happenings that concern all [of us out here].

As a result, I am contemplating about changing the content style of this blog [See Lai] further to the design that has already changed.

While I will still keep the daily columns as in daily circus, meditation, women, etc., during 2004, I intend to gear See Lai towards a role that indulges in [fair] trade and policies [politics] without outright attack towards any country or anyone.

Yes, the resolution sounds very ideal but whether I can practically deliver, only time can tell. That is, if I am not blocked before that.

Until then, enjoy your holidays and cheers!