First of August

Dear Mr. Net,

Greetings.

Recent happenings:

1. Sightings of a nine-year-old kid watching Cartoon Network all the time right here at my home. His name is Milton Gao. He's in fourth grade. He always says,"Greetings." And "Farewell." He sleeps, and then he wakes up in the morning. Drinks his Chinese medicinal soup (for his rash). Turns on the TV, and just sits there. Sometimes he does jumping jacks and walks without raising his feet across the floor for exercise. He likes cup noodles. Various parts of his meal always land on his shirt, his pants, the dining table, and the floor. He's a comics addict, and his favs are Zatchbell, Naruto, and Dragon Ball Z. His mom (my aunt) even sent him a bunch in a U.S. Mail parcel box by air. He's suffering from some kind of rash that makes him feel very itchy all over his body, so he scratches himself a lot, even when he's sleeping, which can be a very painful sight. He lives in the states, and he's visiting H.K. to have a doctor look at his skin and take good care of him. On Sunday, July 30th, he was kind enough to accompany me to go to the AMC theatres at Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong to see "Monster House," which was not as amazing as I expected. Good for toddlers, kindergarten and elementary school kids perhaps. Not so sure about pre-teens. Certainly there are more than a few funny moments. No big laughs though. Cute. But not captivating.

2. Got done with "Hamlet" last Sunday. Next day I had myself a brilliant hair-cut and a good shave. "Brilliant" meaning no more fuzzy hairdo in the mornings. "Good" meaning no more quasi-moustache and quasi-goatee. Last Tuesday evening at a Taiwanese restaurant named Fragrant Peach was the graduate dinner. All but one of my classmates were present. Where are you, Ah Yeong? Wish you were there. The lecturers (Ceci, Suk Yi, Shu Wing, and Hoi Fai) were there. And what a surprise! Dr. Jiang, the dean of drama school, was there. The Karaoke's so much fun. We sang Leo Koo's pop medley "Jade Solid Gold" together with each of us from the two different tables took turn to finish each individual excerpt. I sang songs of Joey Yung, Alan Tam, and Hackin Lee. My classmates played mah-jong with the faculty as well. The food's great. The atmosphere's ok. Not because of the place. Just that at my table the chemistry between people wasn't that great. Susanne was talking to Birdy. Yu and Donut was chatting with me in between them. On the other side of the table Suk Yi and some of the boys just pretty much sat there and didn't talk much. The more recent karaoke songs weren't seem to be the faculty's cup of tea, while the more old-fashioned pop songs from the 80s and 90s kept most of the crowd nice and quiet. Raymond, Guai, Babyjohn, Yeong Ching, and Freddie did once again impersonate the Backstreet Boys right before Suk Yi and Dr. Jiang left. Afterwards the energy dropped even further. Phoenix and Gillian were each standing on a chair singing. The games of mah-jong continued. My fellow classmates departed one by one. Until Christy, Jacqueline, and I were the only ones who were singing with eight people playing mah-jong on the other end of the room. Eventually, we left together, but the crowd still lingered downstairs on the Lockhart Road right infront of the restaurant's main entrance. We stood there and chatted for almost an hour. We even had the honour of having Jim Chim and his crowd run into us and said our hellos and goodbyes. Later Susanne, Birdy and I walked to the bus stop opposite the Southorn Playground and waited for our buses. N182 arrived first, and there went Susanne. Then came the N680. Birdy and I got on it and went upstairs. I probably looked really upset because Birdy told me so. Yeah. I was dead tired. Kind of depressed. In a bad mood. Birdy reminded me that the bus journey might be the last of its kind for both of us. She held on to my left arm and leaned her head against my left shoulder. She started singing, and then I started singing as well. She started crying, and I followed. I sang Anita Mui's 似水流年 , Teresa Tang's 漫步人生路, and Alan Tam's 朋友. My tears just flooded down across my face. My stop was near. I got up and walked toward the staircase. I said to Birdy, "Bye Bye lah 柏芝." And She replied, "Bye Bye lah Ho Long." I went down the stairs, got off the bus, turned around, and looked up. Bus began moving. I started running. We kept waving to each other till we couldn't see each other anymore. That was the climax. The event of the night. The moment.

Signing off now.

Yours sincerely,
B. H.