My Secret Garden

My very "romantic" work place:



















It's what you can see from my seat:



















If you sit on the other side, you can see this:



















P.S. Yes, there's no flower and no green. The name just came to my mind when I took the pictures.

Recent Pastel Drawings

An experiment with black paper.




















A pot of flowers. I hope it's not that difficult to figure it out.

Over eight hours of effort

Sketch

This is a sketch so it's supposed to be rough. The problem is, when others could finish three, I could only complete this one.

Another disaster

No practice can never make perfect.

Moved

View from my new room, from monitoring the main street to monitoring the secondary school.















My new room. The setting is more or less the same as the old one, except it's a few feet bigger because of the "window platform". It suddenly becomes huge!

破地獄與白菊花 My Grandmother's Funeral

Local playwright and actress Wong Wing-sze wrote and acted a one-person show called 破地獄與白菊花 (My Grandmother's Funeral; the Chinese literally means "breaking through hell and white flowers"). It's currently re-running (if not yet ended) at the HK Rep's Blackbox Theatre.

Wong has a family even bigger than ours, and they run a family business of carrying out traditional Chinese ritual at funerals.

Starting by telling us why she's called Wong Wing-sze, Wong told us secrets and traditions of these might be superstitious rituals. More importantly, however, she shared with us her memories with her grandma, at different stages of life, till her grandma went to another world. I remember she told us her grandma couldn't remember her name all her life cause she had three granddaughters born on the same year. (Sara, Rose and Belinda, you are lucky!) Nonetheless, despite she's old, she could still spot Wong from a distance even when she's supposed to be a snail at a children's play.

It's the kind of show that made you laughed your head off at the beginning, but went downhill afterwards to leave you a little bit sense of sadness at the end. Wong won the best actress award that year for the show.

These days, from time to time, the last scene when Wong singing the song "the Person on the Moon" to remember her grandma simply comes to my mind.

* 破地獄, Breaking through Hell, is a kind of ritual for people who died young (young as in not over 70 or so); 白菊花, a kind of white flower, is really the flower, not any ritual, I think.

Ling...Ling...

I remember when Grandpa's in hospital, I was alarmed every time the phone rang, especially when it rang at odd times.

This round when Grandma's in hospital, not only the phone got me alarmed, but all the emails and beep sounds of chat room put me on guard too.

Usually, it's the "adults" who tell us "kids" what happen in the family. Or, I should say we "overhear" them. This time, since all the "adults" are in Edmonton for Grandma's birthday, this communication channel collapses and we have to rely on our own.

It's Derek who chatted me and told me Grandma's in hospital and gone. Crystal is my "Facebook Watcher" who summarizes things she reads from FB and overhears from her parents and emails me from time to time while I can't really access FB at office. It's Rose who keeps us updated on the latest arrangement via email, and asks us via FB our stories with Grandma so that she can prepare her speech at Grandma's funeral.

Some may say the internet puts people apart, but it sure is the vehicle that holds us together, even during difficult times.

就是差一步 Only one step away

I remember when Grandpa passed away, he's only a few months away from seeing my brother graduated from university. (His first grandson graduated from uni.)

When Grandma's leaving us this evening (or morning, Edmonton time), she's less than a year from seeing my cousin getting married. (Her first grandson getting married.) And all of her children were supposed to meet up for her birthday a week or so away.

There's always so many unfinished business.

I can't tell what I remember Grandma the most, cause there're so many. She's always the young and beautiful Grandma I remember.

P.S. When I first heard this song, I knew I would put it up sooner or later.

Last Sunday morning on main street

Present to Fin

Finally putting this up -- a growth chart for Fin. I made one for the twins when they were born too, but they were born three months early and I couldn't catch up. It ended up became their first birthday present.

May be need to get prepared for Doug as well!

Disaster

Really need to work harder for my pastel drawing. But then I left the drawing board at office :P

Pears VS Peaches

This is supposed to be done in two hours cause the pears (whatever they were) couldn't wait another week. However, I couldn't finish in time and spent some time to touch up the background back at home.

歡迎我嗎？

... 求容納別人的艱難，傷我心靈是你說話 ...
... Would you bear with others' trying time? Keep your words from hurting my soul ...

其實我們容不下的，又豈止正生書院的學生？

From B/W to some colours

Starting end of August, I am taking pastel on top of pencil drawing.




















There is quite a bit of "cultural shock" during the first two pastel classes -- the much quicker pace, all kind of different colours, etc. Lots to catch up.

窮富翁大作戰

窮富翁大作戰

窮富翁大作戰 : 富翁變窮人真人show

窮富翁大作戰 : 富翁變窮人真人show (貧富懸殊成因)

工欲善其事

Lately, I love sharpening my pencils, although my skill is as bad as my drawing.

Any one notice the notes on the side?















I have to say this is the first time ever that I draw a ball that looks like a ball.















This one isn't done yet. I missed the last class.




















































The eggplant and the egg are both plastic! Only the bowl is "real".