Memories

A Red-Letter Day Morning Potpourri

All set and ready for the big day. Not an ordinary day but a celebration of the 14th year of being together as husband and wife. A red-letter day indeed! I woke up at a time my alarm fed my head by tweets and chirps in a rainforest smartly generated by a smart phone. Okay it was 5:30 am, the time set when my kids were supposed to be awake for school preparation. But the day, 28th Dec 2012, it’s in the middle of their holiday break in school and it would be a good three or four hours for the teenaged girls to stay rested on the bed with blankets all over caused by 8 deg C temperature. On stepping on the floor from bed I saw an A4 paper, I knew right away it would be from the little one. Yeah, a greeting complete with sketches and the coined words coming from happy face, Annie the  movie, a verse in the Bible and Rosary,  forming the words “Happy Anniversary”. Dear God, thanks for these kids, we love them however “makulit” they would have become at times.

I went to the living room clasping the little 2013 Diary with the cover of St. Pedro Calungsod, sitting on the sofa and flipping through its pages I came across the prayers section, one of which was about giving the day to the Lord. I meditated and said the prayer, offering this wonderful day all to God.  I had 2 good hours to prepare before going down to catch my favourite 7:45 bus. I did some cleaning-up of tiny messes brought by our late to bed caused by mix-up of activities the day before. I brewed my coffee, not of the machine served but through the good old traditional single coffee filter cup with scorching water dripped over to fill my porcelain cup placed underneath the filter. K51The aroma took every space of the kitchen and this brought me to full consciousness. Oh wait, I saw some cups and saucers left unwashed overnight and felt the urge of liquidating them. The adrenalin rush pushed me to pick up every dirt found and finally came out of the kitchen feeling victorious. Not realizing how much work was done, I took a peek on the wall clock above the main door and it was 7:05 am already, you mean I did the chores for almost two hours? I was scrambling to get to the toilet and made a hasty bath to be able to collect a copy of HK Standard on my way to the bus stop.

Everything was set and lo, I planted a sweet goodbye kiss to my dear wife’s forehead who was half conscious and greeted me “Happy Anniversary”. As I walked down with my hair still wet and feeling the cool breeze sweeping my face, I saw from afar buses coming to halt. I had my newspaper clipped with my left arm when I recalled what I planned the night before that I would be taking the new route the KMB had introduced in the area about a 15-minute journey from home. Oh, okey, K51 bus will bring me there, and behold, the bus that I usually take had come, the 252B, 252bI had a little panicking inside me confused whether to get the new journey or stick to the old monotonous ride. Hmm.. after a while, my senses brought my feet at the doorstep of K51 bus.

The K51 is one of the fedder buses of LRT serving the sorrounding areas of Tuen Mun and in this case it goes as far as the Correctional Services in what it is now called Tuen Mun Bus-Bus Interchange or TM-BBI. I took the ride and swiped my Octopus card and to my dismay I had -$1.20 cents left, I can feel my face turning red and the air-conditioning system didn’t help abate the warm gas my skin was exuding. OK, stay calm I told myself, I checked my wallet, nothing, not even a 10$ bill, I took my coin purse, it’s a bit heavy. I started counting and down to the last 10 cents, I only had $9.60 in all. The journey from the TM-BBI to my workplace would cost me about $15.00 and where would I be taking the difference from. There is no 7/11, no bank, as this place is newly developed, not even as a commercial area but a bus interchange. The bus was on the last minute of the journey, I was expecting that it would stop to where I would be taking the second leg to my work, again another heatwave came to my head when I realized that K51 and 252B are from two different companies and their bus stations differ and nothing

To be continued..

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