占卜 Toast

Sortes Vergilianae is a form of divination by books, specifically Virgil's Aeneid.  I continue to question the epic:  it's the men who play with fire but always the women burned on the pyre, WHY?!  The ability of making visual connection as a designer has made me a fine detective.  My foresight however puts me in awkwardly social danger sometimes, death by moral, so to speak.  Uncannily I was reunited with Nigel Slater nearly an exact year after by the movie Toast.

去年此時端坐京都開化堂的咖啡沙龍, 悠然午后品茗嗑小食翻書, 當時的我不識Nigel Slater何方神聖, 完全以封面和視覺效果取書, 想著要記下書名而後拋諸腦後.

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蜉蝣 Mayfly

年年此時皆外出遠遊探親訪友, 暑休兼暑修; 而今另番業障, 日日讀新聞往往焦慮難安.  Covid黑翼飛舞下, 族羣衝突警民對立, 各黨各派互挖坑讓對方跳… 人性的偏見與盲點深不見底, 頗厭世的躲書堆, 或專看動物頻道和溫暖勵志的酷男異想世界.  

Exhausted from reading news after news of injustice and judgement, all I wanted to do after hours was binge watching Queer Eye or Absurd Planet.  LOVE rules.  NATURE rules.  Home cooking also becomes a ritual of calmness.

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香丘 Ranunculus Revelation

May Day mayhem… the analog hack of journaling seems to retain my sanity in the pandemic when both our physical reality and emotional state equally ravaged by Covid-19.  I turned to the gifts of nature too for consolation - the exuberant bouquet of ranunculus celebrated May birthdays in the family and Happy Mother's Day!!!

百感交集的五月天, 七年前父親驟逝, 當年黑洞似的殤慟隨歲月漸褪, 心頭卻滿溢絮語欲向彼岸說.

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思念 Wind of Change

Marching into the 7th week of shelter-in-place.  Glory, glory, hallelujah… what IS the next policy actually supported by economic planning(vs. election campaign) and scientific studies of the COVID-19 pandemic(instead of a mud-slinging civil war)?!  Unexpected gains and losses here and there.  

Sipping dark chocolate becomes my mood booster and hope immunity joins the hike, too.

堂堂進入居家隔離第七星期, 即使WFH, 職場依舊詭譎.  自七年前加入目前品牌, 本部門從未嚐敗蹟, 時也運也, 如今大衰退, 其它部門則供不應求漲停板.  風水輪流轉, 慶幸LK向來淡然, 不至成眾矢之的.

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殤疫 Shelter In Place

At the end of the 2019 annual meeting for the charity foundation I serve last May, each board member was asked for a word that came to mind.  "Tomorrow.", I said.  In the midst of COVID-19, we could only hope for a better tomorrow.  Social distancing for the greater good has strange effects on the nuclear family.  WFH ZOOMing and e-learning during the weekdays(what?  what's a weekend?), reading and home cinema for the rest(we finally signed up for Disney+ and YES, enamored with Baby Yoda :)  

image source:  https://www.focusfeatures.com/emma

The latest version of Emma is entrancing with its ubiquitous mustard yellow and the PERIOD, signifying the eponymous character's finality in her prejudice.

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