Like A Teapot

Having not heard from my mother for a while, I decided to give her a call tonight. I had suspected that she had gone to visit her father this past weekend and I was right. Apart from seeing her father, she also attended a dinner event celebrating the birth of one of her sisters' first grandchild.

She also informed me that she was in the middle of watching the final episode of the American television series Prison Break. Now that was interesting. First I did not expect the show put on Chinese television. Second, I never thought she would ever be interested in such material. I asked if she was watching the English version or a dubbed Chinese version, she said it was the latter. She also mentioned that the main actor of the show, whom she thought was quite good, had visited China and gone on a popular talk show earlier, which I did remember reading about here.

Though I knew about the tv series, I have never watched it myself and could not immediately recall its English title. So I typed in the Chinese title to google it. And guess what, "Reality Prison Break Show in Belgium" emerged as one of the top search results. I clicked on it and found it a breaking news item. An English BBC version is here.

This is amazing material. Not the least because a similar incident took place in Belgium a few years ago and things of Belgium seem to have made quite a bit of headlines lately. Yesterday I was going to comment on this remarkable Belgian on the right. He was a painter of the 19th century. He may not be a great artist, but he truly had guts. And I admire him for that despite what The Economist says.

    

As the 2010 Winter Olympics is less than one year away and all the hotel rooms are fully booked, the more enterprising people in the Greater Vancouver area are gearing up to earn some quick fat cash by renting out their residence to distant visitors.

Some advertisements are less truthful. Some folks in my area, which is about 45 minutes to downtown Vancouver with minimum traffic, are telling people that their places are only 30 minutes drive from Vancouver downtown. The truth is with traffic it could be one and a half hour and there will definitely be lots of traffic during the Game.

Currently, two-week rent for a two-bedroom downtown apartment is asking for $15,000 CND and it is considered normal. A house in the suburbs with convenient location also commands over $10,000 CND.

My friend's father passed away last week, after a cardiac arrest.
I re-experienced the time when my own father went.
My friend and I have lots in common; we have the same birthday, though not the same year.
Our fathers also played a similar role in our lives and left us a similar way.

Today when I listen to his old man's favourite music and am liking it again,
I once more feel honoured to have been known by this man, before his hospital days.
In his own home, sitting in his own chair, at the mention of me, he smiled.
I cannot forget that smile; however vague, however weak, whatever its significance.