record early wake up time of 2:30am. dick once told me that old people always wake up early because they're afraid they might not wake up at all anymore. i don't know about that, because i know i woke up remembering that i have ice candy (you know, frozen flavored liquid in plastic container - bah, i'll show you photo tomorrow) in the freezer, and i wanted some right at that moment. and anyway he's in his mid-30's, what does he know about being old.
well, one can only have so much ice candy so early, so after a few i decided to run. it was already 4am by the time i got there. i saw a few old chinese men in their standard gear of white vest, khaki shorts, black shoes and high socks - , doing their tai-chi thing, some carrying radio, walking the path alone - but they kept disappearing. i mean, like, one would say "good morning" in cantonese to me and i'd say the same as i pass him, but if i look back he's gone. what's weird about it is that one side of the path is high retaining wall and the other side is a steep fall. and this happened a few times. creepy, no? i decided either they fell and rolled down all the way to causeway bay or, more likely, they can walk through solid concrete retaining walls.
when i reached the end (same as the beginning, it was a return run) and i stopped, i felt very woozy. woops. (uh-oh, the vanishing old men are after me!) feeling dizzy combined with being hot from running and soaked all over is really bad. i sat down on a park bench, took deep breaths, and it took a while before i felt ok again to stand up. went to the street (magazine gap road) and waited for a taxi. none came. strange because there's always taxi anywhere in hong kong at anytime. after waiting for sometime i got dizzy again, combined with some rumbling in my belly, so i went to the toilet in the park nearby and let one rip. or two. ok, a few. then i felt REALLY better. how was i to know that this dizziness thing was just a massive case of fartiness? i blame the ice candy. well i can't really because they were good. when i went back to the street there were plenty of taxis but by then i'm pissed at them already for not being there when i needed one, so i walked home.
i usually go back by the central escalator, but this time i thought i'd go a different way. down to garden road, by hong kong zoo and botanical, between government house and u.s. consulate, ice house street, then queens road. lined along the sidewalk of an entire block in queens road were people manually sorting freshly unloaded newspapers, literally doing inserts. (photo, above).
XXX
