可惜的风

三星期迟，抱歉。。。
三星期前，我的一个死党终于跑人了。。。一年前已经差点给他逃掉，但是后来原本会到Leeds的，又临时转到驰名的一所伦敦大学去了。好可惜，已经离开了“娘家”莱斯特。
讲讲还必须从三年前的某天，我从Freemens Common的房转到Nixon Court去，几乎见到的第一个就是那自称“竹 老”的香港人。才讲了一句英文，我就换到广东话了。My Cantonese has never been very good, but I picked up some hongkongy slang over the years．．．．
还有什么呢?打麻将，骂人，唱K，吃火锅。。。 and a few Cantonese concepts like 饮茶,typing cantonesised chinese which takes some effort.　I also got a grand toour of Hongkong and a free hotel (but pictures not included)!
第一年还好，没浪费那么多时间，但是当我们跟嘉文和Tracy一起住一个corridor时就变得天皇地乱。整天无所事事，不是在厨房谈话、打乒乓、看电视（black and white tv licence!)、打darts (year 1)、吃东西（夜宵）。。。oh, and not forgetting Ben(son) and his Grand Theft Auto -Vice City. Those were crazy days, superb time-wasters all. We had feasts from time to time with legendary people like Jackie, 慧慧, Melissa, Kana, Roger, Carmen, Aaron, Terence... the lot.

When I need to write quickly and precisely I can't do that well in Chinese... still something I cannot commit myself to do. Grrr.. those years learning it and I still take too long to think and type. And considering, my Chinese is already "very good".

Anyway, coming back, it's been stupendous having the friendship of such a candid and exciting person. Fantastic character, good memory, up for anything (mostly), eloquent and cheerful.... We all have our secrets, and it was ironic to find out exactly how much of one he had on the last day of his time in the UK. All I can say is that "ZOU DIT TONG NGO SHARE MAH!!" But we have been through betrayals (not saying anything here), disappointments (again, eerie silence), moves (Nixon to Nixon then to Lytton), challenges (badminton, etc), games (mahjong, snooker), dinners (the whole lot! Too many to mention!), adventures (walking on top of cliffs in the heavy rain in Northern Ireland with me munching on an apple; rock-climbing in Leicester; another bout of heavy rain in Hongkong) and the lost pictures (damn the harddisk).

Go out and succeed.

风萧萧兮易水寒，壮士一去绝不复返。