Honey Yang

Honey was brought to us by chance when my mom took my brother Lucien for a pet shopping after his serveral months of long pleading.  In front of a pet shop, a woman asked them if they wanted to keep one of her new born mixed puppies, instead of buying a dog.  Heard that woman wanted to give us a white puppy but that little one was having a bad stomache that day. She was afraid that we did not know how to handle that situation since we had never raised a dog.  Thus, Honey became one of our family members.

At first, my father complained about Honey's loud barking a lot and strongly disagreed to keep a pet in the house.  Funny thing was, Honey never hid her love and passion to my father.  Honey could amazingly recognise the sound of my father's steps.  Whenever she heard my father's, she would immediately run toward to the door and wag her tail hard and excitedly to welcome him home.  We were thus informed Father's back when hearing the "bump, bump, bump" sound hitting on the door.   Gradually, we found Father softened his attitude and seems very pleased to enjoy this warm welcome.  We also found he even looked forwards to this greeting when coming home.  

Honey had some wierd behaviours that we even could not understand where they came from.  She did not like dog food at all but was a great lover of meat mixed with rice.  She liked lying in the middle of living room so as to watch all of the family members with her innocent-like watery round eyes.  I so love her eyes...  She used to sleep in my bed leaning against my legs.   I liked the feeling of touching her brown furry back with my foot.   Thinking of this... she's really the best heater in winter and the coolest pillow in summer.   

Maybe because we saw Honey as a little sister of ours, interestingly, she sometimes acted just like a spoiled little girl.  She didn't like to be left alone in the house.   When we had to leave her at home, she barked so loud that we still could hear her barking all the way down the road.  Seemed she thought herself a human being like us or she thought we were dogs like her...  

Due to aging, Honey died when she was 14 years old of human being's age.  When she was sent to the vet, my sister Shengwen, planning to get married in the next year, whispered to our dying dear old dog that, if possible, she would like her becoming her daughter in the next life.  hmm... when my niece Yaya was very little, some of her movements were increditably like those of Honey, such as the way she wiping her face.

I was so sad for Honey's passed away and cried a lot for losing her.  I dreamed of her sometimes.  In my dream, she was as cute as usual, especially for her innocent-like eyes...

Orlanda

An interesting novel by Jacqueline Harpman, sparked by Virginia Woolf's Orlando, also one of my favorite films.

- French version: original language (would love to read this novel in French... pity... ok, todo: one of my new year resolution of 2005...)
- Chinese version: 歐蘭達
- English version: Editorial Reviews by Amazon.com.

From translation viewpoint, the English translator uses this novel as an example of cultural adaptation from vous/tu switching in conversation to body language/gesturing, so as to convey English-speaking reader with equal subtlety.

Wonder how this part is presented in Chinese version?

Metro maps in the world

UrbanRail.net, a site collecting the metro maps all over the world.

Metros I've taken so far:

Taipei, Taiwan (wow, this site contains the detailed and future plan. Cool!)
Paris, France
New York, USA
San Franciso, USA
Newcastle, England (I miss this map a lot.)
Glasgow, Scotland

uhh... it would be nice if a world metro map of mine can be drawn like this.

Japan guide

Appearance of the newest Japan for foreign visiters before their being troubled?

Some interesting topics:
- No.1 vending machine of the world (gosh, automatic blood donation machine!)
- The police in Japan (Ninja?)
- The taboo in Japan (American) with "lucky strike"

This link is provided by Yukako and Ken. Thank you...