Let me begin with a hearty and sincere greeting to all my friends in many circles both in Hong Kong and overseas, including some readers of my letters whom I might not know personally. I wish all of you out there and your families and loved ones a happy and joyous holiday season ahead. I…
Apart from Su who came to see me twice a day, a few friends came to visit me while I was in QMH. They brought reading materials, food and most important of all, love and laughter. I went down to the coffee shop with some of them and we had a great time. A friend…
By now I have been out of QMH for two weeks. The hospital never told me what caused my fever. I don’t know how many or what tests they have run on my blood samples, but I suppose no news is good news. There is a classic Buddhism teaching which runs like this: when a…
I left off with the news that I was allowed to leave Queen Mary Hospital (QMH) just when I described the circumstances against which I was admitted. Somehow I muddled through another ten days with the last three spent in; surprise, surprise; Kuala Lumpur. But let me get back to QMH, lest my first and…
I can hear it, “Queen Mary?” Yes, this is none other than the Queen Mary Hospital, which must be fast becoming an institution of Hong Kong, of the collective memory category. This was where both my children were born, where Rosita spent her last month and where I bade farewell to quite a few friends….
It is now almost three weeks since I came back from the Camino. I had kept enough notes on my fellow walkers and the three other friends who left us in Sarria that could fill up two letters of average length, but I decided not to put them in print because I don’t feel I…
I have a habit of making notes, or trying to do so, when I am traveling alone. It dated back to the days when I used to keep a diary, which was when I was an undergrad. I had an aspiration to be a scientist, which by definition is someone who is highly disciplined and…
By now, you would have figured out that Su could not join any part of my 3-week sojourn on the Camino, which was not our plan. Given the choice, Su and I would rather be together for all our travels, which was what brought us together in the first place. When I was still holding…
I did not exactly receive overwhelming response to my last letter, at which point Su suggested that I should upload a few images which might attract more attention. So in between siestas, some pictures appeared on Facebook yesterday, which did attract comments. Alas, maybe I should retire my letters column. But I am a die…
I have been telling friends that we are going on El Camino, or The Way in English. This is one of the ultimate routes any pilgrim worth the name would attempt to take, time, energies and resources allowing. It is in the north of Spain, originating from the French Pyrenees and going from east to…
