… three precious weeks, day 9.

00 and I started the day sharing a “bowl” of 牛雜 on the sidewalk.  It was very yummy.  Next was a famous 腸粉 place where we also met up with Winnie. We sat for a bit and started heading out towards the busier section of the city.  A stroll down “pet” street and I saw the cutest Japanese Spaniel and a Maltese.  Gosh, I love Malteses… they are so adorable.  I miss Shadow… she has been gone for over 20 years now and I still miss her.  Then onto more shops, and more stalls.  Every street looked the same after awhile and even sometimes the merchandise was the similar. Anyway, I really didn’t think that I would be buying anything because I really didn’t need anything but I ended up doing a lot of shopping today. I got another pair of sneakers, two sizes bigger than my normal size and some sports socks.  I changed them immediately and my feet “felt” safe once again.  I got myself some glitter nail polish that I can’t find in the States and then I purchased these little gifts “boxes for my presents”.  00 was so good at haggling over the prices and we got them almost less a hundred dollars than the original price. Oh, that’s right!  I forgot to bring the little souvenirs for the girls with me for the dinner tonight.  I told 00 and Winnie that we would have to go back to my place before dinner to get them. I also mentioned that I needed to find a box to put $1s’ present in. We went to a stationary store and found a perfect box, just the right size, not too big and not too small and definitely not too frilly. I told them the story of how I “got” $1’s present. Explaining that I had no time to do any shopping before I left LV and I didn’t want to walk into a gift shop and ended up buying something that was made in China. Since I had drivers and tour guides going out to “Canyon” country, I asked this particular guide (male in his 40’s) if he could get me something authentically made by American Indians. I really had no idea what $1 would like so I suggested something like a “paper weight”. I told Mark “Look for something along the lines of a paper weight, it would be nice if you can find one with “Kokopelli” image on it, if you like it, then go ahead and buy it. I trust you.” “What is he like?” “ I have no idea. Hmm… I think he should be more on the creative side but maybe a bit stodgy.” “Okay.  Will do!” The day before I was to leave LV, Mark brings in this box with a grin on his face. “Here you go! I think he will like this because it’s beautiful.” “Thanks!” I am now thinking to myself, beautiful? How can a paper weight be beautiful? It could be unique or manly perhaps even elegant but beautiful? This I have got to see. When I opened the box… I heard the “oohs and ahhs” from my fellow workers but my jaw just dropped. It was a vase in pastel colors!!! : Mark, in the meantime, was embellishing to my male boss what a beautiful piece it was and that it was a one of a kind done by an American Native Indian artist and how he thought it was perfect. Then he said “Oh, tell him don’t put water in it because it will leak.”  “Huh?”  What kind of vase is it if one can’t put water in it?  “Well, it’s not really a vase, vase.  It’s more a decoration piece, maybe he can put pens in it.”  Looking at it again, I said “It’s a little tall for pens, don’t you think?”  Sigh… I am thinking, maybe I should go shopping at Macy’s tonight… The end.
Anyway, I told 00 that I needed to get a necklace to go with the present I got from 雁雁 and 00 said that there were a lot shops by my place and that we should take a look in that area. So it was time to head back in the direction of “home”. We walked around a number of shops and finally found one that I liked. Once we got back into the apartment, we relaxed a bit and drank some lemon tea. I took out my phones and said “I didn’t even use this phone, I wonder how come the battery is dead?  I better charge it.”  Winnie and 00 helped me with some gift wrapping because I am pretty hopeless when it comes to these things and then it was time to part with 00 and Winnie and I headed out for dinner in Tsim Sha Tsui.
I really thought we had enough time and that we wouldn’t be late but… I still have no notion that once we get out of the MTR station, we still had to walk quite a distance to the restaurant. It was a long hot and humid walk. I felt a bit disoriented and guilty that we were 20 minutes late when we got there. I waved my hellos to the table in general and took one of the empty seats that M pointed out to me in this long table for 11. The only two girls other than M and Winnie that I’ve met before was花花and Dada, and I said a more personal greeting to them. I was taking out my little LV souvenir shooter glasses when all of a sudden I noticed that M, who was sitting a couple of seats across from me on my right, was jerking her head to my left and looking at me with a funny expression on her face. The thoughts that flashed in my head was… “Huh? What did I do now? What did I forget?” Then I turn to my left and peered down the table and said “Hi” once again in general. As I was turning back my head towards M to look questioningly at her, I hesitated for a fraction of a second, and then looked directly at the beauty sitting on my immediate left. (I did a very close to a double take!) I opened my mouth but nothing came out. (Absolutely a goldfish look!) The beauty smiled back and I finally was able squealed out “兩蚊?” in my almost non-existent voice. OMG! I was so astonished and surprised that Winnie later on said she wished she had a camera. I totally don’t remember her first words to me… I swear my mind was totally blank, my hearing was shot, but I know that I must have had the hugest grin on my face. I don’t remember what happened afterwards but I think I muttered something like… “Err… I didn’t expect to see you tonight so I didn’t bring your little present with me.” I hurriedly guessed the girls names and gave them their little mementos.  I guess 妍貓 first and she is kind of shy.  Next came Snoopy, whom I saw in WP because of the scarf she gave to Muse.  Then Pearl because no one else there looked under 100 pounds, then two left… Erised and Twinkle.  How was I going to differentiate them?  Hmmm…. I asked both of them to stick out their hands for me then I said “You are Erised and you are Twinkle.”   Luckily, I was correct.  Woohoo!  Perfect score again!  I don’t remember whether I went to get food first or getting some of the presents first.  But I do remember that Snoopy gave me a self-knitted “collar” in aqua blue.  It was beautiful and she came over to help me put it on.  (Have anyone tried to put “yarn” around your neck when you are hot?)  Then 妍貓 gave me a gorgeous self-knitted 披肩, which at first I thought was a scarf and tried to put it on like a scarf but then I noticed that there were buttons… huh?  She hurriedly came over and help put it on me.  So sweet!  But I was not being very helpful since I kept squirming so both beauties were like trying to straighten out the 披肩 by smoothing it out on top of me and I was like… covering my front… anyway… it was all in good fun.   Words like… “抽水呀！ 掃背好啦，唔駛掃前喇!”  Which had everyone laughing.  Erised gave me a beautiful hand-made cup made by herself and she brought two more as gifts for lucky winners .  Dada gave me a slip pocket so I can put my “octopus” card in it to go with the doll I got last Friday.  Pearl got me a pretty “USB” on a necklace.  Girls, thank you!  Your willingness to see me, have dinner with me and us having a great time together is really your biggest present to me.  Thanks, M for coordinating a special night.  Dinner passed very pleasantly and conversation flowed easily back and forth.  I found that the best ice-breakers for these gatherings is to talk about OP! It was perfect that $2 was there to tell us some stories.  Wow, if these girls were in a game show, they would win hands down if the subject was 畢打！Mention one line… and someone can tell you what scene, the title and number of the episode.  Amazing!  Oh, I guess throughout dinner, I had accidently “bumped” into $2’s arm a couple times when I look over to the left end of the table speaking with either Dada or Snoopy and I didn’t even realize it until she said something... I don’t exactly know what she meant because it was in HK slang but I think I can guess.  Geez… I hope she was joking… she seem so serious.    But she did have a twinkle in her eyes when she said it so… I will presume she was joking. Unfortunately, the night was cut short when the waiter came and said that the next reservation for our table will be at 9:30.  We all gathered outside to take a group picture and then we all walked and chatted all the way to the MTR station together.  
When I got home, I was still grinning and I think I left a message on $1’s blog and on 薇博 about another wonderful day!