To the Lighthouse

The Lighthouse was then a silvery, misty-looking tower with a yellow eye, that opened suddenly, and softly in the evening. Now—



I really like this little lighthouse, with very cute "bowl" for cider drinking and, of course those very delicious crepes.

je sais je sais

We have so much fun in the suicidal way
We were always so clueless together,
We stuck, we laughed and we stuck

I led you up the cobblestone road
I led you to the darkest corner
I led you to be as gruesome and ridiculous as me

Until, you slurred and swerved
and found there's no way back
and said, "thank you" and dropped dead

To live happily, we must go hidding

I romanticise absinthe. That must be dated from my teenage years when i was so in love with oscar wilde and found in his biography that wilde ended his desolate years in France by drinking cheap absinthe. What a melancholic and decadent drink. Verlaine became a scum, Van Gogh cut off his ear, all under the influence of green fairy, dangerous but essentially charming (and artistic). Sadly my wish to taste this green elixir have never been quite fulfilled.

It is not easy to find Absinthe in Hong Kong as this is never a place for bohemian. However, it is also not easy to find the green fairy in Europe, the aftermath of its general ban during 20th century. Wormwood, the main ingredient of Absinthe, explains the mysterious effect after consuming it as wormwood was said to have a chemical which produces similar effect of cannabis, causing hallucination, inspiration or waking up one's innermost dream, evil or uplifting, you name it.

My first sip of absinthe took place last year at my beloved rendezvous in pottinger street. The drink was not green in colour, as it had already blended with water and sugar. Two glasses of it I didn't slip under the table but i did slip down the slope in front of the bar. Effect of wormwood or just alcoholic intoxication? (and the girl at the bar had warned me of the high percentage of alcohol - 45%) Of course I'm not saying I was invincible but 45% should not be that formidable challenge, so will it be the effect of ... (but i had already consumed a bottle of red wine and several cocktails beforehand). Even the hangover was peculiar, i didn't feel headache but literally, I could not get off the bed, like i was not here nor there, or i was not myself, did van gogh cut off his ear under this state of mind?



I was not sure if I drank the real thing or not, it is said that there is no real absinthe nowadays. I tried again at agnes b. Formality was larger than anything. Cold water dripped from a crystal water fountain, melting the sugar cube placed on a slotted spoon and diluting the green fairy into an opal cloud. Elegant and pretentious. I was warned of its extra-high alcoholic percentage (something among 60%), but i found its extra-sweet taste more horrendous. I couldn't find any whimsical wake afterwards, though it's fun to undergo the whole set of ritual.



Devil's picnic was an interesting book which the author visited every corner of the world to find the forbidden fruit, which included absinthe. Wish I have his resources, sadly i have not. But what if there was serendipity? My awareness for the green remained sharp though I was in the paradise of hedonists. Loitering around, it's not difficult to find absinthe, in the name of absenta, in those backstreet wine shops of Bacelona. The price was really cheap, I asked the old lady of the shop if they were the real thing, of course resulted in communication breakdown, so no matter of what, i grabbed a bottle. I am waiting for the right moment to lose myself.



The search for the legendary absinthe is still on and on, of course the one which i most wanted is like this:







Tendency to escape

From what? Boredom? Duties? Daily life?

And how?

Physical escape. Useless. I reckon I may escape my boredom, duties and daily life by flying to a foreign land. But what if the place is not foreign anymore? Then inevitably it will turn to another daily life which I want to escape. Or just like a tribal member to live here and there without rooting yourself? Deep down, wherever I go, I will be the same person, with the same traits, thoughts, weaknesses and arrogance, so after all these years, I concluded that in addition to duties, boredom and daily life, what I mostly need to escape from is just myself.

Internal escape. That is the intoxication Baudelaire talked about. On wine, poetry, or virtue. Or some may find it on music, food, drug, sex or religion, whatever makes you forget yourself. aldous huxley's famous quote, been quoted too often, almost becomes a cliche, but still holds the truth, "most men and women lead lives at the worst so painful, at the best monotonous, poor and limited that the urge to escape longing to transcend themselves if only for a few moments, is and has always been one of the principal appetites of the soul".

... humm our soul longs for an escape.

I have much sympathy for those people who have to give up their intoxication by force, not according to one's own will, such as a court order or health problem. We need a few moments of insanity in order to stay sane. That imposed sanity, almost a twist in his sobriety.

it has been 2 days since but i still

Head in the cloud
Another mistake but
Nothing to frown
Gulping the lust
Opaque and loud
Validate my stupid
Existence/
Resistance

Oscar's advice
Nevermore

Assuasive through
Battered and bruised
Sin and sinister
In line with sweet delirium
Nodding my head (oh so dizzy)
This cycle/cyclops
Here to stay
Ever more

no.33 pottinger street

we don't have 112a teesdale steet
nor any trace of a skinny bearcat
all we have are songs and laughter
frenchdog maker
with glasses of mimosa
if we are lucky
a vague view of arcady, sometimes

before i may have some distraction, let me send this quite early greetings to shamblesb.

Cool place

Mellow swallow

Nobody knows if they are real russians or not. What do you feel if you have to sing in front of a bunch of gluttons, who probably do not understand/care what you are singing about? Behind those catchy traditional Russian folk songs, there is some kind of alienation. Mine or theirs? Pretty vacant, pretty strained.

Balalaika, Lan Kwai Fong

Money to burn

I've got no money to burn baby
Why don't we just sit down and chat maybe
Need no substance to make me high
Need no make-up to glam me up
I'm broke but I'm chuffed (no, not really).


Broccoli with sole, Isola in Two International Finance Centre

Does it look delicious? It is indeed delicious. However, the price of the meal is not so "delicious". Blame it on my posh friends. With them, I feel like I am living in a different world, anyway, people are different, with different value judgment, and that's what makes the world go round. Stella Artois or that expensive Chardonnay? Stella of course!

Ask me I won't say no how could I

What constitutes a good pub? Cheap beer, cheap food ...
But what I like most is the music which brings a nice surprise.

"Spending warm summer days indoor
Writing frightening verse
to a buck-toothed girl in Luxembourg"

Wow, that's my song, The Smiths - Ask, playing in al diner (in lan kwai fong, the most cliche and uncool place in hong kong)!!!

Strange leaves

I found this beautiful leaf in a Japaneses restaurant.



This restaurant is situated in Soho, has very delicious sashimi, love it!
Pretty leaf, let's have a closer look.

Lady Bacchus

Clink Clink, let's drown in the inexplicable dream
Down to the sea singing the siren's song
Fly up high taking the angel's dust
Lady Bacchus fears nothing but boredom
Drink Drink, let's consume the whole in a gulp
Tease the world before it gets you down
Sip the poison thinking naught
Lady Bacchus lives in the eternal bliss of oblivion!

The hand asks noodles first

Our hands stretching out, cling to nothing, like
Our minds howling wild, seach for something, still
We reaching out,
intermingle like intermezzos
spill the soup
have a glut
We shall never be a gang of gloom.

The noodles of this noodles shop "Fish Rice what" got too much artificial flavor and I was quite thirsty afterwards. Actually this picture is also a bit creepy to me.