School

For centuries, people have been interested in dream interpretation. So much so that we have oneirology, the scientific study of dreams.

Finding yourself back in your old school in the dream has special meaning, for instance. That means you have to learn important “life” lessons.

Oh, and it’s not a dream. My daughter and her classmates recently came up with a plan to visit their former teacher at their primary school. For me, that’s the best reason to take a half day off. For the kids, they decided to skip formal lunch to save time for such a jovial event.

Way back in the all-too-familiar campus today, we were fortunate to meet their favorite teacher. As we stood talking, we quite enjoyed reminiscing about good friends we once knew. A few minutes later, we were in such high spirits that two basketball teams were lined up: grown-ups against students. What could be better than an afternoon holiday spent with kids shouting and laughing?

By the time we were to say adios, my sweat (okay, puffing) were more than I like to admit.

Chickadee

Medical school year-end examination is no place for sissies. Inasmuch as the event is the final hurdle to overcome before a student can add the title "Dr." in front of their name, this has haunted many doctors-to-be, year after year.

If, however, I am the examiner instead of being the candidate, I would say this is probably good way to learn medicine. Student examination is for students. Yes and no. It's also to benefit teachers, because we are all vulnerable. A cardiologist might forget most of the lessons taught by a neurologist. A kidney disease specialist might need to brush up the knowledge in digestive system. Who won't?

One of my favorite stories about brain's use-it-or-lose-it hard disc space is scientific study of birds' memory. You've probably heard that our feathered friends somehow remember exactly where thousands of different clumps of seeds are buried without a single yellow sticky note. Incredible memory, huh? In one fascinating study of chickadees, however, wild-caught birds lost a staggering 23 percent of their hippocampal volume just five weeks after being brought into captivity. Caged birds had less need to remember and track down cached seeds than their wild counterparts, and then ended up with shriveled brains. 

Specialist doctors, by the same token, can be "caged" in our own turf, and literally lose our head. We'd better challenge the idle hippocampus before it shrinks too much.

Hair-Raising

Can you believe I finished reading Christopher McDougall's book (okay, second half of the book) at Ocean Park?

I did so today.

I spent two hours standing because the queue for roller coaster ride was incorrigibly long in the theme park. But, as my daughter puts it, our time spent queuing is worth it. Two of us had front-row seat, thrill-charged experience of Hong Kong's fastest roller coaster Hair Raiser.

Being truly honest, I am not a big fan of thrill rides.

This time, though, was different. I knew this is the first time my daughter is tall enough (more than 140 cm) to scream her heart out at the floorless roller coaster. I knew that she had looked forward to the experience. You never know. Nobody can tell when his daughter is going to choose her twist-and-dive trip with another alpha male. So, hold on tight, I told myself, and enjoy as much as I can.

Improvise

A year after travel restriction in place around the globe, the unprecedented threat to the emotional toll of boredom remains difficult to beat. But it's worth saying that improvisational travel adventures may still be the ticket to globe-trotter's pleasures.

Small as it might be, Hong Kong can offer us quite a number of captivating countryside paths to explore.

The farther we explore into the countryside, the more we love the hidden green places. With flight trips off the agenda for now, countryside walk has become our family’s pastime.

No two hikers agree on the best local hiking route, but a good starting point would be those falling off the radar of the public. Be aware that popular hiking trails could be too crowded to give us a leisurely weekend break.

Often, even without highly revered attraction (think sweet gum trees in autumn, bell-shaped Chinese New Year flower in spring, or cherry blossom in Japan, for that matter), a dash of imagination is good enough to help our family capture the best of nature. There’s nothing quite like being far from the madding crowd, our creative minds running wild. In this I owe much to the ingenuity of my wife and daughter, who always make their own games, a state of mind as quick-witted as Julia Donaldson. Today, we spent an afternoon putting leaves on the zigzagging downstream water along a pretty stream near Luk Keng, the way Englishmen enjoy punting in Cambridge. Such an unbelievable way of having fun.

Birder

It is no secret that birds have a way of getting people hooked. So fascinating is bird-watching experience that it is more than grateful for me to find out the BioNTech vaccine station is within a stone's throw of a wetland in the north-west New Territories.

The sheer wonder of getting an excuse to take a relaxing afternoon off to have a jab, away from everyday chores, and then follow birds through the camera viewfinder!

The rewards from opening up to the world of birds are simply endless. The soothing green of the vegetable fields where birds flock. The whoosh of wagtails flying overhead. The blur of motion froze by each click of the shutter.

And now, I must say, I look forward to my second BioNTech shot three weeks later.

Burning

If I am stuck with finding fiction books to read, the first and most sensible way is crowdsourcing. A pretty good source is looking up the book recommendation from The New York Times. That's how I come to hear about Megha Majumdar.

No single word better expresses the essence of what makes her debut novel a powerful one than "Burning." No less important is the way Majumdar entitles the book A Burning.

One of the main characters, Jivan, was accused of sedition in the aftermath of a terrorist attack at a railway station. A few nights after she posted a careless comment on Facebook, she was dragged up in her nightie by the police. The next morning, at the courthouse, Jivan was told by the judge the list of charges against her.

"Crime against the nation," he said. "Sedition." (Call me a coward if you will; I dare not cite Jivan’s anti-government Facebook post here.)

No more than a few hours after Jivan was arrested, she was transported from temporary lockup to the prison. I could imagine the scene she cried, my own eyes dry and throat burning. Of course, you'd read more burning stories behind bars. Take Americandi, her cellmate. She pushed a man who was trying to snatch her necklace but then fell, struck his head on the pavement and became comatose. That's how Americandi ended up in jail.

As I read on, I heard and saw more burning of scapegoats, or maybe I imagined it. Maybe.

Soul

On the day public libraries reopened, I went there to borrow dozens of books a fortnight ago. Before the calculation of overdue book fines is to be resumed tomorrow, I finished Brit Bennett's novel The Vanishing Half today.

At the same time, I realized the chance to watch Pixar's production Soul is long overdue, after closure of cinemas in the fourth wave of pandemic in the city. Ultimately, our family have the chance this afternoon.

The stories of Vignes twin sisters separating, and that of jazz pianist Joe Gardner bumping into a delinquent soul named 22, are both prime examples of how intertwining the fates can be. In different cities, across different skin colours and different generations, and even different zones from unborn to afterlife.

It cannot be said too often: all life is one.