连环

这是亦舒其中一种常见的故亊。

连环，一个斯文，成熟，稳重，温和，英明的男子。

阿紫，一个有着天使般的面孔，却有着毒蛇般的心脏。

可是连环却从小就无可药救的爱着他，包容他，尽管知道阿紫爱的却是姊姊的情人。

理智告诉连环须接受对他一往情深的湘芹，奈何內心深処却无法对阿紫忘怀。

无法不佩服亦舒的能耐，看似老套的故亊，可是在他写來，却能让人深深的体会到当中的悲哀及无奈。

“她说的话全然不通，强词夺理，却又这样好听，句句动人，连环知道他遇见了煞星，她有克制他的魔力。”

“一路上阿紫嘴角孕育着一个诡秘的微笑。
　　连环怵目而惊。“

“一直是连环的幻觉罢了，真的，千怪万怪，也不能怪香紫珊，要怪怪他自己魅由心生。但是这一刻，连环双目碧清，一点杂质都没有，如两汪潭水。在他瞳孔中，她可以照得见自己影像，没有火，那朵小小火焰不知在几时已经熄灭。”
他牵动嘴角，无奈凄然地笑起来，演技好得连香紫珊都瞒过去了，几时可以瞒过自身？

Bau

Bau came into the world after years of hope and countless attempts.

The doctor, Doctor Siti in SJMC called her the precious baby. Of course all babies are precious. But she is unusually precious to us.

She weighed 3.69kg, about 8lb+ when she is born on 26 Dec at 2.02am by c-section after 16hours of painful labor. I had admitted to the hospital on X'mas day by doctor's advise for induction as she is quite big in size. But she chose to be born on the next day.

When I woke up from the anesthetic the next morning, her father brought her to me in the rover crib, I saw a rounded and bloated baby bunddled in pink. She had thick black hair and small eyes. I also noticed that the skin was quite dark. When I was alone with her, she started to cry. I was so frighten. I didn't know what to do. I called out to her, "宝宝“ as we had not decided on the name yet, she stopped and turned her head to my direction. I was in tears for the first time, she heard me. I didn't even know how to hold her and was afraid to unfold her blanket to check her out. Was afraid that she had any defects on her body. I was relieved when the doctor came by later on to tell that she was perfectly formed.

When sister came to visit and hold her for the first time, she called her an ugly baby. According to her, this is "pantang", we were supposed to speak the opposite. 

On the second day, she developed jaundice and had to put in incubator with the eyes covered in cotton pads and her nose in tubes for treatment. When the nurse brought her to me for breast feeding with her teary eyes, my heart broke. My tears dropped thinking about her in the incubator crying helplessly. Then the nurse explained that it's actually good that she cried so that the lung open up.


So for 5 days we were in the hospital, i saw her only when it was feeding time. My heart hurt everytime the nurse pushed her into my room. They were so rough with the rover cribs, making a lot of noise. I was still very scared when I was alone with her. I was told she might not be able to go home with me as her jaundice was not fully recovered. I was so sad.

On the day I was supposed to be discharged, in the morning, I received a call from the nursery that she was well enough to go home with me. I was so delighted. So we went home together with my sister cuddling her and I walked slowly to the car. According to Chinese believe, she was to enter through the back door for reason I can't remember. Since we were staying in an apartment then, we could only entered the front door and exited again. So, Bau, this is our home sweet home. Welcome to the family and the world!

Books in my life

Ever since I've read Alice in the Wonderland when I was about 9 years old, I have discovered the magic world of novels.


It's all up to your imaginations. The era of time, the characters, the location, the place. You will have a picture printed in your mind according to the description. You will then wallowed up into the story. Very often, you cry when the story is sad.

Outside the bedroom

Inside the bedroom

I enjoy collecting the books as well as reading them.


This is the double-sided book shelf in my bedroom. It also serves as a divider.

There is a teak book shelf in the living room. It houses my favorite English authors. Mostly Dean Koontz and others. 

I read every night before I go to sleep. Sometimes very late into the night. Most of my books are suspense and thriller. Family sagas are also my favorite. Read a lot of romance when I was in high school.

This is built-in on one of the corner of the house. The Millennium Series trilogy are here. Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides is also here.

There are some hard covers on the coffee table.

Magazines are in the basket. A few antique books and antique Readers' Digest.

Books on the top of the chase of drawers.

Novels are essential items in my life. They keep me occupied and also are "food for my spirit and my soul".  I can go into so many people's life and feel what they go through. And to travel into other worlds with wild imagination.

I wish that I can have a mini library in my home one day.

The Mask of Time

Another great book by Marius Gabriel.

It is full of twists and the plot is definitely as good as The Original Sin. They are books which I read and reread again. When I finished reading, the story lingered in my mind for a long time. I would go back to read certain parts of the books to refresh the memory and also to understand more about the story.

Once more, the book involved 3 generations and dated as far as WWII. In Italy, a girl died giving birth to an illegitimate child, Catarina.  A man named Joseph tried to convince the Russians in charge of a camp  in Latvia that he is an American and should be sent home.

Catarina was conceived by forbidden love. The father was an American soldier who took shelter in her mother's house in Italy.

She struggled hard to grow up and became a successful business women who owned a glamorous resort.

Then she was obsessed in finding out who her father was. She was given the impression that her father was still kept captive in the prison camp. So she set out to find her father. She came as close as located her mother's home in Italy and found her diary. In the diary, she read about the men named Joseph and David and their relationship with her mother.
Then she was being attacked by someone unknown to her. Her daughter, Kate, came into the picture now. As she slowly uncovered her mother's quest, she too,  was in danger.
In the end, she managed to find her "father". The shock was that he was the one trying to have her killed. 

The story unfold at the very end that the "father" was not the man she was looking for. The father, Joseph was long killed in the camp. This man here stole Joseph's identity to escape to American. That was the reason that he couldn't be found. 

This was a very touching story. I still can feel the anguish and the pain of the story. It is also a very old book. Again, like the Original Sin,  it stays as my favorite till today.

Title     :    The Mask of Time
Author :    Marius Gabriel 

亦舒

喜欢看亦舒的书。
优雅的字眼，简单的句子，就把信息表达出來。
还有精彩的对白，叫人排案叫絕。
更有许多哲理在字理行间，絕对是有智慧的。
作品通常充满幻想色彩，虚无飘渺。情节紧凑简洁，写法却是轻描淡写。
有一些看來平平无奇，到后来却出人意表。
蕴藏的沧桑和痛楚，是让懂得体会的人看的。看不懂的人只觉乏味。


亦舒於1946年生于上海，原名倪亦舒，兄长是香港作家倪匡。  

亦舒大部份的书我都看过。
最喜欢的是
     玫瑰的故事
          喜宝
        曼陀罗
        阿修罗
     心扉的信
     人淡如菊

其中玫瑰的故事，喜宝更是白看不厌。

The Original Sin

这是我多年前看过的书，非常非常喜爱的一本书。

一开始，书中主角把艰苦策划绑架所得到的赎金，在受害者面前用一把火烧光。

然后才开始说故亊。

受害者是非常富有的商界女强人的女儿。

女儿被禁故在地下室，双手双腿被绑，双眼被蒙住。毎一天，当他給她送食物时，她都不要吃，她只要求药物。然后他发现她病的很严重，发冷发热，全身发抖。。。

女强人聘请了一个谈判专家和绑匪交涉。不消说，他自然心焦如急，毎一天都和谈判专家商讨对彻，无伦如何，女儿的安全是最重要的。虽然，赎金是她的所有财产，她也在所不计。最后，她付了赎金，是现金，10 million.。没料到的是，绑匪竟然当着他的面，把钱烧了！原因真的让人费解！

故事穿插到绑匪的过去。原来他是被收养的，养父是牧师，童年是在长期的孽待中度过，很是悲惨，造成了悲剧性的成年人。

而女强人原本是快乐的女孩，但却被镇上有钱有势的亲父強奸了，还生下孩子。

回到绑匪和女孩。她其实不是病，是毒瘾发作，但经历了发作时的折磨之后，反而得救。绑匪其实不是坏人，结果两人产生了感情。

真相，绑匪就是女强人的私生子,  女孩是收养的。  当年因为羞辱, 放弃孩子, 发奋图强,成为商界女强人。

绑匪的目的，就是报复。为什么他们可以这么开心，而自己却是这么可悲。

错綜複雜的情节，出人意表的真相，细腻和穿插倒叙的写法，都深深的把我吸引, 直到如今，还是我很喜欢的一本书。



Title      :   The Original Sin
Author  :    Marius Gabriel