喜宝

Cambridge University, winter.

第N次看喜宝，毎次的感觉都不一様，这次特别用心看，更加投入，又去到新的境界， 耳边好象听到 Chyi 的歌声。。。。。where have all the flowers gone....long time passing......



伦敦、剑桥、姜喜宝、勖存姿。

姜喜宝，剑桥聖三一院法律系学生。勖存姿，富可敌国，有2女1子。在一次偶然的情况下，喜宝认识了勖存姿的小女儿勖聪慧，因而认识了勖存姿。勖存姿欣赏姜喜宝的才智、勇敢倔强的性格，当然还有美貌，并向喜宝表明他愿意照顾他，喜宝在唯一的亲人 - 母亲要远嫁澳洲以及学费沒着落的情况下，接受了他的建议，命运从此改写。

勖存姿当然不是一个糟老头，相反的是一个温和及风度偏偏的正人君子，但也肯定不是简单人物，最重要的是他真正富有，富有到因为喜宝的一句话，买下一座城堡，但也因为喜宝而杀了一个人。喜宝继续在剑桥上学，住在很棒的房子里，被管家照顾的很好，而勖存姿只在有限的时间探望他。


喜宝自然有他可爱之处，开始时，他们也有过快乐的时光。当勖存姿突然出现在一片白色的剑桥时，喜宝的喜悦是真实的。可是喜宝不小心的一句话，就被冷落了4个月。当喜宝亲自在家为 他准备晚餐时，他也被感动到，而且喜宝的功课是很好的。喜宝在勋存姿的身上得到前所未有的安全感，而勋存姿也在喜宝身上看到他子女所欠缺的坚强。　

因为喜宝，勖聪慧失踪，因为未婚夫宋家明也愛上喜宝，因为喜宝得到的财产比自己还多。因为喜宝，勖存姿唯一的儿子勖聪恕长期在療养院，因为喜宝不爱他，而且对他很残忍.
勖存姿虽然有用不完的銭，可是到最后连一个亲人也沒在身边，因为他的独裁他失去至亲，反而是喜宝甘心留在他身边，虽然勖存姿早已还他自由。

到头来只剩下喜宝自己一个人，与他用也用不完的銭，豪无目的的过日子。

撇开常理及道德观念來説，这个故事让我感动的是喜宝与勖存姿的感情，互相依賴而豪不自覚，缠绵。。。动人。。。

亦舒

亦舒有好些故事是很“另类”的。

所谓 “另类”，就是有异于大多数的 、通俗的愛情小说，俊男愛上美女，然后轰轰列列的愛一场，美女可能患上絕症，阴阳两隔，成为千古恨。再不，天塴地列的爱，排除万难，终于有情人終成眷属，沒什么新意。但亦舒“另类”的也絕不是一些不堪入目、猥亵下流的故事。

亦舒的“另类”是“另“的很感人的、很叩人心怰的愛情故事。沒有牺牲，也沒有成全，更沒有惊涛骇浪，可是却能让人震撼的、让人深覚惋惜的故事。

“另类”一：

年轻的他遇见美丽的她，深深为她着谜，怔惊的发现她竞然是继母， 继而选择在外国流浪，自我毁灭。

“另类”二：

年轻的他遇见美丽的她，深深为她着谜，怔惊的发现她竞然是别人的情妇，深深的悲哀,  痛苦不能自拔。

“另类”三：

年轻美丽的她，愛上中年绅士，那人却是她的继父，虽然后来继母过世了, 还是千辛万苦的分隔两地，连见面都不敢，到最后也沒勇气在一起。

“另类”四：

年轻美丽的她，为了安全感，接受中年绅士的建议，成为他的情妇，可是竞然分隔两地，互相折磨，许久都不见一面。

“另类”五：

在邮轮上,  走投无路的妇人带着年轻的女儿，遇上富有的绅士,  以为是转机, 在谈妥一切条件后, 才惊觉绅士的对象根本不是自己, 而是女儿。

“另类”六：

年轻的他遇见美丽的她，以为她就是他要寻找的人，结为夫妇之后才看到另一个她，惊覚这个她才是眞正的她，可是这个她与她却是两姐妹，结果跌入痛苦的深渊。

亦舒的“另类”愛的故事，让人发覚完美的愛情故事固然美好，但有遗憾的愛情故事更能打动人心。

Bao - the following months (2)

We started to introduce solid food to her on the fourth month. Her first solid food was Nestle Cerelac infant cereal rice with different favours. Sometimes we added fresh fruits to enhance the taste. We also fed her Scott's Emulsion which is very rich in cod liver oil and I still remembered the smell.

She started her teething very early. She always put her fore finger in her mouth to chew. With the teething came the saliva. She had to wear baby bibs all the time. When we hold her up on her legs, she would always kicked her legs. Keeping her still was not possible, especially in the car.

When she was 5 months old, we took her to Penang to visit a cousin. We stayed at Leisure Cove Condo with very nice roof top swimming pool facing the sea. We went to the Botanical Garden. It was her first holidays.

As the normal progress of all babies, Bao learned to sit on her own by the seventh month. Then she started to crawl on the floor. She grabbed everything within her reach and put them into her mouth. We bought her teething toys to satisfy her aching gum.

Crawling on four

In the walker

At the same time, her hair was thinning out. She looked like a boy rather than a girl. She was not a pretty girl. She didn't have big round eyes but she was adorable in her own way.

Slowly, her character unfolded. She was very playful and always smile showing her toothless mouth. Whenever we played with her, she would response happily. She also started to make meaningless sound on her own. We even recorded her voice.

Bau - the following months

So cheerful!

When Bao was 3 months old, she was very chubby and very active. She liked to move her limbs a lot. Carrying her around could be very tiring. When she was lying down, she would hold her feet with her cute little hands. Sometimes she even put her toes in her mouth.

Holding her fat little legs.

Hush hush.....

By now, she was already trying to turn her body over as if she couldn't wait to see the world from different angles. Finally she could do that when she was 4 months old. We were glad that she was progressing healthily. Then 1 day, while I was talking to her father, she was struggling on her own on the sofa next to me. She might have kicked her feet against the back of the sofa that sent her flying, to my horror, she was on the floor the next second. I screamed and quickly picked up the fiercely crying Bao. I was so panicked and was cursing myself for being so careless. Luckily she was alright. I promised myself I wouldn't let this happen again.

Every night when I put her in a small tub to clean her, I always used the towels to play with her and she would chuckled happily.  After that we would feed her and put her to bed. The father would wake up in the night to feed her even though she didn't ask for it. He didn't want her to sleep with hungry tummy. She is the most precious thing in the whole world to us.

The Millennium Trilogy

这是畅销了千万本的巨著。

原著以Swedish书写。作者 Stieg Larsson 是瑞典人。原本计划用10期写完，很不幸的是作者在写完前3本后, 突然猝死 ,  因此只有 Millennium Trilogy, 千禧年三部曲. 虽然第四本已经完成 3/4, 可是因为技术上的问题, 无法出版.

在2009年， 千禧年三部曲在瑞典更被拍成电视剧。 在2011年12月， 美国也摄制了第一季， The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 的电影。


书被 The New York Times 评 Utterly Addictive, 可想而知是何等的精彩。 Lisbeth Salander 也被评为最原始， 最真实的人物。

故事环绕在 Lisbeth Salander 与 Mikael Blomkvist 身上。一反长态，Lisbeth 不是有著美好身材的美女,而Mikael也不是英俊的小生。

Lisbeth Salander

Mikael Blomkvist

Lisbeth Salander 真是一个精彩人物， 有着过目不忘的本事， 绝顶的智能，但 却无法像正常人一样与人沟通。  11岁时， 因为父亲长期虐待母亲，  意图用火将父亲烧死。 结果被判入精神病院，又受到监护人性虐待。 长大后， 他变成一个杰出的电脑黑客， 也是一个记仇的危险人物。Lisbeth 被搠造成一个有着单薄的外形和怪异的举指的女人。

 Mikael Blomkvist 是调查记者， 拥有Millennium 杂志社，专门掲发貪汚的行为。 聘用 Lisbeth 帮助调查工作。  Mikael Blomkvist 因诽谤罪被判入狱3个月，被逼暂时放弃杂志社。 后来因为对方有证据可以帮他洗脱罪名, Mikael Blomkvist 接受一项调查案， 导致他与Lisbeth长期一起工作, 产生了微妙的感情， 可是当Lisbeth发现Mikael与他的合伙人在一起后， 他选择了离开。

故事一直发展下去，越来越精彩，最后Lisbeth 为自己报了仇, 还遇见父亲, 几乎被他谋杀,  为自保杀了父亲,  被判无罪，还继承了遗产 。

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl Who Played with Fire

The Girl Who kicked the Hornet's Nest

电视剧拍的非常成功, 完全与书中描述一样。 Lisbeth也被演的非常传神，真是值得一看的好书和好电影。只可惜原著人突然猝死，真是大家的损失。要不然可以长时间沉溺在Lisbeth Salander 与 Mikael Blomkvist 的世界裡，将是何等幸福的亊。

Genres :    Crime, Mystery, Thriller.

Bau - first 2 months

I was lucky to have both my mother and my sister to help me during the confinement month.

From them, I learned to bathe and to make her comfortable. I learned to prepare her bottle and to feed and burp her. I learned how to fold and change her diaper. Things that I didn't even imagine I would do and was doing them.  For a month, everyday, 3 of us were working round the clock including night feedings. During the month, she had learned to look at us when we called and talked to her. She liked to be cuddled most of the time. Mother said that she was a very alert baby. By now, the whole house smelled of her baby powder and lotion coupled with milk and chinese oil.

On her full moon day, we ordered the usual Chinese full moon gift sets to distribute to our family members and close friends and colleagues. We changed her into a tiny white dress wearing tiny baby gold bracelet and necklace from her dear grandpa and my mother.  We brought her to the buddhist temple for blessings. We received a lot of ang pows and presents from relatives & friends. Some came to visit in the hospital and some came to our house. We were very grateful.

Mother and sister trimmed her hair.

1.5 months old during her first CNY.

During the Chinese New Year, we brought 1.5 month old Bau to the grandfather's hometown and my own hometown which are far apart. She was fine with the travelling and had already turned into a cute little chubby baby. She always smiles when we were teasing her.

When I was dued to go back to work after two months, I was so reluctant to leave her with the baby-sitter who is also her grand-aunt. Everymorning, her father will put her in a basket bassinet and sent her to the auntie's house. I would be very happy when she came home in the evening.

Slowly I learned to be an attentive mother. She was an contented and undemanding baby. She didn't cry a lot. She finished her milk with no fuss.

Middlesex

这是多年前看过的一本书。

“I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver’s license...records my first name simply as Cal."

对这样的开场白，有谁能不好奇？

Calliope 出世時是美丽的女婴，14 年后在一场意外中被发现竞是雌雄同体，真是匪夷所思。原因就要从1922年开始。

Cal (Calliope) 的祖父及妹妹是孤儿，从小相依为命，产生了不寻常的关系。在战乱中，从土耳其的乡下逃亡到美国投靠表妹。在船上，在沒人认识他们的环境里，结为夫妇。

在美国，他们生育了一个男孩及一个女孩。男孩竟然与表妹的女儿结婚，生下Calliope 及 弟弟。弟弟是健全的，但Calliope不幸的是雌雄同体。可是家人切不觉察，把他当女儿养育。

被发现后，Calliope 逃离到旧金山，以Cal, 男姓身分表演滑稽戏为生。在一次警方突袭行动中被逮捕，弟弟把他带回家。回家后发现父亲已过世，获得祖母承认他的身分，而且祖母也意识到自己所造成的后果，並向他承认祖父就是他的哥哥。

Calliope 是悲哀的, 是乱伦的牺牲品,  是无知的受害者, 所承受的痛苦非笔墨能形容. 对现实生活中的例子, 我们也只能深表同情. 

Middlesex是 2002 Pulitzer Prize 的得奖作品, 畅销3百万本.

 

House of Many Rooms

At last, my long awaited books had reached me all the way from USA.


The book, House of Many Rooms by Marius Gabriel is the book I had been hunting for over the years. Had tried Amazon, but they don't ship to Asia. It's not until I read Alice Teh's blogs that I know about  Betterworldbooks.com. They have both new and used books and a huge collections of them. Shipping is FOC. Well, they are actually raising
fund for literacy purposes, how thoughtful of the peaple behind this great ambitions. They started with humble background and work all the way with their partners. They called themselves The Online Bookstore with a Soul.

Ever since I had read The Original Sins and The Mask, I had wanted to read House of many rooms very desperately. Reason being, other than none, they are so great.

It's a pity that they do not have new copy. So I settled for old copy. Together, I had ordered The Other Daughter by Lisa Garder and Never Kiss A Stranger which they shipped seperately.

Never Kiss A Stranger by Madeleine Ker who is also Marius Gabriel's pseudonym for Mills and Boon. This will be my first read for Madeleine Ker.

Can't wait to indulge myself in these books.