YOGAYUGA

My sister came home with a gift for me. She bought me a T-shirt from UNI QLO, which is a Japanese chain store selling clothes for men and women as well as houseware items. You can even find traditional Japanese costume in there. It’s an unique chain store selling stuff with low price range, but in reasonable good quality. I did buy my mini suitcase in their Tokyo store long time ago, which only cost me 1,000.00 Yen. It was just about HKD70.00. It’s great in value as now my suitcase still looks so new. Well, anyway, it’s hard to find anything broken from my belongings. I looked at my umbrella properly today, and figured out that it has been with me for eleven years. It still looks fine, and functions well. It walked me through many sunny and rainy days.

Okay, here is my new T-shirt from my sister. She knows I love this sort of traditional Japanese pattern. It looks very Japanese. I like its handmade paper tag. It says at the back of paper:

T-shirts based on the collaboration with Japan’s traditional companies and corporations dealing with history-rich products. They were designed through the fusion of each company’s originality and our creators’ ideas. These items are characterized by their Japanese-style prints and their richness in color tone.

I was surfing around, and found this photo. It’s a photo from old days China during Ching Dynasty. Two women on the photo, who both had foot binding. We call it “lotus feet”. It’s foot binding culture in the old days of China. It was the most uncivilised Chinese culture for Chinese women in the past centuries. It was very cruel way of thinking in Chinese society and was well practiced in rich families of China. Women were not allowed to leave houses, so the foot binding can limit their movement. According to legend, women were bound in this ways, who were regarded as elegant and beautiful as lotus.
My Great Grandma did have her feet bound. If I didn’t remember it wrong, I saw her in 1980, Guangzhou. It was my only and last time to see her. She moved to Guangzhou from Shanghai because of the war. She was almost 100 years old when I visited her. She died more than 20 years ago in Guangzhou. I can’t remember if she wore a pair of lotus slippers, as she was in bed during the time we were there. She couldn’t walk at all. I remember I did ask my Mum why she had her feet bound. My Mum said my Grandma was from a wealthy family, so Great Grandma needed to follow the common practice of upper class people in old days. I can’t imagine how women escaped from any danger with a pair of lotus feet during the war period. Just can’t imagine…

I am sure 2007 will be full of happiness and growth. May you all have a wonderful new year being with all your love ones. Be happy and full of energy!! Of course! World Peace!

NO! Not me! I doubt I can do such bicycle riding trip anymore. I can ride on a bicycle for a day 15 years ago with no problem, but now I can only ride on a bicycle for an hour maximum inside air condition room of the gym. I know it’s bad. hehe… My Dad finished 3 hours bicycle riding trip this early morning. It took him 3 hours riding round trip from Yuen Long to Tsuen Mun. It’s pretty far. He was riding with a 70 years old neighbour. My Dad said our neighbour didn’t feel tired as he does it everyday in the early morning. Wow! I doubt I could do it at all………..sigh!! ^_-

I attended my cousin’s wedding banquet tonight. William is my cousin, and his wife is Candy. I haven’t been any wedding banquets since six or seven years ago. The wedding banquet is very different from those in the past. They don’t play the old traditional Chinese wedding music anymore but replaced with English love songs. There were not many playing Mahjor too that I was quite surprise. Mahjor is the major activity during the wedding banquet, but it wasn’t popular at my cousin’s wedding banquet though. They also didn’t give away “Red” eggs in the end of dinner. Hummm it seems I am the one to think so traditional….

I watched the Miss Hong Kong Pageant 2006 with my parents tonight. It was ok, kind of boring. The programme itself is actually getting worse. There is no more new idea going on. Miss Hong Kong is no longer joining any international pageants anyway.

However, my post isn’t about the topic of pageant. The presenter asked one of the contestants a question related to the meaning of family. She was alright giving a reasonable answer but the presenter told her an additional answer about the meaning of family - “Family” = Father and Mother I love you! He said it in funny way, but it does make sense.

I had a late afternoon walk with my parents today. My Dad suggested us walking with him to the place where he usually does exercise himself every morning. He usually gets there by bicycle riding, but today we walked together.

Three old ladies walked pass us with a white dog following them. When their dog saw my Dad, it started to follow him. It was a female dog. Those ladies left, but their dog was still following my Dad. She followed us more than 30 minutes. She didn’t want to leave us until a car drove by. The driver stopped his car, and called the dog’s name. The dog stopped, but still didn’t want to get on his car. We asked him to get her back home. He tried, but his dog still kept following us. In the end, he left his dog and drove away. We knew that his dog should find her own way home anyway. She followed us along until she met a couple with three dogs walking with them. She immediately turned her attention on her new friends. Finally, she left us. It’s such a funny dog. A dog doesn’t like going home with her masters, but follow around with strangers. It’s kind of unusual I think. Anyway, animals usually like my Dad. I am not surprise that she followed him in the first place. Well, my Dad likes to keep birds, snails and tutles he catches, but he wouldn’t keep one more dog or cat easily again. Responsibility is the major reason.

I was extremely tired after the walk. I should feel bad about it as my parents were absolutely fine to walk more than an hour. My Dad loves to take such walk as daily exercise besides bicycle riding. Although, I do yoga regularly, I am still not fit enough. :PWell, I always say no one is perfect, and nothing is absolute…hehe @_@ Sleep tight!