not good for you

I read a book (I have already mentioned it in a post) which gives some reasons why our prayers are not answered or our wishes are not granted. You may not agree with them but I feel they have a comforting effect.

One of the reasons is: Granting you your wish could harm you.

The reason might be beyond us mortal ignorant beings.

Perhaps it is like parents not allowing their children to do certain things.

In my school years my father was strict. Coming home late was not allowed or must get permission first. Red marks in report books meant getting long scoldings and frequent reminders to study hard. Punishment - not allowed to go to the cinema, one of the few entertainments then, for one month.

Authoritarian parents were common in those days, but it was not a bad thing altogether.

small blessings

I think I mentioned in a post an accident I had more than a year ago. I have also forgotten about it. Suddenly I received a call from the workshop that attended to my repairs and claims. She said they would be sending me a cheque as compensation for the loss of use of the car during the days the car was in the workshop. It was an unexpected pleasant surprise. I also couldn't remember if I made such claim. Anyway, the cheque arrived - $360.

In a post below I said I ate green bean soup at my friend's house not long ago. Then I heard from the news that there seemed to be a shortage of green beans in China and prices have gone up. Prices have also shot up here. If I had visited my friend later, probably there would be no green bean soup.

ungranted wish

Late afternoon. It was raining and as it often happens on rainy days, there was a slight jam. I happened to stop next to a bus-stop for a few minutes. The few people at the bus-stop had nothing to do, so they looked at my car. My car is not nice to look at. It has not been washed for days and there were bird shit and dirt.

Now back to the old days when I took buses to work. At the bus-stop oftentimes I was also looking at cars and motorcycles passing by. At that time my wish was to buy a scooter or motorcycle, not a car. I think helmets were not compulsory then.

However, my father was vehemently against me riding scooter or motorcycle. I guess you know the reason. Yes, dangerous, he said.

So my wish never comes true and I don’t have a license for this category of vehicles.

It is not far

A few days ago I visited a good, old, but long-time-no-see friend after dozens of promises over the phone to do so. Blame it on procrastination, something we all are guilty of.

He was at the gate to welcome me.

During the conversation I mentioned that now there is an MRT station at my estate.

Good for you, he said. Just downstairs? Your flat value will go up.

No, I said. About 10 minutes' walk.

Wah, so far! He said.

Where got far. You so lazy to walk 10 minutes or what, I said. You expect an MRT station at your doorstep.

All this was said in light-hearted tone just like friends bantering with each other.

Then I told him that when I first started working, for years I had to walk more than double that time from my house to the bus-stop to take a bus to work. I reminded him that he had also visited me at my old house before.

During the visit he offered me home-made coffee, some cakes and later a big bowl of green bean soup, something I had long-time-no-eaten.

It was a pleasant nostalgic afternoon.

七月七日長生殿

黄伟坤, 李淑勤

a patriot's song

I just realize that when you search for Dr Goh Keng Swee, you could also come to my blog because I have a post about him: http://frannxis.blogspot.com/2007/07/dr-goh-keng-swee.html


When I first uploaded Cantonese opera and Cantonese opera song clips to YouTube about 5 years ago, there were very few them there. Now, there are plenty and quite a number of them are same or similar ones. There are those by well-known artistes as well as those by amateur performers.

So, nowadays when I want to upload a video, sometimes I check to see if there are already same or similar ones. There are several Man Jiang Hong but not this one by Ou Kai Ming.

滿江紅 - 歐凱明

對花鞋 - 吳仟峰, 曾慧

對花鞋 - 吳仟峰, 曾慧

拾箏結緣

名劇欣賞 - 搜書院之拾箏結緣

soya sauce chicken

While reading this post I realized that I have not eaten soya sauce chicken for quite a long time already. Usually I eat plain white chicken. I also didn't know there are two Chew Kee Stalls at Upper Cross Street. I only know the one at No. 8 whose lady boss is a Cantonese opera enthusiast.

I also remember seeing one soya sauce chicken stall at the food centre at Chinatown Complex. I decided to eat the chicken at this stall. So I went there one evening. It was quite early and there were only six people queuing at the stall. It is self-service. So I joined the queue and waited for about 10 minutes. During this time, the pint-sized skinny woman assistant helping at the counter looked a bit clumsy.

First, a customer had filled a tiny receptacle with soya sauce and placed it on a tray. Somehow the assistant knocked the tray and spilled the soya sauce onto the tray. Another time she put a bowl of soup quite hard on the counter and some soup splashed onto the counter.

This is the stall : Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle #02-127 Chinatown Complex


The chicken is tender and tasty but not outstanding. Anyway I am not much of a chicken connoisseur. Another thing, like many stalls they give you those disposable chopsticks and spoons. The spoon is small and the material is very thin, so it bends easily. It doesn't give you a good feel drinking from it.


I have mentioned this stall in a post somewhere because of its unusual name. The name has nothing to do with what it sells - fish-ball noodles. It is just a few steps away from the soya sauce chicken stall.

十二欄杆十二釵 Beauty or Ghost

十二欄杆十二釵 - I know of this title but I have not seen the opera before. I searched a bit and found that there was a movie by this name. The leading stars were Yam Kim Fai and Nam Hong.


Here is the story:

十二欄杆十二釵故事講述石東師是專為朝廷訓練十二女歌舞金釵的專師﹐一日王公府欽差大人到來沉香別苑觀看﹐眼見十二金釵皆為美女﹐於是動起色心﹐圖據為己有。石東師不單不從﹐反被打死﹐但欽差大人也顧忌石東師於朝廷訓練歌姬的兒子石竹亭﹐所以冒石東師寫來家書﹐要兒子速回﹐計劃斬草除根。誰知石竹亭數月前 ﹐身染疾病已死﹐家書來到另一宮廷教習司馬雲風 (任劍輝) 手中﹐雲風覺得事有蹺蹊﹐於是到訪沉香別苑。不料得到石東師的死訊﹐家僕祝桃 (梁醒波) 欲言又止似有隱衷﹐而且是夜在青雲塔見一女鬼憑欄凝望﹐加上碰到 11 女鬼在後園哉歌哉舞﹐覺得事更可疑。後來司馬雲風夜探青雲塔﹐偶遇柳飄翠 (南紅) ﹐才洞悉一切﹐11 金釵已歸順王公欽差﹐唯有飄翠不從﹐於是雲風通知深交陳蓄王 (蕭仲坤) 派兵來救﹐拿捕王府欽差人等﹐沉香別苑從此再次太平﹐12 釵女也可繼續歌舞昇平。

電影拍攝於 1964 年﹐同時由百代唱片出版原聲帶唱片。90 年代﹐EMI曾出版CD﹐2005 年就再次出版復刻版CD。

I also found videos of this opera by Leong Yew On and Ngai Wai Ying at Youtube. The person who uploaded them called it " twelve railings and twelve kanzashi ". Anyone knows what kanzashi is.

Last Sunday I watched an excerpt from this opera at Lee Foundation Theatre. It's English title is Beauty or Ghost which is appropriate if you look at the story. It was performed by Chan Mei Yin and Chan Mei Ling from the Kreta Ayer Community Club Cantonese Opera Group.



十二欄杆十二釵 - 梁耀安, 倪慧英

Cantonese opera appreciation night

at Lee Foundation Theatre. Below are the opera excerpts performed that night .....

牡丹亭驚夢 - 黃雯英, 钟慧玲


悲歌慟宋皇 - 洪清芳, 黃兆平


白龍關 - 郭廣麟, 何麗蓮



紅娘 - 李季樺, 麥麗亭


妒雨斷貞魂 - 陳淑樺, 黄安妮


十二欄杆十二釵 - 陳美燕, 陳美玲

Classic tunes of Sun Ma Si Zhen

新馬師曾經典名曲欣賞

胡不歸之哭墳, 萬惡滛為首, 啼笑姻緣