Dream….the dream of last night
Encouraged by a friend’s words of today and upon reading another friend’s mention of his mixing the present, the past and the future tenses together in his writing, I decided to lift my pen and write today.
(English follows Chinese)
夢、昨晚的夢
夢、很多時是心結。一些時常恬念的東西、一些還未放下的過去…所編織成的故事。
夢境裡、有過去、有現在、有將來。沒有所謂要同一個tense的。有相熟的事物、亦有未見過的。在人生不同國家不同時候出現的人物還可以走在一起。
夢、是奇妙的。一覺醒來、可消失無蹤。記不著、找不到。
幸好昨晚的夢、我還記得。就讓我與大家一齊分享我的夢......
***
明天去公幹、穿那套衣服好呢？我問自己。(1)
在這裡找不到、就去那「企身」衣櫃找吧。拿走衣櫃前那幾包袱的衣物、打開櫃門、只見寥寥可數掛著的幾件衣服。選了一套。好吧就穿這套。太久沒有穿套裝、所以要四處在這板間房內找。(2)
這板間房是我小時住的地方。
在這唯一的「企身」衣櫃對面就是盛載洗臉盆的梳洗妝台、房內沒有自來水、水是要從屋後的廚房取來的。方才還用過那銻盆內的水、為什麼這女人走進我們的房間可以在此開水喉、而且用完水按一按那陶瓷洗手盆內中的掣、水就自動從那四個孔穴流去？是、不只是一個去水孔、而是四個。盆子是方型的。不禁感嘆現今產品真是日新月異！(3)
明天的演說給老闆Karen過目；她說好。說罷她就送我離開辦公室：從舖後「天井」通過走廊踏出街外。那裡是我兒時爸媽店舖所在的地方。(4)
啊！PC！它放到那裡去？不知是誰在板間房內「床下底」的大鐵箱找了出來！「床下底」空空的、沒有雜物、真是少見。
啊、這PC多笨重！。我如今用慣了iPad/iPhone、還懂得用這大型笨重機器嗎？不過公司是不准許我們用自己的工具與公司的系統聯上的。所以在沒法之下、也要帶它「出trip」。那個替我尋回PC的人著我用背囊攜帶。「不好」、我想道；「我不喜歡穿套裝背背包的：不對襯、令套裝起皺褶」。就把背囊留在房裡。(5)
了、一切就緒、去睡覺吧！
哎喲、是早上十時了！一覺醒來大吃一驚。飛機不是九時起飛的嗎？不知Clara會否已上機？通常同事一齊出外公幹是習慣各自登機的；是次我是發言人、若Clara先行、她在客戶那裡可作什麼呢？腦裏的Clara是我中學同學。(6)
心裡正盤旋著...驚醒了。(7)
啊！是早上八時半、幸好來得及赴我女兒的約會！剛才只是一場夢而矣！
***
(1) 出外公幹：是我以前最喜歡的、因為這是我可以不用帶孩子的機會、可以鬆弛一下、是「自己」的時間。剛巧前天亦是我兒子外出公幹的日子。
(2) 套裝：是我上班不離之衣服；不論要走進董事室、還是上客戶的工廠、總不能不穿套裝高跟鞋。以前有人取笑它們說是我的禮服。
(3) 香港兒時地方：不論有多簡陋、有多「失禮」、總是不可忘懷的。如今樓去但舊址還在、很多時也去緬懷一番。
(4) 演說評審/過目：這是一貫的習慣；無論是上司、怎至客戶、在未發表之前、他/她們一定要知道內容、我不能使他們在眾人之前有驚訝。Bank of Montreal的Karen對演說核閱是最嚴格執行的人。
(5) 與公司綱絡聯線：我曾是香港IBM的外顧員、IBM是不許「外人」以私人電腦作公事之用。
(6) Clara：去秋和Clara到中國公幹了一次。現她竟成了我「出差」的同事。
(7) 準時、過時：因為今晨與我女兒相約好、所以在夢裡多睡了頓成不安。
夢境莫測、不是無因！
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Memories of the past, reminiscence, things we miss, things we can’t let go, things to keep in mind….all could weave together to form a dream.
Dreams know time boundaries….past, present and future; people from different periods, from different worlds; things we have seen and those we haven’t can all blend together and surface in the same dream.
Dreams are to be caught, but they are ‘uncatchable’. When we wake up, they may vanish like vapour into the air.
While I still remember my dream of last night, let me share with you this piece of time and space marvel.
***
“Tomorrow there is a business trip. I have to find a suitable wear.” I said to myself. (1)
There I went…searching for my suit…a suitable suit….from the only wardrobe in that wooden-board-partitioned room. I moved all the clothes stashed away in a large wrapping cloth in front of the wardrobe, opened the wardrobe door and searched for my attire. Well, not many dresses or suits were hung inside. Out of the few, I picked one…my office suit for tomorrow. It had been a long time since I last wore an office suit...and that’s why I had to search for one. (2)
That partitioned room was where I lived as child back in the 50’s in Hong Kong, in a flat shared by many other people.
Across from the wardrobe was a wooden chest for the washbasin. In those days, there was no running tap water in each of those partitioned rooms. If one had to fill up the basin, one had to take it to the kitchen in the far end of the flat to do it.
A woman entered our room. She turned on the faucet on the washbasin chest and when she’s done washing her hands, she gently pressed the button at the bottom of the sink, yes, a ceramic sink, to let the water run down the drain. How come, I wondered! I had just used the hand-fetched water in the basin over the counter there! The sink was a squarish one and had four holes, not one, to allow water to drain out! What an innovation, I marvelled at this design which I had not seen before. (3)
Back to business…. Karen, my boss, had gone through the presentation I had to make the day after and she was happy with it. She then walked me out of the office, from the open light well at the back of the building through the corridor and all the way out to the street. That was the building where my parent’s tuck store was when we were small. (4)
Then, the PC….where was it? Someone, I forgot whom, pulled it out from a tin chest under the bed in the partitioned room for me. What an empty uncluttered space under the bed this time when it used to be fully packed with stuff.
Wow, what a clunker PC….big and heavy. Would I, who now used to using iPad/iPhone, know how to operate this antique? Well, since the office wouldn’t allow me to access their system from my own igadgets, I had no choice but to lug this elephant along on my trip. The man who found this PC under the bed for me suggested that I should carry it on a knapsack since it was heavy. “Knapsacks and suits don’t go together. I don’t want the bag to crease my suit.” I told myself and left the knapsack behind. (5)
OK, everything set. It’s time for bed.
There I went…sleeping…..only to wake up startled at the time. It was 10 a.m.! The flight was scheduled to depart at 9 a.m. Holy Moly, what should I do, I asked. Clara could have already boarded the plane and on her way out. We, colleagues, generally had the practice of boarding the plan at our own leisure and not waiting for others. I was the presenter. What on earth was Clara going to do at the client’s? (6)
Puzzled…and upset….but I woke up again. (7)
This time to find the time was only 8:30 a.m…..which meant I was still on time to meet my daughter at 10 a.m. this morning.
A dream….that earlier one. Phewww!
***
Harebrained the dream might have been, but nothing in there happened for no reason….
(1) Business trip – that was my favourite…a break away from the children, a period to relax, a time of my own. I loved that. Also on business trip: my son just left for one the day before.
(2) Business suit – I never go without it in my working life. No matter where I had to go…in the Board room or to clients’ factories, I always wore a suit and my high heels. Years ago, a friend poked fun of me and said they were my formals for important occasions.
(3) Childhood places in Hong Kong – I have fond memories of them, no matter how shabby and how cramped they were. The buildings no longer exist, but the street numbers are still there. Often, I would revisit these places, stopped and looked around to recall those lovely memories.
(4) Presentation walk-thru – these were must’s…be they with bosses or with clients before presenting to them. Sure, I didn’t want to surprise the clients in front of their colleagues. Karen, the boss at Bank of Montreal in Canada, was most strict on reviews of presentations beforehand.
(5) Use of personal PC to connect to the company’s system – IBM surely did not want contractors, of which I was one, to access their internal system from my own PC. This company referred to in my dream was the IBM of Hong Kong.
(6) Clara – she was a school-mate of mine from high school. Because I went with her on a business trip of hers to China last Fall, somehow or another, I mixed her in as my colleague in the dream.
(7) Waking up on time – I had to meet my daughter at 10 a.m. this morning; therefore, waking up on time was important. The slept-in in my dream really upset me.
Dreams….could be a hotchpotch of things which, when neatly intertwined together, would spin out a memorable tale of nought.
I hope you enjoyed my tale of nought.