Winter Morning Blues

Getting out of bed becomes a challenge for you.

Your legs are sorer than when you go to bed last night - you start doing squats again. You hate doing legs. Not hating the exercises per se, but the ensuing muscle soreness that makes your most mundane daily functioning that involves your lower body literally painful for the whole week after.

All the lifting put you well on road to a fledgling circus freak, but you don’t give a damn. You remember the other day a girl call you a "robot" for having such a physique. It should have been a red flag but you take it as a compliment. She must have meant the "Terminator" and oh yeah: mediocrity disgusts both you and Arnold. Born a chimpanzee, you vow to be King Kong.

But you can’t get out of bed not just because of aching muscles: it’s a cold-ass Monday morning.

Wet and chilly, it is raining outside. Because of the struggles in bed you are late for work therefore you want to skip breakfast. But then your sore yet rebellious legs carry you right into the breakfast restaurant.

Before you open your mouth, the new cashier speaks Mandarin to you. You feel a sting to your ego. How dare she judges you for being from the third world! She does not even know you!

But your indignation is futile, and her judgments are not entirely groundless. Just some evidence of your mainlandness today. Come on, remember the good days when people talk to you in English?

You step out of the restaurant and unfurl the umbrella which forms your de facto mobile home, protecting you from rain, wind and unsolicited judgment. Cozy and warm now, you are lumbering to the subway station.

A double-decker swoops you by, with its shiny ads touting some star tutors who all happen to have movie star looks. Welcome to Hong Kong.

Pretty young things en route to work or school pass you. Premature winter wear covers their tantalizing skins, yet their seductively cute faces and vaguely curvy bodies are reason enough to cause gobs of hormonal slash nuclear reactions in you.

But not today. Today you are unmoved, unimpressed and indifferent. As if they are some more buses that go by you. For you decreased libido is a blessing. Eating is an enjoyable activity; being hungry is not.

Finally you get on the subway. There is no turning back. You pat yourself on the back like it's a big deal.