Telling Stories

Be careful of the stories that you tell yourself when you start the day..
Be careful of the stories that you tell in the day when others are watching..
Be careful of the stories that you tell in the tipsy evening when your guards down..
Be careful of the stories that you tell to lull yourself to sleep..

Be careful of the stories you invent,
lest you trick your own mind and find it hard to recall the truth anymore..
Be careful before you sell them as your own,
lest you rehearse each delivery and peddle wares that don't belong to you anymore..
Be careful before you fall in love with them,
lest you annoyingly hijack all conversations without being aware anymore..

Be careful of these stories because eventually you believe and become them..

Look out for the One you keep coming back to, all the time
The One you tell with a twinkle in your eyes and a tickle in your spine..
The One that gnaws your insides every mundane moment
The One that burns in the pit of your guts and asks you to put a fight..
Don't ignore the Story of your life-the One it ought to be..

PS: This is just a photo i like, not the story of my life... especially not this life!

Another hiking post-MacLehose section 7

He can climb up briskly without breaking much sweat, while she breaths deeply taking each measured step uphill. She can run down the hill as a mountain goat, while he awkwardly tries to align the eyes, the upper half of the body and the legs so that he correctly heeds the call of gravity.
In short life is a difficult struggle for every individual and as a couple we have well guarded the exclusivity of our individual misery circles!

Going Up.. the challenge ahead..

Looking back from the other side...

Pictured above:Needle hill(altitude 532 mts.) located within Shing Mun Country Park. Stage 7 of the MacLehose Trail.

The picture is also an allegorical reference to the year waning away in the abnormal December warmth here in HK and the new one slowly inching closer day by day..

Quick note for someone attempting MacLehose trail 7: Medium difficulty hike with Grassy hill(647mts.) & Needle hill(532 mtrs) climb with gorgeous panoramic views of the reservoir, Kowloon, NT and HK island far off.
Trail access: Tseun wan Mtr(B2 exit)->Minibus 82 to Shing mun reservoir(Pineapple dam). Walk semicircle of the reservoir to get to Jubilee dam for the trail start point.
Alternatively you can take a taxi to Shing mun reservoir(Jubilee dam)-more convenient as it took us some time to find the minibus stop and then the long queue took us another 30mins.

I quite liked the trail, the views are gorgeous and this trail has a different feel especially around the grassy hill. There is a lot of sky when you take pictures-there is an illusion of height even when the gradient is quite gentle. The rolling hills with diverse flora(reforestation efforts by government) and grazing cows instinctively made me remember a W.H. Davies poem from school days:

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

I was just happy to make the time to have this perfect ‘Leisure moment’!

Getting out: The trail 7 ends at lead Mine pass mostly in the middle of wilderness. Trail 8 which starts at the Lead mine pass challenges you to dare ahead but we preferred to save it for next time. The other 2 options you have: 5km walk to Tseun Wan Or take Wilson trail 7(3km) to Tai Po market. We followed the Wilson trail 7 through the wilderness until it joined the metaled road(hill path in Yuen Tun Ha to Wun Yiu) then took the minibus 23Kto Tai Po market.