You once told me you couldn't imagine life without me. Well, here's a glimpse of life without you.

I've become an incidental wanderer, and dare say I've travelled to more countries than you now. I enjoy travelling alone though sometimes I talk to myself. It's not too bad a price to pay.

I'm still not domesticated. A girlfriend came over to my service apartment and opened my fridge for a look-see. She was flabbergasted to find 2 tubs of ice-cream, 2 instant pound cakes, a pack of tiny tomatoes and lots of mineral water. Yes, I have a kettle but I'll rather buy water than boil it. I also have a frying pan and recipe book lying dormant in my apartment. Haha.

I'm still awkward with kids. But on Saturday when I went to Disneyland (too small but thankfully not too crowded) with a couple and their 6-yr-old niece, I played finger-guessing games with her and she laughed and held my hand voluntarily.

I've developed a knack of sniffing out obscure activities to occupy time. I watched a 7-hr art film last night alone. It was Hungarian director Bela Tarr's Satantango, which American writer Susan Sontag loved so much she hoped she had a chance to watch it once every year of her life. Let's say it's beautifully shot but at such a slow pace I won't hope to watch it once every year of mine.

I still talk to strangers. The girl sitting next to me at the Satantango screening was nodding off so I offered her chewing gum, and later we swapped phone numbers. She told me she's never met a film buff who's a bad person and I found some strange logic in that. I've also met a young boy in my apartment's laundry room who helped me look after my laundry more than once when I wasn't in time to collect it. I guess I'm lucky when it comes to strangers.

I'm curious to try out new food places. Over the weekend, I ate the roast goose at Yun Kee restaurant (recommended by Fortune magazine); the egg tart at the Honolulu Island Cafe (listed on a tourist map); and tiramisu at Fat Angelo's (not so much cos it was voted one of the best restaurants in Hong Kong in 2003 and 2004, but because I was on a subway train and a little girl came onboard with a Fat Angelo's stick-on tattoo on her chubby arm and she looked damn cute).

Now I think falling in love is like catching flu. Though I've not vaccinated myself against it, I'm more inclined to weather it out till it's gone. At the current moment, I will consider my state as healthy without a trace of flu.

I don't miss you, but rather the idea of you.
Hope everything is fine in your world.