Forever

Before departing for Hong Kong from Canton during the China races last June, I asked our "handlers", officially known as Liaison Officers (LO's) to write something in Chinese on the page of a book I brought with me.

You see, one evening, Pam dragged me to the hotel dining area to play the piano. My cheering squad consisted of Pam and the two enthusiastic LO's.

Echo's resembled a Hallmark greeting card message: it means she "wished me happiness forever." The other one, Gloria, refused to translate the Chinese characters, saying I should have it translated in Manila.

After six months, (I almost forgot about it) I finally got somebody (a colleague of a cousin of a friend of a friend's neighbor, you know the drift) to translate her note. They both like the word "forever". Here it goes: "To the prince of piano, continue playing the piano happily. May the sound of your piano-playing stay forever."

uuuyyy