四點半，我們約在立人的校門口。因為我比較早到...所以先到處看看我睽違多年的母校。 多年沒回來，立人校門並沒有太大的改變...唯一變的是加了這礙眼的LCD廣告燈吧！

以前，放學的時候...總是會先站在這小小的守衛室旁等同學。然後...彼此聊個幾句又各自回家。 只不過...同學們的家都在附近...我可是離這好幾路的鄉下地方。

走到測門看，一條巷子相隔也是我國小母校『立人國小』。以前...二姐在國中上課，我就在隔壁 的國小上課。以前總不覺得距離遠...但如今發現...隔了一條街...世界也是不同的。

立人的側門倒是有點改變了，這棟建築應該是新的校舍？給予校師職員用的？我也不太確定！

從這角度望過去，就是我待了三年的那棟。 圓弧的樓梯，也發生過許許多多的故事。 只是那一段歲月，也不堪回首了！

巡完了校園，回到老地方！ 當初在這片牆前面留了好多回憶！ 有陳灝、鄭同學、媽、大哥、小哥、姊、小白、媛...等等等！ 每一個人的笑靨都彷彿還是昨日...但卻人事已非！ 留住的只剩下惘然...

跨越牆後，就是長青會和曉明文化支援中心。 紅磚的建築...別有一番風味。

我最喜歡站在這裡看著長青會的穿堂... 但有時卻會被忽然冒出來的小朋友嚇著。

到了四點半約定的時間，泡泡也到了立人。
因為天氣悶熱，所以我們打算先去買杯冷飲...再出發前往廟東！
到廟東，因為週末又是暑假的關係...所以人潮很多...我們先找了停車位把兩輛小藍安頓好之後...
就開始我們的敗家之旅！

先去逛衣服區，但...老實說...廟東的衣服質料真的沒有比天津路好！
泡泡也說，衣服最好買質料好一點的！
然後...我也有同感！
所以逛了三、四家服飾店...我們卻沒敗下一件衣服！((真是挑剔的女人！))

然後，我就說要帶她去一家便宜的鞋店！
可以買一送一...逢甲和一中都找不到那麼俗又大碗的鞋店！
更不錯的是...它雖然便宜...但鞋子穿起來真的很舒適！
不像有的鞋穿起來會咬腳！
我之前在逢甲買了一雙白色高跟鞋...穿起來真的很咬腳！

泡泡正在挑鞋子！這張是她在鞋子前面待了10分鐘被我偷拍的！ 因為我們都很挑鞋，所以...很難買鞋！ 架上的鞋都是390...買一送一！所以合計一雙不到200元～ 泡泡挑了一雙白色的平底鞋...一雙帆布鞋！ 殘念是她最喜歡的那幾雙都沒有她的尺寸！

逛完鞋店之後，我們就去廟東的小吃街救濟我們的五臟廟！
現在想起來，我們兩個昨天都沒有吃正餐！...我吃了蚵仔煎...喝了一杯木瓜牛奶！
泡泡則只喝了一杯冷飲！
等我吃完了蚵仔煎之後，泡說要玩籃球機...所以我們就瘋狂跑去投籃球...
結果我果然很沒運動細胞...不管玩幾次都輸泡...

玩完籃球機之後...我們就去買一些小吃好讓泡帶回去給伯父伯母吃。
出發前往公老坪看夜景！

前往公老坪看夜景時，因為從沒自己一個人去過...所以我也很怕迷路！
而且我從沒騎車爬山過，所以騎山路的時候一直在心底默唸佛號！
因為我很怕摔車...！
還好到最後終於安全到達！

其實，公老坪的夜景真的沒有清水休息站那樣華麗！ 但，也別有一番滋味！ 只是...那天來看夜景的都是閃光族... 我跟泡兩個女生...真的很不融入那個世界！ 泡跟我說下次要帶我去看台中港華麗的夜景...我很期待...

看完夜景之後，又帶泡泡去買了老雪花齋的杏仁餅...就各自打道回府了！

做法如下：
1.將胡蘿蔔、竹筍洗淨後去皮切成細絲
2.乾香菇洗淨泡水泡軟後切成薄片後備用，香菇水備留
3.黑木耳洗淨後切細絲
4.取一個乾淨的鍋子燒開後放入作法1的材料煮至5分鐘
5.將乾香菇放入作法4的湯頭中持續煮滾後，放入黑木耳絲和肉羹塊煮熟
6.要起鍋前放入香油、胡椒粉、鹽、糖、柴魚精、油蔥酥調味後，以少許太白粉水勾芡
7.要食用前，在放入少許烏醋和香菜末即可
 

點圖片可相本內放大

metasearch: cf2ide, x31, ramdisc, ramdisk, xp home, decade

Nowadays, the method has sadly become a common practice for some big companies. One of our acquaintances, Keith, was recently let go from his job. His case was way worse than the one I heard before. (The characters’ names were changed to protect all the people I know.)

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Keith worked for a big company as an engineer for more than 20 years. He was a foreman in charge of a large production line. His job paid well but now the whole industry has been under a lot of pressure during the economy downturn. For the last two years, his company has been going through a lot of restructuring. Many of his co-workers were either stressed out with a nervous breakdown or simply retired early whenever they could. 

One Monday morning, Keith came to work early as usual. The plant started at 6:30 and by 9:00, the whole place was hopping. He was running around to “put our fire” as usual and to make sure the production line would move smoothly. Around ten o’clock, he got a phone call from the plant manager. The conversation went on for a while. In fact, most of the time, Keith just listened silently. By the time the phone call almost ended, a security guard already stepped closely behind him along with a nurse from the medical unit.

Keith was dismissed just like that! He was not allowed to go back to his desk to clean up his personal belongings. The security guard walked him straight out to the gate. He waited at the security booth with the guard and the nurse. The nurse was sent there just to make sure that the sudden dismissal would not trigger any heart condition. It happened before and Keith was not the first one to receive this type of dismissal treatment from the big company. He had seen it for so many times. When the security guard and the nurse showed up behind him, he didn’t really make a big fuss. He knew it was his time to leave.

Keith had to walk all the way through the plant to reach the gate with the security guard and the nurse tagging behind him. That was the longest walk anyone could have taken, parading through the plant. He sat there at the gate silently for a couple of hours, dumbfounded. He could not get back to his desk. The company did not want to jeopardize the risk of being sabotaged by any disgruntled newly dismissed employees. One of his fellow foremen went back to clean up his desk and picked up his jacket and car key for him. All the years of hard work was stuffed tightly in a tiny little banker’s box. No tearful farewell. No joyful hugs from co-workers. He was just another number added to the new victim list of the latest recession.

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I met Keith last week at a grocery store with his wife. He actually looked very well without the burden of pressure from work. However, he lost a lot of weight! I asked him what he has been up to lately. The smile he forcefully formed had a tinge of sadness to it when he replied “I am retired now…. I don’t have to worry about money though.” I guess he was obviously doing all right. At the age of mid 50’s, he is too old to find another similar job but too young to retire.

Keith’s dismissal reminded me of my co-worker’s daughter who was not allowed to go back to her desk to get her purse and pick up her coat on a cold winter day. Many companies are using the same strategy to dismiss their employees. My question is, if the corporations demand respect from their employees, why wouldn’t they at least show the workers some dignity?

～～本文引用自鳴動樂團網誌～～

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天 使 與 魔 鬼 - 西門阿帕 LIVE 演出 .. 開始預購

2009-06/13(六) 夜18:00準時開唱

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現場票 200　預售票 150

Can you imagine losing two children at one of the busiest place on earth in the summer? I did. I lost two children at Disney World, Florida once. Here is one of my travelling stories.

Years ago, I pioneered the first study group for King Car Education Foundation to visit Jacksonville, Florida. That was their first time to organize a large group of people to stay at a high school overseas. I volunteered to lead the group as an escort teacher because at that time I was hosting a radio program called Co Co and Po Po Time for King Car. It made perfect sense for King Car to send us as the escort teachers to oversee the ESL program provided by the private high school in Jacksonville, Florida.

Most of the group members were children but we also had quite a lot of parents who came along with us. The private school provided the parents some activities during class time. I can no longer remember the exact number of people we took with us but I think the total number was about 52 people, including adults and children. It was not easy to please everybody in the group, I could say. The worst part was to take care of the group of children who came alone without their parents for three weeks.

In the group, there were two cute brother and sister who were particular hyper throughout the stay in Jacksonville. For every step of the program, I literally had to repeat my instructions many times to them to ensure that they would follow closely. Ever since we first met, I had realized that it would be a tough journey with both of them. Anyway, after three weeks of staying in the private school, we finally ended the program and started a week long journey of visiting different attractions before heading back home. One of the stops was the Disney World, Orlando in Florida. Everyone was excited about the visit to the Disney World where thousands of tourists from all over the world would visit each day.

When our bus arrived at the parking lot, I warned everybody about the busy park. I repeated over and over again about our meeting place at the gate. I told them that the bus would be park at the lot number 123 which would be the place to board the bus at 9:00 in the evening. I told all parents to be careful of holding on to their children since all the children were not fluent English speakers. I told all the children who were without parent escorts to follow their assigned leaders closely. Most importantly, I showed everybody where Lost and Found Centre was when we entered the park. After explaining all the safety precautions, the parents started to head out with their groups. I, along with the leader and the tour guide, also divided up the children without parents and then headed out.

At Disney World, they had scheduled parades rotating throughout each day on the main street. A short while after the morning Disney Parade, the leader and a parent came to tell me that those two brother and sister went missing. Those kids probably tried to find a spot to see the parade and decided to leave their small group. After the parade, everyone started to move and now they were missing! Those two brats!

There were millions of people walking around in the Disney World. Where on earth were we supposed to start looking for those two small children who could not speak English? I went to Lost and Found to report of the missing children right away and of course those two kids were not there at the gate! We walked along the main street following the route of the parade and weaving in and out of the souvenir stores. There were no brother and sister to be found!

I don’t know if anyone of you could relate to the mixed emotions I had then, the frustration, nervousness and heaviness on my mind at the time, which was beyond any words that I could describe. I could have had a heat-attack right then and there. Even till this day, I still get really paranoid whenever I take children on a field trip.

*** Since I am not in prison at the time of writing this article and I had never been in one, you probably can guess the result must be a happy ending. ***

We looked everywhere for more than an hour. The security at Disney was notified and out helping us. The tour leader from King Car was almost in tears because we didn’t really know what else to do. Finally, I thought of the lecture I gave them before we stepped off the bus in the morning. I did tell them the parking lot number. If those two kids were smart enough, maybe they would have gone back to the bus to wait there. Unfortunately, the bus would only return at 9:00 in the evening.

I thought it would be a long shot, but I should still go back to check the parking lot. Anyway, I left the Magic Kingdom alone and walked across the huge parking lot to search for them. Half way through the parking lot, I could sort of identify two little figures standing at the parking lot number 123, waving at me and jumping up and down. Those two little brats were smart enough to wait at the empty lot where the bus used to park. They at least remembered my words.

I was just happy to find them. Can you imagine of losing two kids and finally finding them back at the busiest spot on earth in the summer time? Well, it happened to me once and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy!

Post Note: Those two kids would be grown up by now. If they were reading this article, I would like them to know that millions of my brain cells died that day due to their naughty behaviour. I am still waiting for an apology. (Dream on, I know.)