How do you know if you are a grown-up? Well, try going to a hair salon and see what magazine they give you. 16 - sports illustrated; 21 - car and driver. And today for the first time, I got my FHM... yup, no more sports illustrated, not even car and driver, there you go, For Him Magazine. What's more, it's from a female salon assistant. Well, why wouldn't she? Straight out of a workplace with way too much testerone and way too little sleep, I guess I do look classic with a preference for busty women. But hey, here is a silver lining - maybe my pimples are finally retrieving into the past. "Oh come on! Get even with your adolescent tantrum. It's just an FHM. You are an adult now. Deal with it."

 

So after the haircut, I took a cab home. I sat in the backseat, told him where to go, and was about to hibernate. But the driver was feeling chatty. So "ok, you go first." I thought to myself, "what do you want to talk about?"

 

Much to my surprise, for the opening line, he said, in shanghainese, "ge mao jing ji lor ver hor, nong gong si yor tzai yuo var?" (Economy is bad. Any job cuts at your firm?) ... How did he do that? Has he shrewdly detected the wall-street misery on my face? Damn, shanghainese are sharp (and I like his candor)... Well again, dude in suit, spiky hair, reads FHM - I got that, it's career profiling. So I responded, in broken shanghainese, with all the humility I could summon, "wai hor, a la gong si mer dor ter, wai whuo ler hai." (Still ok, our firm is still alive.) So for the remaining journey, I very much enjoyed myself chatting with this cheerful guy in my self-deprecating shanghainese dialect. It's fun living here.

 

This particular taxi has a sign that says 优质车 (premium quality car), and by the way I think the driver fully deserves it. Before I got off the cab, I asked him what prize he would get for being a star-analyst-equivalent in the taxi world.

 

It's money.

 

But anyone wants to guess how much?

 

Rmb80/month.

 

Yes, get that. Less than USD150 annualized bonus for working hard every month. It's a tough world out there.

 

So better work hard, you are an adult now.

I don't know where to start. We would have to backtrack to the 80's for a full account of our story. Maybe I can start from the split-seccond that you captured my heart. I thought you are way out of my league for me to stand a chance. So I feel truly lucky every time you stand by my side, and every time we do the simple things together like explore a small town or mix our own wine. You touched me in so many ways that I just lost count. So the clock striked 12 my dear darling, it's your birthday and I feel like the happier one. Thank God that I found you, my beautiful angel. I don't know what your life is, but I know you won't be lonely again.