We make choices constantly whether we want to or not.
Indecision is a choice - you decide NOT to act.
Choices bring consequences.
After Edinburgh, I had to decide what to do next.
I was not ready to go back to Hong Kong yet.
In my time, many of the girls would have a B.A. in Liberal Arts or English, then learn the necessary skills to become an Executive Secretary to some CEOs or some high government officials.
So I became a student at Mrs. Hester's Secretarial School For Girls in London.
Very Victorian, don't you think?
I was to learn Pitman shorthand, business-letter writing, typing, and bookkeeping (and how to Behave as an executive secretary - we were even taught how to sit while we were typing or taking shorthand and so on). I never used my skills in Pitman, though I received a story book in Pittman shorthand for winning some sort of contest. My typing has "gone to pots." Is that the expression? Bookkeeping did help me when I was running a Real Estate business in later years.
Now, instead of Mr. Cairns, I had Mr. Marden from whom I would receive fifty pounds a month to live on in London. Mr. Marden headed several big companies, some of them in Hong Kong that my father was associated with.. His company was on the NY Exchange. A much bigger Fish than Mr. Cairns in the business world . . . Every month, I would go to Bank Station of the London tube and walk to Mr. Marden's office for my allowance. I want to tell you, it was so confusing to me after getting out of Bank Station and try to find the right office building to go to . . . it was like Wall Street and worse.
Mr. Marden would say to me, "Now, Loretta, make B.L. (my father) proud." And I would say, "Yes, sir." Mr. Marden never invited me to his home. He was far too busy for this girl from HK - even if we had had dinners together in HK.
I rented a bed-sit at Knightsbridge, not too far from Harrods, the world's most famous department store.
I shared my flat with Dorcas, my schoolmate from HK.
Joyce had left London and went back to HK then. But my other friends from HK were still there. We reconnected - Syd, Fung, Lachu, Jiji . . . How happy I was to see all of them!
Syd and Fung later got married in London that year.
Lachu, what could I say? You always did know how to pick the most interesting restaurants for us to go to. I remember the Spanish one with the Flamingo dancers, in the basement somewhere.
Let me tell you, some of the best restaurants are in basements.
And Jiji, it was a wonder that we didn't all get killed. Remember, we all piled into your car and made you drive in that most awful and dense London fog one evening. Were we looking for another restaurant? Or, just driving around? We were pretty close to river Thames too. You are a good driver, Jiji!
Fifty pounds each month was not a lot of money to live on. Seven and half went for rent. It was enough to live on though And, I certainly made the best of it. I even bought the occasional flowers for my flat, from the street corner vendor. How could you resist a little sunshine in your drab bed-sit and London could be quite gray? It, sometimes, got dark around three thirty in the winter.
I was on student visa and was not allowed to work.
I would go to school, study, and explore London; going to see the many sights, to operas, to ballets, and to plays (I saw Julie Andrews in The Boy Friend on stage, before she became famous). I usually would buy tickets for the cheapest and highest seats, way up in the balcony, it gave me vertigo up there. Sometimes, I would buy a standing ticket - which meant you stand and not sit through the show. Like I said before, when you are young, you can do a lot of things without spending a lot of money. Rough it!
I took some pottery classes. I even sat for one of my schoolmates who painted. She wanted to paint me! My first portrait (clothed) - wish I had the painting. But alas, my pay was merely banana and peanut butter sandwiches!
It was the first time I was being exposed to so much Fine Art - I haunted the museums. I loved Turner and Constable, Reynolds and Gainsborough. Like a sponge, I was absorbing all the sights, the sounds, the people, and the Arts . . .
Feeding the pigeons
No comments:
Post a Comment