Recently we have a new resident. My brother found her wondering around outside his bedroom’s window one day.

You may find my new neighbor a bit scary because she is a female Large Woodland Spider (genus Nephila maculata). You can easily recognize her by the bright yellow spots at the underside of the black legs. Its web is quite large (with a 0.5m radius) and has a yellow-gold color. Her species is commonly found in Australia, Africa, South America and Asia.



She is also a big girl. I haven’t really measure her size because she is poisonous and her web is hanging 2.5m from the ground. According to the information on the Internet, she can reach a body length of 4.5cm and has front legs of about 9.5cm. I think my neighbor is bigger than that.

Also, her silk is the strongest produced by any spider. It can capture some very big preys such as grasshoppers or even bats. She is also a good web builder. Although the typhoons destroyed her web, she can rebuild her home in one morning.


I remember I always brought back something from the great nature such as snack skin, leaves, flowers etc back to school so that all the classmates could have a chance to get close to the nature. However, those days are long gone. We see much less snacks these days as the area is more developed.

Well, I feel much better today (almost recover).

I’ve lost at least 2kg these days. I have now not only a waist but my ribs. I can see my rib bones popping out when I get change. It’s quite scary. I think I’d never understand why many Hong Kong girls want to be that bonny. I’d rather keep fit in a healthy way.

I catch a cold. I believe it was one and a half year ago since I last got sick.

Sickness has great impact on me as I don't sick often. I sweat, feel very dizzy and tired. My pulse rate also goes way up. My heart beats more than 80 bpm, while my normal heartbeat is 54 bpm. It's like working out all day.

Unluckily I had some appointments at Mongkok yesterday. The air quality was especially bad under the influence of typhoon Bopah. I could hardly breathe. I couldn’t even walk from Prince Edward to Mongkok and had to take a bus instead.

When I finally arrived Mongkok, I could hardly stand. I had to take a rest at a traditional Chinese herb teashop. Thanks to the bowl of tea, I felt much better. Amazing Chinese medicine.

昨晚和幾個年輕人去看《Keroro軍曹大電影》，看的非常愉快，笑個不停。老實說，我料不到自己會喜歡上這齣瘋狂搞笑的卡通，以前聽見有人喜歡，還嗤之以鼻呢！真是此一時，彼一時。

這套作品是講述一群來自Ｋ隆星的青蛙形外星人意圖侵略地球，卻意外地寄住在地球人家庭，小隊長Keroro只顧玩耍，不務正業，因此地球仍得享太平。

我之所以喜歡軍曹，大概是因為這隻傻瓜青蛙的喜好和我差不多，是個流行文化的狂熱追隨者，喜歡高達模型（而且還會非常小心地將之擺放在不同的場景中，展現高達最神勇的一面）、ＥＶＡ、松本零士的《宇宙海盜》等比較有深度的動漫作品（他的同伴Kururu則是Mac迷，用iMacG4，也有用第一代iPod作為武器的控制器），真是深得我心，而且他們的基地也放滿了最「潮」的科技產品和流行玩意，有如時下的年青人一樣。

我其實只是看了電影和數集卡通，不可說是Keroro迷，不過我倒是欣賞漫畫原作者吉崎観音的創意，將一些深奧的課題和爆笑情節融為一體。軍曹一行人寄住的日向家，只有母子三人，沒有父親，日向家的家長﹣﹣母親日向秋是漫畫社的編輯加合氣道高手，打破了一般少年漫畫的主角總是有「正常家庭」的不成文定律；而且一眾男生（Keroro他們也是男的），也得聽從女士們的指揮，Keroro更尊稱外祖母日各秋奈為「提督大人」，可見《軍曹》是女權至上的，這和日本社會男權當道的風氣大相逕庭。

另外，Keroro本身也反映了日本年輕人一天到晚只會玩、被驕寵慣了、不明白世情險惡等問題，幸好牠身邊有一群好朋友（而且非常好運），才能逄兇化吉。

小孩子看《軍曹》，只單純地為笑料而發笑；成人看《軍曹》，可以向自己以前喜歡的動漫作品懷舊一番，更會從中得到啟發。我想這正是漫畫（和動畫）迷人的地方，不同年齡的人在同一部作品中各取所需。

不過，據說《軍曹》動畫在韓國的反響很大，有人指它宣揚軍國主義（軍曹的黃色帽子與日軍在二戰時所戴的相似，而卡通片片頭則有日本太陽軍旗出現），要求禁播，不過大部份人也認為這是反應過敏了。我也傾向於後者的見解，軍曹和牠的同伴雖然屢次想征服地球，可是每次都白忙一場，因為牠們的計劃太沒有侵略性了，例如「使全世界開滿花大作戰」、「全球汽水大放送作戰」（把世界上所有水變為汽水、食物變成蛋糕），「侵略海底大作戰」（在海床插上K隆星旗就當是侵略成功，不過最後被海底人阻止了，大夥還一起在海灘清理垃圾），地球根本沒有受損，而且Keroro醉心於地球人的玩意，又努力和人類交往，這不是以表明了和平才是最重要的嗎？事實上，當我第一次看到軍曹帽子和身上的紅色星星時，倒是想起自由鬥士捷．古華拉呢！我們還是別太認真，以包容的心看這部作品好了。