{jcomments on}When I met Barbara I had different groups of friends. A group of Chinese. I had already a Chinese friend for some years. He was really skinny, talked English so fast that nobody could understand him and he had an enormous mouth. His favorite party act was putting a whole apple in his mouth. He introduced me to the other Chinese, all students from HK. This group was very close to each other, politically interested, willing to demonstrate and very musical. One of them played in a punk band. His band even made a record which he tried to sell in HK.
Then I had this complete different group of friends. The bikers, they were English and had a completely different lifestyle. The bikers and Chinese never mingled, they were two separate groups.
All these friends studied at the CCAT. All of them rented rooms near the CCAT. I was still living with my parents. Every time we had some free hours during school we went to someone's room, drank tea, and chatted. Often we ate together.
When Barbara came into my life she mixed easily with both groups. Obviously Barbara felt more attracted to the Chinese. The way we lived our life was a way Barbara didn't even know that existed. A very free life. No-one told us what to do. If we didn't feel like going to college, we didn't go. There was always someone where we could go to, and just have fun by chatting. We didn't drink alcohol and didn't smoke. I can still remember the times that Barbara had stomach aches and tears from laughter from the stories that were told or songs that we sang. Barbara had a very loud laugh. One time we went to visit one of our Chinese girlfriends to see her new room. We had a lot of fun and we laughed a lot. The next day the landlady told this girl that she had to leave, we made too much noise. I suspect that Barbara's laugh played a major part in this.
All our friends were students with not much money. We had no special dreams or ambitions; we just enjoyed being together and live a carefree life. Barbara was very happy with this. Everybody liked her, no-one expected things from her and there was always someone to help her.
While our way life continued the same way in the evening Barbara had to go home to help her family. Also in the weekends she was not allowed to join us.
Guestroad nr 1, about 100 yards from the CCAT, on the bottom floor Steve and Di lived, this was our meeting place for our English friends, during the day and in the evening.
不同的朋友
当我遇上翁美玲那时我有着不同类别的朋友。一群中国人。我其实已经认识一个中国朋友很多年了。他同样也很瘦，说英语十分的快以至于没人能听懂他在说什么，同时他的嘴巴特别的大。他最喜欢的派对活动是把一整个苹果放入口中。他把我介绍给其他的中国人，他们都是从香港来的学生。这些人彼此关系都很亲近，都很喜欢政治，喜欢去证明展示自我，同时很有音乐才能。其中的一人 在一个乐队里演奏朋克音乐。
与此同时，我也有着另外截然不同的朋友圈。那群摩托车手们，他们是英国人，有着完全不同的生活方式。这群摩托车手和那群中国人从未互相交流过，他们是两个互相分离的群体。
当翁美玲来到了我的生活中，她轻松的就把这两个群体融合在了一起。显然翁美玲更容易被那伙中国人所吸引。我们生活的方式毕竟翁美玲以前甚至不知道这还存在过。一种很自由的生活方式。没有人告诉我们该做什么。假如我们不想去读大学，那我们就不去。同时，世上总有个我们能够去的地方，我们只是想在闲聊中得到快乐。我们不喝酒，也不抽烟。我现在也能记得，有很多次翁美玲总是因为我们有趣的故事和歌曲，而笑的胃痛甚至流眼泪。翁美玲的笑声很大。一次，我们一起去拜访我们共同的朋友，一位中国女孩时。我们在一起都十分的快乐，不停地大笑。第二天，房东太太告诉那个中国女孩，她必须搬出去了，因为噪音太大。我猜想翁美玲的笑声也许是主要原因吧
我们的朋友基本上都是没有多少钱的学生。我们也没有什么特别的理想和抱负，我们只是喜欢在一起这种感觉，同时过着无忧无虑的生活。翁美玲同样也很喜欢这。每个人也都喜欢她，没人会期盼从她那里得到什么，但总有人会帮助她。
当我们晚上继续延续这种生活时，翁美玲不得不回家帮助她的家里人。同时，周末她也不被允许加入我们的活动。
(translated by Zhi)
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