黄發權
上世纪的四十年代末期，当共产党刚从国民党的手中夺过政权的时候，我还住在中国广东省惠阳的郊区。那时的我还是一个年轻的小伙子。新中国成立不久，政府来了一个大规模的土改运动，地主富农随而成了斗争的对象。我们家属于贫农，没有田地，所以没有受到直接的斗争。但由于当时的环境很乱，农村的情况很不稳定，找工作做十分困难。于是在我十六岁的那年，便离开家乡到香港谋生。我在香港这个殖民地呆了大约二十年，这其中我四处奔跑，干了好几种粗重的活儿。当然由于我读书不多，我是无论如何也无法找得到理想的工作的。不管怎样，我仍然活得不错，而且还成了家。 一九七二年，我以劳工移民的办法来到英国，在里丁的一位亲戚所开的餐馆里打工。在餐馆里我是厨工，渐渐地我开始学会打理外卖挡生意的基本方法。
我在英国各地好几间餐馆打了好几年工后才开始做外卖挡生意的。我在伦敦的肯鲍威区、离英皇医院不远处弄了一间外买店。二十世纪的七、八十年代，我们的生意还不错，因为店子就在该区的闹市旁边。我们的店子虽小，但那时候在伦敦，甚至在整个英国， 中式外买店还不多，生以上的竞争还并不很激烈。打理外卖挡的工作很繁重，但正如我在先前在香港一样，我除了做外卖挡外几乎没有别的选择。无论如何我还算是能够自食其力的，无需到福利部门去领取救济金。在此之前我还把尚留在香港的妻子和两个孩子领了过来。孩子来了后入学读书，后来还进了专业学院。数年后我们又添了三个小孩。
到了九十年代中期我们决定把店子卖掉，解甲归田。其中原因是经过二十年的辛劳，我真正感到很累了。再者，我们的孩子中没有一人愿意继承饮食行业的工作。他们都受过大学教育，希望做一些能发挥自己专长的事业。如今他们都在电脑公司、商业机构做事：两个在香港，三个在英国。其中一个人任职于英国的一间航空公司，由此出差的机会特别多。另一个在电脑企业当专家，也经常来回在伦敦 - 纽约之间。我们家人因之中关系还时常买到廉价机票。其实自从退休后，我们夫妻俩经常回香港去探亲，欧洲大陆也去了好几个地方。我们还搬进了一间位于离奥肯大道不远的房子。如今，只要不去旅游，我便到伦敦各区的长者俱乐部去找朋友熟人拉家常、打麻将来打发时光。我有六个孙儿女，四个在英国，两个和他们的父母在香港。每个星期六我都接送一个孙女到林拔芙华文学校学中文。英国的生活方式很平淡，但这我也习以为常了。如果你问我对这几十年走过的路怎么看，那么我会对你说的就是：“光阴似箭！”。当你埋头苦干时，你并没有时间去享受一切；而当你变得较为空闲时，你又觉得太老了，享受好像没什么意思。而且，你会觉得有点儿孤独，因为你的孩子已经变了，他们都有了自己的个人世界和理想追求。他们的生活习惯甚至对你来说是陌生的。好像以前我们认识的事物已经不复存在。也许，大多数老人都有这样的体会吧。
How time flies!
I was a young boy in
Huiyang, Guangdong
Province,
China
, when the Communists took over power from the Guomingdang in the late 1940s. Shortly after the founding of the new
China
, the Government carried out a massive land reform so that the landlords became the targets of the so-called ‘class struggle’. My family was poor and we did not owe any land, but because of the on-going political struggle the situation was rather unstable in the countryside, finding work for example wasn’t easy at all. So at the age of sixteen I left Huiyang for
Hong Kong
to seek my luck. For nearly twenty years I stayed in the former British Colony working in all sort of places and doing all sorts of jobs, of course all of which were manual. Since I had had very little schooling, there wasn’t much for me to choose anyway. Life in
Hong Kong
wasn’t plain-sailing either, but at least I felt free and was later able to start and support a family. In 1972 I sought a work permit to come to the
UK
, working for my relatives who had a small catering business in
Reading
. I worked in the kitchen as a cook, from where I gradually gained the skills for handling a small Chinese takeaway food shop.
I had moved to different places across
England
and worked for quite a few restaurants for several years before starting my own business. I settled in Camberwell, south
London
with a takeaway shop a stone’s throw from King’s
College
Hospital
. Business wasn’t too bad in the 1970s and 1980s as we were located just on the edge of the local commercial district there. Ours was a small business but in those days there weren’t many Chinese takeaway shops in
London
, even in
England
as a whole, so that you didn’t feel much competition or things like that. Running a takeaway shop is hard work but since I speak no English, again, like when I was in
Hong Kong
, there wasn’t much choice for me except working in catering. In any case I was able to make a living without having to beg from the Social Security people. Earlier I was able to arrange my wife and our two oldest children, who had stayed in
Hong Kong
when I first came, to come over here with me. Here the kids went to school and then college. Later we had three more children who were born in this country.
In the mid 1990s we decided to sell the business and retire. Part of the reason was that after over two decades working in the kitchen, I felt physically exhausted. Moreover, none of our children bothered to engage in catering business. All of them have a degree and want something that they can use the skills they have acquired. Two of them are now working in
Hong Kong
, the rest in the
UK
, for companies dealing with computers and so on. For this they get to travel a lot. One of the boys, who is a computer expert, actually travels to
New York
quite often. And a daughter who works for a
UK
based airline occasionally gets us cheap flight tickets too. Indeed since retirement I have visited our relatives in
Hong Kong
almost every year, and have also been to quite a few places in continental
Europe
. And what is more, since retirement I have moved into a house near Old Kent Road
. Now, while not travelling, I spend my time mostly with other older people in the Chinese community centre, where we play majong, or simply chat away the time. I have now got six grandchildren, four of whom in the UK., the rest in
Hong Kong
with their parents. Every Saturday morning I would have the job of taking a granddaughter to the
Chinese
School
to learn Chinese and then pick her up after the lessons. Life seems very quiet here. But I am used to it anyway. If you ask me what I think of the years that have gone by, then I’d say ‘How time flies’. When you work you don’t have time to enjoy life much. But as you become freer somehow, you are too old to enjoy it, or get the most of it. And you also feel a bit lonely since your children are so different from you in many ways. They have their own ambitions and a different life to lead. They even have their habits that seem so different from what you used to be familiar with. Things we used to know in the past have now gone, somehow. Maybe this feeling is common among all older people.
