Fortune

The boys were out, so Anna and I went to Temple Street market in Kowloon. We stopped to have our fortunes told.

There are many fortune tellers at work there. Some read your face, some read your palms, some have trained birds that pick our your fortune from a deck of Chinese tarot cards.

We picked a man who looked appropriately old. He didn't speak English but hollered hoarsely and a young man interpreter appeared.

Anna went first. The fortune, as fortunes often are, seemed eerily prescient.

I went next. He was quite accurate on several things - that I have had two careers, for example. He was also quite honest, answering some questions by saying that fortune depends half on fate but that half is up to you.

When I asked how long I would live, for example, he said that I should exercise and see a doctor. If I took care of myself, he said, I would live past 75, but that was as much as he would commit to.