Urban Critique - Study of Festival Walk (1)

it is difficult to find a seat in a shopping mall, this is not only for describing Festival Walk, but ALL Shopping Mall in HK. That day I wanted to find a seat in Pacific Coffee, had an Iced Chocolate and worked on my novel. Pacific Coffee was full of people - they were not having meal, but had their documents spread out on the table, reading newspaper, or even did nothing, I thought they would not leave before dinner time. There are cubicles for study, many students revised in there. How can Pacific Coffee earn money from keeping customers staying in the cafe for such a long time?

其實不只是又一城，天下商場都一樣，不付錢的話休想得到一個能坐下的空間。那天我欲在又一城Pacific Coffee找到位子寫點什麼，那時大約下午二時多，整間店子都坐滿人，他們全都一副賴著不走的樣子，把工作/溫習的文件攤滿桌子，不用工作的，就在看報紙雜誌，甚至有人光坐著什麼都不做；杯子空空的，顯然坐了好一段時間。店子最盡頭還有自修室一樣的間隔，連店子也容讓客人在這裡賴上數小時嗎？若然不是連鎖集團就不能這樣做吧。

I could not find a seat there, I wanted large red velvet sofa especially. Page One has Cafe as well, fewer people were there, they did what the Pacific Coffee guys did. We all thirst for space.

我還是想找到位子靜靜坐著，我覷覦Pacific Coffee的大沙發全被人佔用，便走到那一層的另一盡頭，Page One也有Cafe，那裡比較少人，裡面的人都在做著跟Pacific Coffee的人沒兩樣的事吧，我們對空間是如此的渴求。

I did not get in since this menu was not shown, I didn't know how much an Iced Chocolate cost, I only knew that a cake costs $40, that's why I was back to CityU finally, there are sofa also. CityU is supposed to be a space opened for all, why the people didn't go to CityU Canteen? Or they only want the large red velvet sofa?

我沒有進去，因為它沒有列出一杯朱古力的價錢，一件切件蛋糕要四十元，我情願向CityU屈服，坐podium的沙發罷了。CityU是一個向外開放的空間（但常有保安驅趕非學生及教職員離開），尤其是canteen，為何他們不選擇City Canteen？難道是因為Pacific Coffee的沙發？

It reminds me that I have followed a shooting crew of RTHK in summer, a rich man experience the poor live for 5 days. One day, he came to Festival Walk to take a rest, he prefer Pacific Coffee but not CityU Canteen. Even enough he didn't spend any money, just sat in there, and people might look down on him, he still felt conformable for the 3-hour long rest. What does it mean?

暑假時的港台intern，有一天要跟著有錢人做窮人，他下班後走到又一城涼冷氣，他選了Pacific Coffee 而非City Canteen，即使三小時裡他沒有用過一分一毫，大搖大擺的在沙發上睡覺，不怕別人白眼（或者根本沒有人留意他），他仍是選了Pacific Coffee 而非City Canteen，那又是什麼原因？

The most valuable thing in shopping mall is not the high-end product, but a free seat for rest.