附注 NOTATION:
2025-08-21，13:03 UTC-04：
慢遞員Ning-Ning更新：「剛把書帶過去啦！」
COURIER Ning-Ning UPDATE："Just dropped off the books!"
2025-08-21，10:47 UTC-04：
慢遞員Ning-Ning報告：「在路上的時候寫的一條長的筆記」
COURIER Ning-Ning REPORT："a long note I wrote today on the journey here"
I have yet to find a comfortable way to sit on the New York City subway. Maybe it’s the heightened self-awareness of being a foreigner in a place or maybe the seats are just not comfortable. The seats at the very edge of the row do not have the pleasure of a thin glass on the side like the ones on the Hong Kong MTR, which are good to lean against. Here, you can only rest your head by leaning it all the way back or letting it drop forward. New Yorkers may have learnt ways of resting here that I have not.
As I write this now, on the Q train from Brooklyn to Manhattan, the bundle of ten _Acts of Departure_ sits on my lap. E passed them onto my courier care in mid-July at a sharing by KUNCI on Hong Kong Island. A fun evening full of food and friends that feels very long ago. We, the _Acts of Departure_s and I, went home from the island to my family flat in Tung Chung, Lantau Island, using the MTR.
They sat by my bedroom window for a few weeks as I worked from home and visited family in the Philippines in late July and early August. Between then and now, a handful of typhoons and rainstorms have passed through Hong Kong and Metro Manila.
Before leaving for the Philippines, I packed for New York. The _Acts of Departure_s sat inside a check-in suitcase next to me and my family’s clothes. I make a silent wish that the check-in would not be lost or rerouted. When the books and I arrived in New York on a sunny August 8th, I placed them on the counter in front of the TV at my partner’s apartment.
This will likely be my last visit to New York City in a few years. I am not sure when I will come back. My partner is moving to Hong Kong; the strongest gravitational tether I have to this city will depart. To leave is to uproot. A letter sent, a package dispatched, a one way ticket—they are hanging phrases with open-ended uncertainty. Will they reach their destinations? Will they ever come back?
The _Acts of Departure_s and I have been in transit together for five weeks. We have seen many typhoons pass together. I still do not know what they hold inside them. I can only read the textual and visual information on the covers, which are visible to me. They seem to be a collection of letters or essays about movement. But I feel close to them, like I know them intimately. I have carried them around, held onto them, rested them on my lap. They have accompanied me in my errands. We have crossed borders and security checks together. We have been vulnerable, or at least, I have been vulnerable in their presence.
When I leave them at Printed Matter today, I may never see them again. They may stay in New York City, travel around through hands and bags across the country, or be couriered elsewhere, perhaps somewhere ever further. Wherever they go, they will carry my body with them. The way I held them in my arms.
I heard that a hurricane is passing through Massachusetts. Maybe that is why it’s so damp and cold. A Hong Kong autumn happening in August in New York. I hold the _Acts of Departure_s close to my chest as I walk around the city, running errands and feeling wistful. Departures are difficult but I won’t say goodbye. I know someday we will meet again.
2025-08-16，18:35 UTC-04：
慢遞員Ning-Ning更新：「我現在到了紐約，會順著東岸逗留幾個地方拜訪親戚和朋友們，星期四21號就把書帶過去！如果那天不行請跟我說一下，很高興見你和瀏覽一下空間～」
COURIER Ning-Ning UPDATE："I am now in New York and will be making a few stops around the East Coast to see family and friends. I will be dropping the books off on the 21st (Thursday)! Please let me know if this date does not work for you. Excited to see you and browse the space then~ "
2025-07-15，21:55：
慢遞員Ning-Ning在被溫馨從堅尼地城的一場活動後攬好緩件號HQL-665；她跳一小舞然後像拿披薩盒那樣回大嶼山的家轉臨時轉運站；計劃於2025年8月中旬啟程前往美國
Courier Ning-Ning picks up dispatch HQL-665 and does a little dance just before getting gently removed from an event in Kennedy Town; she returns to her home as temporary relay centre on Lantau Island, holding hefty HQL-665 like a pizza box; departure for the United States scheduled mid-August 2025
媒體記錄 TRACKING:
切爾西 Chelsea
慢遞員的伴侶在地鐵裡面幫忙帶著書 Partner of COURIER carrying books in the subway
到達E-R-O-T-S P-A-M HQL-665 Arrival
堅尼地城 Kennedy Town
場後攬件；攝影由Manuel JESS提供 Pick-up before closing the house down, photos by Manuel JESS
