remember this little gnome i bought for you as a good luck charm?

i received a big gnome statue for christmas one time when i was at year 4 at medical school. it came as a really big surprise. i loved it. it looked like a kind grandpa and that was all i needed at that time, it was a really frosty cold winter in hong kong that year (much colder than this year's!) and i just needed something to warm me up. i liked it so much i even kept the pretty cardboard box in a safe place... so time went on and i had to move back home after medical school. one day when i went back to visit my parents i was searching for some old novels, and there it was, hidden discretely in a corner of my bookshelf. as if i had found a long lost love, i grabbed it tight in admiration and looked closely at its wonderful christmas colours, only to find a long fine crack through the statue.

i don't know what gnomes are meant to do. but to me they have a special meaning, so eternally cheerful, bringing me sunny days...