Where the Lido Stood
- Peter K F Cheung SBS
- Feb 21
- 3 min read
Act 1
INT. LIVING ROOM - 12:30
PETER sits on a sofa, learning languages via the Duolingo app.
PETER (V.O.): Today is the fifth day of the year of the horse. I've a date with my wife.
Practising French.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): She needs to pick up some medication at the Queen Mary Hospital.
Practising Italian.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): When that's done, she'd wait for me to do my daily swim, say, in Repulse Bay.
Practsing German.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): We'll take the dog as well.
We hear joyful Duolingo chimings and see Peter's WIFE appearing.
WIFE: Shall we go now?
PETER: Yes!
Act 2
EXT. REPULSE BAY - 16:00
The car is parked along the beachfront road.
PETER: I go swimming now.
Pausing.
WIFE: Take your time. We'll be in the arcade.
Peter nods and heads down the promenade.
PETER (V.O.): I'll swim along the buoy lines to play safe.
Peter wades in. Steady strokes.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The water is cool, fine for me.
He stops at the far end and treads water, looking back.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I'm the only swimmer in the whole bay.
Peter turns toward shore and begins his final leg.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I can't see any lifeguards in their towers.
Peter walks out of the water and walks towards the bathroom. Then, he sees a banner: The lifeguard services at this beach has been suspended...
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): It's a shame about the most beautiful and very accessible beach in Hong Kong.
Soon, Peter rejoins his wife and the dog in the arcade's designated pet area.
PETER: Wow, a temporary sanctuary for us...the Coffee Academics is just downstairs...
Coffee Academics with open frontage. Peter and his wife sit at a table facing the bay, the dog resting near them. Coffee, juice and chicken wings between them.
PETER: Summer of 1973, I worked here. Right here.
Peter gestures broadly, the view.
PETER (Cont'd): It was the Lido restaurant. A real institution. I was a bar tender and a waiter.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.): After my matriculation exams, I worked 12-hour shifts from 11am-11pm, sleeping on chairs and swimming in the mornings for $900 a month.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Seeking more intellectual work, I left in Sept for a $700-a-month teaching job at Pak Kau College in Kam Tin.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): That decision changed my life, as it was there I met Sharon and got a civil service appointment in May 1974.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.): The bay is the same, but the people in it...they're completely different.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I measure my life not in years, but in the places that knew me when I was someone else.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The Lido closed. I'm still here. I don't know why that feels like luck and guilt at the same time.
The sun continues its slow descent toward the water.
WIFE: Shall we go home?
They walk slowly along the promenade toward the car.
Act 3
INT. LIVING ROOM - 22:30
Peter uploads an image depicting the calm atmosphere of Repulse Bay to a draft on his laptop.
PETER (V.O.): Where the Lido stood now serves coffee to people who don't look up from their screens. Progress, I suppose, is a different kind of noise.
Thinking.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The beach stays. The buoys stay. Everything else is just temporary tenants.
Reflecting.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Where the Lido stood, a man sat with his wife, his dog, and all the summers he had left.
The END
FADE OUT
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