The Year in Review

Yes, I know it sounds a bit old fashioned, but it is meaningful to have a review of what we had done, or what had happened in the globe in 2005.

Referring my previous blog, I have quite a busy year, and I have made a lot of new moves.

In end January, I had my first trip to United States with Jeff. We had been New York and Washington, we visited a lot of places where I saw in movies: MoMa Museum, Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, Broadway, White House, Trump tower, the fifth avenue, etc, etc. Surely this was an amazing journey especially for me.

Jeff and I have started our 'independent' live since March. We moved out from the family and built our lovely net. I learnt to cook and did housework; however, it was too hard to do the cooking because my workload was heavy. Luckily Jeff is a great husband and he is willing to be the 'chef' of many dinners.

Annual dinner of our company in March was also an unforgettable moment for me. The dressing competition brought us lots of fun. Even though my Little Miss Bee costume could not win the award, it was already very great to be a participant.

A horrible 'Internal Presentation' session was around May-June, which was a nightmare to most of the young executives. I still remembered the hidden confrontation between us and the management. Many of us were so depressed and had planning to quit the job.

By end June, I took an initiative to take a project, poorly it was not stick with the schedule. I could only manage to finish it by mid September, and worked alone. This study had time clash with my core project, but great thanks to my teammates that they backed me up a lot. I called this 'took-an-initiative-to-take-a-project act' as 'the stupidest I had done in 2005'. However, to be frank, I could learn a lot through this working alone self learning process.

The company trip to Thailand and Cambodia was in end September, right after I discovered that I am pregnant. I am pretty sure this is my last trip before the due date of my baby.

Then, needless to say, this miraculous pregnancy thing in late 2005 is the highlight news of this year.

Alright, let's talk about the international and local affairs in the next diary. May I take this opportunity to wish you all have a joyful and adventurous 2006!!

Another working day with productivity drops below 10%

Today the office is still very quite, I am alone in my 1m x 1m cubicle, all my neighbors are on leave, and so do my bosses and clients.

I have done most of the tiny jobs I left before the Christmas holiday, and I picked up the internal presentation and worked on it again, now I have finished the first draft in word format. Tomorrow I will start to construct the power point format.

And then I spend most of my remaining time on web surfing. I feel a bit guilty, but at least I search for information on web for my presentation, this is part of my job, a self-learning approach to equip my professional knowledge, isn't it?

The below website is quite helpful for young researchers, all key terms we face everyday are having a precise definition here.

http://www.quirks.com/resources/glossary.asp

I do not have the guilty feeling anymore, instead, I am quite hard-working, I explore a new way to learn, =D.

One day to go, then we will have another long weekend, to celebrate the coming of 2006!!

P.S. Daddy, happy birthday!

Christmas Salad Recipe

I had mentioned about the Christmas Salad in my previous diary, which interests a lot of readers. Now I would like to share the recipe here, you could try it anytime you like and add any ingredients you prefer.

Ingredients:
Cherry
Cherry tomato
Blueberry
Kiwi fruit
Mixed leaves salad

Dressing:
Extra Virgin Olive oil
Black Vinegar
Lemon juice
Lemon skin (the yellow part peeled out from the skin)

Method:
1. Cut the fruits in cubes, mix with mixed leaves salad.
2. Mixed dressing ingredient.
3. Serve the salad with dressing, don't pre-mix them before serving.

Why calling Christmas Salad?
I give the salad this festive name because it is made by red and green fruits and vegetables, the two theme colors in this season. This salad looks sexy and beautiful, and the most important is, extremely easy to prepare.

Post Season's Greeting Period

What a blessing that I had a wonderful Christmas holiday this year.

Now I am in office, not many staff goes for work today. Needless to say the holiday mood is still heavy!

That is why I decided to write an entry, as I hadn't visited blog for quite a long time.

Let me tell you what I had done in these few days:

Watching 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' on Dec 23 evening was the brilliant start of our series of celebration. Interestingly, the sound effect was inefficient in the first few minutes and the theatre should re-run the movie again when Harry Potter woke up from the nightmare. All audience had waited for another 30 minutes before the movie could be re-started again, but everyone still remained very calm and polite, and even felt amazing!

On Dec 24 evening, Jeff and I went for the Christmas concert by Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Miraculously, my unborn baby reacted to the music; it 'danced' in my tummy. During the performance, musicians from different corners of the world shared how they celebrated Christmas in their own countries, which was so impressive. After all, everyone hoped music could act as a connection of all nations and world peace and no war could come true one day.

A 'lunar' birthday celebration for Jeff was held in my parent-in-law's home on Dec 25. That night Ho Ho B was sick and vomited.

Then Dec 26, we did not have any plan, we woke up late and went to the Peak in the afternoon. For a pregnant woman in her 19 weeks, I had walked too much and my leg was trembling at night.

A no-theme party with my swimming friends was held on Dec 27 evening. I had not experienced such a cozy feeling with them for a long time. I had prepared an 'Oreo cream cake' and a bowl of 'Christmas salad', which was made by red and green ingredients. These two dishes were very popular and everyone cleaned up the dishes rapidly. Then we had a great gift exchange and photographing time. Hope that all of them all also felt the joy as what I did!

The celebration will not stop in this week as we would celebrate the coming of 2006, I just cannot wait for the coming weekend!!

親愛的家長

我家有親愛的家長。

我媽媽的偶像是阿RAIN。

我爸爸有很多偶像，他有一個偶像榜，只有當紅或正上位的「明星」才能成為他的偶像。曾經有幸上榜的包括梁詠琪陳慧琳容祖兒佘詩曼YUMIKO薛凱琪等。

昨天他update我最新的偶像是JANICE衛蘭。

......

他們真的很IN。唔該晒。

Will I witness Universal Suffrage in Hong Kong one day?

The debate of Universal Suffrage had dominated both daily and political life in this Special Adminstrative Region recently. Yesterday it even reached the climax, around 100 thousands HongKongers in black stepped out and joined the demonstration on Hong Kong Island. I'm glad that I was one of the participants in this historical moment.

Despite of that I am pregnant, I am willing to take risk to join this peaceful match. Most demonstrators shared the same aspiration - to fight for the Universal Suffrage in 2007-2008. Actually I supposed there would only be a 10 -20 thousands of Hong Kong citizen joining the match, but it turned out 10 times of what I expected. (From the research by organizer, the number of participants even reached 250 thousands, but I trust the survey which is done by SCMP more). Two years ago, I joined the July 1st demonstration, my goal at that time was to fight against the Article 23, but I felt that all demonstrators had various aspirations. After number of troughs in and before 2003, including the Financial crisis, bird flu, Article 23 and SAR, some of the participants hoped to drag Mr. Tung from his position, others were fighting for a more fair society, parts of them simply wished to express their anger about the economic downturn since the handover in 1997. However, yesterday, I felt that most of the demonstrators were fighting for democracy and freedom, which was quite different that the marches in last 2 years, you know, we seldom do one thing which does not relate to money and economic development together.

Many parents brought their kids to join the protest, they expressed that they did this for the next generation's sake.

The former Chief Secretary Ms. Anson Chan also joined the demonstration yesterday and which was her first time. I think she is really smart as her appearence drew lot of attention from International Media.

And I also met a group called 'Internation Action' which was formed by a group of 'gwai-los', oversea Chinese, local 'gingers' and Asians in Hong Kong who believed they are part of Hong Kong and would like to contribute the the society. You could visit their website at www.thebiggerpicture.hk.

Through the way, I found people from differnt age groups, from infants to eldery. Many senior citizen over 80 joined the match, I met an old lady who is 92. Isn't it impressive?

Frankly speaking, I have no expectation that we can achieve the Universal Suffrage within this 10 years, but at least I tried. In these few years, I learnt one important thing - Freedom is not free. At least I had tried and I had no regret.

Meanwhile I am listening 'All you need is love' by beatles...

春風化雨

這幾天工作得有點倦。

有看4400嗎？昨晚看了第一集，頗喜歡該故事。它是講述4400位在不同時間被外星生物擄走的人，回到地球後的故事。

今天回家途中，不知怎樣地由4400的思潮中聯想起中學的老師，還記很多老師都被冠以花名，而那些花名更經得起時間考驗，一屆又一屆的學生傳頌下去，以下是比較有代表性的例子:

男子組代表
鹹蛋「黄」-鹹是指該黄姓老師對學生比較「熱情」。我們讀女校的都是比較敏感。但其實黃老夫是一個絕好的老師，所有學生都愛戴他。

咸「楊」 -楊老師跟「熱情」扯不上關係，他幸得這名是因為每堂中史課，不論教授唐宋元明或清，他一踏進課室，也二話不說，先在黑板上勾畫出中國外形，再點上咸陽城的位置。

細龜 -我想二十歲以上的讀者，應對九十年代初無線電視紅極一時的細龜黄一山有深刻印象。沒錯，這位老師跟黄一山有幾分相似，雖然只是幾分...女校就是如此殘酷。

女子組代表
雞Li/雞仔Lam -跟她們的聲線有關

啤機/啤精 -該「揻匙」只教了一年，到我校執教應是她第一份工，她很好人很用心，但眼神卻異常凌厲。由於初來的三個月不太能駕馭classroom management，我們課堂談話時她常常瞪大那雙鏡片背後的眼睛而得名。

Centre Wong/Headphone Wong -是一位geography老師。每當她講起"Equator(赤道) is the central line of Earth"，我們就不其然看著她那中間分界頭。而Headphone是出於她再將兩旁及耳的曲髮用頂夾貼近耳上位置夾好，形成至臻完美的Headphone形髮型而得名。

雖然我們為以上老師起了花名，但我們是由衷的尊敬他們，並十分欣賞他們對教育的熱誠。

Lines and dots

I do get tired to shopping. After I left school, it seems that I don't really know how to entertain myself. Reading and writing is one of my hobbies, but both need concentration, and I prefer to do these before bed or during the commuting.

Since last month, when Jeff and I picked up drawing again (We are learning pencil drawing), I remember I love drawing so much when I was a small girl. Mom told me that I drew on wall once (and that was also the last time), I drew a lot of little chickens in a queue. My parent taught me it was not correct to draw on wall, and they bought me a note pad and a 'magic drawing board', then I started to draw appropriately.

I feel very joyful when drawing, it is so satisfactory if you construct the picture bit by bit and add strokes and line and eventually create you own materpiece!!

And pencil drawing is the basic step of all types of painting, I hope I could polish my skill and trying others later.

Pencil Drawings

Jeffrey and I are learning pencil drawing. These are the pieces we finished today. Which one do you think is better? The upper one or the bottom one?

See what I have made tonight!!

Pic 1 A cake exclusive for my Blythes

Pic 2 A birthday cake for Jeff

Pic3 A snowman

I made these by lightweight clay. Aren't they lovely??

香江如此明媚

我想是我年紀大了，不喜歡「蒲夜」，在happy friday的晚上早早睡覺，然後悠然享受週六的清晨。

謝菲跟我九時到「嘜記」用早饍。你試過那兒的通粉嗎？幾新奇，不過當然不及茶餐廳的風味吧。我突然覺得「嘜記」的全球化生意頗肯創新，至少會引入若干的本地元素來吸引顧客。

餐後我倆走到山頂行山，那時才十一時多。慢慢步行一圈，感受秋冬喬木的樹香，一拂涼風吹過髮際，再細意欣賞維港景色，覺得自己好幸福。

聖誕節快到，香江各地開始抹上華麗節日妝容，雖然有點俗氣，但又不失幾分艷麗。你有沒有想過為自己或家居添上一點聖誕氣氛？

本週末心情確是暢快。

A breakthrough

This is a time for a breakthrough, hope you like this template and the new setting of Manki's secret diary.

And, if you look at over your right hand side, there is a connect link 'Manki's Matrix'. This blog is about another part of my life, you will know what I mean if you have a look of it. Hope you enjoy!

Again, please always feel free to provide me any comment to improve my online diaries, I look forward to meet you here!!

Do Re Mi

Lucky me I got 2 complimentary tickets of 'The Sound Of Music' musical performance last Thursday. The show was amazing, but I love the original Robert Wise's movie more. Sometimes, the older the much better.

Which songs in 'The Sound Of Music' you like most? For me, 'Sixteen Going On Seventeen' is really lovely. Liesl in the movie is like an English rose, she is delicate and sweet. When I was sixteen, I was not sweet at all. I was so muscular and well-built at that time. It was because I swam at least three times a week, I was tan and strong, I looked like a tree instead of a flower. God blessed that I could return to original size after I quitted the practice.

And, surely, 'Do-re-mi' by Maria and children is my another favourite song, I sing the song with Lok Lok B all the time.

I also love all other songs, such as 'Edelweiss' and 'Something good'. And you?

Yellow Stone Pier

Haven’t barbequed for quite a long time, but in the last two consecutive weekends, I BBQ-ed with my in-law family and my colleagues.

Surely, the BBQ with my colleagues in my same age range was much funnier and interesting. We had a wonderful Saturday in Yellow Stone Pier, Sai Kung. The weather was extremely beautiful and also the scenic sea view. Comforting sea breeze and tasty food did not only attract all of us but also some cows and oxen. They invaded our area and swallowed some of our sweet potatoes and grilled food. One aggressive ox even ate the whole glass of honey!!! When it pushed the glass of honey to the ground and licked up whatever on the soil, I screamed loudly, it just did all these things two feet in front of me. It should be extremely hungry. Around 7:00pm we left the site, and then all those ‘grass eaters’ dragged out our rubbish bag from the bin and started their big ‘harvest’….

That night, I returned to my in-law home to have a dinner. When I saw how they humbly ‘served’ the baby for a dinner in such a ‘royal’ and ‘prestigious’ way, and how the baby refused to eat, I told myself that it was just another vivid example to demonstrate this world was extremely unfair.

Office as a freezer

I am now in my office, shivering like a rabbit. It is not because of any predator nearby; instead, the office temperature is very low and makes me trembling a lot.

An English tour-guide book of Hong Kong mentions that HK indoor temperature is much low than the outdoor temperature! It suggests tourists to bring a coat or a jacket if they go for any indoor activities, e.g. shopping, dining. Although we are in the subtropical zone, our indoor temperature is always similar to the Arctic Circle (I admit I exaggerate a bit).

It explains why I need to drink 5-6 cups of hot water in office a day, because I should get the heat from hot water.

Why we should set the temperature that low? Several years ago, we had two Norwegian classmates; they love Hong Kong a lot except the temperature, and also air conditioners in classrooms. They couldn’t stand the chilly and wet ambience in air conditioned places in Hong Kong. These two Scandinavian told me that although Norway was much colder than Hong Kong, they will not feel as hard as in Hong Kong indoor area, air conditioners here made them sick.

My administrative department revealed our comment to the property agent, but the feedback was unsatisfactory. The staff explained that if they adjusted the air con temperature, several floors above and below us will also be affected. Since no one from other floors also complaint about this, it was ‘inappropriate’ to adjust it simply based on our feeling… Fine, it is absolutely fine!

I think we may set a project to investigate how people in every floor think about the ‘micro-climate’ of our building; I am going to draft a questionnaire.

Metaphor

"Economics is a very difficult subject, I've compared it to trying to learn how to repair a car when the engine is running."- Ben Bernanke, the brand new Federal Reserve Chairman of US said.

What a fascinating metaphor.

Let me try to construct a metaphor for... Anthropology:
Anthropology is a weird subject. I've compared it to digging the soil of the aborigines while your friends are digging a gold mine and think you are nut.

Let me try to construct a metaphor for ...Geography:
Geography is a pathetic subject. I've compared it to learning all the details of every corner of your house, and while you start to be impressed by the designers and the architect of this house, someone come to your house and wipe away your furniture throw away all the plants and build a production line here, there reason only one reason - the economic development. If you are rich enough, you can move to another house, if not, 'no money no talk'.

Not in a right place

Last night I thought about what I had learnt in the last 15 years.

I studied Geography for 10 years (yesterday I explained to Jeff that there are three types of rock in this planet - igneous rock, sedimentary rock and metaphoric rock... Frankly speaking, these are already all I remember about rocks =P), 3 years for Philosophy & Psychology and 1 year for Anthropology.

What kind of weird combination.

No wonder I disagree with lot of things in this world. Jeff also feels that sometimes I am like an extremeist.

I do believe the subjects you take would shape your personality.

Out of the box

This is the music box my Mom and Dad bought for me from Hakkaido, Japan. This is the most beautiful music box I have ever seen.

Music box means a lot to me, it is more than a machine with music, but a precious gift box to hold memories, blessing and sentiment!

The first music box I got was a petite pink little box, which played Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. As I remember, I was in Primary school at that time, and it was also a gift from my parents. I love that song a lot, it sounds sweet, not simply lollipop sweet, but the mixture of bitterness and sweet, doesn't it taste more like the real life?!

However, I lost that music box for quite a long time, I cannot remember it until I meet this gorgeous sparkling precious artifact, I am sure all those lovely memories were stored in my mind already.

蜜蜂大鬍子

今晚在電視裡看到蜜蜂及蜜蜂養殖專家，我腦海浮現一個用蜜蜂佈滿面頰的老伯，那些黃黑小昆蟲聚起來像透大鬍鬚，記得有些蜂蜜品牌用這映像作品牌標誌。不知道蜜蜂大鬍子的蜂蜜是否最甜，但應該是最惹笑。

過去週末看過三套電影：「高凶三萬尺」、「仙樂飄飄處處聞」及電視播出的「綠里奇緣」。在看「綠」的時候，我哭了一場又一場。告訴你一秘密，未看這電影前，我從片名以為它是講述Tom Hanks尋求美國「綠」咭的辛酸及曲折歷程......多麼好笑啊！

近來實在看了太多電視，尤其是Discovery Science。我就來變成UFO，魔術，外星人同木乃衣的專家了。是時候做些更有意義的事，例如籌備一下萬聖節時扮成甚麼去嚇其他細路！

Weird Nightmare

Last night I had a strange nightmare. I dreamt that one of my eyes popped out, and then I found it on the floor. A person stood next to me was so panic and asked me how to do, I was very calm and squeezed it back to the right place, it was just like people wearing contact lens.

Doesn't it sound disgusting?

This afternoon I tried to search the symbolic meaning of losing eyes in a dream analysis website, it explained that 'losing an eye' denoted problem. So does my dream mean that I also had a problem but I had solved it already?

I believed dream carries meaning. In my most remarkable dream many years ago, I dreamt that I was pregnant and wearing the roller blades and tried to keep balance on the slippery floor, there were lots of bubbles and foam on the marble floor. Then I saw a young guy came to me and held my hands, he tried to comfort and support me. I could not see his face clearly but I knew he wore glasses, I felt that eventually, I found someone I could trust.

After a few days of that dream, Jeff and I came together, but I had never thought about him during or after that dream, and I did not even plan to be her girlfriend. However, I am sure that the dream gives me a signal, I would meet someone I trust in the soon future.

Do you have any special dream that means a lot to you?

向基層婦女致敬

今晚「星期二檔案」講述九位獲得提名本年度諾貝爾和平獎的基層婦女的故事。

其中幾位以前是工廠女工，在九十年代工廠大舉北移的情況下，她們遇到失業的難題，卻勇於面對，並在自已的社區建立合作社，目標不但是自力更生，更希望回饋社區，發揮互助互愛精神。

另外一位女士，她自小在大澳長大，多年來為保護碩果僅存的棚屋及大不為餘力。儘管被人譏為現代愚公，她只堅持心中一個信念 -- 要對自已的地方、文化、身邊的人及大自然有愛。

就是因為她們將「愛」這訊息傳至別人而得到諾貝爾和平獎的提名。雖然最後落敗，但她們的成就比娛樂界的香港傑青崇高得多。

在香港這金錢掛帥的社會，人的成就單純地以他的職位、資產及社會地位來衡量。我們往往忽視一羣為社會默默貢獻，努力養育為新一代的人們。他們或許不富有，不為人所識，但我們要確立他們的成就，向他們致敬。

Blink - Trust your instinct judgment

I am reading the last two sections of the book 'Blink', which is written by Malcolm Gladwell, the bestselling author of his another book 'The Tipping Point'.

This book points out an important message - people sometimes make judgment by their 'snap' feeling, we sense something but actually we cannot tell the why we can sense it, and in some case the judgment could be absolutely correct. People always call this powerful ability as the 'sixth sense'. Most women possess such power to 'feel' if their boyfriends/husbands have done something 'naughty'.

instinct feeling' is not ESP. In fact, our brain can make analysis by several small layers of information and provides a decision within a second. As we cannot even know that the brain has operated such a complicated process when the 'blink' feeling comes out, we think such intuitive feeling is mysterious. Just take a woman's instinct feeling to her spouse as an example, she can spot out her husband has mis-behaved by even one glance. Actually within that short eye contact her brain has already sensored his facial expression, body language and the something weird in his outfits within a snap shot, and realizes that he flirted with a girl in the pub that night.

Of course, we should not totally trust the instinct feeling all the time, because it could be blinded or deluded sometimes, especially when we are not experienced enough in some aspects.

This book also mentions the weaknesses of market research. Market research sometimes ignores the power of snap judgment in many consumer behaviors. Of course, this profession cannot be always wrong, but to be an excellent market researcher, you could be very familiar with the industry that you are doing the research, which enable you to spot out those blind points and provide the insight which beyonds the plain figures and charts.

From my experience, the best time to use your 'blink' power is when you are deciding if a person is great to be your lover. Of course, you should have certain exposure to the opposite sex... or the same sex if it is your case.

Biological Clock

Well, I am trying to switch my biological clock to 'WORK' mode, hope I could do it tonight. Frankly speaking, I still wish to remain it at 'HOLIDAY' mode.

Lazy holiday

I am still enjoying my lazy holiday. I will resume my work next Wednesday, that means there are still two days left.

In this 'long' holiday, I did almost nothing. Zero level of productivity, 100% of consumption, I love the lazy life so much.

Everyday I sleep for more than 9 hours, I wonder if I could tune my biological clock once I should get back to my work.

Last Friday my sister took a half day leave and visited me. We watched TV from 2pm-4pm. Do you know there was a TV soap opera called 'Season' in 80's decade? It is now shown on TVB channel during weekday afternoons. We laughed and laughed as the whole stories, lines, make up, costume and relationship amongst characters are very old-fashioned. Definitely this is unfair to judge these in term of the current standard, but it is undeniably that the whole story is tailor-made to attract the our mothers and Tai-Tais!!

Then we had a tea in Queen's cafe, it sounded so prestigious, right? Therefore, to maximize the utility level, we'd stayed there for more than an hour. Oh, I remember the tasty honey lemon that evening.

Mom and dad would come back from Japan tonight. Jeff and I gave up the Japan trip and Mom and dad took our vacancies. This is the first time we pay my parents for a trip. They promised to buy me a lot of souvenirs, they couldn't disappoint me!!

菩提樹

尤記得漫遊柬埔寨吳哥窟時看到一樣讓我很興奮的東西 - 菩提樹。我立即想到一首很"型"的詩辭:
菩提本無樹
明鏡亦非臺
本來無一物
何處惹塵埃

那些菩提樹矗立在馬路旁，旅遊巴惹起很大的塵埃。

我看到菩提樹，立即奔到它跟前拍照。雖然做不到那種菩提本無樹的忘我意境，但我覺得很開心。

菩提樹有粗壯而條紋仔細的樹幹，根部紮實而自信地抓著土地，樹頂撑得大大的，讓很多人及動物在樹下乘涼，樹與人渾成出那種靜謐的情境，看得好舒暢!

Thailand & Cambodia Trip

This was an amazing trip. Finally I had been Cambodia, a country that I had never thought about for leisure travel.

Thailand becomes a shopping paradise, people are friendly, it is quite a nice place to spend a weekend for spa, dining and consuming.

We visited Angkor Wat, Cambodia for two days. Temples, heritages and construction sites of hotels are everywhere. You can enjoy the marvelous scenic views in the city, but also witness the poverty of this place. Every time we arrived the tourist spot, there were a bunch of little kids, the youngest one might just be 4 years old, selling souvenirs to tourists. Sometimes they would wander around the entrance of our shuttle bus and asking us to buy. I could not imagine what they thought at that moment, by experienceing a stroke of cool wind from the air cond of the bus, what would they think about the outside world?

Afterall, I should say thanks to my company for this incentive tour. I enjoyed the trip a lot.

Happy Mid Autumn Festival

Hope everyone has a 'round and bright' Mid Autumn Festival today!! Although the weather is not stable tonight, we could see the large bright moon sometimes, people whistled and cheered when the lunar light sneaked out from the heavy clouds.

In this weekend, I practiced yoga twice, I started to feel that yoga can bring me tranquility. This morning, the instructor taught us yoga isn't just an exercise, it is a practice helping us to clean our mind. When you practice yoga, you should sweep away all the thoughts and concentrate on every posture, to listen carefully of every part of your body, and to feel your inner self. After the practice, I felt so peace and joyful.

That's great that we have one more holiday tommorrow. Enjoy!!!!!

Disneyland Hong Kong

The grand opening of Disneyland Hong Kong was on Sep 12, 2005. This is one of the most controversial 'developments' in Hong Kong in last decade.
Personally, I do not have the great enthusiasm towards this so-called dreamland. In 1999, when Walt Disney signed the agreement with Hong Kong government to build the fifth Disneyland in our territory, I wrote an essay called – ‘When Mickey and Minnie decided to migrate to Hong Kong – The environmental pollution problems caused by the construction of Disneyland’ for my Environmental Protection course of the Geography degree.
I did attach the negative feeling to Walt Disney since I worked on that essay (should be before, otherwise I would not pick a topic like this). After I flipped through a lot of related documents, I understood how the tremendous change of Penny Bay was. I also know well about the 'high efficiency' of those environmental evaluation which was implemented by the government to protect this orginally quite lovely seashore - they concluded that there were no severe destruction of the environment by the development. Not to mention I thoroughly understand how unfair the ‘treaty’signed between the government and the corporation was, and how helpless and ignorant of the public.
No offense but I don’t think geography or social science students are friendly in some ways.
For all those ungratefuk news about this dreamland in the recent weeks, for me it is expected, but just a bit too late to start the discussion.
When there are countless of kids over the world facing famine, war, plague and illiteracy, please do not advocate all those fake and coarse fantasy, and construct the so-called paradise by tones of money from rich parents and brainwash our offspring.

Curse is leaving

I believe the curse which bothered me in past 2 weeks is leaving. In last 14 days, unrecovered ill, endless works, countless (actually it is able to count) O.T. night, jobs with no indication or guidance from the senior, etc. everything seemed pissing me off.

Thanks god that I could sleep from morning to night in last weekend and I could have 'normal' working hours in these 2 days. In addition to my mommy's amazing Chinese medicine - honey with 'chuen pui', my horrible cough is almost recovered. Mommy is just like a powerful magician or practitioner, she would clean up everything or help you to find out anything or heal those minor ills by a flip of her magic wand.

The coming weekend is Mid Autumn Festival, the most romantic Chinese festival. In that day, Mommy used to prepare decoration, fruit, moon cakes and tea each year, and we had a family dinner that night. I love icy mooncakes most, which is made of green bean paste and much lighter than the traditional mooncakes. However, they are still high sugar content. It just reminds me that several years ago there was a splendid 'seven stars surround the moon' icy mooncake set in office. My colleague did not preferred the icy mooncake much and just eat a little bit. Then I had finished almost 90% of the whole set and surely I gained some pounds.

So what will you do that night? And whom will you want to stay with?

假如我變成濶太

假如我變成濶太我會跟其他名媛一樣，用肚子裡僅有的幾滴墨水去寫作，而我寫會是劇本。

我已定了該劇本的大網，是一個包含3個連續劇的話劇（音樂劇也可）。主旨為深度剖析香港打工仔長期OT及壓力嚴重超標的苦況﹕

劇一 瘋狂工作系列之搞我笑
講述主角阿X（未改名），男性，年輕有為，學有所成。不斷每天7至11(工作的7時至11時)多年，得到一個100呎乘100呎的房及經理職銜。慢慢，他發覺自己嫁給了工作，「嫁約」更是一張不平等條約。有一段時間，他難得跟一個女孩約會（是他的鄰居，因為貪方便及省回管接送時間），總叫墮入愛河，工作熱誠退了點，工作時間縮短為9至9。老闆眼中看見，心裡有點火，問道，為何近來你那麼懶不花多點時時間工作，放棄如此珍貴的學習機會？……

劇二 瘋狂工作系列之人都癲
主角阿X為保飯碗及向上爬，無奈地不停工作，女友覺得他是悶棍，幸幸然地跟別人走了。滿以為晚晚工作至夜深老闆會賞識，誰知老闆需索無度。有天老閭按著阿X的肩膊說﹕「阿X，你是很本事的年青人，我看好你。如果你連本來用來睡覺的時間來工作，你會很快上位。」……

劇三 瘋狂工作系列之永別
阿X真的做到24x7，但持續了三個月後不支倒地，住院一個星期後發現自己被解僱，解僱信中解釋的原因是工作態度極差。他後來發現真正原因是一個機械人代替了他位置，經濟效益比他好，又不會生病或請假。阿X忍無可忍，决定來一次反擊……

18歲與28歲的分別

18歲，8月31日我很無奈，因為9月1日要開學，半夜仍不能入睡。
28歲，8月31月我生病了，但仍工作至10時多，腦部太活躍，半夜仍不能入睡。

18歲，我的護膚品有只有洗臉奶。
28歲，我的護膚品有洗臉系列、面膜系列、潤膚系列、美白保濕控油抗氧化活膚......

18歲，人家問我有甚麼目標，我說是考入大學。人家再不厭其煩問那麼讀完大學後的目標呢？我說不知道，我想讀完便會知。
28歲，人家說我大學畢業了數年，我現在的目標是甚麼?我說是成為一名出色的市場研究員，但是心裏卻道「Baby，其實我在耍你，哈哈哈。」

18歲，我常跟爸媽吵架。
28歲，我常暗自咒罵老板們，但對著他們，仍很有禮貌，裝天真無邪的笑著跟他們打招呼。

18歲，如果你問我問世間情為何物，我想我會答你「情，係一種直教人生死相許嘅力量，佢可以令軟弱的人變得堅強，剛烈的人轉為温柔……呢…啦….囉…」
28歲，如果你問我問世間情為何物，我會同你講「我幫你做個research吖!分開兩部份，有 ‘Qual’同有 ‘Quan’。 ‘Qual’嗰部分我建議做個Focus group，揾8個人嚟傾計，4男4女，咁先有group dynamic嘛。跟住呢就喺focus group喥揾到嘅attributes，放喺 ‘Quan’部份嘅30分鐘問卷喥，我哋會Random sampling 咁做300隻samples，試吓quantify啲finding….聽日我俾個Quotation同proposal你呀吓!」

幸好，我仍覺得我的28歲比18歲開心。因為存在得比較實在。

Sore Throat & OT

I just wonder how weak I am, I had to report sick half day of today. Actually I deluded myself that I was fine for about two weeks, but Samantha kept telling me I looked bloating and exhausted in these few days, and I admit to myself that it was time to visit dear doctor again.

These two nights I had worked OT, and I bought some work to home and would work on it after I finish this piece of diary. Jesus, it feels like I am in the semester end and rush to finish the final year project, no matter how suck or how sick you are, you have to get the job done and shut up.

Actually the deadline of this project is next Tue, but I urged to do some template and let Ting Ting, our director to reveal my report first. Ting Ting is a 'famous' hands-off/auto-pilot advocator, that means he doesn't know or care whatever you have done until the very last minute. This is why I had to spend some time on the preparation first, to avoid that he rejects all of charts on 11:00pm of next Monday.

I look forward the 2 coming leisure trips in the late September.

Sore throat and shopaholic

I am having a sore throat in these few days and it is getting serious today.

I had finsihed reading 'The curious incident of the dog in the night-time', I name it as 'Book of 2005' in Manki's book list. Now I am reading 'Shopaholic ties the knot', which I asked my Daddy to bought it for me. The 'Shopaholic' novels are talking about a silly young woman Rebecca Bloomwood who justified all her crazy shopping behaviour, she experienced a lot of economic crisis but overcame them finally. The books are really silly but very entertaining to read especially when you are in the crowded and noisy MTR compartment.

Gee, my throat is still painful.

Drop dead gorgeous

Last Sunday I discovered an US cosmestic brand - Benefit, was newly launched in Hong Kong.

Benefit is a very stylish and playful brand. Its most popular product line is 'Fake-it'. Literally, once you apply it, you could fake everyone's eye and cover your imperfections, and it will beautifly you subtly. I bought two products of this line - Benetint (a rosy liquid blush to achieve the sexist flush on your cheeks) and lying eyes ( a liquid eye concealer pen to correct your dark eye circle instantly).

There is another gorgeous product line called 'Bathina collection'. The package of those items are with the illustrations of a sexy blondie with curly figures, they just like those the 50-60's pop art pictures, which demonstrate the perfect combination of nostalgia and romance.

Girls, I bet you will like this brand. Boys, you have an alternative choice for all those anniversary gifts to your sweetheart.

A Book of Questions

I found out a little journal called 'A Book of Questions' from one of my drawers. It is not a lovely journel with lots of open questions, you could extend your imagination freely and fill in whatever you like. And, it means that actually you are the author of this book.

There are numbers of interesting questions -
'What things would you do to change the world?'
'If you could be a flower, what would you be? (Draw it)'
'When are the time you feel most like hiding? Where would you like to go?'
'If you could climb a stairway of stars, what would you hope to find at the top?'
'How do you like to go crazy and have fun?'
'what are you most afraid of about growing up?'
'Tell me a great joke.'
'Someone has given you a million dollars, what would you do with it?'

Bill Zimmerman is the one who brought out such questions and put them into this little journal. He was a journalist and a prize winning editor. He is also a questioner and asked himself questions all the time.

When I flipped through the journal, many pages I had written are with the dates mentioned in 1998, that means I have had this book for almost 7 years. Some content looks a bit silly now, but most of them is still my voice in my heart!!

I obsessed to collect memory, all those little memorial journals in Form 5, diaries in my 17 and onwards, cards from my friends, photos, etc. are still stored in a big drawer, stayed with me wherever I live.

Surely, this blog is also another important piece!

In between the papers

After indulging myself in two fairy-tale type novels - 'Daddy long legs' and 'Dear Enemy' in last few weeks, now I am reading another fabulous book 'The curious incident of the dog in the night-time' by Mark Haddon.

I bought it from the book fair with pretty good discount offer.

When I read this book during the first night, a book worm crawled out from the papers, I mean it literally, a tiny brown colour book worm walked on my forearm, I want to keep it as a pet, as I had plenty of books to feed it, but I was scratching my head to find a shelter for it, then I pressed it by my thumb, it became book worm puree.

This book is about the everyday life of Christopher John Francis Boone, a student of special school, a mathematic genius, a 16 years old boy with behavioral problem. He has several captivating ideas, one of them is about 'prime number as a life'.

Christopher feels that prime number is logical but you could only find them by removing all the numbers with pattern, you could never work out a formula to calculate them, even you spent all time of your life.

Is genius always weird?

The Mall

Last Saturday Jeff asked me if there is anyone on earth 'living' in a shopping mall, he reminded me the movie 'The Terminal'.

It is such a good ground to develop a dark humor story, The beginning will be like this - Once upone a time, a 'tribe' inhabit in an air-conditioned mega shopping mall, they were unwilling to leave there, or they deluded themselves there is no outer world. They worked in the mall, and then spent in the mall. They paid the whole life of their effort to exchange what were selling in that mall, and they dined there, they bathed there, they showed off to each others of what they bought from each other shop. On work days, they worked extremely hard in their small shops, on holidays, they visited other shops and fight for the things that were trendy.....

Jesus, it sounds like a place we know damn good, Hong Kong.

仲夏的日子

前晚我立下決心，放工後到了公園跑步，全程大概四十五分鐘。舒暢的感覺延至今天，多爽。

昨晚約了妹妹及大小表妹吃晚飯，這是我們成長後鮮有的四人聚會。我們到Shooter 52慶祝妹妹考試完結及小表妹考進大學。近期家裡發生了些傷心的事，我感受到我們這些「小孩」們能產生了點點凝聚力，能精神上支持家裡的大人，我感受到「家」的重要性。這是我數年前完全沒有想過的。

我們也認為自己有過反叛時期。吸煙喝酒打架胡混不完全等於反叛，而反叛的時候你是不想家，不願跟爸媽說話，不願受支配等。但當我出來工作後，我對家的感覺轉化了，因為我知道無論外面受了多少煎敖，我仍有家去依靠，讓我更有勇氣接受不同的挑戰。

晚飯完結時已是12時了，我們談了四小時，小表妹說話不多，靜靜地聽我們說著出來工作的無奈及無聊。看著她，提醒我讀大學時候的理想是貢獻社會及做有意義的工作。有人對我說，能有這樣的理想的人很幸福，因為他們從來不用憂柴憂米。這跟心理學家Abraham Maslow提出了Hierarchy of human needs 完全貼切，你生活及尊嚴的所有需要得以滿足後才會去追求真善美(Self actualization)。但是，怎樣才是滿足呢？賺多少錢才叫夠呢？

飯後，再跟阿近，寶威妮及泰亞兒(化名)喝東西。喝東西不是因為口喝，而是找個地方閒談，又坐了個多小時。

昨晚，吃了不多，喝了很多，說了很多。真好！

Friday Night Fever

Feel extremely glad that Samatha and I could manage to sneak away from office at 6:30pm. I had a big nice dinner in a Japanese restaurant with Jeff.

Any plan on the weekend? I wish to attend a yoga lesson on Sunday.

I want to take a long holiday and have a leisure trip oversea, don't know when I will have such chance. Yes, I will have an incentive trip to Thailand with the whole company soon, but you know, what I mean is LEISURE TRIP, how could you enjoy leisure if your bosses are around you?!

你的志願

我想各位猶記得小學時中文作文課必定有作過一篇《我的志願》的文章，你還能想起你當時的想當甚麼呢？

我想當時小學老師們讀著全班四十人的志願，可能悶得有點發毛，因為小孩子對職業的認知多數是簡單概括。大家的志願，大都離不開那幾個熱門的「崇高」行業：醫生、律師、護士、工程師、警察、消防員、教師、飛機師、太空人、記者等。自九十年代始頂多是加了資訊科技員。我身邊沒有一個同學兒時志願是廉政公署特派調查員/政客/酒吧老閭/工廠廠長/財富管理顧問/市場研究顧問/賭場經營者/銷售員/公關等，因為不懂寫，怕不合格；亦很少人表示自己的志願是家庭主婦/香港小姐/明星/模特兒等，因為怕不太大體或被鄰座同學發現後笑得臉黃。

我小學三年級所寫的《我的志願》是當老師，原因不是我喜歡，而是我沒有志願(看我多麼沒大志)，所以我以為在文章讚美老師對社會的崇高貢獻，春風化雨作育英才云云，巴結一下老師可獲得高一點分數。

真虛偽。

Daddy Long Legs

Last week I bought a lot of books from the book fair. One is Daddy long legs Chinese version, another is Daddy long legs 2. Remember that in form 2, Daddy long legs was a must-read novel and it was 'taught' during English classes. And at quite the same time, the cartoon episode of this novel was launched in TVB Jade children's period. Then, Daddy long leg became the very special collective memory of St. Cat girls of our form. I am sure a lot of girls even dreamt they would meet their own Daddy long legs when they grow up. The story of Daddy long legs made me feel that the world is filled with love and hopes!!

'Daddy long legs' in this story means, as I know, a kind of spider, not the long legs of Daddy. The story consisted of 76 letter from an orphan Jerusha Abbott to a rich, secret benefactor who paid her to college. As Judy could just seen the shadow of this benefactor during the first time they met, his shadow crawled over the wall and was lengthened, which was like a daddy long longs on the wall, that is why the story had such a funny name. Highly recommend if you have not read it!!

Thank you!!

I would like to dedicate this diary to the one who waits for me back home from work patiently, and cooks me dinners all the time. You let me feel that I will never walk alone, not matter how tired I am, no matter how desperated I feel. I know that you always support me unconditionally. You, I had known for only 8 years, but had been willing to make a comittment, and promised to take care of me always. I am so lucky to have such as good soulmate like you! Thank you!!

Free vs. Less
From the book 'The Family Way', I learnt two terms - Child-free and Child-less. Both words describe the same phenomenon - Someone do not have kids, but it means totally different subjectively. One is free of burden, and another is filling with emptiness. Wow what a marvelous contrast. What about carefree and careless, or penny-free and penny-less?

Cat, one of the heroines in the novel feels so proud of her singleton, 36 years old with a hippy job (the manager of one of the most fabulous restaurants in London), an 'infertile' boyfriend, and the smallest flat along the glittering Thames River bank. Her 'infertile' boyfriend let her to be 'carefree to remain 'child-free'.

But I am sure the story will develop in an unexpected way... at least Cat could not imagine, because her destiny is totally depended on Tony Parsons, he is not her boyfriend, but the author of this book.

Mr. Right and Mr. Right Bastard -
What is the relationship between these 2 terms? Lot of women in their early thirty are hunger for Mr. Right. Another bunch of women in late thirty realize that the one they assume are Mr. Right turn out to be Mr. Right Bastard. I learnt it from this book as well, sounds so pathetic, but extremely hilarious!!!

Blythe & Spider

Her pet is spider! She is going to walk the spider at the playground.

Bookworm

Last week I finished the Anthropological book 'Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't be Wrong, by Jean-Nenoit Nadeau & Julie Barlow', which I had read for almost 3 months.

Now I am reading a novel called 'Ther Family Way' by Tony Parsons. It is about 3 sisters, 3 couples, and 2 pregnancies. Tony depicted women's feeling delicately. Frankly, I can't believe he is a man.

My daddy bought me the latest hottest book - 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price by J.K. Rowling. I always say Dad is so hip and so trendy. He keeps abreast of the trend. This book will be one of my before-bed readings!!

What book you are reading right now?

Breakfast At Tiffany's

Tonight Jeff and I saw the film 'Breakfast At Tiffany's', starring by Audrey Hepburn & George Peppard.

This was a wonderful night. We sat on the 2-seat sofa, I snacked 3 pieces of Mrs. Field Cookies. Yes I knew they would filled my stomach with sugar and fat, I just loved to do it.

Haven't heard Moon River for a long time, it sent me a sweet feeling when I heard it from the movie again.

Moon River"
music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Johnny Mercer

Moon River,
wider than a mile,
I'm crossing you in style some day.
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker,
wherever you're going I'm going your way.
Two drifters off to see the world.
There's such a lot of world to see.
We're after the same rainbow's end-- waiting 'round the bend,
my huckleberry friend,
Moon River and me.
© 1961 Paramount Music Corporation, ASCAP
Hear Audrey Hepburn sing "Moon River"

I cried a bit at the end, when seeing Holly and Fred finally found the cat in the rain at the end of the movie. Jeff pat my head gently.

This was really a wonderful night.

Tai Ping Shan

Tonight I went for hiking at the Peak, Hong Kong.

I haven't been so healthy for a long time. I had exercised 5 times this week - yoga on Monday, pilate on Tuesday, swimming on Thursday, hiking on both Saturday and Sunday. Cool!!

Surprisingly, I found that my front stroke swimming is even better than when I was in the peak of my physically capacity. I could swim even smoother, faster and longer. When I was a life-saving team member in teenage, I felt that I had limitation to swim front stroke more than 100 m in each practice, that was why I kept swimming breast stroke. But now, without the burden of competing with others, I free my mind and practise any form I love, I could swim happier.

Remember that when I was a teenager, I spent all summer holidays in swimming pool or beach, I got sun-tanned and well-built every summer. The smell of pool water drove me nervous when the swimming gala or life-saving competition approached, but the scent of Coppertone sunblock always comforted me and made me feel good.

I haven't used Coppertone sunblock for centuries, as I knew there were some more powerful sunblock from Sofina and Clarins existed in the market. However, Coppertone is not replaceable in my heart, its unique scent, especially mixing with seawater, is always whiring in my heart.

Tonight I will go to mom's home, she will cook for me, yummy!!!

Long Island

I have been Cheung Chau today.

Today the sun was shining fiercely. The sky was perfectly clear and we could even see the half moon with snowflake colour hooked on the sky.

On the sanpan, I enjoyed the smell of sea water, the scent that I loved so much and was almost forgotten, as I have not been so close to the nature for quite a moment. I also saw the multi-layers of mountaineous landscape, numbers of fishing boats, some sun-tanned fishing old folks. The whole scene was very exotic to gwai-los, but for me, it is so homely and cozy.

Hong Kong is so beautiful.

Tonight I saw the film 'Bleu' with Jeff. In one of the scenes, there was a close up to show the heroine soaked a piece of sugar cube with coffee, then through it into the coffee. I remembered one of my drama friends obsessed in these kind of presenation so much.

There are 2006 calendars available in Page One, my goodness, is time running that fast? Now is just in the half of 2005. One set of calendar uses 'Worst Case Scenario' as the theme. You could see there are 365 examples of worst case scenario and each one has a solution right next to it to teach you how to solve the problem. Jeff said it suit me a lot as I had anxiety and negative thinking all the time. He believed all those demonstrated solutions could sooth me psychologically. #$%^&*()(*&^%$!!

Continuing Education

I think I love to torture myself. I am planning about studying a part-time marketing dipolma. Although I keep screaming about how I feel tired afterwork, but I think it is still very worth to work extremely hard in 9 months in order to nourish my marketing sense.

As I had been in marketing field for quite sometime, I still don't have a solid fudamental concept of every marketing term, therefore it may be a good moment for me to enhance my knowlege, before I make the next step of my career development.

However, I should consider the timing carefully to strive for the balance of everything.

Yuen could not agree more about my plan, he feels that even though I may be exhausted to study a part-time course, it is still much worth than working overtime, as somehow he thinks OT is a kind of exploitation.

There is a quite relevant marketing diploma which is co-organized by HKU space and CIM, which will kick off in October 2005. Hopefully I could manage to take it. Once I commit in it, I will try my best to stick with it.

A Grief of London

What make people slaghtering each other? July 7 was supposingly a great day of London, it was just confirmed that 2012 Olympic game would be in this charming city, lots of celebration was planned on yesterday. However, the deadliest terrorism attack happened on this piece of soil at this moment.

I felt so upset to read the news, I keep my eyes on BBC news, I support all Londoners mentally, and I am sure they should be proud of themselves, they shows their courage in front of those coward terrorists.

May god bless England!

A beautiful mind

Last Saturday I had a long and serious girls talk with four of my secondary school schoolmates, which I rarely did in the past 10 years. We just figured out how we walk our path in such diversified ways.

Our host named this gathering as 'Sex and the City' - it was similar as a scene of chit chat what Carrie, Samatha, Miranda and Charlotte were in TV. Our topics, on and off, were about love affair, seeking for a partner, marriage, career and future.

Somehow our personality shaped our destiny. I felt upset for my friend who hurt herself by the rotten relationship, but as a friend, what I could do is giving her support, and to accept that everyone has different set of value.

But, anyway, what I believe is, if you have a beautiful mind, you will be beautiful and cheerful eventually!!

Last weekend, I bought a book - Bobbi Brown beauty in Page One. I love the brand Bobbi Brown so much as Bobbi Brown, who uses her real name for her own brand, always advocates the sense of enhancing natural beauty. I appreciate her more as I knew that she is actually a mother and a fabulous and one of the best make-up artists at the same time. In this book, she pointed out that only confident women are charming, and every woman has their own attractive points.

Girls, let's beautify yourself by simply boost up your confidence!!!

Jazz and blues

I love Jazz and blues. I even thought about using jazz as a background music in my Chinese style wedding banquet, but I gave up this idea as it is just like sport shoes with fish net pantyhose - you will embarrasse yourself if it doesn't look hippy but freaky.

Recently, Katie Melua is my favourite Jazz an blues singer. Her heavenly voice, double chin and hypontic eyes are stunning, and her childhood life in Geogeria, former USSR makes her more extraordinary. 19-year-old Katie is named as 'second Norah Jones', but I'm sure she wishes people perceive her as her ownself.

What is the music in your MP3 players recently?

Poet Time!!!

Get stuck in my cubicle from 9 to 8,
Let the air con to make me dehydrated,
Attach my eyes on that silly computer all the day,
With my little hand on something called 'mouse' sliding its own way...

How come I work so hard salary still not raised,
Every month I could make a buy list with only 3 little things,
If I decide to buy a pair of shoes I have no money left from a lipstick,
Is it what people call 'Pathetic'?
I bet there are many other things can still make me amazed,
Wear my sneakers and running to Kowloon Bay,
Hugging my family everyday,
I'm sure I will feel great,
I'm sure I will feel great!!!

************
Alright, can anyone put some melody in it to make it a song??

Customer Loyalty – about beautifying yourself

Don’t know why skin care/cosmetic brands hardly develop customer loyalty among Asian customers. Is it because there are too many new choices and excitements bombarding them all the time?

I am quite a devotee of Clarins and Fancl, but I did not stick in any single product of these two brands more than two years. For example, I would shift using face cleansers within a single brand or among different brands – after finished the whole tube of Clarins facial cleanser for all skin type, then I will interest to use that Clarins grapefruit scent whitening facial bar, later on, I will go after Fancl cleansing powder. Currently, I am using Origins brightening facial cleaning cream. =P

Frankly, the consumption of cosmetic products is strongly influenced by advertising campaigns and those cross selling strategy. For example, I bought that Origins brightening facial cleaning cream just because I wanted to have a jar of Origins Modern Fiction face exfoliator; which print ad attracted me for awhile. So when I stepped in the store and decided to by Modern Fiction, I was influenced by the ‘stamp collecting’ policy’ – i.e. the shop assistant persuaded me that I could get one more stamp for extra $100 purchase, etc. Then I was convinced to try its facial cleanser which I planned to buy from other brands, say Clarins. As a typical customer, I feel that the whole strategy of ad campaign, cross selling and stamp collection is very successful. It surely could capture the ‘consumer surplus.

However, there is a hidden weakness behind. Supposingly those cross selling and stamp collecting policy aim to establish the customer loyalty. The more you bought from one brand then the more reward you could receive by the end of the year or by the time you get certain amount of stamps. Different brands offer various types of rewards, like offering VIP membership with benefit of 20% off of each time purchase, or redeeming products or cash coupon right after you get 10 stamps etc. However, I find that most ladies got at least 2 stamp collection cards from different brands in their wallets. And whenever there are any foreign brands or new products launche in Hong Kong, girls are gone crazy and rushed to try the products in the first hand.

Poorly the outcome of shifting skincare products frequently is having allergic skin, because you have to get used to different kind of products with totally different set of ingredients. Even though, girls are very adventurous of trying new things that supposed to make you more charming and radiant

Girls talk

Recently one of our secondary school classmates had to had an operation, luckily she recovered well and now is taking rest in home.

Such 'unfortunate' event ironically let all we young ladies stayed together again. We visited this friend and had gathering in the hospital, we had lots of girls talks, like what we did frequently during secondary school period. One of us teased that we just took this excuse (someone's operation) to meet each others.

Then I was updated that our classmates are working in various fields, like social workers, business, mass media, flight attendants, insurance, etc. Not many of us got married, some are having stable boyfriends, several of them are strugging in chaotic love affairs, quiet a number of them work quite well in their jobs, others decided to live or study oversea to explore the plaent. I feel so amazed that we were still schoolmates from the same school 10 years ago, now all of us are having diversified life path.

Ladies, hope you all the best. God loves you and have a wonderful plan in your life!!

Singing in the rain

It keeps raining for several weeks. I feel so hungry! (Yes, there is no correlation between the first and second sentence).

I love cooking. After we moved out from our parent's home, Jeff and I rarely dine out, especially during the weekends. We love to cook whatever we love to eat, for example, I always make soup with apple.

I just realize that I also have potentials to be a good mother, at least I know how to cook.
*********

People in different life stage will have different thought about life. A person in 28 years old could have endless possibilities. You could be surprised by countless things in this world because you are still very young and embrace curiosity. I want to think out of the box and act out of the box, I want to explore my endless possibility.
*********

Life is not dull, only what you think make yourself dull, remember that perception is actually a self-constructed subjective feeling, it helps you to understand the world, but it is not a reality or an absolute truth. Widen your heart and you could embrace the whole world.

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering

~From Master Yoda, Star Wars Episode

Be faithful to myself

I supposed to have a really work-free and relaxing weekend, but a phone call from 'someone' almost ruined it.

She phoned me in the afternoon and told me to be careful as I had not signed up for an extra work. She sounded so helpful and caring, but I did wonder her intention. After I finished the phone call, I felt so upset and miserable, I wondered if it is my fault for not signing up that extra work.

Jeff saw that I was so depressed, actually I had been pressurized for quite a long time. I had my own thought and my own philosophy, but suddenly I started to think if my philosophy is not applicable in this real world. When I started crying, Jeff asked me to stop. He urged me to believe myself, to trust my talent, and to listen to my own thought, don't compromise with other's ridiculous expectation, otherwise I will lost myself, and people will torture me more.

And I know that job is not everything of my life. Rather, job is the least important things comparing with my family, my health and my wisdom. I don't want my family to be upset because I ignore him and only concentrate on my work.

I found that I discuss such kind of topic in this diary for almost a year, a bit pathetic, isn't it?

I should be faithful to myself, to believe the 'force', like what Jedi do.

Torture

Kelly had gone crazy today. Her emotion fluctuates like period, in monthly basis. Today Miss R offered her internal presentation, she got a conceptual mistake on a slide. Our flammable Kelly felt extremely frustrated instantly and scolded her in front of all colleague, then we all research executives were the next victims. Kelly commented that we are hopeless and 'bloody', yes, she used the coarse language to describe her employees. I wonder if a boss has the right to insult his/her employees and deprived their dignity just because he/she is the one who pays the bloody salary?! Could that limited amount buy the respect which we deserve to get?

Then someone just comments that among all regional offices of our company, research executives in Hong Kong are inferior comparing with other regions, it is because the education system molded us to be less competitive. Frankly, I do think this is bullshit. I don't think we are inferior, yes, we are different from colleagues from other countries, but each of us has our own talent and strengths, each of us is special.

We are so proud of Miss R that even Kelly screwed up her presentation at the very beginning, she could hold back her tears and managed to complete the presentation with strong confidence. Three cheers to her.

Can this case explain why the employee loyalty is so low among Hong Kong working class? I believe what happened in our company today is not an unique case.

Have a nice day!!

Feel that I have an obligation to contribute some positive energy to this cyber world. I wish to tell everyone that I enjoy today so much!!

Today, I boosted up my productivity to maximum and finished two work tasks. I could manage to leave office around 6:45pm.

I had a lunch with my friends this afternoon, we talked a lot.

I received a comment of last piece of diary from my lovely classmate Billie - she was the first classmate who sit next to me when we were in form 1.

Jeff and I had a very nice dinner in a Japanese restaurant, yummy!!

Then I sit on my bed and am writing this diary. A totally normal day but it is so cool!!

Stay healthy and young

As I had suffered from flu and cold on and off, I made up my mind to keep myself healthy and young. Herebelow are the tips from elderly wisdom, book and my experience.

1. Sleep well - both quality and quantity should be concerned. To have a nice sleep, I try to have a cup of hot chamomile tea with honey before going bed, the sweet aroma helps me to relax
2. Exercise - Practise yoga or other aerobic exercise at least 3 times a week, at least 30 minutes each time.
3. Taking supplement - I know that someone reject this idea so much because they believe the nutrients could be gotten from daily dining. However, my smart Daddy suggests Omega 3 fish oil pill does work.
4. Avoid make up if not necessary - frankly, someone could have make up everyday but still have fair skin, but unfortunately, it is not my case. Make up becomes a burden to my face when it lasts a day long. Seems that it is wiser to keep my skin breathes and glows naturally.
5. Pamper myself, facial treatment frequently.
6. Outdoor activities - Staying indoor with strong air conditioner only makes me dull, should absorb golden sunshine during weekend.
7. Reading and watching movie - beautiflying myself internally.
8. Be happy, learn to let go - don't be too serious for every tiny little things, it could just speed up the aging rate and deepen the fine lines on face.
9. And the most important is, having an open mind, accept myself and everyone, should love and care myself!!

Do you have any little tips to brighten up your everyday? Let's share!!

Pamper myself

I worked very hard last week, then I am sick, having a cold again. Something I don't understand how come I should work so hard everyday for such little monetary reward, what is the meaning of life? The art of exploitation?

Therefore this weekend I tried to pamper myself.

Today I woke up late and then went for the facial and eye treatment in Clarins. Then I brought two CDs in HK Record, one is the new CD from Katie Melua. Her voice is sweet and special, she led me to have a long nap in the afternoon.

Tonight, I had body scrub during the shower, then moisturized my skin with clarin's Eau Tranquility body lotion. Wow, the aroma is very nice!!! Now I am ready to go bed.

Haagen-Dazs Rum Raisin & symbolic analysis

I suspect someone is implementing a secret planning - to add some weights on me!!!

Guess what, some one in my flat (you know, there are only me and him in our flat) bought a BUCKET of Haagen-Dazs ice-cream, with my most favourite flavor - Rum Raisin, and now it is on my left hand side, right next to my notebook... Oh my goodness, what is his intention??!! He just tries to push me into the ice-cream and sugar craving trap.

Jeff and I saw Star War Episode III - Revenge of the Sith yesterday afternoon, wow it is awesome!! It is so sad to witness Anakin sold his soul to the dark force and became Darth Vader.

Remembered that when I studied Anthropology, our class discussed about Star War and Harry Potter. Both stories have one similarity - Harry Potter and Luke Skywalker also inherited energy/power from the darkness. For example, the scar on Harry Potter's forehead contained the dark power from Voldermort, while Luke is the son of Darth Vader. Isn't it interesting.

Oh you see? Anthropologists obsessed in symbolic analysis, we are quite weird, frankly speaking.

Malaysia – Truly Asia

Almost finished my 5 days business trip in Malaysia. You may wish to know what I learnt in this journey. Intellectually, I don’t think I know quite a lot, but physically, I am sure I gain several stones, because in everyday someone paid me a lunch or dinner and I could not refuse to eat.

There is much open and green area in KL than HK, and the air quality is fine. The weather is pretty unstable, but storm comes and leaves fast, and you then will feel the sun shining above your head warmly.

As I am staying in the central business district in KL, I could even see the twin towers from my hotel; the impression that this place gives me is beautiful and prosperous. However, I am sure this country is more than this. Malaysia is a hybrid place of various ethnicities, multi-languages and diversified landscape. Hope I could have chance to explore more.

This is the first time for me to have a formal oversea business trip, and the almost the first time to stay in a hotel room all by myself. In the first night, I scared a lot and could not fall asleep. However, in the next few days, I implemented a 4-pillow policy, i.e. using the 4 pillows to surround me, 1 under my head, 1 under my legs, 2 on each side, then I could have a sound sleep.
Hurray, I will come home tonight. Jeff missed me a lot, and also my family and friends. Just can’t wait to meet you all!

Haunting No More

Well, finally, I offered my internal presentation this afternoon, with very limited time.

I had been haunted by this presentation for almost three weeks. Every weekend I wanted to work on it, because there was no time could be squeezed to do such extra work. But I could not start working on it until last Saturday.

I guessed I looked suck right after the presentation because my dear Samantha approached me and tried to comfort me. I felt that I did bad job in the presentation, I was too nervous and spoiled this 'show', my expectation was too high, but at the same time, I had no confidence to myself.

You know what, before I stood up to do the presentation, I looked at myself through the one-side mirror, I asked myself, 'how come I look so ugly today? I just realized that my eyes are very small, and the fringe before the forehead..... yuck...' My psychological condition was extremely poor. I know that during the presentation, I kept pulling the hair in front my forehead.

Even someone gave me appreciation, I supposed that they deluded me.

How come I have such feeling?? My confidence is draining away.

Insomnia

Right, now is 2:30 in the early morning. I could not sleep. I supposed that I had fallen a very long sleep after watching 'Sex and the city' at midnight, then I just found that only one hour had passed.

Frank, in this week, I am so annoyed to myself when I was alone. I exaggerated a lot of tiny little things. I felt upset because I could not have a proper dinner in last five working days. I felt dehydrated because the hydration mask I use recently does not really fit me. I hated myself that I had not done any exercise in these two weeks. And most of all, I know I am haunted by the internal presentation. It is so ashamed to admit that I am pressurized by such tiny little internal show in the company, and I mistakenly link it with my personal honour and shame, but I want to work my best on this job, at the same time I always want to hide away from it.

I am going to present the cross-cultural study of vampire folklore on the coming Thursday. It was one of the term papers of my Anthropology course three years ago. I was also extremely stressful when I prepared this paper at that time. I could not sleep for a whole month, I felt suffocated all the time, I mean it literally, I felt that there was a vitural rope tied over my neck, the feeling was so horrible. Eventually, that paper won a prize, it was a honour I was always looking for.

This time, I am not seeking for any honour, but I wish to get some approval, at least. Remember in last time internal presentation, I really got almost no comment from anyone else. It could not be a bad sign actually, but at that moment, I felt myself invisible and unimportant. Rationally, I knew clearly that my existence is not defined by others reaction or comment at circumstance, but... I hate myself so much that I am so sensitive and think too too much.

Alright, throw out bunch of words, I guess I am tired enough and could go back to sleep.

Feel Better

Tonight I left office at 10pm, when colleague were leaving and saw me on the seat, they encouraged me and said no wonder I am a 'never-give-up-Dai-Manki'. Literally, I had finished an enormous project - a 150 pages ad analysis BY THE END OF THE DAY. I re-confirmed my client this afternoon that I promised him BY THE END OF THE DAY did mean it, i.e. before 12:00 midnight.

Yesterday our queen Kelly Larry (this is a nick name) anticipated her ultimate power in the office and criticized we young executives again... then I knew that she addressed us as 'bloody executives'... well, I know that actually she didn't mean it, and sometimes she shot out some words without a second thought, but I felt a bit uneasy when my chubby neighbor told me about it. Poor chubby neighbor was the target yesterday, Kelly snapped her door close and shouted at him from around 7:30pm to 9:00pm.

Miracles sometimes appear in some moments. The friends I loved to bully her with other friends when we were in lower form turned out to be the one who mostly understands me in that peer circle. I talked with her for an hour about my unhappiness, she taught me to let go, if someone treated me bad, forget it and should not bear it on my back forever. It is an everyone-know-wisdom, but it seems she winked at me and suddenly the light bulb above my head switched on, I feel much comfortable now.

Jeff was also very nice in the past few days, I worked quite late recently, luckily he cooked the dinner for me. Yesterday he knew that I was upset and cried, then he did the dish also. He is so wonderful!!

Grace, you are right, we have families and friends who love us all the time.

Zero level productivity

I planned to work in this long weekend on last Friday evening. Then, I almost did nothing in these three days.

Also in this weekend, I found that there is a problem between me and a group of my friends... I don't want to explain here, but I just feel we got a distance among us. To be frank, I felt hurt many times before, and I could not manage to assume nothing had happened and being close friends with them like when we were in secondary school.

In these three days, I made a dinner to my parent-in-law and Lok Lok B. I cooked the apple soup and Lok Lok loved it a lot. Today, I shopped with Meiki for a mother day's gift and we chatted a lot during lunch. It is so nice to spend time to someone I love.

No one can make me give up, I will never give up (By Dai Cheung Kam 2005)

Haven't had a late night OT work for a long time. Today I worked until 11:20 pm, Ah Chan also worked late with me, and I am not sure if she is now still in office or not.

We two haven't had such a long OT together for more than a month. Tonight I felt happier, because I felt that two of us supported each others speechlessly. Although I was a bit exhausted, I enjoyed the ambience.

I bet this weekend I should bring work back home to do. Dai Man Ki will never give up!!

My Birthday

Wow I had just experience a series of happy birthday events.

The first birthday gift was Jeff woke up at 8am, a bit earlier than other days.
Then after I arrived office, Ah Chan sent me a pair of lovely earrings.
Then a bouquet from Jeff, and Candy the gateway person announced the news by paging all staff.
Then my boss Jelly paid me the lunch.
Then a grand and splendid birthday party in a flashing shining ballroom (actually in our office meeting room) for Christina and me - the 'stars' of April, the event was organized by our popular in-house PR director Samantha Chic. I knew that she put great effort on it, I love her so much!!
Then another pair of earrings from my DP angels.
Then a birthday card contained blessing from most of the colleagues, and i just knew that someone gave me a nick name 'Dai Man Ki', which is relevant to the popular Korean TV episode 'Dai Cheung Kam'.
Then one more blessing email for Ah Chan.
Then I left office at half past six.
Then Jeff and I had a birthday dinner.
Then Jeff bought me a pint of rum raisin ice-cream, we ate it when we were watching 'Dai Cheung Kam'.

What a marvelous day!! I am a lucky girl.

What is going on??

After 24 hours, I will turn to 28 years old. When I was 20, I assumed a woman in her 28 will wear heavy make up everyday, with enormous dark eyes circle, is polished and become very diplomatic in term of communication.

When I was 23, I read an article called quaterly age crisis. People at 25 -30 will suffer from certain degree of psychological struggle, because nowadays, many of us received tertiary education, which postpones our working life, we have shorter time to achieve what people assume that should have in that age range, like having your first 1 million, reaching a middle to high management level, paying a mortgage and enjoying their golden time, etc, etc. However, most of us in 30 may not obtain the above list.

Frankly, sometimes I also could not get rid of such weird thoughts. I hate people call me young executive YE in the company. I know it is about the year of experience I worked in market research instead of my age, but come on, I am no longer a young little greenie, I had developed my value judgment and working style, don't try to squeeze me into any mold.

Anyway, I know I should be patience and dedicate to my work, as long as I still have great interest in this field. Remember that I submitted the application letter of my present job in my 27th birth date. I believed that it would good luck, and, the wish was being fulfilled. It was a sharp turning point for me, so far I still feel it is a bless.

And, in my 27, I made another quite critical decision - to move out from my parent-in-law house and live with Jeff independently. I feel that I become braver and adventurous, I accept the challenge of moving out. So far, it is not as harsh as we supposed, somehow, I do enjoy the housework.

Yesterday I celebrated my birthday with my daddy, mommy, MeiKi and Jeff. We had a delicate dinner in Rice Paper, TST. The interior design was fabulous. My parent bought me a stylish CYMA watch, and MeiKi sent me a girlish French Kitty porch.

What will Jeff give me for my 28 birthday?

The last thing is, I want to give Mommy a big hug and thank to her wholeheartly that she delivered me to the world with great pain on April 27, 1977. After that day, my mommy and daddy lives were totally changed. It was amazing! And I should say thanks to my Daddy also, I am so proud of him that he sacrificed a lot for my growth and makes my life illuminated.