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.

An unreachable world

I read through half of the book ‘Educating Alice’. Frankly, it is not a very overwhelming or exciting novel, but it gives me a soothing feeling. Yesterday I read about Alice’s Italy journey when I was in MTR train, the book had dragged me into her world. My mind kept imagining every little cafe and cathedral she was going through, and projecting an elegant lady who Alice met, with delicate curly hair fell over her shoulder, and shared about her experience in her growing place with Alice… Everything is extremely beautiful. I almost missed the station.

Books are my best friends; I usually hook my emotion to them. I share the joy and sadness of the characters. Every time when I dive into a story, I could forget who I am, it gives me a wonderful feeling!!

Do you have similar experience?

Dramatic life?!

When I look around, there are countless of stories happening around us. Everyone is having his/her unique story. Some are dramatic, others are much more stable, but most of all are very impressive. Every story consists of joy, conscience, hope, hatre, bitterness, jealousy and desperation, and all elements interlink with other individuals.

Through out our life, most of us strive for the best and involve in various competition when growing. We win and we lose, no one will be winner or loser forever. We always compare with others, we compete who is prettier, who is richer, who is more knowledgeable, who get lesser pounds, who get the better spouse, bigger house, flashier car...... However, when you look over your shoulder, you will say 'so what' to all of the competition you had participated.

Frankly, I am not yet inspired and reach the ultimate stage who Taoism suggested, I still keen on competiting and striving for the best. But, why don't we embrace the world and give ourselves a second to listen to this planet? To feel the taste of air?

BOOST MYSELF UP!!

Last week was pretty good! The reasons were:

The workload was not harsh, I could manage to cook three dinners.
I had tidied up my house, I swept the floor once every two days.
I practiced power yoga twice.
I met Jeff's and my family.
I read around 20 pages of ‘Educating Alice’, the new book I am reading about an adventurous journalist who traveled around the world to learn.
I made sweet soup for my husband.
Two friends visited us and we had a nice late night talk.
I had lunch with Lok Lok B and taught him said “I am spider man”.
I had BBQ with my lovely colleagues from 4pm to 9pm.

Wasn't it good? My life is full of blessing.
This week, I will have more work to do, work hard then I could play harder.

By the end of the day

There is a collective phrase my colleague are sharing, i.e. By the end of the day. Sometimes they mean it literally. e.g. 'Gloria, by the end of the day, please finish the proposal and send it to me...' or they mean it figuratively, e.g.'If you young executives are willing to dedicate to Market Research [and work 24 hours and 7 days], by the end of the day, you guys will be very successful as me.' From the view of linguistics, it is so fascinating. Even in such a small social system, we form our own language.

So, as I know that my friend Samantha Chic (fake name) is pissed off by Kelly Leon (fake name again), I wrote a song called 'By the end of the day' to express our sorrow and hope from our job, and I would like to dedicate this song to her.

BY THE END OF THE DAY By Glo L.

By the end of the day
I wanna sneak away
From this hell from this freezer
Flutter to the place of I am not afraid

By the end of the day
I can regain the gay
Run up to hill and swim down the lake
Waltz to malls in Causeway Bay

By the end of the day
By the end of the day
At least I get salary
And my rent and food can be paid