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