Thoughts beyond my life & my travel - Bel

There were too many sad news about our friends' or parents' health this year. When we sat down and talked about it seriously, we couldn't help shed a few tears that showed our anxiety and worriness. A friend of mine was unluckily to suffer from uterus and now breast disease but what triggered her emotion the most was her neighbour being so ill all in a sudden that placed her life in danger. The mother of another friend of mine recently passed away due to cancer. Now I recalled how much I worried about my mom when she broke her wrist and arm, that could never be compared to how these friends felt. May I make my resolution here: 1/ good health to myself, my parents and my friends; 2/ to graduate with a credit; 3/ have some good challenge at work

There is an extended street in California in the US called Candy Cane Lane . Almost every house is decorated extensively to celebrate Christma with visitors. It's quite a look as compared to commercial decor in many shoppers' malls. This Christmas was a quiet one and gave me a chance to chill out after busy weeks in Novemeber and December. Silent Night is the perfect song to celebrate Christmas as we should enjoy a peace of mind instead of cheering loud in the street. A day trip to Wind Valley in Shenzhen was inspiring. My golf game seemed to have some improvement. The valley is well situated in a peaceful side of the city and mimicks a Swiss town. It's always great to meet some old friends and listen to their voices again. That made Christmas more colourful and harmonious. How about your Christmas?

I have been reading the book "becoming Jane Austen". Somehow I felt the world was so much more political than it is now. Many people lack their independence in the old days in which they need to make a close connection to survive and struggle. Parents find a wealthy godfather to their sons or develop friendship with someone rich in the hope of inheriting some of the properties. Women who were not married should find a wealthy husband to make a living or else they had to depend on their siblings or had a hardship to linger on. These sorts of things might still happen but luckily I don't need to do either of these to live free and the way I want.

I went mad today and confronted my boss badly for an hour. No one feels it's a wise choice but I just feel that I need to do the right thing and voice out how I felt. Sometimes you just feel that you put so much efforts on something and all in a sudden, the whole project was being ruined by the others and at the same time the credit was being taken by the others. I just felt I could fight for what things should be. I know it is stupid but I have no option as I was just guided by my upright personality. I just need to fight for justice and faireness. Ironically, things happened again tonight at class. A group member was so upset and angry to the negative comment that she stood up and walked away from the classroom as a protest. Other group members were so upset and angry at what the unfair setting of the judging panels and the evaluation system were. They decided to confront with the professor and the panel speaker. What can I say? I tried to stay calm and be with my group members ...

I thought it's my luck to see the batman flight flying above the harbour yesterday. It's a plane white airplane which you couldn't spot it's the one if you're not told. I saw it twice, it flew lower the second time when I was riding on a boat. Seeing a plane flying that low in an area full of tall buildings was amazing. Today I received a sad phone call from my brother about my mom. She broke her elbow and wrist that needs surgery. Luckily it happened my friend work in the orthopaedic ward in that hospital and updated me how she's doing. I was a bit scared and uneasy hearing the news and tried to control my emotion. I never thought I would have been so worried about my mom. But after all, she's my mom. It came to a time my parents get older and I have to prepare myself to hear any bad news. It's hard but I know I need to be more prepared. That's all. Hope for the best.

The drama this Sunday tried to awake many audience to demand for better TV programme offered by current TV free stations. According to economic theories, there are no free food. Will the TV stations produce programme that hit the niche markets than the general public? I doubt it. I don't say the quality of the current programme is satisfactory. As a matter of fact, I don't spend much time on these two stations but rather watch more programme on broadband TV. But the thing is pay TV allow more segmentation than the free TV stations which aim to draw more traditional and big advertisers. I went to a talk on Customer Experience Design yesterday. Quite surprisingly, it's not the usual customer service lecture but instead it's about how design helps expore what your customers are missing from their experience. It's interesting that I learnt all these from the readings of my university lecture before but never reckoned the power of it till this talk. A good talk though no...

After 4 lessons of archery, it's the first time for me to record my scores. I guess mine was not too bad though the target was not far at all. Of course, it's nothing compared to those who practised for a year or more. Their score was like 220 or above. Hardly they shot score less than 9. But I'm sure I could do it if I'll do it for months. My week of entertainment wasn't as good as planned. The Eason's concert last Friday was not as good as the news reported. I didn't like the fast songs, the costume and the animation. I sat a bit far from the stage this time, feeling less connected with the singer. The movie Amazing Grace shouldn't score 7.8 in Internet Database. The plot was great but it's rather fragmented and hardly could arouse the emotion from the audience. The drama on Hong Kong TV media was a disppointment today. I should have gone to see the music festival in Macau with the free ticket given by a friend of mine. Anyway, I was indulged with...

Though " Becoming Jane " didn't receive good review, I went to see this movie anyway to learn more about Jane Austen. Somehow, transforming the love story of a famous writer could be a hook for many fiction fans. I've been into love with "Pride & Prejudice" and "Elizabeth Darcy" in her novel. She's wit, brave, intelligent, elegant and fearless. Obviously Jane Austen based on her first love to write the First Impression, later it's called Pride & Prejudice. Elizabeth and Jane as in P&P are exactly the copy cats of herself and her sister. The sisters were very close to each other. Balls were the fashion of the time and the good spots to socialize. They were not afraid to show their emotion and love to pursue men. Finding husbands were essential. Being calculative on how much income one receives was important at the time. It's not quite understandable till I saw these two movies and read more about the historical background of ...

It's a bit shocking, yet amazing to read the news about a scientist working on the possibliity of humans marrying robots. Read this: "My forecast is that around 2050, the state of Massachusetts will be the first jurisdiction to legalize marriages with robots," artificial intelligence researcher David Levy at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands told LiveScience. Levy recently completed his Ph.D. work on the subject of human-robot relationships, covering many of the privileges and practices that generally come with marriage as well as outside of it. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21271545/wid/11915829?GT1=10450 Somehow I believe more women may be interested in having a robot as a partner than a live human-being if we can programme the robot into a desired one. At least it's free of hassle and free of many relationship programme.

So I found a chance to go for a short golf trip soon. See what I've just got? A new golf bag. It's nothing special but it's smaller, lighter and more handy for carrying across the border. Now I've got new golf shoes and new golf bag. I'm ready to go for it!

Have you ever felt you knew a person and realised that you didn't? Once I was told one of my IT colleague actually knows how to speak Swedish as he decided to go all the way to Sweden to see the world. Now he wants to compete in an International Taekwondo Competition to see if he can break more bricks than his competitors. Interesting? Then my intern talked about she has been teaching private pinao classes for almost 10 years. What? She started to teach when she's 14. Young generation in this decade is really multi-talented and mature early. Today, I learnt from my yoga teacher that she is also a hair-stylist. Right, I probably should go and try it out to see whether people can have totally different talents. So, should I explore my second job other than my profession? What can I be? Maybe I can be a yoga teacher too. And I probably enjoy doing some less brainy jobs in a golf club when I retire. But I'd better finish my study first.

Stuffy weather was only suitable for indoors activities. I went to see the Sotheby's exhibition with a friend and witnessed how the real auction was like. I had enough of fake photo shooting and video shooting. TV and cinemas were not the real things either. Somehow it's a bit surprising to see how many rich people were out there. A picture was auctioned out in a minute or two, followed by another one and another one. I stood there for 5-6 minutes and 5-6 photos were auctioned out already. It's quite mechanical for the auctioneer, not an exciting tight bid as one could see on TV. The most popular display section was the jewellery and watches. Perfectly green jade, sparkling enoromous diamonds and precious antiques from our ancient history all caught our attention. Quite many interested buyers examined the pieces closely with torches, manifique glass inch by inch. Oh, how come so many people appreciate and know how to tell whether the antique is real or not. Women were not ...

Have you ever craved for something? It can be a chocolate, a dream house, a Mercedes or round-the-world ticket. At this moment, I just yearn for finishing my study, then I'm free to read the books I prefer the best, travel according to my schedule and idle when I don't need to think or do anything. Study part time in the evening is never like the student life I used to have. People don't get together or are as close as before. We all have our own lives, our busy schedule to cope with life, family, finance and many more. I don't bother to deal with my classmates and I feel more close to classmates from other stream than my own class. It's a bit strange but I care more about whom I like rather than who are in my class. I booked a session with the photographer I used before for corporate photo shooting. Thanks god! I could make it this week to meet the schedule despite many told me that the rooms were available and how difficult it was. I just kept calling and praying ...

Ang Lee's latest movie "Lust, Caution" caught a lot of attention with the dramatic sex scene. I was a bit shocked when I saw the movie a few days ago. I didn't expect a famous actor like Tony Leung really challenged his own borderline to nudity to that extent. But there is no doubt that he's a good actor. He act with rich facial expression and so did the new actress. This movie is more about good actors rather than a good director, I'm afraid. The plot based on a short story from a famous writer sounds to be a bit naive. Maybe the university students could have such a gut to carry out a conspiracy plan but how possibly they're caught so much late.

Today's exercise class was turned into a semi-lap dance lesson as my colleagues suggested to have a surprise performance for the coming Christmas party. I always think that dancers are so effortless when doing the table dance or pole dancing. It might look simple but definitely it takes a lot of work and be confident to be comfortable with your bodies and show out the curves. I don't deny it's a fun way to exercise and I can feel some muscle pain from few muscles' practice. But it's always good to try out something new and appreciate the simple ways around us.

I couldn't believe that I totally forgot all about archery after my course in the university. Alright, it's true that that was ages ago but I could still remember some right poses and some tricks. Only that it didn't quite work. So I slowly picked up the game again today and progressed little by little just like children. I thought I lost my wisdom but I guess I just lost my patience sometimes. Archery wasn't as fun as the very first time I did that probably because it's indoors this time and we stood close to the target. But one thing for sure, that's the way to bring back some of my memory. The brightest thing today was the new decor in Pacific Place, a shopping mall in the centre of the city. How possibly could you imagine a glamourous riding horses were hung from the ceiling and moving up and down like the "Mary goes around" game in the park. A more fancy version of Mary goes around was just around the corner and gave me a lot of surprises today. I...

It's an interesting day with some insightful inputs from a symposium on breast cancer. Next time you went to see a doctor who examines your breast, pay attention to how long he/she examines you. Research finding shows that it should take at least 3 minutes for examining each breast. So don't suspect what your male gynaecologist tries to do with your breast if he does it longer than usual!!! The highlight of the day was a talk on handling sexuality issues for breast cancer patients. The speaker Dr Angela Ng was so good in a way to present many useful ways to support patients and what elements we should pay attention. Yes, not only we should encourage people to have sexercise but some other patients as well.

It seems like my effort to hide away from office politics was wasted. Today, I started writing a manual about media communications in which I first talk about what constitutes news. Later I realised that I became the " news " myself, to be more exact, the "rumours". I can see how people hunger for stories like reporters. Even in a small office, people love create stories. Imagine those creative energy being re-diverted to our work, our marginal revenue will definitely benefit from it. So I can smile over to someone who surprised me for the spread of rumour. Well, I don't know who started it. Whether there is actually a rumour or not; or someone just tried to create it to see how I response. I do care less. Now I reviewed the elements of what the news are. Am I prominent? NO. Am I odd? No. Did I create controversy? No. Do my work affect others? Not much. Maybe I'm just proximite to others. Perhaps I should put this example in my manual so the "creater...

There is an old saying, "Peace often comes before a thunderstorm." Even when you try to stay away from the chaotic world and bury yourself to focus on work, you will eventually realise that you won't stay away from this shelter. It's a day with big thunder. My colleague was fired all in a sudden leaving us an ambiguous goodbye and a SMS message. We soon realized that more than one of our colleagues were laid off with immediate dismissal. My boss is one of the most forgivingful kind of creative, so it's just a bit unusual. The office was full of mauvais and weird atmosphere with a lot of speculation. I expected my boss would call for a meeting with us and she did. I never liked politics and didn't join the "gang" for lunches these days. That's the way I tried to be more focused on my busy work and my studies. After all, my ultimate objective is to optimize what I can learn from my study rather than what the hot gossip is about at work. Finally I ...

It's a very short trip but a very pleasant one. I was amazed with Cambodia when I visited it years ago. The city was much safer than what I expected. I have been longed for having a glimpse on Vietnam for several years. The country is a total mystery to me but I believe it's no doubt a charming city. I finally was able to spend 4.5 days there to unveil its painted beauty. So what it's about Saigon and South Vietnam? Beautiful lady figures, inflating prices, rich historical background and a special birthday of my friend's. 30 Aug 2007 (Thu) Our plane landed on the runway which is near the dwellers. It's as close as that of Hong Kong old airport but passengers can hardly wave to the people living below since most of the buildings are 2 to 4 storeys only. The old airport which was about to shun is simple and basic as the old taipei airport. The custom reminded me the old days when I went to China. Some custom officers placed their military hats on the edge of their cou...