Thoughts beyond my life & my travel - Bel

Merry Christmas to you! I feel so Christmas this year, spending time to take pictures of the decor in different shopping malls. I probably saw more Christmas decor than other years. Also received a few small X'mas gifts. Love this flower a lot! That's my favourite X'mas gift so far. And hurray, we got pay rise, too. That is incredible especially the economy is not doing any good. Good to have a bit more to pay for my rent increase. I didn't spend time to send any electronic Christmas cards to my friends but I just hope everyone is having a joyful Christmas.

I was never that busy in my birthday week. After having a get together with an ex-reporter, I got another brief meetup with an ex-classmate. I had to forget how late my friends came to my birthday dinner on Saturday night 'coz they are always extremely late anyway, but great to have bites of a giant cheese cake and tiramisu. Look at these cakes. Sunday was a trip to Macau with a friend's daughter. That's truly a "mom" experience and I felt pressure of taking care of a not too little "daughter". Luckily I didn't lose her in Macau but was a bit scared of her sea sick experience on the ferry. But there was a lot of wow wow in Macau. Now I learn that the Venetian Casino does look like the one in Las Vegas and the fountain show looks a bit like the one in Bellagio in Las Vegas too. Maybe I don't need to go to Vegas after all. My birthday date was to bring this "daughter" to Ocean Park. Luckily that I didn't have to pay for my own ticket ...

I joined one of the local lawn bowling associations to play in a competition yesterday. I couldn't recall I played lawn bowl that seriously. I usually talk and make some jokes when playing with friends. But the players were so serious. I didn't know how come I had the "bad luck" to have such a painful right shoulder yesterday morning. It added some challenges to my first debut not to mention that I didn't practice for a month. It's funny that I knew nothing about what's the competition about. How the teams were paired up and how it's like. I even asked what my team member name was and what was the team we're playing against. The player in the other team probably was surprised how come I knew nothing about that association and how many games our team has played so far. Never mind. I'm happy that it turned out I didn't play that bad at all.

I had been to Thailand a few times. Bangkok and Chiang Mai are my favourite. No matter how notorious Pattaya is, I thought that I should give it a try and make a fair judgement myself. What I can say is that I don't think I will come back to this city again. The beach is full of rubbish and so touristy. The city is a bit backwards and very adult. People seem to be more interested in meeting gals in the bars, seeing those adult shows or tranvestite performance. I just didn't feel comfortable spending my vacation in such an environment. Is it globalization that makes thai people less friendly too?

I missed the squash tournament held in Hong Kong last time and it's great to see those world squash players to compete again. To my surprise, I found out more about squash this year, here's the list: * almost all players put their websites on their t-shirts / tops * thanks god, the squash shoes look a lot more fashionable and even cool. It's not white, plain squash shoes anymore. * look at the gold racket / racket bag that few players used * cameron pilley is cute. I enjoyed watching him playing a lot though he's lost to james willstrop. The speed of the game was just incredible. He even showed the audience his sense of humour. * Rachael Grinham & Natalie Grinham are sisters but one represents Netherlands, another one represents Australia. * the squash court was incredibly crowded. Wish we have a court really for the tournament. I have back pain after sitting for hours!

I was recommended to visit a coffee shop in Vancouver which is famous for its coffee drawing. I couldn't make it as my Vancouver trip was so packed last time and I didn't care looking for a coffee shop doing this. Now I definitely like to visit the coffee shop as someone made a special request for a special coffee drawing for me. It's definitely a "wow". I heard that the coffee was so much better than Starbucks, too. So, coffee fans, visit Caffe Artigiano next time you're in Vancouver next time.

Every now and then we tell ourselves we must change or get rid of bad habits. I take some classes recently. My lawn bowl coach asked me to change the way I hold the ball to prevent the ball skewing outward. The golf coach was really uncool, strict and ruthlessly told me I was wrong at this and that. I was a bit confused and wondered when I was right. I know I have to change the way I play the ball game. I've got a mental picture of the right way of doing so but changes are not something happened in a night's time. Changing the way to do is even harder than learning things from scratches because it's become a habit. But the lawn bowl teacher probably found a more approachable way to tell me so. The fitness class teacher says in a talk that "you must exercise, not you should." Didn't we tell ourselves we must do certain things every day? I bet the couch just makes us too comfy. Then I watched a programme about helping out some fussy eaters in the UK. Can you ima...

After getting advice from a chef at my workplace, here's what I made. It tastes much better than what I did last time but it was my intention to add less sugar and give up pleasing my taste bud a bit more. So, you know how much sugar is added in this dessert after you make it yourself.

I read a new magazine called Power, an up-market men's magazine, the other day. I must say that there are great photographs all over that kept me flipping over. The Jude Law's Dunhill ad, a seductive barber photo shot, a line up of fine leather wallets that you can almost feel the quality of the leather. But the page caught me the most attention was this Elmo's ad. It's different. It's warm. It's just Elmo in everyday life.

Anthony Wong is a legendary singer in Cantopop and he still is. His creativity and originity makes him stand out in the music scene. He was edgy two decades ago and he is still edgy with his androgynous image and cross-genre sound. The lyrics of his songs are always topical and sometimes touches on very sensitive topics like sexuality, belief and ageing. I just realised he released his new album "King of the Road". I like what he talks about in one of his songs, " The Halo Above Your Head ". As quoted from a magazine, the song refers to "a balding patch on top of a man's dome. Wong implores deterioration but of intellectual grace. 'You can look at it like a halo, an accumulation of your experiences and an accumulation of your wisdom,' says the singer. Isn't the idea so smart? If everyone agrees, people have no worry of losing their hair.

The new version of Butterfly Lovers will debut in the theatre soon. The previous one was released a decade ago. That's the time when I had feelings for someone. Despite it was a sad Chinese ancient story , the characters portrayed by the movie were so alive and Charlie Yeung, the female lead in the movie, was such a charming and adorable actress at the time. The movie was very refreshing and touching. Some of the scenes even bought us joy and happiness as well. Now the new version will be released this week. The TVC is just playing non-stop. Surprisingly, I have such feelings again. Is it strange or just a coincidence?

Today is Chung Yeung Festival, a day to "sweep the graves of our ancestors" and a day to hike. The weather was just a bit moody and a bit sad, so I didn't go to hike but instead walk to the Hong Kong Park in the city. The air is surprisingly fresh in the middle of the city. Though the sky is grey, it's still a good day to see some flowers, the pond, the man-made waterfall and the water fountains. I bet I was lucky to get up early and go to the park early because I found hundreds of maids in the another park when I was walking back home later. Being in a park is always good but never good on holidays or weekends as most of the city parks have become the gathering points of hundreds or even thousands of maids. They are sitting on the floor, playing guitars, eating, cutting hair, playing cards or eating. I don't blame them as they just find a place to gather around and obviously we are short of space. Since families hire them to take care of their children and doing...

Most of us are not war babies and we live a peaceful life, enjoy days with the ease of TV, video, air-conditioner and electrical appliances and think our life are safe and comfy. One day, we heard the milk and many of the milk products we consume are tainted with deadly chemicals. The bonds we bought are not quite the "bonds" we thought. The banks which had stood for a decade announced that it would be shun down. Your friend sent you an SMS message claiming that there was a bank run and it's exactly the bank you put all your savings in. The stocks you bought only worth less than how it worthed a few months ago. What a world? And everyone seemed to get hit and become so vulnerable and fragile. It's not a war but it's a mental war to us. It hits our core nerves and it hits us hard. Can we stand up tall again and overcome this "war" psychologically and physically? I can only think of other things like enjoying my life, being with friends whom I like or mayb...

An inspiring movie called Freedom Writers talks about how a teacher inspired high school students to her English class. Students were led to walk through the story of Anne Frank through reading the book, visiting the Holocaust museum and talking to survivors of the dark age. They learnt to fight against gangsters, violence and to become heroes of their own. I was shocked of what happened of all the innocent Jews when I visited a "concentration" camp in Germany and I was an university student at that time. All I saw was the beds they had to squeeze in before they died and the rail tracks transported them to the place they got killed. These were not that bad as in Cambodia but I was still horrified. I remembered I was so eager to learn more after the visit, reading a few books about the Holocaust, the Jews and even Judaisms. However I could never finish reading "The Diary of Anne Frank". I tried two or three times. I could only read a few pages every time and felt ...

The milk powder incident has been getting worse. It doesn't only affect mothers with babies but also everyone. More and more milk products are found to contain dreadful chemical from the government testing including milk, candies, coffee and cakes of many popular brands. What I could do is only to consume less milk products or pick them in different brands. But the incident can only be a tip of the iceberg, who knows whether other products are contaminated or not. Then there is a rumour a bank in HK is having financial problem that people are lining up to redraw their money. It appears that we are not getting stronger but we are more sensitive to rumours and more reactive to news. We are just so fragile.

I don't know since when I was given more and more translation work in the office. I might have done them better than many others in the company but it doesn't mean that I'm running a translation department. I always suggest it's more sensible for the company to hire a translator instead. Of course, it's not a hard work for me at all. I don't need to think much doing it. Only that the more I translate, the more I feel it's sucking up my creativity and energy for some other promotion work. Maybe I've started to get lost in translation.

I didn't have much chance to see Paralymics as the TV stations only played the highlights at midnights but the opening and closing ceremony were truly as dramatic as the Olympics. As a matter of fact, the closing ceremony looked even better than the one in Olympics. The messaging was very good. The scene was beautiful with red leaves covered the "bird nest". The dance was amazing and showing us caring and expressing it were so important. The red leaves "carpet" always reminded me the first time I went to Canada when my friend brought me to a walk in a wood full of lovely red maple leaves. I saw some in Beijing but it's just nothing compared to what I saw over there many years ago. It just gave you a warm feeling in the fall. All in a sudden, you don't find the wind so cold anymore.

I came across few notes that I wrote about special friends in a box today. I was surprised how I pictured delicate feelings in details in the old days. It is said that people in their early 20s can write things better. Many authors did their great works when they're young. Maybe I lost the creative mind to write something more meticulously, or I should admit that I've grown up and prefer to see things in a bigger picture. Or I should restore my Chinese writing skills again.

A survey reports that Hong Kong people are worse in remembering people's names and faces but are good at remembering figures and English words as compared to the world's average. I will say I'm hopeless in remembering even figures and words. It may be related to the development of our left and right brain as the report stated but I probably try not to remember so many things. How many passwords you need to remember? The gate of the builidng, the gate of your parents' and sibling's buildings, your several email accounts, your bank account, your student account and your credit cards. I'd rather save my "hard disk" to add in other more meaningful information and memory.

Some reporters have become my friends over the years. I want to meet a few of them to catch up with them this month. After meeting my "artiste" media friend, I met the ex editor who once asked me to write a column. We usually meet in a coffee shop having coffee after work. It was one of these evenings yesterday, only that she's a bit late finishing Monday work. As we grow older, we talk a lot more about our parents receiving medications and having surgery. I don't know if it's sad or it's just a fact. We are just happy that our parents are still there. However, it's scary to hear people having bypass surgery or liver surgery at the age of 80s. I always want to see the home for the aged could be better so that parents won't be that afraid or maybe I could work there one day. It still seems to be a long way to go.

How many people can do something they really like? I always admire people who can pursue a career which reflects what they love and need not to worry about what they earn. I had dinner with some media friends yesterday and I always wanted to see how one of them could transfer himself to be a "web designer" and a freelance writer for popular culture. The story was that he used to be a writer of a golf magazine, then a reporter on mobile products. He requested a transfer to cultural page to interview musicians, alternative singers, dancers and artistes. I remember how shocked I was when he handed me his "book" and "DVD". it's one of the creative sorts and that's what he started his "arts". He quited his job and launched a website called " pinkwork " full of good interviews and reports on activities of local and Asian artistes. It's been years he's been living his "artiste" life. I still couldn't figure out h...

Living in the hub of the city is truly a different experience. It's like a hotel located in the city and you can drop off many times in a day. It may be very tiny, not having a good view, a bit noisy but at the same time, you seem to have earned a lot more hours than many others and do not worry about not having enough time studying, reading, going to gym or spending hours relaxing. I'm about to get used to this city mode of life and all in a sudden I received the shocking news about an drastic rental increase. Now I should seriously think about whether I should give up "living in a box" in a city centre. Should I move back to parents'? Should I move much further to the sub-urban or should I try to earn some more for the rocketing rent. I've got a fortnight to think about and may I sort it out in a good way.

I was reading up to 2am last night as this book was such a good read. Every time I finished a chapter, I told myself to put it aside but I read on and on. It is fascinating to learn that Richard Branson's life is as dramatic as many movies. But the most amazing part is the candid, vivid and daring write-up of someone's life. How many famous people are afraid of disclosing details of their personal life but this book is totally the opposite. It talks about the founder of Virgin Group nakedly - his family, his friends, his drug experience, his ballooning adventure, his dates, his wives and dating encounter and his business venture. So you can expect the following when reading the book: * enhance your music knowledge on how the music industry works, how fantastic Tubular Bells was (I only first heard Mike Oldfield with the song "Moonlight Shadow"), how to set up a studio and how to get along with the annoying musicians * the entrepreneur tricks (how to drive people to ...

Hong Kong government proposed to have a sex offender registry some months ago, mainly to keep a record of cases of high risk offenders. Records will only be checked by child-related institutions such as schools and child care centres. Employers can only obtain such information upon applicants' consent. I didn't realise such registry was so powerful till I saw 20/20 last night. How come the US makes use of the registry in a wrong way. Its registry does not only include high risk offenders but also those teens who are reported to have sex with their girlfriends who are under the age of consent. The police makes home visits to your neighbours to warn them if you're listed in the registry. The public can also have access to the registry and know you're on the list but do not know what kinds of offences you committed. So logically they will assume you commited a crime like rape or molestation. It is always a pro and con in certain systems like this one. It's not surprisi...

All in a sudden, I wanted to go to a park nearby just to get some fresh air and kick my bad luck away. I read the articles on my friend's blog talking about how much compromise we had to do at work and felt bad about it. The only blessing was to meet some friendly nurses from Singapore in the afternoon, feeling that people did care about what you worked for. After all, it seems like I didn't have any luck. The waterfront park was knocked down completely. I hope it's the government plan to extend and link up different waterfront parks together. It is pity to miss the chance to be in the park again and enjoy the breeze and see the view. But the view from the bridge is not bad at all. Is the light of dusk giving people as much hope as the ray of light in the morning? The view did please me a bit at least.

I did write a lot about diseases and surgery for patient information. Like any healthcare workers, my work is meant to encourage people to care about their health, have health checks and eventually enjoy quality of life and stay healthy. It sounds pretty good till I realise my dentist told me that I need a CT Scan. It's nothing scary about and imagine I wrote things about CT Scan before and saw patients doing it. It's just never good to be a "patient" yourself. I start to think what if I can those diseases that I wrote about before like sciatica, back pain, diabetes and cervical disease, etc. Of course, I won't have BPH. It's just not very pleasant to write about such disease.

My mother and her friends used to claim that they're older as they wanted to start working earlier. Those were the days when you couldn't receive a lot of education especially you're girls in a family. Imagine you've got 8 or 9 siblings, how possibly your family paid all the food and education expenses in 1950s. How cruel it was when your family had to give your brothers or sisters to other family 'coz they couldn't raise so many children. Now, the economist blams us for being too conservative to have any child at all. It's a shock when the news said some Chinese gynmists were accused of claiming they're 16 in order to compete. I wish I could claim I were younger but never older. I remember how sad I felt when I turned 30 and I don't want any big birthday celebration anymore. But my mom is still hoping that she can be older as one cannot enjoy minimal elderly benefits till the age of 65. Oh my, I couldn't imagine myself becoming a senior one day...

It's the travel season and I received quite a few gifts from friends who were back from their travel destinations. Most of them were back from Japan as its currency was not as strong as the others. I hate to carry gifts back to Hong Kong as I always want to travel light. But when I look at the gifts that I got from these friends, I almost felt I shared the the joy of their travel in Asia and even Europe. So, you can always spread the joy with the others.

There are a lot of arguments regarding cost benefit analysis especially the matter of human life. Should we give out free medication without topping the limits? Will you give up money for safety against 1-millionth chance of King Kong attack? I did a research paper on the cost benefit analysis of rotavirus before and already found such calculation was not easy and could be controversial. Should we calculate human life equivalent to US$5 - 10 million? How could we justify the amount? Now, the China government decided to motivate their athletes by awarding so much prize money to reach their Olympics goals. Does it worth to invest $500 million for 50 gold medals? The poor might probably feel sorry about the government's decision as they probably don't have the TV to watch the games and share the glory. I would rather see it giving out half of the award money to rebuild the earthquake area.

I used to be doing well academically and decided to give myself a break once I was admitted to university. My degree result was a disappointment but I love that university and I'm proud to be a graduate there. After some years, I finally graduate from the Master's degree course in another university. The two-year hard work harvest with flying colours. While I'm pondering whether I will go to the congregation, I am asked if I will accept an invitation to speak at the congregation on behalf of other graduates of the business school. Should I give a speech which has totally no meaning at all? It will be just an ego thing if I'm gonna do it. I'm sure my parents will be happy seeing me to give a speech but they will absolutely know nothing about what I'm talking about in English. If I graduated in my previous university, I would consider it an honour and definitely say yes. It's not an easy decision to make, anyhow I should feel happy whether I gonna accept the ...

Have you noticed there are so many charming winners at the Olympics? I'm surprised how gorgeous and charming they are. They may not be Miss Universe or Mr Handsome but these atlethes have been practising for years and giving much of their efforts to earn the medals. They have high energy level, embrace a perfect body, possess endurance and power to win the support from the audiences. They radiate their charm with their smiles when they are waving to the audiences and receiving the medals. The Olympics games definitely have a lot more "good-looking" people than any beauty pageant.

China and Hong Kong were so close to win in basketball, volleyball or table tennis games in the Olympics. We were always leading the games but somehow the other teams like Spanish and Japan didn't give up at every single point and strike to the end and win. Such a disappointment when we're lost to the Spanish team in basketball, then lost to Cuba and the USA in women's volleyball. Did we the Chinese do not have the perserverance like the other teams or we need to work further on our sports psychology? We have strong wills and excel in many individual games like diving and gymnastics. But China ball teams do not have any luck in those ball games which need team work, extraordinary power and outstanding physical fitness. However, I still want our Chinese audience could show some gestures while other teams are playing against China. After all, it's not a fight or war. It's just a competition.

My feet is so tired after working at the fair for just two days. You can sometimes feel like a long day standing next to the exhibits and speaking to the public. So, we tried to entertain ourselves in different ways, like having little "competition" on how many steps we walk here and there every day. I couldn't believe that we walk so little every day and we do not walk a lot more even outside the office. It is believed that we have to walk 10,000 steps per day but many walk less than the "healthy level". While we're studying the flat foot model, a helper volunteered to take off her shoes and show other helpers her "flat foot". Interesting to learn something LIVE. Last but not the least, our executives delivered us yummy donuts to boast our energy. I bought chocolate and snacks that we need to enjoy our time a lot more. :)

I was a fan of Culture Club and that's when I first heard about the Virgin music label. What a name! My parents probably thought I was something wrong to love those new romantic bands but somehow I persuaded them how good looking Boy George was in those music videos. I thought Virgin record company should be something big at that time and I didn't know that Virgin Altantic and Virgin megastore were all under the Virgin Group. These businesses are all unrelated and somehow they're all under the control of the same guy Richard Branson. Is this CEO charming? He is. But how come his realty show was a bit boring. I don't know if the American contestants are better off at those realty shows than the Brits. I almost finish reading this book but somehow there are still a lot of controversary points of views about this guy according to this book. Is he a control freak or is he the liberalist? He's like the dream boss of every PR but at the same time can be a nightmare for ev...

The grocery store staff caught an old housewife stealing food and it made quite a drama. I didn't bear to watch the scene but you couldn't avoid hearing both of them arguing. The woman wanted to pay to settle while the man made a threat to call the police and kept swearing. Could it be handled in a more civilized way? It won't happen in a supermarket, at least, not full of swear words. But it's a grocery store and storekeeper was less educated and civilized, I suppose. Somehow, I didn't want to shop a lot more and only desire to walk away from this uncivilized place quick.

Awesome. I couldn't stop saying "wow" here and there when watching the Olympics opening. It's like magic. It's full of brilliant ideas, impeccable execution and wits. Audience from other countries may not have the clue of how the scenes are meant to be. The fireworks, the painting, the scrolls...they are all parts of our ancient culture and achievement. The lighting of the caultron was particularly smart. I never like to watch those opening ceremonies. This one really changed my point of view. The success of the opening night did win the supports from people. I almost forgot what it did to suppression the freedom of the press.

Have you ever been feeling sorry that you lost your friend because of some silly things? While I'm clearing up and filing up some old emails, that reminds me some friends I used to be really close but not seeing anymore. So don't get your friend work in the same company as yours. Don't ask your married friend to hang out with you if you feel something wrong. Don't make your tempered friend mad by insisting to go to your preferred restaurant. Reading those mails just remind me people could be strong walking in front of you but they're fragile and just hide things they don't want to tell. They don't cry but they're under stress. Somehow you find people having a happy life but they might not. Are we showing different faces in front of people?

The weather is really moody this year. Extended long winter followed by almost two months of rainy days. I was almost feeling down as those Londoners. Finally there came the sun and it's fiercely hot. So, it may not be that bad when the rain comes visit us again. It's only early August that we have 2 typhoon no 8 signal already. Sometimes I feel sorry for our next generation who have to bear more unpredictable and unbearable weather. How could they go to those university orientation camps in such a heat. How can you bring your kids to the parks seeing flowers? Or is that I who is more vulnerable facing these weather changes?

I never have the luck when gambling, not even playing the slot machines. So I seldom play cards or buy any lottery tickets. You could imagine how I felt the luck when I won little money the very first time with this lottery ticket. It's almost like once in a lifetime.

Who don't mind people touching their bellies? Pregnant women. There were quite a lot of bellies for me to touch these few months. My friend, my colleague and my reporter friend. They all don't mind and ask me to touch their bellies. I probably will jump if someone touch my belly but pregnant women always attract people or even strangers to pet their bellies. I guess they welcome people to make friends with their babies before they're born. Congratulations to my friend who is finally pregnant after over a year's wait! It makes me and few of us strange when getting together for chat-chit. It seems like we're the minority who are not having children or babies. I'm probably the extreme minority who is still single. But I don't care and let's meet more moms and babies.

I hadn't had such an interesting day for long. First, a surprise call requested my help to make arrangement for a press conference in a few hours and I'm happy that it didn't happen eventually though it's not hard at all. Why people want confidentiality and all in a sudden want meeting press? The class today was the shortest and my last in the Master's Course. I had no idea about what the professor was talking about. Bioinformatics sounds like another planet to us. Genes, cancer markers snd spectrum. I'm not a scientist! But you can hear jokes in classes and classmates brought cameras with them for photos at the end. I'm not that excited for photos or graduation but I'm happy I've finished them all. So interesting things are endless if you look around. Can you figure out why a dog needs to wear shoes? Well, maybe his master finds it cute but it looks funny. I saw his master enjoyed walking with her dog with shoes a lot. Crazy! Thailand figured out wh...

I received an alarming call last night for seeking medical advice on possible overdose. My little niece took the allergy medications that were supposed to be taken separately in the morning, lunch and evening. But somehow she took all of them in the night time. I understand how my brother and his wife were panic about. As an aunt, I'm worried with anything wrong with the child as well. So I called around at night time and asked any silly questions that every parents want to know. I was a bit relieved when both the pharmacist and the nurse told me that she should be okay, just monitoring her breathing, pulse and chest movement. I even asked her mom to see if she could wake her up, just in case. I was a bit upset that my friend didn't return her call but she's staying with her kid late last night. Obviously my emotion showed when she called this morning. Gosh, how could parents survive over all those panic and child's sickness?

When you take a look of those greeting card websites, you will be surprised with the presence of so many occasions to celebrate. What's that Coffee Day, Vanilla Ice Cream Day, Caveman Day and Tequila Day about? Are they real or made up by the card companies to publicise their sites? So today may be the Happy Teletubbies Day or Happy Latte Day. You just name your day to make it a reason to celebrate with someone you care.

I can see we're in cyber era now. While our family is still having family time watching TV or reading magazines, I found my friends in Ontario spent most of their family time surfing the net in the sitting room. We can hardly live without internet and emails, so it's shocking to find that my PC is dead after I ignore a few computer problems. I'm a bit panic this time 'coz I couldn't locate where my IT expert (my brother) is and again I didn't back up my computer including my assignment. I hope my coming uni project can be done in a computer lab, or else I will have a hard time getting help from friends for installing programme in their computers. What a night! I bet my book reading should go on.

Being embraced by clear water is always refreshing, especially when the weather is good. I realise why I prefer swimming outdoors to indoor pool. Look at the bottom of the pool, you can see lights from the sun, forming form glittery pattern that moves every second. It's like a modern art if you take a picture of it. It's so calm, so refreshing and so contemporary. I just love it.

I always love the song "blackbird" and almost have such an impression on those blackbirds till I saw how they attacked people in Port Credit in Ontario. Now, things are getting worse and read this.

A survey just says that Hong Kong is among the top five countries where people overtime work the most. The others are South Korea, Peru and Pakistan. I'm not surprised that over 40% of us work over 48 hours per week. I don't know since when we really feel bad if we leave work at 5 or 6pm, the official office hours. So I find it odd when I realise those nurses, radiographers and health workers really work close to their shift and fixed hours. Some companies do show appreciation when peoople overwork and give some incentives but many don't. I see some people work up to 11 to 12pm every day and back to the office early in the morning. What is life about? I'm no longer addicted to work to this extent and I don't want to be a slave to work. Should we balance our competitiveness and working hours and make us a more happy city?

It is shocking to hear that there is a nude beach in Sanya, a resort island in China. Imagine a conservative country where people walk nakedly in the beach with no interference by the police. The beach is not officially approved and there is law saying that you will be detained for 5 - 10 days if openly exposed your body in public. But somehow people seem to feel safe doing so. We don't have such kind of beaches and I can't foresee there will be one in the future. Maybe, China is ahead of us and Mainlanders become more open than us, too. See how women are dressed like in China and then look at how we dress. They probably dress much less than us.

The tram stopped in the middle of the street and passengers started getting off the tram. "What's going on" I asked the driver. "There must have an accident ahead of us. Trams line up and stop in front of us," he said. Trams occasionally were being stuck in the middle of the streets because of traffic or minor accidents. But it's different this time. I got off the tram and saw a man was actually taken care by the medics and laying on the stretcher. I was in a distance and couldn't see whether there was blood or not. But there were bunches of people around like the police, the fireman. That shouldn't be minor this time. We really can't tell how close we are to death sometimes. We're healthy one day. Something bad might happen the next day. A few of my friends' parents were hospitalized over the month. Maybe it's about the time we're ready for bad news to come. Just live happily every day.

I never like seeing war movie but Red Cliff is not quite one but demonstrates the wisdom of war instead. The main attraction of this movie was Takeshi Kaneshiro at the very beginning. He's someone good to look at but doesn't quite know how to act. He's got only one look, one expression and sings badly. I'm glad that he actually did act better this time as the historical smart man. I hate watching people fighting and killing in those war scenes. The Lord of the Ring II already bored me to death. But this film was so extraordinary in the way it illustrated how this group of smart and fierce people won the war. The director John Woo even added some humour elements in the film. Too bad that we don't have the chance to see the biggest water battle scene till this winter.

Hong Kong finally passed the anti-racial discrimination law. It's just a trend for us to have such law since we have more immigrants from Mainland China, India, Pakistan and domestic helpers from the Phillippines and Indonesia. It's ok for us not to call somebody "Gweilo" or unpleasant names. But the most ridiculous thing is the "language support" to be required for patients using the public and maybe the private services, too. It will be quite an headache for so many organisations to provide intepretation service in so many different languages. Things may become a lot more complicated and confusing to everyone.

I almost pass through the small alley down one street from where I live every day. This is where the dried seafood shops are located and there are more these kinds of shops down the alley. I'm not a dried seafood fan but these shops make the area more interesting and attract quite some attention from tourists. This alley resembles the one in Macau where is close to my grandmother's old house. Passing through the covered alley in Macau also leads you to many shops but of course not the seafood shops here. Maybe that's one of the reasons why I found the area quite homely.

Nicole Kidman names her newborn "Sunday Rose Kidman Urban". What a name! Can you imagine calling someone "Sunday"? I've had colleagues and classmates with strange names over the years. They call themselves "Apple", "Coffee" and even "Honey". Is she embarrassed to have a name "Honey" at all? Perhaps we run out of names or people prefer a more creative way to name their children. Don't be surprised if you are introduced to "Mai", "Juin", "Strawberry", "Orange" or "Bee" one day.

After a prolonged cold winter, we had a strange summer with so much rain. It is depressing to see the weekend full of rain non-stop and the weekdays are not any better. My planned "swimming" days were ruined with the change of weather, giving me more and more excuse not to exercise. I hate I become soaked when I'm back to the office. It is said that we will have more typhoons this summer and our winter will disappear after decades. It may not happen as predicted but our summer may not be as pleasant as before and the weather is more moody and unpredicable as women. It's more sad that our next generation will encounter a totally different world that we had before. May we see a more lovely day like this.

SCMP sent some reporters to testify whether the love hotels in Kowloon Tong reject gay people for hourly rental service. It's not a secret that people book one of these hotels to have a "tour" of the room and the building decor of Bruce Lee's former house. Tourists usually bring along their wives to book the room for special "sightseeing" programme. It is quite a surprise that these hotels do not allow homosexual couples' booking. My friend told me that they couldn't book the double rooms in Japan as both of them are female. So after all, Asia is still very conservative and sensitive in gay matters. The good news is "that special love hotel" will not be auctioned in the market but be converted to Bruce Lee's museum some day.

I'm working on my uni paper but somehow is distracted by thoughts and the fragrance around me. Who has put on strong perfume in this computer workstation? It's unusual to find such a fragrance in a computer room. I look around and couldn't figure out who is the one. Is it the one behind me? My colleague always know the maintenance head is around 'coz she can "detect" his cologne. We don't always feel the fragrance we put on. Maybe we get used to it or the fragrance was not that strong. It ends up more and more people putting stronger perfume. Fragrance can be very refreshing and adding charms to people but more and more strange perfume are launched these days. We may end up smelling awkward one day.

Every now and then I will take a ferry to cross the harbour. I've never tired of the harbour view here and I find few people taking pictures every time. If I've brought my new phone or camera, I will probably do the same. The building architecture, the lighting and colour arrangement and even the neon signs make this city jungle more interesting. Skyscrappers stretch from one end to the other. Tokyo has similiar city view but it doesn't sit along the harbour and their city is a bit loud with those broadcast from the TV wall.

Why do people feel more alone when travelling by themselves? We all have time being alone in our apartments or sitting in a park by ourselves, but had you ever found yourself feeling more like "alone" when you're abroad? I bet the things around us are still familiar and maybe we feel we're physically closer to our friends, that makes the difference. But people probably don't feel they're alone with internet access these days. So, get a good cup of coffee and bring your notebook. You will find yourself not being all alone. The world has a lot more for you to care for than bothering whether you're alone by yourself.

World Values Survey concludes that the World gets happier and Denmark is the happiest country. Hong Kong ranks disgracefully at 63, worse than most of the Asian countries. Are we that not happy? So I went to the survey website to check it out. Despite my life satisfaction index is higher than average but it doesn't make me a happier person. My average score is more or less like the HK average. I guess our score is lower as most of us live in apartments and we don't have a good sense of belonging in our local communities. We don't have a local community anyway. It's a city, totally a city. BTW, 20 June is said to be the happiest day. If you're not happy even on that day, probably you're not a happy person.

The HKSAR government may prefer to give benefits to families with more babies but more new restaurants offer smaller options of dishes for small families or even singles. Even supermarkets have smaller portions of meat or vegetables for singles or nucleus families these days. At least I don't need to put the loaf of bread in the freezer for weeks and still enjoy fresh food here and then. This sushi is perfect for one for a healthy meal.

My bathroom never smelt so great till I broke the perfume one day. You may be searching for the best air fresher for your room but the perfume is simply the best but I'd prefer I smell better than the bathroom.

One of the downside of living in the downtown is the loss of privacy unless you close your curtain all the time. Apartment buildings are so close together that you can probably say hi to your neighbours when you open your window. The reflection of the glasses may reveal more secrets of your personal life. Are you naked walking around the house? You neighbour may know. Are you really doing some housework? Your neighbour can tell, too. You may notice someone standing in front of the windows one night. Are they watching you or are they checking out the view outside? It's a mystery. Or someone is flashing a torch light, what are they thinking about? That's city life. You can be annoyed by it or love it.

Are you having central obesity problem? Then you shouldn't work in Japan. Its government tried to control people's weight by means of law. Your waistlines will be measured on a regular basis to see if it's over 33.5 inches (men) or over 35.4 inches (women). It may not be central obesity with such measurement if you are big but that is the new rule. We should watch out our belly more!

I met so many medical professionals from Thailand this week. They were doctors, pharmacists and nurses. Doctors are arrogant here. A journal said doctors have learnt not to admit something they do not know. That hinders the dissemination and spread of evidence medicine. Maybe it's the personalities of Thai people or they don't speak English very well, I've found that they're pretty humble. I never spoke to doctors who gave me so much respect, so I'm glad to see some friendly healthcare professionals from our neighbouring countries. Maybe their skills and medical knowledge are as good as their attitude. After all, Thailand has become a medical capital in Asia

More and more high-speed trains were announced in China. The latest was the one departing from Beijing to Tianjian at the speed of 350km/h max. It will take less than half an hour to go from one city to another, shorter than taking subways from the West of Beijing to its East. When I was searching the news on the web, I realise China actually has trains to Osaka or Kobe in Japan. It takes two days crossing the ocean. I never see a train crossing from one side to the other side of the ocean. It will be a more interesting this than seeing coaches being transported in a ferry.

It was calm last night but I could see the strength of the wind through the windows. Rains were bending all directions, following the wind. It's a typical typhoon morning with so less traffic on the roads, almost like the midnight hours. Less trees were blown down this time but it's not hard to notice some bus stop signs were being blown down. Well, I hate to go to uni in such a weather but today's lesson was more relaxed mainly talking about sex statistics and health data. What if you don't have a mirror when you're on the road? Interesting to see someone using the video camera function of his cell phone as a mirror to check out how his hair looks. Maybe it's our future mobile mirror.

I never smoke and didn't ever try at all. I went to a convenience store one day and found the new warning for the cigarettee packing. It is quite interesting - not only "Cigaretee kills" but also accelerates ageing of skin . Warnings are more creative these days, check out more variety of warnings .

I had a surprise call from mom, bringing me soup to my place. I mentioned to her what my colleague suggested me to prepare the soup which is good for my throat. Though the receipe is simple, the Chinese medicine ingredients kinda bother me. How could I buy those dates from the Chinese medicine store and that Chinese medicine he mentioned. Forget about it. So, here I found the "comfort soup" in my kitchen. I never like Chinese soup but I feel a bit touched with what she did. She also brought me extra preserved, salted tangerine which is good for throat problem. It's almost like someone make chicken soup for you when you get a cold. I hope the placebo effect does work this time even if the soup doesn't work. Talking about food, I hate to see some people promote anoraxia on website and promote the concept of " thinspiration " or even aspire to be so bony. Sure, I agree it looks better to be thin but not that extreme and it's definitely not a choice of life ...

Someone named "Rain" as the best New Zealand movie. This movie was played at the last day of the New Zealand Movie Festival here. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed. The two little actor and actress were doing good and some of the scenes were beautifully shot. But it seems like missing something and the story is not unique at all. I will say Piano is still my favourite New Zealand movie. Wish that Jane Campion has another great movie.

I never appreciate the taste of caviar but I may not have tasted the best caviar that made me change my mind yet. Interesting that a Japanese man created a more "friendly" version of caviar by using teh squid ink. It's only around HK$70 a box, more than 10 times less that the real thing. I look at the pictures on the news and it looks quite real. Of course the chef can tell but I may not tell the difference. Someone can fool me with that maybe. Interesting for the day to spend time reading some much on the newspaper.

I saw a sad movie called "A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story". How could it be possible that three attackers were found not guilty killing the innocent transvestite Gwen. That wasn't happened in the old days but it's in the 80s and 90s in the US. Ironically a conservative country like Thailand will have "pink restrooms" for transvestites in a secondary school. It made sense 'coz female will probably find it embarrassing for them to share the same bathrooms while they may be assaulted by the boys when using the male toilets. "The signs on the doors depict a human shape split into half a male in blue and half a female in red." according to the news. It's surprisingly that more than 200 of the school's 2600 students considered themselves transvestites. It's time for us to respect people with their choices of lifestyles and who they are.

I felt that Brad lost his energy after most of the people were gone. We, a small group, continued our last day's tour on a Greyhound bus with another driver. I couldn't even remember his name but he really enjoyed talking a lot. The day started with a stop in a farm in Peachland where we had a touristy wagon tour. The farm raise few sheeps and mainly apples, peaches and other fruits. It makes those fancy apples with different "tattoos". Not only the lucky characters are "imprinted" on the apples but also companies' logos. Basically you could tailor make your design and logo for the apples. We tasted the super sweet ciders and ice apple wines but I think I prefer regular table wines. But I found the dried cherries great and could make a very good snack. It's a brief stop but we've seen more tourists from tour groups. We reached Mission Hills winery which was located on the other side of the river. I had been to a few wineries around Niagara area...

I continue to recall the fourth day of the tour. It's an easy day. The tour bus drove back to Kelowna via Vernon. While some of us including me checked in the hotel. Most of the group stayed on the coach and would return to Vancouver on the evening. I said farewell to the driver while some said farewell to the guide as Brad will stay with few people left. Around 10 people left including guys from Toronto, the English couples and the Mexican mother and daughter, etc. The guide in Chinese tour always emphasized how much tips we should pay and collected tips from each of us at the end of the tour but the practice is a bit different in the West. The guide always say that they don't rely on the tips but appreciates the tips. I overheard a young lad at the back said, "do you have enough tips in thig group, Brad?" Of course Brad couldn't hear that. I remember a female tour guide collected the tips with her hat. But for this tour, most of us put our tips into the pockets ...

The 3rd day of the tour was really a day to see Banff. I still pondered whether to try out the hot spring until Brad said it's the "tourist soup" in a swimming pool. Haha, am I part of the soup? Oh, I don't want to be a part of it and besides, why do they build the hot spring with some thoughts? Not just simply a swimming pool. Look at the hot springs in Japan and China. They've got smarter architecture, so I skipped being a soup but still looked for good soup. The sightseeing day started with a gondola ride in Sulphur Mountain next to the hot spring. I rode the way up the Mountain with the Chinese family. They're like a Cordahi family, free of them, a daugher who is in early 20s and a couple. I never recalled myself travelling with my parents after I studied in the university so I was always surprised how kids are so close to their parents. Maybe we, the Chinese, are more subtle in our emotion and never showed we care for our parents. After the ride, keep wal...

The 2nd day of the Banff trip was the most exciting day. We went to see Mount Robson, the highest rocky in Canada. It looks great but may not be as speculator as the other rockies. It's where I realised that the Chinese family from Australia actually spoke the same language as me. They're a bit excited and told everyone "we speak the same language." Oh my, I was a bit embarrassed. They had a long journey too, went to Hong Kong to see some relatives first and ocntinued their trip in Canada. We took a walk around the town of Jasper, a small town, to pick up 10 additional people and lunch. The train station doesn't look like a train station at all. Don't mix up with the Whisters Mountains in Jasper and the one in Vancouver. These Whisters Mountains are part of the Rockies and are signature backdrop of Jasper town. We didn't go to Morraine Lake. A disappointment but it's still frozen,so we went to Maligne Lake instead. Lakes in Canada are always so big th...

Banff had been the place I longed to see. I always saw a picture of people enjoying the hot spring there and I secretly wanted one if I was there but eventually, I didn't do so. I'll let you know why, so start reading here. I went to the gathering point as indicated. All I could see was a Grayline Coach, so I tried to find a guide and asked. It's not that easy to spot out who the guy was but eventually, I found it and knew that's the tour I joined. So the tour comprised 29 people joining either 4 or 5 days' Rockies tour. As long as it reached Jasper, an additional 10 people joined the tour bus to see Banff. Of course, everyone expects such a tour should have mainly old, retired people but there was also a group of students who enjoyed their time at the back of the coach and were dying to see the Rockies. What else in the group? A straight couple and a lesbian couple who are in their twenties. A "gay" couple - well, I realised that they are not a couple lat...

I only spent 1 night 2 days in Victoria. It's probably around 9 or 10C in the morning. I started to feel a bit unwell and very tired. I met the English couples again when taking the bus to Victoria. That's the bus where many tourists took to go to Victoria as it's more simple and easier. They went to see their nephew in Victoria and do some sightseeing. We spent hours talking on the bus and the boat. There were similiar coach service in the UK where the coaches drive to the ferry and disembark. They told me once many people were killed when there was a rainstorm and many coaches were thrown to the sea. It's a rainy day but we're safe. Victoria is bigger than I thought. You know, the guidebook always said you could walk to everywhere in Vancouver and Victoria. But I was quite tired of walking at the time I was in Victoria. People in Victoria are less friendly than in Vancouver. That's the first impression. It's more like a British town - the parliament, the g...

It's a sunny day finally after a week of rainstorm and wet weather. I gradually got my voice back and recovered from the cold. I probably got the cold in Victoria in a freezily cold day. More about Vancouver! Vancouver is an uncharming city where I found the residential buildings are almost indentical. Maybe because of the Olympics or the rise of residential market, construction is everywhere. It also takes up one-third of the city centre. And the buildings are simply look alike. Could they look a bit more interesting? I only had a short stay in Vancouver, so I took the tour guide's advice to go to Lynn Canyon instead of Capilano Suspension Bridge. What he said is "it's free and it's got water below that makes it interesting. Of course, it is not as long as the popular one and I almost thought that I was the only person who went to see that bridge. It was a cold morning. The Sea Bus is fast, comfy and crowded. North Vancouver seems to be more organized than the cit...