Thoughts beyond my life & my travel - Bel

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 ...