發炎

不知是淋巴或是扁桃腺... 常常發炎... 不如割了它, 一了百了...

厚愛

my ex-boss, head of HR of x&x, sms-ed me to call him tonight. he wanted to ask me back to manage a big change management project.

i don't think i'll take it, but i do appreciate he thought of me. to me, it's like a recognition that i did a good job (at least from his perspective) back then... :)

what kind of attitude is this?

the intern was working on her school assignment this morning... i asked her about it, and she said: "yeah, sorry, but i have a deadline at 12:00 HKT", and continued to work on her assignment without even looking at me.

what kind of attitude is this?

無悔

long time no gal talk... had dinner with 2 gals and they said that they didn't know i'm like what i'm... one described me as 豁出去...

i think it's very simple to me... imagine if there's no tomorrow, i know that i have no regrets... just as simple as that...

crazy dining queue

had a dinner date with 2 gals on saturday night.. myself and one of the gals wanted to go to tonkichi in causeway bay, since no booking is allowed and the restaurant is always full, we decided to arrive at 18:00, the time the restaurant opens, to get a table for 3.

it turned out that i arrived at 18:05, and the restaurant was already full!!! moreover, i got the queuing ticket of the 9th large table!!!

so we decided to give up and went to 燕萍清亭 instead..

愛, 沒有理由可說

愛一個人, 沒有理由可說; 愛上了就是愛上了...
同樣地...
愛的感覺走了, 也沒有道理可言; 不再愛了就是不再愛了...

硬要套一個愛的理由, 也只能說感覺來了, 沒得抗拒 (可以抗拒的, 也不算是真愛罷)...
硬要找一個不再愛的原因, 說到底, 不就是愛得不夠嗎?

我們以為我們可以自由調節感覺的力度嗎? 我們連自己的思想思念也控制不了, 遑論感覺... 極其量, 我們可以掌握的, 也只有自己的行為罷了...

虛假藉口

以虛假藉口促使他人作非法性行為是犯法的...

when i read the newspaper yesterday about this, can't help thinking 虛假藉口 is so common between most kinds of relationship, and now i'm listening to the archive of 在晴朗的一天出發, and Jan Lam was discussing the same thing with the other 2 anchors...

great minds think alike.. :)

家教

one morning on my way to work in the mtr, there were a mother with 2 kids -- a son and a daughter in their early teens -- sitting on her sides. Both were clinging onto their mother, looking at the English book that she's holding and listening to her reading the content.

then came in from one station 2 old ladies, probably in their 70s. They were standing in front of this family, and what happened? nothing happened. The mother continued to read the English book to her kids, and the kids continued to cling onto her.

Did they see the old ladies? I bet they did unless they were blind, which shouldn't be the case.
my thoughts? The type of 家教 breeds the type of next generation. It doesn't matter how good or fluent their English will be, there's no hope in them if they don't even practise the basic virtue of being a human being...

being single is sexy

SATC - Sex and the City, as if you didn't know... well, maybe the guys really don't know..

not a die-hard fan of it, and haven't planned to watch the movie in the cinema, but can't help noticing that a LOT of female (mostly female) columnists in HK and the States have written about it, and more than one quoted the following from Samantha:

"Being single used to mean that nobody wanted you; now it means you're pretty sexy and you're taking your time deciding how you want your life to be . . . and who you want to spend it with."

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/jenice_armstrong/20080528_Jenice_Armstrong__Are_you_ready_for_SATC_.html

so my single female friends, think positive!!! :)

Hillary's concession speech

if edison's apology speech -- which was professionally written -- can be a sample text for studies english class in secondary schools, the concession speech from hillary clinton is an even better one:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/07/hillaryclinton.uselections20081?gusrc=rss&feed=commentisfree

Yes, we can
I will work my heart out to make sure that Barack Obama is our next president
Hillary Clinton
guardian.co.uk,
Saturday June 7 2008

This is a transcript of Hillary Clinton's speech on suspending her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Well, this isn't exactly the party I'd planned, but I sure like the company.

And I want to start today by saying how grateful I am to all of you, to everyone who poured your hearts and your hopes into this campaign, who drove for miles and lined the streets waving homemade signs, who scrimped and saved to raise money, who knocked on doors and made calls, who talked, sometimes argued with your friends and neighbors, who emailed and contributed online, who invested so much in our common enterprise, to the moms and dads who came to our events, who lifted their little girls and little boys on their shoulders and whispered in their ears, "See, you can be anything you want to be."

To the young people, like 13-year-old Anne Riddell from Mayfield, Ohio, who had been saving for two years to go to Disney World and decided to use her savings instead to travel to Pennsylvania with her mom and volunteer there, as well.

To the veterans, to the childhood friends, to New Yorkers and Arkansans, who traveled across the country, telling anyone who would listen why you supported me. And to all of those women in their 80s and their 90s - born before women could vote - who cast their votes for our campaign. I've told you before about Florence Steen of South Dakota who was 88 years old and insisted that her daughter bring an absentee ballot to her hospice bedside. Her daughter and a friend put an American flag behind her bed and helped her fill out the ballot.

She passed away soon after and, under state law, her ballot didn't count, but her daughter later told a reporter: "My dad's an ornery, old cowboy, and he didn't like it when he heard mom's vote wouldn't be counted. I don't think he had voted in 20 years, but he voted in place of my mom."

So to all those who voted for me and to whom I pledged my utmost, my commitment to you and to the progress we seek is unyielding.

You have inspired and touched me with the stories of the joys and sorrows that make up the fabric of our lives. And you have humbled me with your commitment to our country.

Eighteen million of you, from all walks of life - women and men, young and old, Latino and Asian, African American and Caucasian - rich, poor, and middle-class, gay and straight, you have stood with me.

And I will continue to stand strong with you every time, every place, in every way that I can. The dreams we share are worth fighting for.

Remember, we fought for the single mom with the young daughter, juggling work and school, who told me, "I'm doing it all to better myself for her."

We fought for the woman who grabbed my hand and asked me, "What are you going to do to make sure I have health care?" and began to cry, because even though she works three jobs, she can't afford insurance.

We fought for the young man in the Marine Corps tshirt who waited months for medical care and said, "Take care of my buddies over there, and then will you please take care of me?"

We fought for all those who've lost jobs and health care, who can't afford gas or groceries or college, who have felt invisible to their president these last seven years.

I entered this race because I have an old-fashioned conviction that public service is about helping people solve their problems and live their dreams. I've had every opportunity and blessing in my own life, and I want the same for all Americans.

And until that day comes, you'll always find me on the front lines of democracy, fighting for the future.

The way to continue our fight now, to accomplish the goals for which we stand is to take our energy, our passion, our strength, and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama, the next president of the United States.

Today, as I suspend my campaign, I congratulate him on the victory he has won and the extraordinary race he has run. I endorse him and throw my full support behind him.

And I ask all of you to join me in working as hard for Barack Obama as you have for me.

I have served in the Senate with him for four years. I have been in this campaign with him for 16 months. I have stood on the stage and gone toe-to-toe with him in 22 debates. I've had a front-row seat to his candidacy, and I have seen his strength and determination, his grace and his grit.

In his own life, Barack Obama has lived the American dream, as a community organiser, in the state senate, as a United States senator. He has dedicated himself to ensuring the dream is realized. And in this campaign, he has inspired so many to become involved in the democratic process and invested in our common future.

Now, when I started this race, I intended to win back the White House and make sure we have a president who puts our country back on the path to peace, prosperity and progress. And that's exactly what we're going to do, by ensuring that Barack Obama walks through the doors of the Oval Office on January 20, 2009.

Now, I understand that we all know this has been a tough fight, but the Democratic party is a family. And now it's time to restore the ties that bind us together and to come together around the ideals we share, the values we cherish, and the country we love.

We may have started on separate journeys, but today our paths have merged. And we're all heading toward the same destination, united and more ready than ever to win in November and to turn our country around, because so much is at stake.

We all want an economy that sustains the American dream, the opportunity to work hard and have that work rewarded, to save for college, a home and retirement, to afford that gas and those groceries, and still have a little left over at the end of the month, an economy that lifts all of our people and ensures that our prosperity is broadly distributed and shared.

We all want a health care system that is universal, high-quality and affordable, so that parents don't have to choose between care for themselves or their children or be stuck in dead-end jobs simply to keep their insurance.

This isn't just an issue for me. It is a passion and a cause, and it is a fight I will continue until every single American is insured, no exceptions and no excuses.

We all want an America defined by deep and meaningful equality, from civil rights to labor rights, from women's rights to gay rights, from ending discrimination to promoting unionization, to providing help for the most important job there is: caring for our families.

And we all want to restore America's standing in the world, to end the war in Iraq, and once again lead by the power of our values, and to join with our allies to confront our shared challenges, from poverty and genocide to terrorism and global warming.

You know, I've been involved in politics and public life in one way or another for four decades. And during those 40 years, our country has voted 10 times for president. Democrats won only three of those times, and the man who won two of those elections is with us today.

We made tremendous progress during the 1990s under a Democratic president, with a flourishing economy and our leadership for peace and security respected around the world.

Just think how much more progress we could have made over the past 40 years if we'd had a Democratic president. Think about the lost opportunities of these past seven years on the environment and the economy, on health care and civil rights, on education, foreign policy and the Supreme Court.

Imagine how far we could have come, how much we could have achieved if we had just had a Democrat in the White House.

We cannot let this moment slip away. We have come too far and accomplished too much.

Now, the journey ahead will not be easy. Some will say we can't do it, that it's too hard, we're just not up to the task. But for as long as America has existed, it has been the American way to reject can't-do claims and to choose instead to stretch the boundaries of the possible through hard work, determination, and a pioneering spirit.

It is this belief, this optimism that Senator Obama and I share and that has inspired so many millions of our supporters to make their voices heard. So today I am standing with Senator Obama to say: Yes, we can!

And that together we will work — we'll have to work hard to achieve universal health care. But on the day we live in an America where no child, no man and no woman is without health insurance, we will live in a stronger America. That's why we need to help elect Barack Obama our president.

We'll have to work hard to get back to fiscal responsibility and a strong middle class. But on the day we live in an America whose middle class is thriving and growing again, where all Americans, no matter where they live or where their ancestors came from, can earn a decent living, we will live in a stronger America. And that is why we must help elect Barack Obama our president.

We'll have to work hard to foster the innovation that will make us energy independent and lift the threat of global warming from our children's future. But on the day we live in an America fueled by renewable energy, we will live in a stronger America. And that is why we have to help elect Barack Obama our president.

We'll have to work hard to bring our troops home from Iraq and get them the support they've earned by their service. But on the day we live in an America that's as loyal to our troops as they have been to us, we will live in a stronger America. And that is why we must help elect Barack Obama our president.

This election is a turning-point election. And it is critical that we all understand what our choice really is. Will we go forward together, or will we stall and slip backward?

Now, think how much progress we've already made. When we first started, people everywhere asked the same questions. Could a woman really serve as commander in chief? Well, I think we answered that one.

Could an African-American really be our president? And Senator Obama has answered that one.
Together, Senator Obama and I achieved milestones essential to our progress as a nation, part of our perpetual duty to form a more perfect union.

Now, on a personal note, when I was asked what it means to be a woman running for president, I always gave the same answer, that I was proud to be running as a woman, but I was running because I thought I'd be the best president.

But I am a woman and, like millions of women, I know there are still barriers and biases out there, often unconscious, and I want to build an America that respects and embraces the potential of every last one of us.

I ran as a daughter who benefited from opportunities my mother never dreamed of. I ran as a mother who worries about my daughter's future and a mother who wants to leave all children brighter tomorrows.

To build that future I see, we must make sure that women and men alike understand the struggles of their grandmothers and their mothers, and that women enjoy equal opportunities, equal pay, and equal respect.

Let us resolve and work toward achieving very simple propositions: There are no acceptable limits, and there are no acceptable prejudices in the 21st century in our country.

You can be so proud that, from now on, it will be unremarkable for a woman to win primary state victories - unremarkable to have a woman in a close race to be our nominee, unremarkable to think that a woman can be the president of the United States. And that is truly remarkable, my friends.

To those who are disappointed that we couldn't go all of the way, especially the young people who put so much into this campaign, it would break my heart if, in falling short of my goal, I in any way discouraged any of you from pursuing yours.

Always aim high, work hard and care deeply about what you believe in. And, when you stumble, keep faith. And, when you're knocked down, get right back up and never listen to anyone who says you can't or shouldn't go on.

As we gather here today in this historic, magnificent building, the 50th woman to leave this Earth is orbiting overhead. If we can blast 50 women into space, we will someday launch a woman into the White House.

Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it, and the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time.

That has always been the history of progress in America. Think of the suffragists who gathered at Seneca Falls in 1848 and those who kept fighting until women could cast their votes.

Think of the abolitionists who struggled and died to see the end of slavery. Think of the civil rights heroes and foot soldiers who marched, protested and risked their lives to bring about the end of segregation and Jim Crow.

Because of them, I grew up taking for granted that women could vote and, because of them, my daughter grew up taking for granted that children of all colors could go to school together.

Because of them, Barack Obama and I could wage a hard-fought campaign for the Democratic nomination. Because of them and because of you, children today will grow up taking for granted that an African American or a woman can, yes, become the president of the United States. And so, when that day arrives, and a woman takes the oath of office as our president, we will all stand taller, proud of the values of our nation, proud that every little girl can dream big and that her dreams can come true in America.

And all of you will know that, because of your passion and hard work, you helped pave the way for that day.

So I want to say to my supporters: When you hear people saying or think to yourself, If only, or, What if, I say, please, don't go there. Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward.

Life is too short, time is too precious, and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been. We have to work together for what still can be. And that is why I will work my heart out to make sure that Senator Obama is our next president.

And I hope and pray that all of you will join me in that effort.

To my supporters and colleagues in Congress, to the governors and mayors, elected officials who stood with me in good times and bad, thank you for your strength and leadership.

To my friends in our labor unions who stood strong every step of the way, I thank you and pledge my support to you.

To my friends from every stage of my life, your love and ongoing commitment sustained me every single day.

To my family, especially Bill and Chelsea and my mother, you mean the world to me, and I thank you for all you have done.

And to my extraordinary staff, volunteers and supporters - thank you for working those long, hard hours. Thank you for dropping everything, leaving work or school, traveling to places that you've never been, sometimes for months on end. And thanks to your families, as well, because your sacrifice was theirs, too. All of you were there for me every step of the way.

Now, being human, we are imperfect. That's why we need each other, to catch each other when we falter, to encourage each other when we lose heart. Some may lead, some may follow, but none of us can go it alone.

The changes we're working for are changes that we can only accomplish together. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are rights that belong to us as individuals. But our lives, our freedom, our happiness are best enjoyed, best protected, and best advanced when we do work together.

That is what we will do now, as we join forces with Senator Obama and his campaign. We will make history together, as we write the next chapter in America's story. We will stand united for the values we hold dear, for the vision of progress we share, and for the country we love.
There is nothing more American than that.

And looking out at you today, I have never felt so blessed. The challenges that I have faced in this campaign are nothing compared to those that millions of Americans face every day in their own lives.

So today I'm going to count my blessings and keep on going. I'm going to keep doing what I was doing long before the cameras ever showed up and what I'll be doing long after they're gone: working to give every American the same opportunities I had and working to ensure that every child has the chance to grow up and achieve his or her God-given potential.

I will do it with a heart filled with gratitude, with a deep and dividing love for our country, and with nothing but optimism and confidence for the days ahead.

This is now our time to do all that we can to make sure that, in this election, we add another Democratic president to that very small list of the last 40 years and that we take back our country and once again move with progress and commitment to the future.

Thank you all. And God bless you and God bless America.

第三個人

對她又愛有恨的第三個人終於出現, 正式來說應該抹一把汗吧, 但其實更覺得若有所失... -_-

no more laksa!!!!! :'(

went to cafe @ grand hyatt for dinner last night... wanted to order my favourite hainanese chicken rice and laksa. I didn't even look at the menu and ordered right away. The captain took all the orders and left, and then he returned after a few minutes and told me that laksa was removed from the current menu. I asked why, and he explained the new menu was prepared based on the dishes' popularity... i guess i might be the only few ones who ordered laksa there... :(

btw, the hainanese chicken rice is now $195... i believe the price has been increased, though i forgot by how much... i also have the impression that it has more chicken pieces, more rice and more soup now...

what is (not) a secret?

a secret doesn't exist if nobody knows about it.

you know a secret when you know something earlier than some others -- it can be one minute earlier or one hundred years earlier.

a secret is for the owner to share, and the listeners to keep.

HK$60!!!

this is the price of the curry pork chop rice set i had @ 新景園 tonite -- the curry pork chop rice, vegi, and cream soda..

the curry pork chop rice alone is $50, and another famous dish 乾炒牛河 is $45.

i forgot what i used to pay, but it feels sooooo expensive now!!! :'(

lost in wanchai

I went to the chinese doctor after work... after having the pulse taken, i went out for dinner (the medicine has to be taken after meals).

I walked towards the direction of chuen yuen street for my favourite curry pork chop rice... and i almost got lost in that area -- i actually missed the intersection to go into chuen yuen street!!! :o

the landscape of that area has been changed dramatically. buildings are pulled down: like kids missing their front teeth -- and there are new space to the skyline (or lack of) i used to see in wanchai...

the new buildings are eye-catchers, too... the renovated Wo Cheung Pawn, the new serviced apartments, the new residential buildins etc...

28歲...

how much did i earn?

definitely not HKD 1.61 million...

有幾環保?

today when i landed at the central pier after taking the ferry, i saw the fresh market selling local organic environmental-friendly farm produce... and my mind wandered...

do local = organic = envrionmental-friendly? unlikely... but then do the consumers in hk really care?

and then i have some reflection: among others, 2 of my favourites are quite un-environmental-friendly:
1. sushi / sashimi: almost all japanese restaurants in hk have a selling point of 'direct delivery from Japan x days a week' -- think about the transport involved, fuel used, packaging...
2. travel: again, transport involved, fuel used, hotels accommodated, breadfast buffet (if included) wastage...

bug extinction

found tiny tiny bugs (size of a black dot from a fine pen) on some walls... so i postponed my original planned tasks -- filing tax return, and filling in other job-related forms -- to extinct the bugs...

it got so hot that i had to stop in the middle to take a cold water shower before i finish my bug-extinction exercise...

after that i had some inspection of all the walls at home, it seems like the bugs only concentrated on the ceiling of the room -- and touchwood -- no bugs found yet on other walls / ceilings... wonder why...