Ukulele

Bought this ukulele today, I have to admit that I like playing ukulele more than guitar, haha. Very handy and very cute.

And yes, it is called "Gypsy Rose".

The strings are pink.

懶惰

許久沒寫中文網誌，純粹因為太懶惰，打英文快很多。

把小王子送走了，回到公司，非常忙亂的開了個會，全世界等著我回來說要做甚麼甚麼，我卻還是不太舒服。明天去驗血，大概沒甚麼，只是我的頸吧。

今晚Helen來我家試試有甚麼裙以穿去graduation dinner呢。

Random blah blah

- nick is going to hk tomorrow, I bet he is excited. You know what, I am somehow excited too: for a month alone by myself, haha. painting and sewing under way in this period of time.

- hot summer started three days ago, how marvelous! I love summer so much.

- thanksgiving dinner was so good and I ate way too much! Turkey was the highlight, burnt chocolate fondue was an epic fail. My pasta salad was okay.

- I have decided to give it a go, try to start to be nice again, specifically, to someone. Not sure why, just suddenly had this thought today, then I got this:

And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.

et respondens Simon dixit illi praeceptor per totam noctem laborantes nihil cepimus in verbo autem tuo laxabo rete.

- dizziness, headache and nausea for a week already. Franklin is going to give me a note tomorrow to draw some blood for test. He said maybe it's my neck too, but still draw blood to test to make sure.

- kat's new shirt is nice, and the blue trousers, love it.

- guess we can really start our art jamming soon, yeah, while nick is not here, surely I can do more these stuffs.

- sitting at chris' stairs, the coolest place in the house, too warm here.

- parents are back. This morning at 5:20 I picked them up. They brought back a rice cooker for me from Japan, and also heaps of sweets. They bought me some jeans clothes too.

- 10 more days, we will have air conditioning at church for English service - just the right time for summer.

- to my friend who is going to/ has been to the hot air balloon, lucky you, I am jealous!

- Monday tomorrow, id est work day again...

Saturday

Today is Saturday, and we will have Thanksgiving dinner tonight. So I made pasta salad in the morning, then went on with my interests.

What have I done?

First I made a button hole and put a button for my newly made bag, then I started on painting. I have also completed my new iPhone bag after lunch. However I am not going to complete my painting today because I am too tired already.

Maybe some afternoon sleep...

Watch the world

I have an application on my iPhone, WorldView, which shows web cameras around the world. I can search for one, and look.

There are 22 web cams in Hong Kong I can watch through the application. 25 in Wien, 3 in Vatican City, 25 in Greece. It's good weather in Athens right now.

That's a way to connect, I believe.

When I am so far away from the rest of the world.

Pike River mine blast

Latest News

Our thoughts are with the families of the 29 men.

Talk about food…

Tomorrow is our 4th year wedding anniversary. Altogether, we have been together for… eleven and a half years. Little prince said we will go out tomorrow night, so I said I would be cooking tonight. Here it is, our dinner. As I said, I am not good at presentation, but Nick said they taste good, especially the crumb-coated chicken thighs.

For people who still believe I cannot cook, come on, here is some proof: I can kind-of cook, man. Not a pro like Stephen though.

Ah, talking about Stephen’s cooking. This Saturday we are going to have Thanksgiving dinner at his place. He’s going to prepare most of the food including a 5.5kg turkey. I will make a pasta salad. Of course I am going to take photos and show everyone later, but before that I must talk about the crème brulée.

He brought them to the office on Monday. Since I was sick and away on Monday, he saved one for me in the fridge so I can have mine on Tuesday. Crème brulée is one fat dessert, the cup I had, worth 750kcal – mind you for me to lose weight I need to eat only 1200kcal a day – and I keep failing to do that these two months and therefore gained quite a bit of weight. I took a video when Stephen was “brulee-ing” my crème brulée on Tuesday morning – yes, first thing of my concerns on the day, and it was my breakfast.

Does my voice normally sound that strange? I was still sick that day… but… terrible…

My new books

Oh yes, except Who Stole The Moon?, which is from my favourite digital artist, the other three are Latin books.

I am going to read them, to keep up my Latin, hehe.

Kiss of the cats

Got this today, I have to admit that this one of my favourites among all from everyone.   Love it so much.

Thanks.

Austria is such a great place.

P.S. Have to agree with the comment about Schiele’s self portrait.

May & Jerry

It's May & Jerry's big day today. Us girls arrived at May's house around 8:15, and the boys were there at 9:00 - exact time, perfectly on time. Then the day started.

Now finally I am in bed about to sleep. One full day, one tiring day. No matter how tired we are, it worths so much. I am so happy for May May, Jerry is a good man.

Now I have to sleep...

P.S. Crystal caught the flower, so I guess Michael has to propose soon... Hahaha

詞差

駕車聽電台，播出Hotcha的「不愛也是一種愛」。歌好不好聽我沒留意，但我對詞填得差非常敏感。這首歌，詞差得很，押韻有問題，難聽得很。

嘔吐。

無題 VII

That night we ate, we talked;
you drank, I thought:

"What a wonderful night.
Every talk is light,
but the attraction seems so tight,
yet every moment -
is just right."

I looked into your eyes, and you looked into mine.
That's how we bind, all the time.
But this night was special,
everything was magical.
The hints of love were very fine,
and we both tried so hard -
not to cross the line.

That night we laughed, we talked;
"do not fall", to myself, I thought.

Design > Client or Client > Design

A friend, well, a younger girl, posted this question up in her facebook status. Several interesting things come with this question:

1) People who at the end don't potentially benefit you or your company in certain monetary way are not clients. Some may not have instant money return, but may give you fame, publicity, relationship, etc which ultimately should potentially increase your monetary income, these are also clients. "Potentially", because in reality no income is guaranteed, it's an investment usually. People who do not provide benefits in this way but you do work for them, you guys are friends, or you are doing charity work, so you should not treat them as your clients.

2) Compromising design, or work, due to the constraints, including client's budget, understanding, timeline, taste, preference, etc, has nothing to do with one's dignity. Good to have some self confidence and proud of oneself, but linking this to dignity? Too much ego right there. Common thinking among artists and perfectionists though, ya one sleeping right next to me, hahaha.

3) Reality is not something people can learn in University. People always have to learn from experience I guess, once they are in the working force.

4) When what your client wants is different from what you want to do, clients aren't always right, but sorry, you aren't as well. Work out why there is a difference and how can get both parties into agreement is what you need, not insisting or dignity or your special design/coding/whatever work sense and knowledge. Clients may not know what they need, but they are not dumb.

5) Throwing jargons to your clients do not make you look smarter and they are dumber and therefore they should listen to you. It just make you look like you do not understand what they need and the business context.

Umm, I tend to talk too much when I am on this kind of topics. Let's stop here aye.

Flowers

 

Photos of flowers in my garden. They are so pretty! I have to admit that I have done nothing to my garden at all, so they grow, watered by the rain, took the sunshine, all cultivated by nature.

Sunset

Yesterday I went home at about 8:20pm. On my way home, I saw the sky turning orange and pink. The sunset had put some colours onto the clouds. It’s very nice. So once I parked down my car in the garage, I took out my camera and took some photos from my balcony. Then I took on with my iPhone as well (this one). I should post one from my camera instead, better quality, but I forgot to bring my camera to work today.

Love the world.

D1 & D2

Went out for dinner with Darryl (D1) and Daryl (D2) and folks on Tuesday night. Both D1 and D2 are from Microsoft, at least, for now.

D1 has decided to move on, leaving Microsoft and choosing a completely different career path – going to US to study bible college to become a PASTOR. How exciting! He said he has this in mind for 16 years already, but it wasn’t the right time.

D1, D2 and I are Christians, and we always share faith and stories around our lives whenever we meet. Oh well, of course we share geeky information as well which is the basis of our jobs. However I am glad that our religion has come into the friendship as well, therefore we can share a lot, and truly care for each other. Now I am so glad for D1’s decision, and looking forward to meet Pastor Burling.

That night I drove D2 home, and we talked about… finding a girlfriend, haha. D2 is a really nice guy, with a good heart, stable job, know music… everything seems to be good. So we discuss why he still has no girlfriend. I said if I know any girl I would introduce him to her without hesitation. Oh well, maybe, wasn’t the right time previously.

It was a good catch-up, and, nice spaghetti!

兩句

最近，我沒太多感觸。奇怪的夢還是常常有，譬如夢見Elmo和Cookie monster在迪士尼走來走去，而且當時我竟不覺得有問題，非常詭異。

夏天快來了，滿心歡喜。

想了許久，許久，竟未能再記下三言兩語七字八句。

晚安，願思念被放進每一件要作的事裡。

婚禮

星期六，May May要結婚了；同日，Esther也會到步為明年的婚禮籌備。我已經自己說會做牛做馬，在所不計。

說起結婚，有時我會想：那時我還是「搞得太大」了。雖然許多人會不同意，說我已經甚麼攝影化妝擺酒都沒有，實在寒酸 - 不要笑，我眞的聽過這形容詞。然而我想了又想，若時間回轉，我會要一個再小型點的婚禮，最好回港連那餐飯也不用食，畢竟為那餐飯我無辜受了些若，當天又一點也不開心。

兩個人的事，當時我該做得更小，其他人只要告訴他們已結婚就可以了。

噢，別人嘛，還是搞大些好，我才有得玩嘛！哈哈。

Smurfs

Started playing Smurfs on my iPhone yesterday. It's nothing special, one of those building things game, but it is Smurfs, which brings back quite a lot of memories.

Memories not just about the cartoon I watched when I was young, also the conversations we had, ya, those not so meaningful conversations about Smurfs. Haha.

Love complications

I just find people around very hard to understand, especially when it comes to love relationship matters. Maybe I am overly simple. All I have is love and hate. Have I got complications before? Oh yes of course, but at most inside my head, never result into any random actions and outcomes.

People here, however, are complex, and unstable. He loves her today, then doesn't love her tomorrow but instead another her. Then the day after he doesn't love the other and instead try to go back to the first her. And at the time this first girl has someone else so he went to the other her again. And after a while he still thinks the first her is better so he tries again, while this first girl still with someone but thinks she nevertheless also loves him... et cetra et cetra et cetra et everything is so dramatic.

Here on one side another couples are together for years, though the girl is quite clear the boy is not the guy she'd marries, but her Mr. Right hasn't appeared yet and so just keep going. Another drama.

And at a different corner another couples are at long distance relationship and started to wonder whether each other suits them themselves. However they have decided to put this matter on hold and let's work on individual's ambitions and job satisfaction first, talk about that later. Strange way to deal with the problem.

There are couples one want to get married and the other doesn't. And there is a guy broke up because he thought she's not willing to have kids although he knew that in the first place. And there two getting married yet he is not the one she love most... blah blah blah.

Most of these are so complicated. Maybe people in the dramas never wanted a drama, but still, dramatic.

Never understand.

距離

人與人之間的距離，到底是怎樣計算遠近？是在Google Map裡計出的公里嗎？是想法的接近程度嗎？是彼此思念的多少嗎？

有時候，我想，兩個人的距離，是原本是很遠，只是一方努力的把它縮短；還是本來很近，只是一方刻意把它增長？

我們的距離，或多或少，是多是少？

Unus bene dies in Auckland

One fine day in Auckland. What should I do? How am I going to enjoy the day?

Preparation

May is getting married next Saturday, so today we went to her house to do some preparations for the decorations on the day. I am already very excited. As I said to them, since my character is bad and usually very scary, not a lot of people would come to me and tell me to help in their weddings. Most of the time people have in mind "better not bother Kiu", maybe because they are afraid I would bite them if I were not happy, haha.

Only close friends know actually I an very excited and very into helping on their wedding, and therefore wiling to utilize me.

Oh I will try to be a nicer person.

P.S, 我想做伴娘。。。

活動

今晚王子和我和小暉、lele、小五、Kat和Jas去唱K，其實我對唱K這節目沒太大興趣（當然，去到我還是唱唱唱啦！），只是該和lele小五聚聚啦。小暉我是天天見的（比見小王子的時間更長呢），Kat和Jas也每星期見面，就是lele和小五，見得不多。

襯王子回香港前出來和大家見見面嘛。

對啊，小王子在月尾會回港一個月左右。我嘛，已和Kat計劃頻常art jam，或者還可以去Hundertwasser的公廁，又將會和朋友們去Zoo。。。臨近聖誕，大概還可以有多些活動呢。

大概，不會寂寞啦。

Sweeten up!

Powdered Strawberry And Vanilla Bean Macarons

Stephen said he is going to try this next and I am already excited!

Cooking dessert is never my thing actually. Eating them, I am quite selective. So can’t really say I am a dessert fan. Same for chocolate, I am quite selective on chocolates and not a big fan of it. I only keep eating chocolate when I am stressed – actually, i keep eating a lot of different snacks when I am stressed or unhappy or nervous or whatever negative emotion I am having. They key here is: SNACKS only!

Ars longa, vita brevis

Art is long, life is short.
Tuesday morning, before I went to work, I had my iPhone in hand while I was lying in bed, browsing through the ART application. I was looking at Gustav Klimt’s paintings, some most expensive ones in the world.

Der Kuss, Gustav Klimt, 1907-1908, Oil and gold leaf on canvas, 180cm x 180cm

I just love them. I guess, colour is always my thing, that’s why I like Friedensreich Hundertwasser so much, his paintings, his architecture designs. By the way, Hundertwasser does have a piece of art in New Zealand – a public toilet in Kawakawa. It’s about 3 hours drive from Auckland. I wouldn’t mind driving in one weekend to go and have a look (and maybe some sightseeing around).

Also, have a look through this set on Flickr posted by styler*.

Alright, I need to do some more paintings now, inspired and excited. Kat suggested to start art jamming, so we are now planning and see anyone would love to join us for that.

It’s going to be cool!

Making changes

By the way, as you can see, I have done some changes on my blog again.

• The background: you may have seen this before, it’s an earl-i-e-r painting of mine, a totally abstract one.
• “Omnis diebus plus me amare disco”  – in everyday I learn to love myself more – Still, motto for now, haha.
• “Domum” – Home – Honestly, not sure whether it would fit the web context. You know, Ancient Rome does not have internet and websites.
• “Quaedam de me” – Something about me. I totally changed the content too.
• “Quaedam et quidam amo” – Something and someone I love.  And yes, again i changed everything. Hmm, not exactly, you know, things and people I love do not change that often, I have just added some more, added some links, whatever.
• General theme is green now! Well, because of the background.
• Labels become cloud.
• Comments at the bottom.
• Blog Archive got pushed up.
• … and bits and pieces styling things you may or may not notice…

Doing all these things, make me happy.

P.S. With the new Windows Live Writer too!

考完試

考完試，很高興。即塲翻譯、沒有得準備的一篇，是關於Phaethon，那個控制不住父親Apollo的烈火戰車以致燒掉地上的樹木和房屋最後被Jupiter閃電一擊並扔進海淹死的人。

不說大家可能不知道，Jupiter=Zeus, Zeus=Jupiter, 只是Roman和Greek的分別。

Stuck

It’s stuck in my head, since Monday.

P.S. It’s very depressing when you were working hard and these words came into your ears from the headphones:

“What the hell am I goin’ here? I don’t belong here…”

Dress code

Guys here, dress up funnier everyday. Yesterday Harshal with an Angel Batista shirt, today, Stephen with an Angel Batista shirt AND an Angel Batista hat.

3 Stephen

6 Angel Batista

Me? In my flowery dress… and crocs (only in the office!)

So if people ask me what’s the dress code of your company… hmmm, maybe I should answer “something different, or strange, please.”

No turning back

By the way, yes, I still remember why I said all those things to you, I scolded you, I said how terrible you are making up all these stories - and now, I still think you did.

Give me another chance, I would have done the same thing, but I would not want to do the same thing. I would like to do differently, for the sake of ourselves though.

And ya, for God sake, haha.

So no, no sorry from me, no turning back.

Waiting outside HSB2

Going into the exam room very soon and I am extremely nervous at the moment. Odi et amo - I hate and I love - exactly how I am feeling right now. O my, o my, every exam makes me nervous.

Omnis amata

Having been loved by everyone.

You know, actually, I never wanted to be loved my everyone. But there are certain people I demand more from, and hope they can love me and care for me more.

In the past I would have said something like "hey you know, you are special, I don't treat everyone like that. I don't have such expectation or demand for everyone." Sounded like my unreasonable request of love and attention was a privilege that the person should be appreciated for.

So naive. People not mean to treat you well. And you know, people may prefer you don't bother them.

I found it a privilege and being valued when people have unreasonable comments or requests for me, or showing their bad temper in front of me. Interestingly I found that means being trusted and relied on, and being loved. So I do not mind when close friends do those. and feel uncomfortable when they say thanks to me no matter what.

But not everyone feels the same, of course.

無題 VI

Once upon a time there were a little girl who left home to seek her fortune.

What was the fortune she would like to find? Honestly she had no idea. Nevertheless she had started off her journey along an unknown path - a path that she had never walked on before.

It's probably not the easiest path, but it's definitely not the hardest. In her journey she met both Love and Hate, and both Enthusiasm and Apathy.

The only thing she had not met was Fortune.

She kept moving - most of the time forward, sometime backward, but she seemed to be on the path no matter which direction she was going towards.

Until one day, she realized that there was nothing called Fortune for her to meet - and never would be. It's wrong for her to seek something called "her fortune": it does not exist.

However she had learnt a lot in her journey, and she realized that she would keep learning because the path seems never come to an end.

Just keep going.

Latin is interesting

Whenever I say Latin is an interesting language, I really mean it. Declensions, tenses, moods, conjugations... You know, one verb, laudare, which means "to praise", has 132 different "forms", id est 132 differences developed from this word, depending on tense, person, number, mood, active or passive, or maybe as participles... Whatever.

I just love it.

夢層

昨晚造了非常累人的夢：我在十多層夢裡穿插，從一個夢醒來，發現原來不是真的醒來；又為著某些緣故，要從一個夢裡，嘗試發夢，走到深一層去。

早上，醒不來。

醒後也不肯定是否真的醒了。

為考試

讀書讀書讀書，為着星期三的考試。雖然對Latin非常有興趣，但不停讀，都會有悶的時候。加上昨天生病，流鼻水不斷，唯有提早回家吃藥睡覺，夜裡才可出去學煮飯。

明晚、後晚，仍須努力。

還要上班呢。

幾可亂真

最近發夢，總是非常生活化和現實化。一而再，再而三，有時在現實中我要想一會才能介定某些記憶是從夢來還是從真實的過去來。

一點也不有趣，有時做成一些錯亂，繼而一些麻煩。

越接近真實的內容，越難記得是否只是夢。

一個大問題呢。

吃露筍記

剛從Cooking class回來，一定要記下這一次：第一次真的吃下露筍，還吃了四條。四大條啦，是該驚訝的，因為吃露筍比吃茄子大概難十倍，事前要做好「萬一太難吃也不能吐」的準備，然後拿出十足的勇氣，才開始嘗試。

一點也沒有誇張。老實說，我覺得這是值得炫耀的行為，請鼓掌。

出奇的是，這一個方法煮的露筍，竟然沒有我討厭的味道。對，露筍有一種奇怪的味道，我試過不小心誤以為是菜心放進口裡去，立刻反射性的吐了出來。所以我說比吃茄子難。

雖然沒有那味道，但我一邊吃時心還是一邊覺得怪怪的 - 忐忑不安 - 就是那樣的感覺。其實很好吃，只是感覺上奇怪。

可能你覺得吃個露筍不用這麼大做文章，然而這對我來說是大件事呢，所以要花點篇幅，理所當然之至。

註定失眠

嗚嗚。。。今早上班前入房拿電話，摸到布布，情不自禁的把它帶去上班了。怎料竟忘了帶它回來，現在怎算好呢。。。睡在床上，囉囉孿，非常的不自在，小王子也問我會不會睡不著。

好慘，怎算好。。。布布。。。

茉莉香

點燃了茉莉香味的蠟燭。那是屬於我自己的空間。身邊有甚麼人，說甚麼話，也不會打斷我的思緒。

這時候，我有一盒子的思念在腦海。

那茉莉香，不是真的茉莉。

我從來都不是一個人。

放棄

寫了一大段，Katie來時一下心急開門，按錯了，全都沒了。

非常傷心，繼而放棄。不要寫回同一遍東西了。

兒戲

離離合合，有時覺得愛情可以非常兒戲。

一向是一個小霸王的我，向來沒太多人會和我吵架；但小時候，間中也有不怕死的人挑釁，而臉皮其實異常薄弱的我，很快就哭，並以後不理會對方。

好像說了毫不相干的話題。

其實我想說，大概那時我在愛情裡也是這樣。

不懂得處理情緒的我，以我一貫的小霸王的風範得寸進尺。然而臉皮還是薄得很，受到反彈更不會正確反應。

如果我們是十八二十，那就會很兒戲的算了。

幸好我們夠老了，決定處理問題。

突然有感而發，因為身邊有十八二十的人分手了，甚麼原因也好，都太兒戲。

My new business title…

So, yes, this is my new business title, and my new business card.

It’s a rather strange title, thanks to Joe, put some creative thoughts into it. Don’t ask me to explain it though, it’s not an easy job.

Whole pile of these locating on my desk now. Feel free to have one. :P

無題 V

I was once in love with this pair of shoes, which I believed would make me fly. From here to there, across the oceans and above the mountains; no matter where on this earth, they would enable me to reach. Everywhere could be my destination, if I wished to get there. I could tell this pair of shoes, to go across the seas and fly above the mountains.

But my love was not lasting, and my faith was not strong. The pair of shoes made me fly from then to now, from there to here. Then I found interesting things here, and interesting people, so I settled. Till one day I wanted to fly away again, I lost my faith.

And they couldn't fly me anywhere anymore.

So I no longer in love with this pair of shoes.