Leglessbird Sharing
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We know how people are always very busy and have little time to look for little details in life, like what book to read, which restaurant to try or what location for a vacation, also we are not catching up enough with all our friends around the globe. Therefore, we hope to keep in touch with you through our little regular sharing, and hope you will also tell us what's keeping you excited in life! | Next > |
Book Launch Gathering 15 Aug 2010: My Cambridge DaysDear Family and Friends, You are cordially invited to my book launch gathering: 3-6pm, Sunday 15 August 2010 Map: http://www.leglessbird.com/events/maps/20100815.jpg Dress code: Casual To introduce my book on Cambridge University and a gathering to thank my friends and alumni for the support and friendship. More importantly, a good excuse to catch up with everyone. Writing a book on Cambridge University has been my wish since 2002, it has finally come true in July this year. The book includes stories and lessons learned during my time there (1988-1997) and lots of photos. Hope to catch up with you then!
Leglessbird sharing May 2010Newsletter May 2010
Dear Family and Friends,It has been a while since our last update in Dec 2009. We hope this sharing finds you well. In the past 6 months, there seems to be endless disasters around the world with numerous devastating earthquakes, volcano eruption, oil spill in Mexican Gulf and Singapore; major international incidents Euro zone crisis, unrest in Thailand, escalated South/North Korea conflicts. Makes you wonder what the most important things in life are. Highlight of our activities in the last 6 months: Farming: We started sub-renting a small piece of farm land in Lantau and we are loving the planting, the harvests, and the taste and health benefits of eating freshly picked organic vegetables. We wish to spread this idea and more friends can appreciate the goodness of "back to basic" lifestyle. What we have harvested so far Chinese cabbage, lettuce, shark's fin melon, cherry tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, beans, potatoes and corn (菜心，生菜，芥菜， 魚翅瓜，車里茄， 紅蘿蔔， 青瓜， 豆角， 薯仔, 玉米). Teaching: In addition to his consulting work and angel investment, Dominic has been doing more teaching, executive training and public speaking: Xi'an Jiaotong (China), PolyU, HKUST, CUHK, HKU SPACE, Independent Professional Association, MAD (Make a difference) conference and La Salle College Irene's new career: Irene is happy with her lifelong career as an IFA (Independent Financial Advisor) Networking: ushi.cn 优士网: Dominic becomes one of the charter members of a new online business network community that aspires to be the Chinese Linkedin. Follow this link, and become Dominic's direct contact on the network Community Work: International English Contest National Finals in Beijing and regional finals in Hong Kong Protect the environment: (1) We have started to bring our own mugs, chopsticks, knifes and forks to fast food places (instead of using their paper cups and plastic); (2) We put a sticker on our mailbox that says 支持環保! 拒收無收件人姓名和地址的垃圾郵件。
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Bagan, Myanmar Dec 2009
Connect with Dominic on ushi!
 Golden Rock, Myanmar |  Lake Inle, Myanmar |
 Click to view album |
Silicon Valley, and Ottawa trip Dominic went with the Savantas Science and Technology Delegation to Silicon Valley at the end of March. (External link), it was a very successful trip where many interesting and useful discussions/visits were conducted. Hopefully, the delegation collectively has learned the key factors that make Silicon Valley the most successful technology innovation place globally and apply them to Hong Kong. He also assisted one of his clients to settle into "Plug and Play Tech Center" in Sunnyvale. Above all, he enjoyed seeing many of his old friends in the area. Afterwards, he had a nice family reunion in Ottawa, Canada.
Irene's new career: Irene is happy with her new lifelong career direction.
After all the efforts, I finally enjoy working every day again. I felt so blessed when working with like-minded colleagues and delivering good values through my job or leisure activities. My mini crisis started from 2000, when I was confused what my purpose of work should be and felt that I was wasting my time. I went to study a Master degree at Warwick hoping to find my direction. An amazing year passed, but I was still lost. The past 4 years of being an independent professional has given me many chances to travel and discover myself. Gradually I realize that my goal is to do something that I can continue to learn and grow, at the same time I can enrich other people's life by sharing my knowledge or experience. This is what motivates me and makes myself most contented. Looking back, I consider our mindset, health, resources management (time & money etc) are the factors enabling Dominic and myself to enjoy our balanced and healthy lifestyle. Since 2002, we have engaged an independent financial advisor to guide us on our investment. My objective of working with our advisor is to assist others to pursue their ideal lifestyle and realize their dreams in life. Though education and sharing, more people are better off.
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TEACHING AND TRAINING Dominic taught an e-commerce module (part of a master course) in Xi'an, China over a weekend in Jan 2010, which he enjoyed very much. He is also doing some talks at PolyU, CUHK and HKUST. |  Click to view album |
Executive training
We launched Independent Professional Association at the end of last year as a platform to promote independent work and support the independent professional community (consultants, translators, writers, trainers, designers and more). We did our first 3-part training series on "How to launch your independent career/business", the course is being adopted in Dominic's weekend teaching at CUHK's entrepreneurship centre.
Dominic has also teamed up with Simitri Group to provide consulting, training and coaching to corporate clients in Asia. He is also working with another corporate training company.
At the end of May 2010, he conducted lectures in Macau with HKU SPACE to help small medium enterprises and social enterprises to set up their low-cost high performance infrastructure for web domain, web applications (e.g. email, website, CMS), software (office, accounting), telecom (VoIP, e-fax) and mobile office.
| MAD Conference (Make-A-Difference) http://www.m-a-d.asia/ In Jan 2010, Dominic helped moderated a session on "Entrereneurship" during the MAD conference (a great youth conference for promoting creativity and providing alternative career choices). It was great talking to 3 entrepreneurs and learning from them how they have each created their business from scratch and are of very different natures. |  Click to view album |
| International English Contest Beijing National final 17-22 Feb 2010. Glad to say that our Hong Kong representatives have won many prizes including the Championship of senior high and junior high schools. |  Click to view album |
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BEA International English Contest - Hong Kong finals 12 Dec 2009, 20 students were selected to represent Hong Kong to the Beijing Finals We are very grateful to all our sponsors including Bank of East Asia, Lions Club of Metropolitan Hong Kong, Cambridge University Press, Gowell Software, Dr. David Li, Mr. Fred To and all the judges including Sir Ti-Liang Yang. |  Click to view album |
CAMBRIDGE (The Friends of Cambridge)
Cambridge alumni Reception to meet Professor Alison Richard, Vice Chancellor of The University of Cambridge - 7 April 2010
Informal microfinance chat - 'a number of ways to make a difference' - 27 Feb 2010
ORGANIC FARMING - in Lantau
 Harvesting |  插秧, Transplant rice seedlings |
Antarctica talk at offline club of iProA, 6 Feb 2010 Photos album
| Reunion with the Hong Kong representatives of the International English Contest |  Click to view album |
BOOK REVIEW:
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck, PhD
I have got this book as a gift from a friend who bought this at Stanford University's book store during our visit.
This is an interesting book that talks about mindsets, specially, the author classified them into two types, namely, Fixed and Growth. The fixed mindset people cares more on preserving their current success (if any), or avoid anything that they may fail, especially in front of others, if so, they blame on others or circumstances instead of themselves. The growth mindset people love to learn, and get better, success and failure are all learning experience and they are hungry to get more.
RESTAURANT REVIEW: Fridge
48 Peel St, Soho, Central (walk up from Hollywood road, next to Makuba Bar)
+852 28101098
Western food in Central
READ MORE ...
| MOVIE REVIEW: This film imagines that not so far ahead in the future where earth has become inhabitable due to human activities in an unsustainable manner. The sole survivor looks back in time to inspect what the humans could have done to stop the disaster but failed to put their act together - The Age of Stupid - Fail to act to save ourselves while still could. The film put together a lots of clips of signs, events and try to look at how humans are so selfish and/or stupid in reacting to the threat... |  READ MORE |
APPLICATION: Online virtual file server solution 
Dropbox
Newsletter Dec 2009
 St Petersburg Sept 2009 |
Dear Family and Friends,
We hope this sharing finds you well. It has been a while since we last wrote our update (May 2009). We would like to share with you what we have been up to in 2009, and as always, we also want to hear from you, what's been keeping you excited, busy, happy or sad, please drop us a few lines if you have time.
Some highlights of our year 2009:
- 2009 Travel: Reduced travel time (but not number of trips and countries visited)
- Rented a tiny piece of farm land to grow vegetables;
- Eat more vegetarian meals, more meals at home and vegetarian cooking class
- Joined 2 associations (Lions Club of Metropolitan Hong Kong, Internet Professional Association - iProA) and founded 2 (Chinese Business Angel Network - Hong Kong, Independent Professional Association);
- Organized an English contest in Hong Kong (part of the national English contest);
- Deeply involved in Cambridge alumni matters as always;
- Despite the fact that most peers are married by now, still played Best man's role at some friends' wedding
- Becoming rather addicted to Facebook (and loving it! Look me up search "leglessbird")
- Made many new friends
- Advising an ISP/IDC/MSS company and a online affiliated marketing company
We are going to explore Myanmar (formerly Burma) in December and make a brief stop in Singapore.
Wishing you a happy and healthy 2010!
Best regards,
Irene and Dominic
What we have been up to in 2009
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TRAVEL
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 Russia, Latvia, Estonia and Finland - Sept - Oct 2009:We have always wanted to visit Russia and the Baltic States. Irene has been planning the itinerary for weeks but needed to find a 2-week window. That window came near the end of Sept, the weather was starting to get cold but still bearable, though some people would argue you have to visit during the winter to get the true taste of Russia, we preferred our first visit under more humane weather condition. We actually visited 4 countries on this trip, Russia (St Petereburg, Moscow), Latvia (Riga), Estonia (Tallinn) and Finland (Helsinki). Contrary to our prior impression, it was actually not difficult to get by in Russia on your own (no need to join group tour) and it was also generally quite safe to do so. The Baltic states are all very beautiful, the people are friendly and have a high living standard. While Helsinki is also very modern and beautiful, we didn't find it very exciting. This completes our visits to all five countries of FINDS (Finland, Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden). Modern day Russia is not what I had expected from years of stereotyping by US production of films and "news" on Russia and former USSR, it was surprisingly easy to navigate our ways in the streets of Moscow, St Petersburg and their metro without knowing any Russians (though it would have been useful). |
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FINE DINNING
ASSOCIATIONS I have joined two associations
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and founded two |
 Chinese Business Angel Network (Hong Kong) - A network to provide early stage venture investment
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Vice Chancellor's visit and Cambridge/PolyU Joint seminar (click on photos to read more)
Cambridge conference:
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 Prince Philip Scholarship:The Prince Philip Scholarship presentation took place at the beginning of Sept and I was invited as the guest of honour. We have one scholar this year going to Clare college to read Medicine. And I was happy to share about my time as a student in Cambridge and what I learned from that wonderful experience...Read more |
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WORK Continue to work on the web/telephone distance learning venture (formed partnership with Xi'an Jiaotong University this year and Beijing Renmin University) and a few location-free consulting projects. |
 Bank of East Asia International English Contest (Hong Kong)I'm chairing an organizing committee of the Hong Kong chapter of The International English Contest, it is part of the China International English Contest supported by The ministry of foreign affairs of China and the British Embassy, and the Hong Kong competition is sponsored by Bank of East Asia, Lions Club of Metropolitan Hong Kong, Cambridge University Press and many other supporting units. |
 The contest aims to motivate students to promote Chinese culture to foreigners, hence using English as the communication language to help friends from other countries to appreciate our country, our culture and our people's way of life. The winners from the Hong Kong contest will be competing in a national final in Beijing with other students from all over China and the winners of the national final will be going to Britain on a culture exchange program including visits to Cambridge and London.
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Photo highlight: Press conference:21 Sept; Round 1: 7 Nov; Semi-Finals: 21 Nov and Finals: 12 Dec 2009 (photos to come). Dominic is advising a company in the ISP (Internet Service Provider), IDC (Internet Data Centre), MNS (Managed Network Service) and MSS (Managed Security Service) which has good infrastructure and relationship in Asia also a fast link connecting Europe and Asia. He is also advising another startup which is in the online affiliated marketing business, connecting advertisers, online merchants, customer survey to customers and target audience through an extensive network of online publishers, such performance based model is gaining momentum in Asia, and is preferred by advertisers over just exposure (as in banner) or click through. He also has been involved in starting a new diploma course with HKU Space.
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 "Click on your business" Kornerstone training on IT cost saving (Photos and Read more)
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 Tolo Harbour business support group is organized by Chinese University to provide a platform for ventures and investors to come together...Read More
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LEISURE Due to the hot weather and occasional heavy rain on the weekends, we had not been doing any hiking at all...
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 A dinner event hosted by the Bauhinia Foundation
We attended a dinner event at the Bankers' club hosted by Bauhinia Foundation targeting graduates and students from overseas universities...read more
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  Happy FarmWe rented a tiny piece of land within a farm to grow our own vegetable (with the help of the warm owner, of course!). We are very excited about this...read more |
Book recommendation
 Book: Four-hour work weekI really like this book! It is about attitude change towards the work-life balance and pursuing passions and life goals It is about time-management, do things efficiently and effectively, not do work for work sake. It is about freeing yourself from a lot of unneccessary constraint such as your boss, an office, even a particular location and a lot of the time-wasting/zero value generating activities. Read more |
 Restaurant recommendation
o-veg 素苗A nice vegetarian restaurant in Happy Valley 9 Shing Woo Road, Happy Valley, Hong Kong 跑馬地成和道9號1樓 +852 2893 3037 Read More |
 Movie recommendation
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1286537/
A revealing documentary about the food supply in the States (perhaps soon elsewhere too), highly concentrated food supply, genetically modified crops, hormone assisted growth in packed farm, the truth about processed food, packaged food on the shelves of Supermarket, control of seed supply. Read more |
UK, Greenland, Denmark and Sweden
Japan
Macau
A friend has recommended an excellent vegetarian restaurants in Happy Valley called "o veg" "素苗" and we like it so much that we now go there 2-3 times a week and even order extra for take-away. There is no menu, everyone gets the same 3-course set, it is western style cooking using vegetables of many different colours, the chef even grows some of the vegetables from his own farm. Good healty food at an affordable price.
Lions Club of Metropolitan Hong Kong
Internet Professional Association (iProA)
Independent Professional Association
Mentorship programs:
Freshers' dinner:
CUCS Hong Kong dinner:
The Hon. Sir Ti-Liang Yang kindly agreed to be our head of judge panel.
Travel talk: Discovering Nepal. October to April is the best period to visit Nepal, we held a travel sharing session on Nepal in August to show friends about our trip in Nepal and we invited Bonnie, a friend and a keen traveller who has lived in Nepal for over 4 years to share her experience of the exciting country. She also talked about Tibet, yet another interesting destination.Greetings - May 2009
 Sydney March 2009 |
Dear Friends and Family of Leglessbird,
It has been more than 4 months since our last Leglessbird sharing. We did travel a bit during the first 2 months, but have been taking a break on travel since beginning of March. In the meantime, the world is under the threat of the on-going outbreak of H1N1 influenza A and Susan Boyle became the biggest thing on earth, the world needs inspiring stories like this.
 Cairo, Egypt |
During Christmas and new year time, we visited Egypt, Jordan, and Qatar, it was our 1st proper tour to the middle-east region, and I have always dreamed about visiting the Pyramid of Egypt and the Petra of Jordan (ever since I watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989!!). A lot of the biblical stories sprung to our minds, the Exodus, the ten commandments, the red seas and the promised land. Not to mentioned the other interesting places like the Dead Sea, The Museum of Islam Art in Doha designed by I.M.Pei. To find out more, I also watched the classic film - Lawrence of Arabia. Please visit http://www.leglessbird.com/travel.html for photos.
 Sami Tribe, Kirana, Sweden |
Then over Chinese New year, we went on a dream trip to one of the other remaining largely untouched places on earth, the largest island on the planet, (larger than Australia and Antarctica is counted as continent and not island), the answer is of course Greenland! We were hoping to see the Northern Light, but was disappointed despite clear sky in Kangerlussuaq, we did enjoy the 12-Husky sledge ride over the endless icecap. Since it was such as long journey to get there, we also visited Denmark (Copenhagen) and Sweden (Kirana, Stockholm). In particular, we liked the stay at the Icehotel very much and did catch a glimpse of the Northern Light in Kirana (which is north of Arctic circle).
We had a one-week family trip with mum to Sydney visiting Dominic's sister and nephew. It is always good to spend time with family, we went to a vacation house in Jervis Bay.
We are learning from a tradition Chinese doctor on how to do head massage, so we can practice it on each other. We continue to take Japanese class once a week, the progress is slow but hopefully steady! We exercise at the gym in Cyberport regularly and supplement that with short walk at the hill behind our building. We did try to start organizing hiking again, but unfortunately was met with heavy rain and had to cancel it!
Hope you like our sharing and please drop us a few lines, we would love to catch up with you.
Yours,
Irene and Dominic
May 2009
What is Dominic up to?
Dominic has been giving talks and lectures on various topics: At Baptist University and Student Travel on visiting Egypt, Jordan and Qatar, sharing his trip that took place during Christmas and New Year; Co-hosted a seminar on how to become an independent professional (aka Freelancer) which was attended by ~30 people, he talked about the dos and don'ts, and how to go about making the transition from full-time employee to full-time self-employed, time management, the advantages and the challenges of being independent; Spoke to Chinese University business students on angel investments and with engineering students on consulting industry; at Polytechnic University with students studying e-commerce on a company case study that he co-founded.
March has been a busy month as there were a number of events related to Cambridge University, namely, the visit of the Vice Chancellor Professor Alison Richard, together with 4 heads of college and a college choir, record turnout of alumni and friends (over 250 people) at the reception for the vice chancellor. Then there was The Intelligent Airport Seminar, jointly organized by Polytechnic University and The Friends of Cambridge University in Hong Kong, to present the research results of the two universities and together with Cambridge alumni in key logistics industries in Hong Kong. This year is the 800th anniversary of Cambridge University and the 450th anniversary of Cambridge University Press (CUP) (the 3rd oldest commercial company in the world), a celebration event took place at the British Council organized by the CUP.
Dominic was very happy to be one of the best men at a friend's wedding in early May and met with a lot of new friends.
On the work side, Dominic did a location free project in April, closed an angel-round investment, working on a strategic review project and continue to advise on e-learning. He is also preparing on a workshop for SMEs and independent professional on how to save significant cost on IT infrastructure, service and software, spending almost next to nothing (click here for the poster of the workshop).
What is Irene up to? Irene is taking Taichi and Latin dance classes regularly and has also resumed her Mandarin lesson. She was excited to be working on a project pitch for promoting a certain region in Italy to China and Hong Kong.
Leglessbird movie recommendation:
我的機械人女友 / Boku no kanojo wa saib?gu
http://cyborg.gyao.jp/
Japan 2008
A sci-fi romantic comedy, of a man in his old age and close to his dying years made a human-like robot in the form of a beautiful young girl and send her back in time to meet his younger self, to save him from a series of fatal disaster and to save innocent people from crime and accidents. He fell in love with the robot but does the robot love him back? What sort of disasters await him? Will she be able to save him every time? Read more...
Leglessbird restaurant recommendation
Tea & Herb
Shop B, G/F, Po Wing Building, 6-16 Shell Street, North Point, Hong Kong
Tel: 28068418
Read more...
Greetings - December 2008
 Yamasa Institute, Okazaki, Japan Sep-Nov 2008 |
Dear Family and Friends,
We hope this season greeting finds you well.
Time flies, year 2008 is almost over and as we prepare to embrace the new year, it is also time to reflect. "Year 2008 was an eventful year" would be a serious understatement. Here is my list of the big events around the world (not in a particular order)
- World financial crisis of colossal magnitude, perhaps the biggest in history when the unthinkable happened in terms of business collapsing and worldwide government bailouts
- USA elected the first black/white mixed blood president (do you call a zebra black?)
- The biggest and best Olympic Game ever with most participants, volunteers, and medals
- The launch of the largest (27km circumference) and most expensive particle collider ever built - Large Hadron Collider
- 1st space walk conducted by a Chinese astronauts
- Crude oil price hitting USD147 a barrel and fell
- Direct transport link between Mainland China and Taiwan
- Tainted milk powder and food products on a massive scale
- 1st seminar of the Catholic-Muslim Forum in Rome
- Numerous earthquakes including multi-hit in Sichuan
- USA supplying nuclear technology to India - a non-signatory state of the Nuclear non proliferation treaty
- The announcement of the USD2,000-petrol-powered-car by Tata group in India, (think about the environmental impact!!)
- AIDS patient cured by a bone-marrow transplant
- Bangkok unrest
- The Mumbai attack
Sadly, the world doesn't seem to be going in the right direction. In the meantime, our planet is still suffering from global warming and pollution.
On a more cheerful note, "year 2008 was an eventful year" for us too, since our season greeting in Dec 2007.
On the travel side:http://www.leglessbird.com/travel.html
- Visited Laos, an interesting but not so well known country
- A dream-trip to Antarctica the land of the cute penguins and completing an unplanned goal of visiting 7 continents together
- A tour of South America (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay)
- Chinese New Year visit to Paris to see my nephew and to practice our French
- Trip to Yunnan, one of the most beautiful areas in China
- A break in Thailand
- European: Seeing friends in UK, sight seeing in Iceland the land of ice and fire and did the Norway in a nutshell tour
- Seeing bird-nest and water-cube in Beijing
- 2 trips to Japan (Fukakuo and Hoikaido)
- 2 Japanese language trips and explore the country
On other leisure side: As usual through Leglessbird Events organized a few book club meetings and hiking trips; Participated and/or organized parties for French alumni association; Attended a short "Tai Chi" course; Visiting the gym at Cyberport on a regular basis; Enjoyed a few arts exhibition in Hong Kong.
On the alumni side: Dominic has helped to organize and participated in alumni events this year for The Friends of Cambridge University in Hong Kong. Vice Chancellor's visit, Newnham Principal's visit, Professor from Judge Business School, Chinese Medicine Research, A mentorship seminar series for Consulting, Financial industry, further studies and start-ups, an information seminar for secondary school students applying to the Prince Philip Scholarship. A bi-annual Cambridge dinner in Hong Kong for alumni and friends.
We also attended the British Council Gala dinner in November commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the British Council in Hong Kong, and also the Warwick University annual dinner in Dec.
On the work side: When in Hong Kong or overseas, we have been working very hard. Thanks to advancement in internet technology and together with a virtual network of global business experts, some of Dominic's consulting projects (through his Decisive Consulting Limited) can be conducted from any location while serving international clients. This has enabled us to work and travel at the same time. However such location-free work style also means the end of work-free holiday, such is the trade-off.
Dominic is working on a few other projects in Hong Kong and China including a web/phone base e-learning venture called "Meephone" (China/Hong Kong) which offers very convenient English 1 on 1 oral language training program through telephone and will be launching a Mandarin service soon.
Asia Angels Alliance - the angel investment company that Dominic co-founded now has six committed partners and will be renamed to Dark Horse investment soon. The investment focus is early stage venture (pre-venture capitalist round) that is highly scalable preferably using technology.
We hope to hear how you are getting on, please drop us a few lines if you have a moment. Look forward to hearing from you!
We wish you and your family good health and a prosperous 2009.
Best wishes,
Irene and Dominic - Dec 2008
Leglessbird Travel Recommendation
Iceland and Norway
 Iceland July 2008 (Read More) |
 Norway July 2008 (Read More) |
Leglessbird Movie Recommendation
Zeitgeist
Documentary 2007 & 2008
I highly recommend this documentary (2 x 2 hours), you can even watch it online for free. http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com
We live in a society that we inherited from the generation before and they inherited it from the generation before them and so on, we accept many (perhaps too many) things without questions or doubt, we simply take it for granted, we follow the systems whatever they are, monetary, capitalism, moral and religious. Most of us go to school, get a job, work for the system in exchange for a salary to support our living expenses, we incur more expenses by taking out loans and in turns paying interests to the system and accept this as the norm of life without ever challenging the system. We are exposed to established religious without really understanding the root of their origin.
How is money created? Who controls it? How did Federal Reserved come into existence? Who fought against it and perished? What's the similarity between Jesus and the Egyptian Sun God? Is it a pure coincidence?...Read more
Leglessbird Restaurant Recommendation
Nino's Cozinha, Portuguese restaurant, Wan Chai
Read more
Greetings - August 2008
 Irene and Dominic in Biei 美瑛,Hokkaido 北海道 Aug 2008 |
Dear Family and Friends,
It has been a while since our last sharing in March, a lot has happened around the world: the world economy continues to deteriorate, oil prices hitting US$145 and fell back, there was the controversial Olympic torch relay around the world, the devastating earthquake in Sichuan, Nepal becomes a republic, US presidential election campaign, the conviction of Bin Laden's driver, the war in Georgia and of course the spectacular grand opening of the Beijing Olympic, 16-day of Olympic competition that saw China topped the Gold Medal table and more...
We have been busy too in the past few months...
On the travel side, visiting Yunnan, Thailand, Fukuoka, UK, Iceland, Norway and most recently Hokkaido. We hosted a talk on "Antarctica: The last place on earth" in April and is planning another one in September. Also organized another book club gathering in June.
We are continuing our Japanese lesson, though 1-hour a week is clearly insufficient, it still proves to be useful while travelling in Japan. We plan to spend sometime in a language school in Japan in the near future. On the French language side, though we are not getting enough practice to upkeep whatever limited ability we have acquired so far, we do try to seize every opportunity at the French Alumni Association(FAA) annual dinner and FAA Swedish party.
While continuing to go to the gym 2-3 times a week, we did a Sunday Tai Chi course which was fun.
As always please drop us a note when you are free, we would love to hear how you are getting on.
Best wishes,
Irene and Dominic - August 2008
What is Dominic up to?
Dominic has taken on 2 non-location-bound business consulting projects that enable him to work and travel at the same time (thanks to Irene who makes sure the accommodation always has good internet and phone access. She also manages the schedule to balance the work time and sight-seeing/activity time).
In June, Dominic co-founded an angel investment group called Asia Angels Alliance (AAA) focusing on investment in early stage ventures that have highly scalable business model with leading technology and/or intellectual property protection in many different industries such as e-commerce, social networking, business process outsourcing, distance learning, retail and gaming etc
He also started a new service on Leglessbird called Friends Finder to connect international-minded people together from all over the world
On the Cambridge side, Dominic hosted a 1-day workshop in Cambridge University in July for a group banking executives from China. Always great to be in Cambridge! In July and Aug, he organizes the Friends of Cambridge Mentoring Seminars in Hong Kong, and is very glad that so far the first 2 seminars, namely "Management Consulting", "Banking and Fund Management" were well attended and enjoyed by all participants. The next and last seminar to be held on 30 Aug is on "Startups and further studies"
He is loving his 2nd low cost mini-notebook Asus EEEPC 900 which is excellent for travelling or working outside the office.
He is also looking forward to 2 weddings in Sept and Oct of two of his best friends!
What is Irene up to? Irene has been a frequent visitor of the travel section of the central library.
Travel recommendation: Laos (Pakse, Vientiane, Luang Prabang) December 2007
Click photo to view album
Laos is a nice small country next to Thailand that isn't usually well known by people. The people are very friendly and we particularly like Luang Prabang.
Read more about Pakse, Vientiane and Luang Prabang)
Restaurant suggestion: Gingko House
G/F 44 Gough Street, Central, Hong Kong
+852 2545 1200
www.gingkohouse.org
This is a restaurant run by senior citizens (many of them over 70 years old) except the chef. Read more...
Movie: Shall we kiss? Un baiser s'il vous pla?t
Romantic comedy, France 2007
Director: Emmanuel Mouret
Story: Emilie was out of her home town and met a stranger Gabriel who gave her a lift. They ended up spending the day together and had dinner together, just when they were going to part and say goodbye for the night, Gabriel tried to kiss her and she resisted. Read more...
Greetings - April 2008
 Irene and Dominic in Antarctica, Jan/Feb 2008 |
Dear Family and Friends,
We hope all is well with you and your family. It has been over 3 months since our last greeting, we trust you had good Chinese New Year and Easter break. We had been travelling a bit, exploring Antarctica by boat in Jan/Feb was indeed very eye-opening, seeing plenty of penguins and other wildlife and unpolluted natural environment with some of the most spectacular landscape on earth. All these remind us how very important that we must protect and preserve the global environment that we live in and very much depend upon.
This trip had also completed our unplanned goal of travelling together to all 7 continents. While feeling a sense of a small achievement, we felt very blessed to have such opportunity. Please see below for the trip summary and photos. We are planning to hold a seminar to share our experience. Hope to see you then.
We also stopped over South America and Paris en route to Hong Kong from Antarctica. Upon our return, we experienced the coldest and longest winter in Hong Kong in 40 years, we fear such abnormal weather is becoming the norm. Again the tragic consequence of human activities destroying our own planet.
As always please drop us a note when you are free, we would love to hear how you are getting on.
Best wishes,
Irene and Dominic - April 2008
What are Irene and Dominic up to?
In addition to Dominic's consulting work, he had been organizing and participating in numerous events related to visitors from Cambridge University - Prof. Alison Richard, the Vice Chancellor, Dame Patricia Hodgson, the Principal of Newnham College and the officers from Girton College's development office. He is also working with a team of young alumni in planning the mentorship seminar series and the annual dinner of the Friends of Cambridge University in Hong Kong.
Irene is currently planning for the fiscal year of 2008 – 09, so that she could find a way to work more without reducing her time to study and travel. One of the goals is to keep her body healthy and full of energy by more regular exercise. She is working on an online platform for virtual arts with a few friends while continuing with her existing work. She enjoys having visitors from Athens and Geneva lately. After the amazing Antarctica trip, her eyes are now on the Arctic region. Besides she is collecting more knowledge about Russia, Japan, Singapore, Mongolia, Egypt, Jordan and Syria.
We were at 2 hikes (photos 1 & 2), a book club gathering, a visit to the Chanel Mobile Art and an excellent lecture on “Behind-the-Scene Stories of the National Treasures Exhibition” 國寶展覽背後的故事: 清明上河圖 by Mr Marco Szeto, Curator, Xubiazhai, Hong Kong Museum of Art and more... We also took a short break to the beautiful Yunnan over Easter holiday which was relaxing, then we spent a weekend at Disney Hotel, Hong Kong.
Travel recommendation: Antarctica
It doesn't seem that long ago that we were all excited in planning (August 2007) for our long trip to Antarctica, South America and Paris during January and February 2008. We have since returned to Hong Kong but the excitement stays. We felt a sense of achievement to have visited all 7 continents together and at the same time we felt deeply blessed. The Antarctica cruise was about wildlife, nature and history (explorers who came before us). To call it eye-opening maybe an understatement...more thoughts and photos on Antarctica
For other travel photos (South America, Paris) please click here.
Restaurant recommendation: Amber - French
Western in Central
Landmark Mandarin Oriental, 15 Queen's Road Central, The Landmark, Central, Hong Kong | T: +852 2132 0188
Very good service and good food just as you would expect from Mandarin Oriental! There is a private room that can host about 24 people. Their menu changes every 4 months or so.
Read more
Book recommendation: The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
The God Delusion (buy from Amazon) by Richard Dawkins
A very deep and comprehensive book that talks about why there is no God, not an easy book to read. "God delusion" covers a very wide angle, "Respects that religion doesn't deserve", "God Hypothesis", Why human is receptive to the idea of religion and how religion arised as a result, the inconsistency in scriptures people simply choose to ignore, the alternatives to God that can still explain the world, the human moral standard with or without God, Science Vs Religion. Dawkins is a firm believer in Evolution/Darwinian world.
I have enjoyed reading this book very much, it will help you to decide one way or the other.
Greetings - December 2007
 Grand Hyatt Seoul Aug 2007 First visited in 1999 |
Dear Family and Friends,
Greetings!
Another year is coming to an end and it passes rather quickly, it is again time to count and be thankful to all the blessings and at the same time learn and reflect from the mishaps if any. Below is a brief account of our year 2007. On the balance, we always feel that we are very much blessed every year (this year included), but sadly, the year ended with the passing away of a very dear family member.
Do drop us a note if you have a moment, we would love to hear how you are getting on. We wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Best regards,
Irene and Dominic
December 2007
Year 2007
We started off the year returning from the beautiful country of Nepal, a place that isn’t very well known in Hong Kong and often mis-understood. We were fascinated by the beauty of its impressive mountain range, the friendliness of its people, the rich and interesting culture. The country is rather poor and lack of resources, people treasure whatever they have and try not to waste too much things, kids in mountain were asking us for things as simple as pen and not money, paper cups are washed and reused in the house and not thrown away. This has put us in great shame, as people living in a modern city like Hong Kong, we waste and throw away so much useful stuff daily while people in some other countries are suffering.
We joined the club membership at the Le Meridien Cyberport in January because it is close to our home, the facilities are of good standard, also with the discount for eating at the hotel restaurants, we are visiting the gym 2-3 times a week, up from 1-2 visits a week at the California club. Also Dominic has started boxing for fun though infrequently, but is having a lot of fun with it.
Entering the 2nd Year as independent professionals, we have been fortunate to be working on many projects during the year, often in parallel. These projects had brought Dominic on many business trips to places such as London, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, and many cities in China. Irene also enjoyed the fact that she could tag along on a number of occasions and enjoyed the cities during the weekends. Irene is happy to learn new things from her projects. On top of Dominic’s conventional consulting practice, he has discovered a new form of management consulting that enables him to work from home.
To improve our French, we continued to take private classes, took out a 2-week intensive course in Lyon, a city that is famous for its cuisine, language practice with some French visitors in Hong Kong and participate in the French Alumni Association’s functions. We also started to learn Japanese in Q3, another language that we have always wanted to learn, and we are hoping to do a month long intensive course somewhere in Japan in the not so-distant future.
 Leglessbird Book Club Cambridge X'mas party FAA X'mas party |
On the Leglessbird front, we have migrated the website to a new blog-like platform for easier management. In terms of activities, in addition to hiking event, we have added travel talk and book club. Dominic has continued to be very active on the Cambridge alumni side (http://www.cambridge.org.hk) organizing events and forming a team to carry out more initiatives such as mentorship seminar. Irene is also involved in the Warwick alumni committee. As if that’s not enough, we are also committees of the French Alumni Associations (http://www.faa-hk.com).
As for our favourite passion, travelling that is (click here for more photos and description), we did a number of trips to Asian (Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Taipei and various cities in China) and European (France, UK and Italy) destinations this year. We are going to spend Christmas in Laos and in January we will be going to Antarctica on a 20-day cruise boarding from Ushuaia (Argentina). We have confirmed the trip since August 2007, we are very excited as we would have been to all 7 continents together after this.
We enrolled on Facebook this year and have been actively using it to keep in touch with friends. It is a great tool to locate long lost friends, share photos and organize events, but it is rather addictive!
Favourite book read in 2007: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (buy from Amazon) by John Perkins
A must read for people who want to understand how USA's foreign policy really works when it comes to protecting self-interests.
Favourite place visited in 2007: Annecy, France
Click photo to view album
Annecy is a very beautiful city by the lake and there is a river that runs through it which gives a feel of Venice. There are many nice restaurants. There was a marathon while we were there. We enjoyed walking along the art market that is open every Sunday morning. We also took a very pleasant boat ride around the lake. It was very sunny weekend. This is part of our 2-week French language trip in Lyon.
Favourite restaurant visited in 2007: Sosam Tea House (click for details)
Cuisine: Fusion in Kowloon
My rating: 4 Food: 4 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 2 Price per person: HKD 350
Address and tel.no
Shop 10, G/F Mega Building, 1 Maidstone Road, Tokwawan, Kowloon +852 27143299
D and I's Review:
Introduced by friends of ours who really know where to find excellent food. Not a well known restaurant nor is it at a popular spot (in fact, it is rather hard to find). The fusion food is really delicious, creative and cooked with heart. The husband and wife team are very keen chef who are also photographer and journalist. The normal menu is good deal (dishes below $100), but you can create your own menu by pre-ordering.
Favourite movie watched in 2007: Nada Sou Sou - Tears for You (click for details)
Romance, Drama, Japan, 2006
Director: Nobuhiro Doi
Story:
In Okinawa, when Yotaro was a little boy, he promised his dying mother to take care of his young step-sister Kaoru, Karou's father was a singer in a band, he married Yotaro's mother and soon left them and Kaoru behind. (click here for details)
Also our favourite TV series is "Touch" (click for details). Greetings - September 2007
 FAA Annual dinner |
Dear Family and Friends,
How are you lately? The summer is almost over, we trust that you had a great time. We didn't do as much hiking as previous years, because it has been a very hot summer in Hong Kong and we have been travelling quite a bit in Asia for many weekends to Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Meleka and Seoul for work and leisure. Hiking resumes in October.
We continue to have our weekly French lesson, and we've also started our weekly Japanese lesson. It's pretty interesting (and confusing!!). We enjoyed watching an old Japanese Cartoon called "Touch", details shown below, very positive attitude and touching story about a girl and two twin brothers who play high school baseball.
We became committee members of the French Alumni Association in Hong Kong, good way to practice our French and more organize fun events.
We wish you and your family a happy Mid-Autumn festival, don't have too much mooncake!!
Irene and Dominic
September 2007
What is Irene up to? On the work side, it is the usual routine of helping client on the marketing, sales channel, and setting up new retail electronic stores (most recently, a store at the departure hall of Hong Kong International Airport).
On the leisure side, I have found several language exchange partners (French/ Mandarin) for us to practice our French. I have also found a private tutor for our Japanese lessons. We were fortunate that we have found a room on an expedition ship called Lyubov Orlovafor for an Antarctica Cruise in January 2008, operated by the Quark Expeditions.
What is Dominic up to? Working on a few projects as usual, during the last few months. I have been making quiet a few business trips to Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai and Seoul and took the opportunity to meet up with some old friends (from the McKinsey days and Cambridge days) with whom I have not seen for many many years! Catching up on the good old days like we have never left whatever stage of life we were in. Starting a project that involves travelling to Taipei and Guangzhou.
Attended and organized quite a few alumni events in the last few months, McKinsey alumni lunch, Cambridge buffet dinner, boat trip, Prince Philip scholarship award ceremony, annual dinner with undergraduates, drinks with Dr Sir Michael Atiyah (Field's medalist, PRS, my former college master of Trinity College), dinner with Prof. Ian White (my former lecturer).
 Former McK team mate, Seoul |  Former McK team mate, Seoul
|
 Cambridge alumnus, Kuala Lumpur |  Cambridge alumni gathering, HK |
 Cambridge alumni boat trip |  French Alumni Association |
On the social side, I am probably spending too much time on Facebook (look me up, search for "leglessbird"), but it is a great platform, got reconnected with classmates from boarding school in Jersey, my former students from Cambridge Chinese Community School (who are now graduates!! they identified themselves by informing me that I am a friend of their parents!!!!). I use it to organize events and groups. For those who don't know or don't use Facebook will soon find there is a huge communication gap.
Mongolia travel diary by guest writer Queenie Lau
Street children in Mongolia are placed by the Mongolian government in countryside camps each summer, out of sight of tourists. These children generally have families, but have had to take to the streets because their families are too poor to keep them, or because the situation at home is so bad (perhaps due to abuse) that the streets are preferable...
Read full article here
Cartoon Series: Touch
Type: Cartoon Drama, Japan 1984-1985
My rating: 5
Key characters:
Minami Asakura, Tatsuya Uesugi, Kazuya Uesugi
Story:
Based on the comic book by Mitsuru Adachi. Kazuya (younger) and Tatsuya (elder) are twin brothers, Minami is the girl next door, the three of them were born in the same year and grew up together. Both brothers love Minami. She has a wish which becomes the common goal of the twin brothers that is to go to Koshien Stadium to play baseball. To do so, they must represent their high school and win the regional competition. Tatsuya doesn't want to compete with his brother and thus he quits baseball...
Read more
Restaurant: Sosam Tea House
Cuisine: Fusion in Kowloon
My rating: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 2
Price per person: HKD 350
Address and tel.no
Shop 10, G/F Mega Building, 1 Maidstone Road, Tokwawan, Kowloon
+852 27143299
D and I's Review:
Introduced by friends of ours who really know where to find excellent food. Not a well known restaurant nor is it at a popular spot (in fact, it is rather hard to find). The fusion food is really delicious, creative and cooked with heart. The husband and wife team are very keen chef who are also photographer and journalist. The normal menu is good deal (dishes below $100), but you can create your own menu by pre-ordering.
Read more and see more photos
Greetings - May 2007
Dear Family and Friends,
It has been several months since we last wrote, hope this finds you well.
Irene and Dominic
May 2007
We had a 3-week trip in Europe during Apr-May 2007, visiting France (including a 2-week French language course in Lyon), Italy, Vatican and UK . We also took a short break in Koh Samui during Easter weekend. To improve our skills in taking out-door photos, we did a photography class in March and practiced with our teacher and classmates at Tai O. We went to an excellent seminar on Bhutan organised by Royal Geographic Society of Hong Kong.
We have started sponsoring 2 kids (1 in Nepal and 1 in Laos) through World Vision, Irene has exchanged a few letters with them.
Individual Photo albums:
Rome 1 2, Vatican, Lyon City, Lyon Bleu school, Tallories, Annecy, Dijon, Bourgogne, Beaune, Koh Samui
What is Irene up to?
Organized an investment talk for the Warwick alumni association. Wrote a business plan and got the retail licence at the Hong Kong Airport for client. Happily doing freelance marketing and business development work. Met by chance an artist in Tallories, France who would like to exhibit her art work in Hong Kong. Researching information for where to study Japanese in Hong Kong.
What is Dominic up to?
Organised an event for student visitors from LSE, Oxford and Cambridge; Attended a reception welcoming the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, Prof. Alison Richard; Spoke with the Hong Kong students at Cambridge sharing personal experience on work and life.
A few business trips to Kuala Lumpur, Beijing. Wrapping a project while pitching a few others.
O Sip Hah
Cuisine: Thai in Central
My rating: 4; Price per person: HKD 100-150+
Address and tel.no
G/F 15 Old Bailey Street, Central, Hong kongReview: 3 course set lunch priced $68 - 98. Value for money. Although the dishes are westernized, they tastes good. You can find out the level of spice from the staff. Service is welcoming and friendly.
Read more
Filipino Philippine Tagalog DVD You Are The One (buy from Amazon)Romantic Comedy, Philippine, 2006
My review:
I got this DVD as a gift from a friend in Philippines. It is very funny and entertaining, old fashion clean fun (well, most of the time anyway), with a warm touch.Story:
Sally lives and works in Manila while her parents and elder sister live in USA. Her family wants her to join them in USA, she is not so sure but she applies anyway because her mother is not well and needed to be taken care of. At the US embassay, her application was rejected by the US officer Will, who is young and handsome. While she has a crush on this young man, she also hates him for rejecting her application.Read more
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